Startups USA

Tuesday, August 23, 2011

Andreessen Horowitz leads $ 15 M round in GoodData cloud Business Intelligence platform

Leena Rao is currently working as a writer for TechCrunch. She recently finished graduate school of the Medill School of journalism at Northwestern University, where she studied business journalism and videography. From 2004 to 2007 she helped lead efforts for advocacy and community relationships Congressman Carloyn Maloney in New York. She graduated from Columbia University in 2003 where it was ... ? Read More

GoodData startup company that provides a platform for cloud-based business intelligence (BI) raised $ 15 million in financing led by Andreessen Horowitz with existing investors General Catalyst partners, fidelity growth partners and Windcrest, also contributes to the round. This investment brings total financing GoodData to $ 28.5 million. The company also added two new members of the Board of Directors: John O'Farrell, general partner at Andreessen Horowitz and Dave Girouard, President of Google Enterprise. In addition it marks Andreessen Horowitz fourth GoodData investments (including two seed investment and 2010).

Founded by serial entrepreneur Roman Stanek, GoodData offers cloud-based data analytics solution that is more economically efficient than similar products from IBM, SAP and Oracle. The company mainly GoodData can connect product in their own cloud-based SaaS (i.e. Salesforce, Zendesk) and then access to operational dashboards, advanced reporting and data storage.

In addition to the just structuring data, GoodData also gives the company best practices and actionable insights based on data, add a layer of intelligence. The company has a number of Analytics apps for SaaS products, including the Zendesk, Twilio, Pardot and get satisfaction, which offers these companies additional reporting. The company currently offers 20 application and will expand more SaaS platform with new funding. The company plans to add another 30 applications by the end of the year.

Stanek tells us that GoodData is disrupting BI $ 25 billion and storage space, because the earlier data intelligence used to be a complex process. But as more companies rely on cloud applications to business functions such as sales, customer service and much more, access and understanding of this huge amount of data on the basis of the cloud became simplified process that took minutes, he explains.

And GoodData sacrificed seeing traction in the enterprise space. Over 2500 companies, including Software AG, Time Warner Cable, Capgemini and Pandora media, relied on data intelligence, GoodData products. The company saw a 500% increase in the overall use of the platform in the 2011 alone and currently manages more than 6500 customers data Mark. And more than 2 million records were executed on a platform of BI cloud GoodData in July this year.

Add the main Enterprise Google, Girouard, the Council is quite a significant vote of confidence to launch. Girouard, who will advise the company to develop products, services and sales cloud, said: "GoodData GoodData is an amazing opportunity to build a huge business. Cloud computing and Analytics is a killer and GoodData provides unique and promising approach to lead in this market. "

O'Farrell Andreessen Horowitz also bullish on GoodData, tells us that he sees run to become the company billions of dollars. He explains that because the mass market continued to move to the cloud, there's still so much more potential for cloud-based business as GoodData that extract valuable information from the data cloud. "This is what business will spend a lot of money on," said O'Farrell.

O'Farrell also made an interesting point about the business intelligence space as a whole. He said there was a low barrier of entry in the space, but GoodData goes beyond just providing charts and data visualization tools offers a powerful platform, actually gives companies actionable insight from all of their business data. This, he said, creates a high barrier to entry, and be able help GoodData.

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EZOfficeInventory SMB allows you to easily track and manage the assets of the company (the cloud)

RIP Empson-writer at TechCrunch. He did not find friends here, he is here to win and you don't forget it. You can contact him at rip [at] techcrunch [dot] com ? more

Office list control systems: not exactly the world's sexiest software to be sure. Nevertheless, without inventory and asset management systems, many businesses likely will work similar pace DMV. Currently, small and medium-sized businesses have no shortage of funds to choose from when selecting a software system for tracking asset management and inventory; However, most of these settings requires working tirelessly with Excel or using a desktop product like TurboSystems data or, in the village of FoxFales, to name a few. If the company has more than a few dozen staff, however, Excel, and desktop solutions can be a pain in the ass.

Ali Sayeed, a former employee of Sun Microsystems (before the company was acquired by Oracle) and his team and software geeks, said that they were tired of having to deal with repeated instances of inventory of obsolete and mismanagement in the modern tracking solutions. Saeed said that he and his team collectively has worked with many different companies that, for example, actually keep property lists, but specific information related to who has what (as track records check outs) are often completely missing or worse deprecated — not to speak of the fact that the wrong assets often are assigned the wrong employee even may not work in the company anymore.

As you can imagine, very numerous. To help solve these problems, Syed and his team today are EZOfficeInventory, SaaS-based solution that untraditionally asset management approaches through the delegation model, in which responsibility is shared by the inventory, reducing the load on administrators.

The solution allows the assets of the joint bureaux will be tracked easily through check-in and check-out mechanism for staff members, as well as the activities of news to administrators, allowing them to review and take responsibility only when necessary. Employees can also find free tools that they need to carry out its work and can instantly access the guides and drivers.

Since the EZOfficeInventory live in the cloud solution uses QRCodes as asset tags so that asset with a unique URL in QRCode, employees can quickly provides links to information on capital assets and determine the rightful owner, if something is lost. And employees can do this with a quick scan of the iPhone or Android device with QRCode reader and Web client.

The decision also works to minimize efforts during inspections, as administrators can request photos of an asset or other custom workflows from employees by using a few mouse clicks. EZOffice also allows administrators to view reports, track the checkouts and checkins, total cost of ownership and even serve the story on their assets.

Companies can also change the security settings in their decision that it was compatible with existing business processes and add additional privacy features when needed.

Some readers may find the following images news like Basecamp (a well-known product released by 37Signals, the same company is home to David Heinemeier Hansson, the guy who created the Ruby on Rails). EZOfficeInventory is also implemented in Ruby on Rails, as Saeed said that he is an avid fan "in the Web development platform.

EZOfficeInventory offers a free trial of the two months of its cloud app with packages for more than two users, starting at $ 29 per month.

Asset management system is still in very early stage (seed and start-up) at the moment and there is work to be done on Web design and user interface (and name), but the software itself attacked a major pain for many small and medium-sized enterprises.

At the time of deposit of the responsibility for the management of the assets in the hands of staff (along with, of course, the system of checks and balances) may well be to increase the efficiency and confidence among these employees, it is risky. But Saeed said it was "part of the fun of mergers with Web development and the process of using Web technologies to target the problem of the enterprise. This shot of the status quo, and the Director-General believes that this shot is worth taking, despite the risk.

Square co-founder and others put in online merchant creditor Kabbage $ 17 m

Atlanta-based startup Kabbage, which provides for working capital for online merchants, has raised $ 17 million in series b financing, led by MOHR Davidow Ventures, BlueRun Ventures, David Bonderman, founder of TPG Capital; Warren Stevens, CEO of Stevens; UPS strategic Enterprise Fund, Jim McKelvey, co-founder of the square; and other participation in the round. This brings the total funding Kabbage to $ 24 million.

Kabbage, which was founded by Mark Gorlin, Rob Frohwein and Catherine Petralia, essentially a way for online merchants and vendors in the markets as eBay and Amaxon to get the capital that they would not otherwise qualify for a bank. Kabbage uses technology to analyze sales online sellers and credit history; client traffic and reviews; and prices and inventory, as compared with competitors. And merchants active, you can add information to their Kabbage account immediately increasing their access to capital.

Via PayPal Adaptive payments API, Kabbage will provide cash advances on eBay and other online Marketplace sellers quickly (Kabbage says that many transactions take as little ten minutes).

Gorlin tells me that many small businesses and online merchants are unable to obtain financing from traditional banks, and aimed to disrupt this space Kabbage, providing a painless way to help these sellers access cash.

Kabbage makes money from fees charged to merchants for the replenishment of working capital. Fees will depend on how long the online merchant is holding in the capital (maximum of 6 months) and client maturity risk. The stakes range from 6% to 16% of the initial amount in advance. Kabbage currently supports merchants on eBay, Amazon and Yahoo platform and plans to add support for sellers on Facebook, Etsy, Shopify, and Sears. currently, there are thousands of merchants using Kabbage and Gorlin to total volume Kabbage vendors plan to reach $ 3 billion next year.

In connection with the financing of Kabbage also announces that it has been granted United States Patent No. 7, 983, 951, entitled "instruments for liquidity provision in the online auction market," It covers essentially the system in which the capital provider uses information
with regard to the history of the merchant sales on the Web site of e-commerce, to make a decision on the granting of funds. For a company that just launched a few years ago, snagging a patent is impressive.

Gorlin said the new funding will be used to add additional sites, distribution of new financial products and for international expansion. He explains that there is huge potential for growth in international markets and run continuously to sellers outside of the United States who are interested in Kabbage for services.

Similar to credit card size mobile access for small businesses and that Greendot prepaid credit cards has covered, Kabbage brings working capital and small loans for online merchants who may not qualify for the cash infusion from a traditional bank. As mentioned above run has some potential to disrupt the market industry.

Kabbage provides financing options for online merchants. Kabbage provides funding for online merchants, using commonly available information from online marketplaces for risk assessment and help to determine in advance the amounts and related ...

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Banjo, now allows you to stem jobs and people out there

Six-week old banjo mobile applications has been updated with a new feature that allows users to virtually stalk places and people there in real time. Banjo, for those who don't know, is a new social discovery service, which reveals the current social network at any given location at a certain time. To be clear, this is not another social network, it is a layer based on social networks. With banjo you don't have to create a profile, add friends or collect followers or any other behavior typical of social networks.

Instead, to use banjo, you simply run the application to see what people around you are saying and doing right now. OK pulls their data from social networking services like Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare, Gowalla, Twitter, and Instagram, access to publicly available refunds and geotags that accompany status updates and posts.

When banjo first started out, he proposed a "map" function that allows you to select a point on Google Maps are practically visit interface in this place, and see who was there. However, this function was cumbersome to use because you are not able to enter in the search box, specify the actual location – you had to drag-and-drop on the map to change its position.

Virtual Tour, virtual location Stalker

But now, you can type in any address supported by the Google Maps in order to discover the hidden social network is the place, whether you seek a city location, mailing address, or even the name of the local business.

There are certainly some use cases for this feature that will appeal to mainstream users, perhaps you're wondering what people think today in concert, for example, or what people at the Conference are posting photos or tweeting about.

However, as an online journalist, immediate treatment of the search function comes from the opportunities it offers to strengthen the reporting process. Imagine being able to visit virtually on the streets of London during the riots last weekend and seeing the flow of information resulting from the popular social networking services in real time.

The benefit is not only the ease with which you can view this kind of public data, it is that you can confirm that these people really are. With services like Twitter, anyone from anywhere can send update using a hashtag (keyword is preceded by a character, such as # londonriots) to join the public conversation about this topic. However, in some cases, it is very important to know that the man is actually when you host an update feature that will allow journalists to go then on those directly on the occurrence of an event, in the midst of it. Banjo makes this possible, as it only looks at what GEO coordinates gives an update.

Public information is easy to detect

The fact that it's now so easy to identify such data should be a reminder to you that what you post publicly online is truly open.

And banjo-isn't the only application that makes it easier to disclose such information. His nearest competitor, sonar, TechCrunch Disrupt startup has a similar take on location-based social networks, except that it takes people to the site, how many friends you have in common. In other words, rather than to reveal the hidden social network location, it shows you your own social network in this place.

Coming soon: more apps, more features, more social networks

Banjo plans to add a dozen more social networks in the next couple of weeks and added or are in the process of adding dozens of new features including the ability to store photos, share them via social networking, email, or SMS, as well as improve performance and speed.

Banjo is now available on iPhone and Android, but extends to other platforms in the future.

Banjo is a social discovery service that helps people explore social updates across multiple social networks. Connecting real people in real time, banjo equipment of publicly available information and delivers ...

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Monday, August 22, 2011

MileWise launches search engine for frequent flyer

MileWise new search engine is intended for frequent flyers, which helps you to find flights, you can pay using cash, airline miles or hotel and credit card. Run allows users to track their air miles and rewards program points in one unified interface, and then uses this information to suggest what flights offer the most value.

Unlike other search engines where flights flights can be classified by price, number of connections, or both, "the agony" Hipmunk (a combination of factors), the MileWise also takes in consideration your awards when ranking results.

The flight data comes from Orbitz, Everbread and directly from the airline company at the present time. And MileWise can include data from other inventory provider main voyage "in the future.

When viewing search results, points, miles and cash options displayed using different colors, while the number in a bubble on the left support for ranking flights based on the mile or point-to the dollar.

A similar flight options are collapsed by default, but clicking the link to the right under the search result will expand them. You can also filter the flights payment method, airlines, maps, number of stops and flights.

The service currently supports over 300 awards program. But this is not just dumbly data collection. MileWise tracks your remuneration in order to alert you when they expire, indicates the big deal, you might have missed and keeps you from wonder major airlines fees that sometimes accompany the award. It will also help you earn more prizes by calculating the number of miles, flight will earn, including bonuses from the status and the cab.

Funding and plans for the future

MileWise command includes the co-founder of Vinay Pulim, who previously started Isovia (acquired by Motorola) and Reble. fm (acquired by Playlist.com) and Chris Dickson's first engineering rent for guess. There is also a co-founder of Sanjay Kothari, from the Boston Consulting Group and co-founder Nick Meyer, formerly one of the founders of the Reble. fm. Seye Ojumu is later leases and advises travel veteran Frederic Deschamps of Northwest Airlines.

Run is $ 1.5 million in venture capital from Atlas ventures, founder collective, General catalyst, high line venture partners and iNovia capital, as well as investment from Angel Babak Nivi Tirtsa refuses, David Cohen, Jeff judge, Mitch Kapor, David Kidder, Josh Kushner, Alex Lloyd, Tom McInerney, Yakov Pechenik, Keith Rabois, naval Ravikant, David Tisch and CAL Vepuri. He plans to raise another round in 7-8 months.

MileWise has several potential revenue models under consideration, with a model of commissions considered in the near future. Later, it will take smart recommendations based on user behavior, as suggested by the user to sign up for a credit card for a particular flight to get points, must be reserved. Further down the line, the company may be able to turn their data into information for partners. However, the founders are careful to state that user privacy protection in all cases, and the data will be anonymous. MileWise also offers additional services, but nothing has been decided yet.

MileWise helps users find the most attractive and profitable ways to cash in on Meridian miles and, eventually, other types of reward programs.

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Facebook music yet? No problem! Meet the wonderful + music Chrome extension

Robin Wauters is currently staff writer for TechCrunch and lead editor of Virtualization.com. In addition to its activities, professional blogging, he is an entrepreneur, the organizer of the event, from time to time the Council consultant and an angel investor, but the most important champion of the full launch. He lives and works in Belgium, a small country in Europe. He can often be found work from their home or ... ? Read More

Facebook is working with a wide range of partners to prepare to launch music service – perhaps called "Vibes" – inside the surprisingly popular social networking site. In standby mode, I advise you to visit the amazing + music extension for Google chrome (here is the direct link to extension).

This is pretty cool. After installation, you'll find a new icon in the toolbar Chrome allows you to quickly find the artist, stream music and discover links to artist profiles on Facebook, radio, Wikipedia, last.FM and whatnot. Music gets fetched from blog MP3s or radio (subscription required) and you can click on the icon to play and pause music mixes, move to the next track or part of the song.

On any Web page you visit, you can now select the name of the artist, click the right mouse button, and instantly play or turn a mixture of songs from the artist said. The following video shows you how it works.

Now this is all very well, but that's where it gets interesting. + Music deeply integrates with Facebook and allows you to share full songs with friends, even if they do not have the extension installed.

It also adds a layer of utility over Facebook, so when you visit a social network, you will see a number of enhancements that will allow you to enjoy the music with just a click of the mouse.

For example, on top of Facebook, you will see the player, which allows you to play, pause and skip tracks, so you need to open more than + music dialog box by clicking on the icon in the toolbar.

In the section "Share" you will also see "music" option, which allows you to search for artist, album or track where you usually post a status update. You can use it to share a YouTube video or the song itself instantly or even full album (MP3s by blogging Web-wide, or radio).

In the screenshot below gives you an idea of how it looks.

To achieve the above, the add-in uses a protocol open graph Facebook for embedding video object music, when you share the track – no authentication required – while website swarm. fm operates as a home for any content shared through + music (with more in the future, tells me, the developer, Peter Watts).

It doesn't stop there. + Music extension also barely artist or group of pages, add a button for Instant Music streaming or queue next to their name. In addition the expansion shows you similar artists or bands in the left column of their Facebook page. Again, see. the screenshot below.

Most of the technology behind + music extension is powered by the echo nest.

If you are interested in other applications other than music, don't forget to give ex. fm and Shuffler. fm trauma.

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August capital, Google Ventures to the $ 18. 5 m in online legal service rocket lawyer

Free Legal Document Service | Legal Help Online | Rocket Lawyer

More big money online legal services. After LegalZoom raised $ 66 million from Kleiner Perkins and IVP, competitor rocket lawyer also announced a new round of funding. Start generated 18.5 million in funding led by August capital, Google Ventures and Investor Growth Capital (IGC) participated in the round. This brings total funding to rocket lawyer $ 30 million.

Founded by Charles Moore, the rocket lawyer not only provides legal documents for consumers and small businesses, but also helps users create customized legal documents that can be electronically signed and shares instantly online or downloaded for printing. Moore says that every month, more than 20000 the last wills and 40000 business contracts created. Rocket lawyer offers these documents free of charge.

While users can use rocket lawyer on a one-time basis, many of the users of the site pay for actual legal advice along with access to documents. Users can pay just $ 20 per consultation up to $ 200 to $ 300 per year for the legal service of the call, which is a fraction of the cost that some lawyers (the company currently has thousands of people who pay for annual maintenance).

Moore said that 20 million people will use rocket lawyer by the end of this year. Rocket lawyer and the visitors increased by more than 100%, year over year. The company grows revenue by 10 million dollars annually, but refused to say if the lawyer launch profitable yet.

Taking into account the traction that other players like LegalZoom is seen, it looks like the industry online legal services to the fast-growing market that still has great potential. LegalZoom and looks to IPO next year.

The new funds will be used to continue building the rocket lawyer brand and patent online legal solutions.

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