Startups

Muzy Announces $4.4 Million Round of Funding

James Hunt — Wed, 19 Jun 2013 17:20:59 +0000

Muzy, Inc., an early-stage microblogging service focused on mobile content creation, today announced a $4.4 million round of investment funding. The startup has attracted more than 20 million users globally and is adding more than one million new users each month.

Investors include WPP (NASDAQ: WPPGY), the world's largest communications services group; DOCOMO Capital, the Silicon Valley venture arm of NTT DOCOMO, Inc. (NYSE: DCM), the ...

Comcast Venture Arm Investing in YouTube Startup Fullscreen

Jim Probasco — Tue, 18 Jun 2013 14:35:23 +0000

“Hey, check this out!”

These words – as part of a text message or email – often precede a link to a YouTube video, something that is fast becoming the entertainment choice “du jour” for millennials.

Comcast Corp. (NASDAQ: CMCSA) through its venture arm, Comcast Ventures, noted the trend and is funding a startup called Fullscreen. Fullscreen, according to Bloomberg, helps video content creators monetize their video clips through advertising and audience-building. In return, Fullscreen takes a cut of advertising revenue. Joining Comcast in this investment are Chernin Group LLC and WPP PLC (NASDAQ: WPPGY).

Fullscreen, which supports more than 15,000 aspiring video stars, plans to use the investment, in part, to open offices in Brazil, India, Mexico, Japan, and Russia over the next two years, according to Fullscreen founder, George Strompolos.

Strompolos, formerly with Google Inc.’s (NASDAQ: GOOG) YouTube, started Fullscreen in 2011 after noticing that more and more people were using smartphones and handheld computers to create ...

Spreaker to Announce 'Major' American Media Partnership to Help Musicians, Radio Personalities Go Mainstream

Louis Bedigian — Mon, 10 Jun 2013 20:31:04 +0000

Started with $1 million in funding, Spreaker is a platform for creating and sharing a wide array of audio content. "We were born with the idea of empowering anyone that wanted to create a radio broadcast," Spreaker CEO Francesco Baschieri told Benzinga. "Now we figured out that we have a pretty complete audio platform so we're trying to attract a different kind of audience -- maybe independent musicians and DJs -- that want to start their own creation."

After amassing nearly two million registered users in roughly two and a half years, Spreaker has inked a deal to help its brand – and most of all its users – gain access to mainstream listeners.

"We have recently closed a major partnership with one of the main American media companies, a major broadcaster, which will allow us to do some interesting things with our product – both software integration and giving the ability to our hosts to ...

Agent Ace Is Changing How You Find A Realty Agent

Jason Cunningham — Mon, 10 Jun 2013 19:02:51 +0000

You're looking to sell a property. You see realty agents on billboards, bus sides and television ads. You reach out to friends, send some emails, and post on social media, all to get recommendations for a good broker.

It's a shuffle. Sometimes you give in to the Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) search results, and just end up with someone who paid for the advertising…no different from the other ads. Other times it's the agent offered up by a friend or a relative. You hope for the best.

Online real estate expert and Agent Ace CEO Mazen Fawaz doesn't think you need to just hope for the best, and he hopes to spread the company's philosophy around. Fawaz thinks that the general recommendations sellers get are typically weak, either through ads or from those who are well-meaning, but unqualified to give out recommendations.

"As much as your friends and family mean well, they're just really not qualified to know for sure whose going to be the best for [your] transaction," said Fawaz.

There are services out there that will hook you up with realty agents in your area, but AgentAce's patented technology calculates a realty agent's performance and matches it to a user's search, optimizing their ability to sell a home for the price they want. Through mining through historical home sales data, ...

Google to Pay $1.3 Billion for a Company Apple Didn't Want (GOOG, AAPL)

Louis Bedigian — Mon, 10 Jun 2013 16:46:42 +0000

It's true -- the best way for a startup to get attention is for Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) to express interest in acquiring the firm. While the Cupertino, California-based tech giant does not comment on rumors, Apple was believed to have been interested in buying Instagram before Facebook (NASDAQ: FB) snatched it last year.

Apple was also rumored to be interested in buying Waze, a community-based traffic and navigation app for iOS and Android. Waze gained a degree of mainstream fame last year when its CEO publicly bashed Apple's ill-fated Maps app. Despite the complaints, Apple was thought to be a huge fan of Waze's technology. The Mac maker was rumored to be discussing a possible acquisition late last year.

Those rumors were dispelled, however, paving the way for a Facebook acquisition. Facebook did not act fast enough, however. Now it seems that Google (NASDAQ:

The Elon Musk Bump: $127 Billion of Market Value

Matthew Kanterman — Mon, 10 Jun 2013 15:23:34 +0000

There are a few stocks that are publicly traded that have recently gotten the proverbial "Elon Musk bump" as the now-iconic entrepreneur and visionary stakes his claim in financial markets.

However, recent jitters over the long-term sustainability of the new technologies his many companies present, highlighted in this weekend's cover story in Barron's, only further raise the question: what is the true value of the Elon Musk brand?

Tesla Battle

Recently, a huge debate amongst analysts has surfaced over Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA). Musk owns 25 percent of the $12 billion company as the founder, Chairman, CEO, and Product Architect. The stock has been on an absolute tear recently, effectively quadrupling from its 52-week low to Friday's close of $102.04.

The company has launched its latest car, the Model S, to much acclaim, so much so that the car won the coveted Motor Trend Car of the Year Award for 2013. However, Barron's highlighted some concerns over the car and the company in this weekend's issue.

"It will take time to discover how much sustained demand there is for a marvel priced above $90,000 (the price for a Model S Performance version, after a $7,500 federal tax credit). No one yet knows what portion of Tesla's initial buyers were "early adopters," unrepresentative of ongoing demand. Tesla irked analysts last month when it stopped disclosing its end-of-quarter order backlog -- which might have shed light on the issue -- after previously trumpeting a 15,000-unit reservation list."

"The Model S won't get Tesla profits to a level that justifies today's stock price. The company expects to sell 21,000 worldwide this year, and Musk told shareholders on Tuesday that the car's annual sales might eventually reach 30,000 or 40,000. At about the 30,000 units that most bullish analysts predict for 2014, Tesla might earn about a buck a share (if you don't count the expense of stock options) -- which means the $102 stock is flying at 100 times next year's earnings forecast."

Nevertheless, Morgan Stanley's auto team, led by Adam Jonas, still calls Tesla its number 1 North American auto pick with an overweight rating and a $109 price target. "As long-time auto analysts, we are naturally skeptical about the potential for electric vehicles to significantly disrupt the global market. That said, we believe Tesla is facing this challenge in the right way. And there is no denying the company has achieved an early level of product success that nobody in the industry had expected."

"Tesla's progress to date is thanks to a combination of technology, strategy and management execution. The last 2 weeks have seen a major shift in the addressable market for the Model S, the potential to monetize regulatory credits and its capital markets strategy that help de-risk the story and provide financial footing to up the ante on both EVs and the supporting infrastructure."

Goldman Sachs was more cautious on the stock when it reiterated its six-month ...

Yahoo's Sneaky Email Plans and Other Top Tech Stories from the First Week of June

Louis Bedigian — Sat, 08 Jun 2013 14:05:35 +0000

With only a few days to go before media and developer events from Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL), Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT), Sony (NYSE: SNE) and Electronic Arts (NASDAQ: EA), this week has been fairly quiet.

There were a few notable developments from Samsung, Microsoft, Yahoo (NASDAQ: ...

This $1M-Backed Startup Wants to Build a Better Skype and Solve Your Mobile Message Problems

Louis Bedigian — Fri, 07 Jun 2013 18:25:51 +0000

Skype is so 2005. It may be used by millions of consumers every single day, but it is old news in the world of instant messaging. Moped, a free messaging tool that can be used without the need for special software, hopes to change that.

Don't let the silly tagline (which claims that Moped is "Messaging for people who work together") fool you. That generic-sounding pitch hides the fact that Moped is different from your everyday IM app.

For starters, no one needs an app to use Moped. And to be clear, Moped is not just "for people who work together" -- anyone can use it to quickly send messages to their friends, relatives or colleagues.

Moped users aren't locked into Moped; they can also send message to their friends' e-mail accounts. Their friends are then able to reply direct from the e-mail. They don't actually have to be a Moped user or launch Moped.com to answer the message.

Schuyler Deerman, ...

OMsignal Receives $1 Million to Build a Smart 'Bio-Sensing' Shirt

Louis Bedigian — Thu, 06 Jun 2013 19:37:36 +0000

Up until yesterday, OMsignal was in "stealth mode." With the dream of bringing personal wellness to consumers, healthcare professionals and other individuals, the company quietly spent its time building one of the world's first bio-sensing shirts.

"It's sort of a new category in the exploding wearable computing world," Stephane Marceau, co-founder and CEO of OMsignal, told Benzinga. "Our first product is a shirt. We plan to have a bra as well, which captures the core biometrics from your body. It captures your ECG -- not to be confused with just basic pulse, but actual ECG. It captures your breathing patterns; your respiratory rate and breathing volume. There's an accelerometer in the system as well that tracks movement."

Marceau co-founded OMsignal with Frederic Chanay, who serves as the company's Chief Product Officer. The two men got the idea for OMsignal after producing a prototype bracelet for a "very large U.S. communications provider." That firm (which Marceau would not refer to by name) ultimately rejected the prototype, but the idea of mobile and personal health stayed with Marceau and Chanay.

"At the time there was only a Fitbit in the wearable category, so it was pretty novel stuff," said Marceau. "The client didn't think this was ready for primetime. There wasn't much demand at the time, but we thought this had a lot of ...

Benzinga's Jason Raznick to Present the Second-Annual JVS Rising Entrepreneur Award

Louis Bedigian — Mon, 03 Jun 2013 20:23:54 +0000

Jason Raznick, Benzinga's President and co-founder, took home the first annual JVS Rising Entrepreneur Award at the 15th Annual JVS Strictly Business Networking and Awards Luncheon last summer. Raznick returns this year to present the second-annual JVS Rising Entrepreneur Award to Pam Turkin, the founder of Just Baked, at the 16th Annual JVS Strictly Business Networking and Awards Luncheon.

The annual event honors several individuals -- not just rising entrepreneurs -- including job seekers who have overcome significant challenges to find employment with the help of the Jewish Vocational Service.

One such job seeker is a disabled woman hired by Elwin Greenwald, who is famous in Metro Detroit for making the most popular scones. Greenwald hired a woman who has been described as slow but high-functioning. He loves working with her; he told JVS representatives that he has learned more ...

New Startup AppLift Raises $13 Million And Is Already Profitable

Louis Bedigian — Mon, 03 Jun 2013 16:16:04 +0000

AppLift, a mobile games marketing platform that serves Electronic Arts (NASDAQ: EA), Zynga (NASDAQ: ZNGA) and numerous others, has yet to celebrate its first birthday. The company began in August 2012, became profitable at the end of last year, and has just raised $13 million from Prime Ventures. Hanno Fichtner, a partner and co-founder at HitFox Group (an incubator focused on founding and buying companies within the mobile and online games distribution market), is responsible for the launch of AppLift. Fichtner co-founded the U.S. branch of AppLift and serves as the division's General Manager.

Fichtner said that AppLift will use the new funds to invest in technology that can help the firm optimize traffic quality. The funds will also be used to hire somewhere around 50 additional engineers, product specialists and business development professionals.

"…It looks like the money we got ...

Jamen Shively's American Dream is to Create the Starbucks of Marijuana

Tim Parker — Sat, 01 Jun 2013 13:46:33 +0000

It’s the American dream, right?

Start your own company, be your own boss, make millions, and find yourself as the interview of choice on every financial news network. One ex-Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) employee is following his dream - but wait until you hear it!

Cannibis, “mary jane”, magic smoke, cannabis; yes, Jamen Shively, a former Microsoft corporate strategy manager, wants to get into the business of pot. His dream? To become the leading distributor of recreational and medical cannabis worldwide. He wants to be the Starbucks (NASDAQ: SBUX) of marijuana.

He’s currently looking for $10 million in seed money to fund his company, Diego Pellicer, after his hemp-producing great grandfather.

He even has a heavy hitter behind him. At a news conference in Seattle, Shively announced his plans with Vicente Fox next to him. Don’t know the name? He’s the former president of Mexico. He was there ...

Visier Scores $15 Million in New Funds

Louis Bedigian — Thu, 30 May 2013 19:39:47 +0000

Visier, a workforce analytics and planning solutions company that previously secured $9 million in investments, has gained an additional $15 million from investors. The Series B round was led by equity investor Summit Partners. Foundation Capital, which provided $6 million during the Series A, also contributed to the new round of funds.

"Today Visier has been in the market for about 18 months," John Schwarz, co-founder and CEO of Visier, told Benzinga. "…The company is built around the idea that delivering [our solutions] to the end user will ultimately displace the way that organizations use business intelligence today."

Schwarz started Visier after serving as the CEO of Business Objects SA, which was acquired by SAP (NYSE: SAP) in 2007.

His new firm may be young, but it has already acquired an impressive list of customers, including Hyatt Hotels (NYSE: H), ConAgra Foods (NYSE: CAG) and Alaska Communications (NASDAQ: ALSK). Visier also serves the Commonwealth Bank of Australia (OTC: CBAUF), the largest bank in the nation.

While an impressive customer list could be worth millions of dollars to prospective ...

Google and Facebook Going to War Over Mapping App

Jim Probasco — Fri, 24 May 2013 12:43:18 +0000

A bidding war between Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) and Facebook (NASDAQ: FB) may be about to erupt, according to Bloomberg. The object of the conflict is Waze, a smartphone-mapping app with unique social features.

Waze provides driving directions with a twist. Users submit information about traffic tie-ups, speed traps, and road closings. Waze alerts and even reroutes users around problem areas.

Waze is a free service and generates revenue via location-based advertising. That capability, plus more than 40 million users (and growing) makes the product attractive. Whether Waze is as attractive as it thinks it is remains to be seen.

One Bloomberg source said Waze is open to acquisition discussions, if the price is right. The price? $1 billion or more. The company is also reportedly considering remaining independent and raising venture capital if a suitable deal can’t be reached.

Mapping capability on smartphones and other devices is increasingly important. Mapping with cool features is a ...

Skillz Invites Skilled Players to Compete for Cash

Louis Bedigian — Tue, 21 May 2013 22:28:42 +0000

Serial entrepreneur Andrew Paradise is taking a stab at mobile game tournaments with his new company, Skillz. Described as a multiplayer network for Android games (and eventually iOS games), Skillz allows users to gamble with their gaming skills. Players can enter various game tournaments and compete for cash prizes for as low as $0.25.

The Skillz game lineup includes 3D Cave Runner, Apache Strike: Multiplayer Fun, Big Sport Fishing 3D, Bubble Explode, Bubble Shooter, GnarBike Trials, IBC Boxing, King of Defense, Mini Golf Stars 3D: Putt and Sushi Chop. Many more are on the way.

"We have some fairly large studios that are going to be launching with us in the next 30 days," said Paradise, who co-founded Skillz with Casey Chafkin and serves as the company's CEO. "The reason I think the major studios sign with us because even EA (NASDAQ: EA) and Zynga (NASDAQ: ZNGA) would have trouble with either one of them owning the tournament system.

Both of them want to ...