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Utest, Now Called Applause, Secures $43M Series E Round Led By Goldman Sachs, to Roll Up App Testing Market
Jan 14, 12:02PM
uTest, best known for its considerable capability as an app testing company which uses an ‘in-the-wild’ community of testers to kick the tyres on apps, today announces that it’s closed a $43 million Series E round of funding, led by Goldman Sachs. With that war chest it plans to expand its offering and go on an acquisition spree. This brings its funding-to-date to more than $80 million. The Boston-based company has already announced it will be re-branding to the name of its main product, Applause. “In-the-wild testing has become a critical part of launching great digital experiences… Funding on this scale, and from a leader like Goldman Sachs, will help us broaden these services, and incorporate tools that enable companies to achieve 360° app quality,” said uTest CEO, Doron Reuveni in a statement. “We’re positioned for a massive market opportunity, and to extend our lead as the one-stop solution for modern app quality.” In a phone interview he also confirmed to me that the company would, with this latest funding, move to ramp up M&A. Among its next plans include the expansion of its in-the-wild testing services. This facility was, to some extent a stroke of genius. It immediately made the company scale much faster than its competitors. This, combined with its app store analytics and its proprietary tools means that uTest/Applause has now become one of the dominant players in app testing and now with this funding ensures that it is probably on its way to rolling up the competition as well. Other plans include targeting major brands with its products, growing distribution channels, and move into training, certifications, test tool reviews, career advice, job boards and events. The round had full participation from all of uTest’s previous investors, including QuestMark Partners, Scale Venture Partners, Longworth Venture Partners, Mass Ventures, Egan-Managed Capital and Mesco Ltd. The company’s previous round of funding was a $17 Million Series D round in December 2011. As part of the Series E investment, David Campbell, Goldman Sachs’ Managing Director, Merchant Banking Division will join the uTest Board of Directors.Real Estate App Open Home Pro Acquired By HomeFinder.com, Becoming Company's First Mobile App For Realtors
Jan 14, 11:00AM
Open Home Pro, a business that allows realtors to run their open houses via the iPad and collect leads, has been sold to larger real estate search site HomeFinder.com. Now at HomeFinder, the app becomes the company's first mobile application targeting realtors, as opposed to consumers like its previously launched iOS and Android applications currently do.Uber Will Focus On Southeast Asia Launches Over The Next Two Months
Jan 14, 10:43AM
Uber is preparing to launch in several Southeast Asian cities over the next few weeks, said its head of Asian expansion in an interview last week. The well-funded startup’s decision to focus there is a sign of the many opportunities for consumer mobile startups in Southeast Asia. Not only is are there high mobile penetration rates throughout the region, but also a growing base of affluent customers with a taste for luxury products, a bracket Uber wants to position itself in. Uber officially launched in Kuala Lumpur last week. This week it will launch in yet another Southeast Asian city, Uber’s head of Asia operations, Allen Penn, told me. Although the location hasn’t been announced, the company recently started deploying “secret Ubers” in Manila and is seeking a general manager for the capital of the Philippines. It’s also looking for someone to fill the same position in Bangkok. Uber isn’t sharing financial or user metrics for the region, but its strategy is being fueled by $258 million investment led by Google Ventures, which valued the company at $3.5 billion. Part of that funding is earmarked for Uber’s aggressive international expansion strategy. Last year, the company deployed in 12 Asian cities, starting with Singapore in January 2013. Uber’s Competitive Strategy In Southeast Asia Penn answered some questions about potential barriers in the Southeast Asian market. In the region, Uber competes with other taxi-calling apps like Easy Taxi, which is backed by Rocket Internet, as well as local startups like GrabTaxi. Like Uber, both services say their advantages include safety as well as the ability to track taxis in real-time on their apps. In Southeast Asia, Uber wants to differentiate from other taxi and car services by focusing on its premium options, like UberBlack. “I think that we are really focused on building a brand that is really associated with great customer service, a really high feel of quality and a really high level of reliability,” says Penn. In several cities, Uber has met with resistance from local regulatory bodies as well as taxi drivers who view the startup as a threat to their livelihood. The most extreme demonstration of this sentiment recently occurred in Paris, when protesting taxi drivers damaged an Uber car. But in Southeast Asia, Uber may not be competing with taxi services for locals who are already comfortable navigating their city’s transportation options. Instead, a customer base thatMessaging App Wordeo Blends Text With Getty Stock Footage To Take Video Messaging More Mainstream
Jan 14, 9:46AM
Thought there were enough ways to express your feelings in pixels already? Think again. A new video messaging app called Wordeo is landing on the iOS App Store today that lets you illustrate the content of a text message with a series of related video clips.Startup Institute Comes To London & Berlin — Pay To Learn How To Become Startup Employee Material
Jan 14, 9:00AM
Ok, this is a new concept to me. Already running in Boston, New York and Chicago, Startup Institute -- which calls itself a "career accelerator" -- is expanding to London and Berlin, to help plug skills gaps in the two city's fast-growing startup scenes. Targeting recent graduates, young professionals and "career changers", it aims to teach the skills needed to become startup employee material.Sony Adds To Its Global Mobile Lineup With The Xperia T2 Ultra And Xperia E1 Android Phones
Jan 14, 7:59AM
Sony is adding two smartphones to its growing stable of devices. Meet the Xperia T2 Ultra and the Xperia E1 -- both substantial updates to Sony's 2013 models. Best yet, both are offered in dual-sim variants. These latest phones join the Z1S and Z1 announced last week at CES. However, it seems Sony held these close to its chest last week as they're somewhat mundane and not destined for the U.S. market. And, as Sony found out from years of experience, to "win" CES, requires focused and streamlined announcements and not a proverbial conveyor belt of press releases.Yandex Adds Facebook Posts And Big Data To Its Search Results In Russia, Other Home Markets
Jan 14, 7:55AM
Yandex and Facebook had a notable run-in last year when a team of developers from the Russian search giant created a social search app called Wonder, which Facebook promptly blocked. But in reality the two sides have been working together since 2010, and today comes the latest chapter in the collaboration.Call Marketing Company Invoca Raises $20M Round Led By Accel
Jan 14, 5:00AM
Invoca, the call marketing company formerly known as RingRevenue, is announcing that it has raised $20 million in Series C funding. The company has now raised more than $30 million, with the current round led by Accel Partners. Upfront Ventures and Rincon Venture Partners also participated, and Accel's Kobie Fuller has joined the company's board of directors.For More Than War: Airware Demos Its Drone Platform By Protecting Rhinos From Poachers
Jan 14, 5:00AM
Airware wants to prove drones have plenty of uses beyond killing people. Today the unmanned aerial vehicle hardware/software/firmware startup revealed it's built and deployed special drones to thwart animal poachers in Kenya, Africa. The demo could build interest for the launch Airware's commercial drone platform later this year.Turn's Series E Round Further Boosts Ad-Tech Startups
Jan 14, 3:08AM
Venture investors may have turned their attention to earlier stage ad-tech companies at the right time now that big investments and strong IPOs could give their valuations a boost. This morning, Turn announced an $80 million Series E round, which included investments by Fidelity Investments and RocketFuel.Esports Giant MLG Swings To An Operating Profit On Strength Of Its New Media Strategy
Jan 14, 1:41AM
In an interview with onGamers, MLG CEO Sundance DiGiovanni stated that since the release of its recent MLG.tv service, the company has been "EBITA positive and expects to stay EBITA positive on a quarterly basis in 2014."Izzie Lerer's Animal-Focused News Site The Dodo Launches, Funded By Lerer Ventures
Jan 14, 1:09AM
The Dodo, a new animal-focused news site launching today, is Isabel Lerer’s initial foray into the viral news business that her father, Ken Lerer, is well-known for, having co-founded Huffington Post and serving as Chairman of BuzzFeed and Betaworks. The company is disclosing the Lerer investment today as well, with The Dodo having raised under $2 million in a seed round led by Lerer Ventures, the fund managed by father and son team Ken and Ben Lerer, the latter also co-founder at Thrillist. Also participating in the round, which closed last fall but had not yet been announced, are Greycroft, RRE, Softbank Capital Technology Fund, Sterling Equities and Fred Harman (partner at Oak Investment Partners). The Lerers, incidentally, were the focus of a timely profile over the weekend by NY Mag, which referred to the family as “a little Mafia-esque,” referencing the way they had their hands in nearly every buzzy New York area startup. This also includes NowThis News, another news site making headlines this week, thanks to an NBCUniversal News Group investment. As for The Dodo, the site’s launch is a real family affair: It’s co-founded by daughter Izzie, invested in by Lerer Ventures, and running atop RebelMouse, a newer content management system, which is also a Lerer investment. “It’s the first site [RebelMouse has] powered from scratch, and they’ve been building it for the last four months,” says Ken Lerer, noting that future installations will be turned around more efficiently, eventually reaching the point of becoming turnkey. RebelMouse, for those unfamiliar, is a platform focused on customizability and deeper social integrations, including the ability to integrate “calls to action” with posts, which The Dodo plans to soon include. The service also includes several of the same investors as The Dodo (besides the Lerers), it’s worth noting. Isabel’s passion for animal rights led her to study the impact of animal and human interactions at Columbia University, where she’s wrapping up her Ph.D studies. And she convinced father Ken to give up eating meat, too. Asked how long that would last, Mr. Lerer laughed, “you haven’t met my daughter – it’s going to last forever.” As for The Dodo’s news coverage, it certainly has its share of feel-good stories ripe for social sharing, but more of the articles have a pro-animal rights bias to them, not surprisingly. For example, the lead today references the documentary “Blackfish,” and details the aftermath of a SeaWorldNest Gives Google A Head Start On The Future Of Hardware
Jan 13, 11:44PM
CES may be finished for another year, but one of the biggest themes of the show -- that anything (cars, watches, mirrors, tables and more) is fair game as 'hardware' -- is just taking off. And today's news of Google buying Nest for $3.2 billion underscores how Google wants to be the player at the front and center of that.Who Gets Rich From Google Buying Nest? Kleiner Returns 20X On $20M, Shasta Nets ~$200M
Jan 13, 11:37PM
Google just bought Nest for $3.2 billion cash, and that means the startup's early investors Kleiner Perkins Caufield Byers and Shasta Ventures have struck it rich. Multiple sources say Kleiner invested $20 million in Nest and got a 20X return to pull in $400 million. Meanwhile, the exit appears to be Shasta's biggest win to date.YouTube Launches New Comments Management Tool
Jan 13, 11:33PM
YouTube today launched a new tool for managing comments on its site that gives video creators a central inbox for all the comments their videos receive. When YouTube made the controversial switch to Google+ comments, it also added a number of new tools for managing these comments. With this change, however, it also took away the ability to manage comments from the YouTube Inbox and moved comment notices to alerts instead. YouTube’s users weren’t all that happy about this change, so as the company announced today, it “fast-tracked the development of a new comment management page that lets you see, respond to and moderate your comments all in one place.” This change essentially brings the old YouTube Inbox back. Using this page, video owners can quickly scan their comments, remove offensive ones, flag comments for spam and give comments a thumbs up. The new comments inbox is divided into areas for published comments, pending comments and those marked as spam. None of these changes will make a big difference for those who simply hate the new YouTube commenting system, but it will make life a bit easier for those who publish their videos on the site.Putting Square's $5B Valuation Into Context
Jan 13, 11:33PM
Square's growth has been a story of sustained momentum. Rising from a payment-processing run rate of $1 billion in the middle of 2011, Square is now expected to process some $30 billion this calendar year. As Square's payment processing run rate has grown -- bolstering its revenue in near lockstep -- so too has its valuation expanded.Send In Your Questions For Ask A VC With Storm Ventures' Jason Lemkin
Jan 13, 11:00PM
This week, we are hosting Storm Ventures' Jason Lemkin in the TechCrunch TV studios for our Ask A VC show. You can submit questions for our guests either in the comments or here and we'll ask them during the show.Bringrr Is A Car Charger That Shouts When You Forget Your Stuff
Jan 13, 10:41PM
I'm a pretty patient person. Still, there's one thing that instantly makes me go all ragey: driving away from home only to realize I forgot to put something important in my car. If I'm already running late when I notice my mistake, prepare to learn some new swear words. Bringrr is a gadget for people like me. It sits in your car's cigarette lighter port, quietly keeping tabs on what you've packed. If it notices that something is missing, it'll let you know now, before you realize it 10 miles later.Charter Offers $61.3 Billion In Cash And Stock To Acquire Time Warner Cable
Jan 13, 10:33PM
If you were worried about the consolidation of ISPs, telcos, and media companies, this should make you uncomfortable: Charter Communications has bid a massive $61.3 billion for Time Warner Cable. According to Bloomberg, this would be the third-largest deal since 2009. The total buyout would consist of $83 in cash for each Time Warner Cable share, and $49.50 in Charter stock for a total of around $132.50. In regular trading today, Time Warner Cable closed at $132.40, and is up over the bid price in after-hours trading, indicating that investors expect a higher total deal value by the time anything is completed. According to a letter sent to Time Warner Cable management by Charter, and published by the latter company, it approached its now potential purchase several times in 2013, only to be rebuffed until December. Time Warner Cable then wanted more money than what Charter offered. Charter wasn’t pleased with the expectation of a higher per-share premium, given that Time Warner Cable’s stock had risen on hopes of a deal; the sweetener was already in place, in its view. Or, as Charter phrases it: Instead, you came back with a verbal offer at an unrealistic price expectation which ignores a full 39% premium already reflected in Time Warner Cable’s stock (as of last Friday), widespread shareholder endorsement of a deal, and Time Warner Cable shareholders’ approximately 45% ownership in the upside of the proposed transaction. Both companies offer cable, Internet, and some telephony services. Time Warner Cable also operates some television properties. The combination of the two companies would mean greater constriction of the pool of companies that deliver and create content through a number of mediums. In the age of net neutrality, and lawsuits pending that could see its reversal, the Charter-Time Warner Cable deal should make the back of your neck prickly. For now, it appears that Time Warner Cable investors will at least try to get a higher price for their shares. If there can be parity between what Charter is willing to pay and what Time Warner Cable will demand is an open question. Bloomberg also notes that Comcast could be a suitor. A bidding war at these price points would be expensive indeed.
New Food Grade Filament Heralds An Era Of 3D-Printed Sporks
Jan 13, 10:26PM
Huzzah! A group in Germany has created a new food-grade polypropylene filament for 3D printers that is food safe and washable. Most current 3D printing filaments, while not exactly poisonous, can react in negative ways to moisture and acids, resulting in some nasty stuff. For example, you could use this to print a plate or a pitcher.If at any time you'd like to stop receiving these messages, just send an email to feeds_feedburner_com_techcrunch+unsubscribe-hmdtechnology=gmail.com@mail.feed2email.net.
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