Verizon Investment Join $8M Round for Skyfire Labs

More Topics:
Posted January 26, 2012
Skyfire Labs, a leader in mobile video optimization and cloud solutions for mobility, today announced it has raised $8 million in its Series C financing. Verizon Investments LLC, a subsidiary of Verizon Communications Inc. participated in the round, alongside current investors Matrix Partners, Trinity Ventures, and Lightspeed Venture Partners. Verizon’s investment was arranged by Verizon Ventures, which seeks promising entrepreneurial companies that complement Verizon networks and service platforms. Skyfire will use the funds to meet the demands of its growing list of wireless operator customers through increased engineering, sales and support resources, and also to expand into European and Asian markets.
“Wireless operators around the world are facing an explosion in mobile data on their networks, driven largely by mobile video,” said Andrew Verhalen, general partner at Matrix Partners. “Skyfire is well positioned with solutions for operators that can expand network capacity by over 25 percent, as well as generate incremental revenue.”
“Skyfire is poised to expand globally in 2012 after winning deployments with two tier-one operators in North America, and adding world-class international executive talent,” added Larry Orr, general partner at Trinity Ventures.
Concurrent with this latest financing, Skyfire has announced a new European footprint. John Rintoul has been named vice president of sales for Skyfire’s newly-opened EMEA office, based in London. Rintoul previously led sales with the Vodafone account for Cisco’s Mobile Internet Technology Group, and prior to that, was a sales executive at Starent Networks, Juniper Networks, and Kagoor Networks. Skyfire also announces Scott Boehmer has been named vice president of sales for Americas. Boehmer previously was vice president of sales for SEVEN networks, and a product executive at Sprint. Both regional leads will now report to Skyfire’s SVP Global Sales, Jason Guesman.
“Skyfire’s Rocket Optimizer product is delivering an average of 60 percent savings for operators on video bandwidth,” said Jeff Glueck, CEO of Skyfire. “We welcome the participation of Verizon, which is renowned for its network planning sophistication.”
Rocket Optimizer 2.0, the latest iteration of Skyfire’s powerful carrier-grade network video and data optimization platform, was launched in October 2011. With mobile video demand expected to rise steeply over the next three years, Rocket 2.0 aims to help carriers solve capacity issues linked to the rapid rise of mobile video streaming. The solution offers real-time optimization of mobile video to enable smoother streaming, and can be applied to specific cell towers or backhaul regions as soon as congestion is detected. Rocket Optimizer 2.0 also offers the broadest support for video formats, including the world’s first instant MP4 optimization (which comprises more than 50 percent of today’s mobile video, including most HTML5 and iOS video). By leveraging cloud computing power, Skyfire’s solution is highly cost effective to scale on both 3G and 4G LTE networks.
Full details about the Rocket 2.0 platform can be found here: http://www.skyfire.com/en/for-operators.
Skyfire also offers the Rocket Toolbar product line, a fully customizable web-based operator portal embedded in the default browser of new smartphones. The Rocket Toolbar adds value for users on every page of the Internet by making browsing more social, facilitating app discovery, m-commerce, and quick access to news updates. The Rocket Toolbar has been selected by a tier one North American carrier for upcoming deployment, and is in numerous trials across the U.S. and Europe.
Full details about the Rocket Toolbar platform can be found here:
http://www.skyfire.com/en/for-operators/rocke….
Skyfire will continue to maintain its consumer app business as a showcase and laboratory for its technology. Skyfire apps across Apple iOS® and Google Android® devices have been downloaded by over 12 million users.
To learn more about Skyfire, visit: http://www.skyfire.com.
About Lightspeed Venture Partners
Lightspeed Venture Partners is a leading global venture capital firm with over $2 billion of committed capital under management. Lightspeed’s investment professionals and advisors are located in Silicon Valley, China, India and Israel. Over the past two decades, the Lightspeed team has backed more than 150 companies, many of which have become leaders in their respective markets, including Blue Nile, Brocade, Calista, Ciena, DoubleClick, eHealth, Galileo Technology, Growth Networks, Informatica, Kiva Software, LightLogic, Maker Communications, Metasolv, Openwave, Quantum Effect Devices, Riverbed, Sirocco, Virsa Systems and Waveset.
About Matrix Partners
Matrix Partners is a premier venture capital firm that has generated outstanding returns for more than three decades. By focusing on early-stage investments and emphasizing long-term relationships with entrepreneurs, the firm has delivered several of the industry’s top performing funds of all time. Matrix Partners has offices in Cambridge and Waltham, MA; New York, NY; Palo Alto, CA; Mumbai, India; and Beijing and Shanghai, China. Matrix Partners has invested in several game-changing, industry-leading businesses such as Apple Computer, Gilt Groupe, JBoss, Netezza, Phone.com, Polyvore, Starent Networks, Sycamore Networks, Veritas, Zendesk, and Zong.
About Trinity Ventures
Founded in 1986, Trinity Ventures is an early stage venture capital firm dedicated to partnering with passionate entrepreneurs to transform revolutionary ideas into reality. With over $1 billion under management, Trinity Ventures believes in personal engagement, mutual respect and goal alignment with the entrepreneurs. Trinity focuses on early stage and seed technology investments with particular emphasis on social shopping and entertainment, cloud computing, mobility, and internet infrastructure areas.
Trinity Ventures has invested in such leading companies as Aruba Networks, 21Vianet, Blue Nile, LoopNet, Photobucket, SciQuest, Starbucks, BeachMint, Infoblox, Trion Worlds and Zulily.
About Verizon Ventures
Verizon Ventures arranges investments in promising entrepreneurial companies to drive innovation in Verizon Communications Inc. The portfolio arranged by Verizon Ventures focuses on new products, technologies, applications and services that complement Verizon networks, service platforms and distribution channels. Deal size ranges from seed capital to $5 million depending on the needs and opportunities. Verizon Ventures often arranges investments with other venture firms and strategic partners.
About Skyfire:
Skyfire is dedicated to leveraging the power of cloud computing to improve radically the mobile Internet experience for both Operators and Consumers. Skyfire’s solutions provide game-changing cost savings, better end-user experiences, and compelling incremental revenue opportunities. Skyfire was recently recognized as no. 4 on Light Reading’s 2011 Startups to Watch list; and by OnMobile as a Top 100 Private Company. As both a laboratory and showcase for new capabilities, Skyfire has honed its technology through a variety of consumer apps, which have more than 12 million downloads to date.
Skyfire is based in Mountain View, Calif., in the heart of Silicon Valley.

To find out more about the company in this article and to see if you
have business connections, click below:

Please enable JavaScript to view the comments powered by Disqus.
blog comments powered by
http://tourism9.com/    http://vkins.com/

Intervale Capital Raises $63M for Private Equity Fund – cbl

More Topics:
Posted January 3, 2012

Charles Cherington

By Bill Murphy
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. – Intervale Capital has raised $63 million, or about 18 percent of a $350 million private equity fund, from seven investors, according to an SEC filing.
Principals named in the filing by the Cambridge-based fund that focuses on investments in energy firms are:
· Managing partner Charles Cherington; and
· Partner Erich Horsley.
The company said it would pay an affiliate up to $2 million from the proceeds towards annual management fee. It also expects to pay a sales commission of up to $157,500.
Currently, Intervale Capital manages a $280 million private equity fund that invests in oilfield service and manufacturing companies. It has investments in 10 companies.
Reg D filing: http://tinyurl.com/6vvzyje
Also, at citybizlist see:
Intervale Capital Signs Office Lease in Cambridge, MA
Intervale Capital Promotes Erich Horsley to Partner
Bios from Intervale Capital site:
Charles Cherington
Managing Partner
Charles co-founded Intervale Capital to build on the success of Cherington Capital, a private equity firm focused on investments in middle market energy companies. Prior to founding Cherington Capital, Charles co-founded a smaller fund which also focused on middle market buyouts. Charles has over fifteen years of private equity experience.
Before launching his first fund, Charles spent several years as a vice president at the Vietnam Fund, a British private equity fund. Charles also worked for CS First Boston in New York and Vietnam.
Charles earned an M.B.A., with honors, from the University of Chicago and a B.A. in History from Wesleyan University.
Erich Horsley
Partner
Erich started his private equity career in 1998, and has focused exclusively on buyouts of middle-market companies. Erich served as a Principal at Watermill Ventures, a private equity group based in Waltham, MA. He also served as a Vice President at a Boston-based private equity firm with $1.4 billion under management. Erich has spent most of his private equity career executing transactions and overseeing growth in industrial and energy-related businesses.
Erich was a Financial Analyst in the Corporate Finance Department of Morgan Stanley in New York and in Frankfurt, Germany from 1994 to 1996.
Erich received his B.A. in Psychology and English, with honors, from Harvard College and his M.B.A. from Harvard Business School.

To find out more about the company in this article and to see if you
have business connections, click below:

Please enable JavaScript to view the comments powered by Disqus.
blog comments powered by


 http://tourism9.com/

SwiftKey Attracts $2.4 Million in Series A Financing to Accelerate Consumer and OEM Adoption

LONDON and SAN FRANCISCO, CA–(Marketwire -12/07/11)- TouchType Ltd., the London-based company behind SwiftKey™ (http://www.swiftkey.net), one of the world’s most popular Android™ applications, announces today that it has secured $2.4 million (£1.5m) Series A investment from an internal round of major financing led by Octopus Investments.
This latest funding will be used to build on the worldwide success of SwiftKey, an Android keyboard application that uses the company’s patented natural language Fluency™ engine technology to learn a user’s writing style, correcting and predicting their text input with unrivaled accuracy. SwiftKey reduces keystrokes, and speeds up text entry on smartphones, tablets, and other devices. It has been adopted by a number of Android mobile phone and tablet manufacturers, and has attracted more than 3.5 million downloads.
“The success of SwiftKey and quality of the team building our natural language processing technology has led to several strategic and financial investment approaches,” said Mark Paterson, Chairman, TouchType. “Following considerable internal demand, the management team decided that a Series A funding round led by Octopus would form the most appropriate investment. This will enable TouchType to accelerate consumer and corporate adoption of SwiftKey as well as developing the underlying Fluency Engine.”
Jo Oliver, Investment Director at Octopus, said: “Octopus is delighted to have led TouchType’s Series A. Since our first meeting with the team, we have been impressed by their vision and innovation, and we are now even more pleased with their execution. The potential of the Fluency Engine is enormous and is just starting to be realized — we are looking forward to an exciting future together.”
TouchType plans to strengthen its executive, commercial and technical teams with the new investment, increasing its worldwide presence, particularly in the US and Asia. The company also plans to improve the capabilities and features of its SwiftKey products and Fluency platform, while continuing to innovate in the fields of natural language processing, artificial intelligence and machine learning.
“We’ve seen tremendous consumer adoption of our SwiftKey keyboards on Android, and have secured significant OEM deals to pre-install our technology,” said Jon Reynolds, CEO, TouchType. “While SwiftKey has already received widespread praise, we’re always striving to improve our products in response to our customers’ needs. We’re also planning to enter new vertical markets in the New Year, where faster and more accurate text entry can drive significant benefits.”
The financing round, led by Octopus Investments, was supported by several of Europe’s leading angel investors and VCs including Cambridge Capital Group; Jon Craton, Cramer Systems founder; Nick Hynes and Carl Uminski, CEO and COO founders of Somo; Richard Brennan, former CMO of Orange Group; and Andrew Thornton, barrister with Erskine Chambers.
To date, SwiftKey has saved its users more than 20 billion keystrokes, equivalent to over 250 years spent typing. The recent v2.2 release of SwiftKey X and SwiftKey Tablet X, which added significant international language variants as well as improved speed and user experience, saw the application rise to become the most popular Android paid app in the US and UK. You can download the apps from http://www.swiftkey.net/download.
Editor’s NotesPress ready images can be downloaded from https://www.dropbox.com/gallery/21479396/1/SwiftKey?h=bac6be
About SwiftKey (www.swiftkey.net)SwiftKey makes typing much easier on Android smartphones, replacing the touchscreen keyboard with one powered by smarter natural language technology. The app, which launched in beta in July 2010, understands how words work together to give much more accurate corrections and predictions than other keyboards. It also powerfully learns over time to make typing easier and even more accurate, and users can personalize it using Gmail, Facebook, Twitter, SMS or their blog posts.
To date SwiftKey has received more than 3.5 million downloads, saving users more than 20 billion keystrokes: equivalent to over 250 years spent typing.
TouchType Ltd, the company behind SwiftKey, was founded in August 2008 by Jon Reynolds, CEO and Dr Ben Medlock, CTO, both Cambridge University graduates. The company currently has over 30 staff, with its headquarters in Southwark, London, UK.
About Octopus Investments (www.octopusinvestments.com)Octopus Investments, founded in 2000, is a leading investment specialist. We offer innovative core and satellite investment solutions to UK investors, and a wide range of funding options for exceptional companies.
Our core investments include a discretionary management service, multi-manager multi-asset OEICs, and single manager OEICs. These are complemented by our range of satellite solutions, including venture capital trusts, enterprise investment schemes and inheritance tax products. Each product has been designed to solve specific problems faced by financial advisers and their clients.
Our funding solutions cover the entire capital structure, from equity through mezzanine to senior debt, and we seek out outstanding management teams in unlisted companies with whom we can partner.
Octopus has built its business around three core pillars: customer led innovation, excellence in customer service and the quality of our people. We employ more than 200 people and currently have more than £2.3 billion in assets under management.
Octopus has won a number of awards for its products and customer service. We have twice been voted one of the best 100 SMEs to work for by the Sunday Times, and we are one of only two fund management companies to be AAA rated by financial advisers for customer service.

http://tourism9.com/