• TweetDeck

  Participated · Series B · May 2010

  TweetDeck is a popular stream reader best known as a Twitter client; one estimate calls it the most popular Twitter client with more than 15 million downloads. The app aggregates multiple social streams and has been expanding beyond Twitter to include Facebook, MySpace, Google Buzz, Foursquare and other sources. It ships a desktop client and has just released an update adding new stream integrations. The company is also experimenting with an HTML5 web-browser version of its stream reader as an internal research project. CEO Iain Dodsworth leads the product efforts. Financially, TweetDeck has now raised a total of $5.3 million. TweetDeck is described as one of the most popular Twitter clients. The client runs on Mac, Windows and Linux via Adobe AIR and has also launched an iPhone app that has been gaining popularity. The company recently released a TechCrunch-branded version and is working on integrating more services into its client. Financially, TweetDeck raised around $2 million in a previously undisclosed round, as reported at a TechCrunch event. Prior to that it raised a small angel round in January estimated at $300,000. The article does not provide revenue, user counts, valuation, or details on how the new capital will be deployed. TweetDeck is an Adobe AIR-powered, cross-platform desktop application that helps users manage and split Twitter streams into topic- or group-specific columns. The app was built by British programmer Iain Dodsworth and was released last summer; it is currently in public beta. Since launch it has been downloaded about 250,000 times and users are sending roughly 120,000 messages per day through the software. Dodsworth has indicated plans to monetize via a paid “pro” version targeted at power users and companies. The product’s strong UI and usage metrics attracted investor interest and led to a recent angel financing.

• ERPLY

  Participated · Equity · Mar 2010

  Erply builds iPad-compatible, cloud-based point-of-sale and inventory management software for brick-and-mortar retailers. The company serves 115,000 stores and manages 45 million SKUs on its platform. Erply has a staff of 45 and is profitable, which influenced its decision to take a smaller raise. Product roadmap includes an iPad-compatible RFID, NFC, and Bluetooth-enabled hardware device to manage inventory slated to debut later in the year. The company is ramping enterprise sales efforts to target larger retail chains and Fortune 500 customers with more than 200 store locations. Erply also signed a lease for a new sales floor in New York City and plans to double its staff in the months ahead. Erply builds business-management software that handles inventory control, bookkeeping and other tasks for brick-and-mortar and online operations. The company targets small businesses with lower-cost packages as an alternative to larger providers like SAP, Microsoft and Oracle. It offers a mix of free and paid packages, with a 25% conversion rate to paid plans and an average subscription fee of $74 per month. Erply reports roughly 2,000 business customers and 8,000 users/seats, and its client base is growing about 20% each month. The company is already profitable. Management plans to spend the majority of the new funding on marketing and expanding the team in Eastern Europe and is preparing an iPad app for real-time inventory management.

No current team members are available.