The Venture Codex

Led · Series B · May 2018

MOLOCO builds machine-learning products for mobile app monetization, user acquisition and programmatic bidding via its MOLOCO Cloud DSP. The company is developing a Retail Media Platform (currently in beta) to help e-commerce sites generate sponsored ads and product recommendations. New funding will be used to expand its machine-learning engine, invest in R&D, product and engineering, hire additional staff, and grow MOLOCO Cloud into new verticals and geographic markets. MOLOCO says it has consistently grown in excess of 100% annually and has an annual net revenue run rate above $100 million. Its customers span small developers to companies with more than a billion users; notable clients include King Digital, Playrix and Netmarble, and some customers spend more than $1 million a month through MOLOCO Cloud. The company emphasizes privacy and customer data control as a differentiator versus walled gardens like Facebook and Google. Moloco provides a complete suite of proprietary cloud advertising solutions that enable mobile businesses to use data and machine learning to optimize acquisition, retention and monetization. The company has expanded its advertising reach substantially, facilitating more than 100 trillion bid requests on behalf of partners since 2018. Moloco currently serves more than 13 billion ad impressions monthly and reaches nearly 10 billion global devices monthly through 5.58 million publisher apps, including Nexon, Playrix and Netmarble. The company reports an annual revenue run rate of $400 million and is currently profitable. Moloco was founded by Ikkjin Ahn in 2013 and is headquartered in Redwood City, California, with offices in San Francisco, Seattle, London, Seoul, Singapore and Tokyo. Moloco’s core product is the Ad Cloud platform and a predictive ad performance engine powered by machine learning that enables publishers to run user acquisition and re-engagement campaigns and monetize marketing and advertising programs in-house. The platform integrates with industry exchanges including Google AdX and Twitter Mopub and supports solutions for large-scale mobile platforms, app publishers and ad networks. Moloco offers proprietary fraud tools (DoubleCheck) and reports the ability to handle more than 550,000 bid requests per second and to dynamically price and purchase ad space within 100 milliseconds. The company says DoubleCheck can isolate fraud at the ad network level, potentially saving more than 80% of marketing budgets and increasing expected real user growth by more than 24%. Moloco recently secured $11 million in a Series B financing and plans to use proceeds to advance development of Ad Cloud and related solutions and to expand sales and marketing initiatives. Headquartered in Palo Alto and founded in 2013, Moloco is privately held and led by co-founder and CEO Ikkjin Ahn with a team that includes former Google engineers and other ad‑tech veterans.

Participated · Series A · Apr 2016

Mixed Dimensions develops software for the 3D-printing space, including MakePrintable, a cloud-based verifying/healing/repairing tool aimed at B2B customers, and GamePrint, a consumer tool for 3D-printing captured gameplay moments. The company retooled from an earlier consumer marketplace plan to focus on b2b and a gaming niche after slower-than-expected mass-market adoption of 3D printing. It launched a beta last October and reports "several thousands" of users. Mixed Dimensions has forged partnerships with 3D printing services, CAD tools and marketplaces, including Thingiverse. The team highlights technology that tailors fixes to target print size, printer and material, and addresses advanced issues like wall thickness. The startup closed a $4 million Series A and plans to use the funding for technology development and hiring to grow market share. Mixed Dimensions offers a browser-based HTML5 3D viewer and a Unity-based editor that lets users draw and elevate shapes into printable 3D models, with touch and “pencil” input support. Its technology generates G-Code on the fly, checks and repairs files to ensure models are 100% printable. The company is also building a cloud marketplace to share, buy, sell and print models, with integrations to services like Shapeways and Sculpteo and a ‘find a local 3D printer’/designer feature. Business model plans include freemium tooling tiers, a cut of 3D services/printing transactions, and an embed/API for enterprises. The product launched in private beta and the company expects to exit beta by early summer to begin scaling the marketplace.

Led · Series B · Oct 2015

Mobeam develops patented light-based beaming technology that enables POS laser scanners to read barcodes displayed on smartphone screens. The technology lets mobile wallets and payment apps carry barcoded loyalty cards, membership cards, gift cards, tickets, vouchers and digital coupons that are readable at retail checkouts. The platform currently operates with almost 300 million Samsung phones. The company intends to use the funds for a large-scale rollout of its technology for mobile wallets, mobile payments, digital couponing and barcode-based scanning applications in other industries and for growth in multiple international markets. Mobeam plans to launch integrations with several major mobile wallet companies in the coming months and is in talks with manufacturers to expand the technology to additional smartphone brands, models and chipset manufacturers. The company is led by CEO George Garrick and is based in Palo Alto, CA. It raised $6.2M in a Series B financing to support these plans. Mobeam develops a patented light-based communications (LBC) technology that uses mobile handset LEDs to transform on-screen barcodes into beams readable by standard laser scanners. The product addresses the inability of common scanners to read typical handset screens and enables mobile couponing and other point-of-sale interactions. The company announced a pilot mobile couponing program with Procter & Gamble, demonstrating a near-term commercial use case. Mobeam says it will use the new funding to establish LBC as an industry standard and to advance business development with major retail and consumer brands. Financially, the company added $1.5M to its Series A and had previously raised $4.9M in October 2011. Mobeam is based in San Francisco. Mobeam has developed patented light-based communications technology that enables mobile phones and tablets to be read by traditional retail laser scanners. Its LED-based system transforms on-screen barcodes into a beam of light that existing scanners can read. The technology can also simultaneously display 2D images and initiate NFC transmission, enabling richer mobile commerce interactions. Mobeam plans to use the new capital to establish its technology as an industry standard and to work with consumer and retail brands on mobile couponing, ticketing and other mobile commerce initiatives. The company announced a $4.9 million Series A financing from strategic investors. Founded in 2010 as a spin-off from Ecrio, Mobeam is headquartered in Cupertino, California.

Participated · Series A · Apr 2012

Essess has developed mobile thermal imaging technology and a data analytics platform to identify and quantify energy losses across millions of buildings. It packages this technology in software subscription and end-customer marketing products, including a web portal with interactive energy-loss maps, a CRM tool offering customer analytics and measure recommendations, and an energy-efficiency program that delivers audit reports via mail, email and the web. The company completed field trials with early deployment partners, including the U.S. Department of Defense. Founded in 2011 and led by CEO Tom Scaramellino, Essess is positioning its products for large-scale deployment. The company received a funding round that brought total funding to date to $10.75M and plans to use the proceeds to scale its technology through partnerships with utilities, competitive energy suppliers, large energy service companies, and building materials and service providers. Essess is a Cambridge, MA-based company that provides automated energy assessments for commercial and residential buildings. The company uses high-resolution thermal imaging technology to capture, identify and quantify energy loss profiles for buildings. Essess combines this imaging with Big Data techniques to automatically generate tangible, actionable solutions to inefficiencies and the economics of each solution. Its technology was originally conceived at the MIT Field Intelligence Laboratory and the company was spun out in April 2011. The firm closed a $6M Series A financing in April 2012. No operating metrics beyond the funding and technology description are provided in the article.