Led · Equity · Apr 2018

BitARG Exchange is building a cryptocurrency trading platform scheduled to launch this fall. Yahoo Japan purchased a 40% minority stake in the exchange through a subsidiary, while BitARG's parent company CMD Laboratories retains 60% ownership. A source told CNBC the deal was for about 2–3 billion yen (roughly $18–28 million). BitARG said the exchange would benefit from the service-operation and security expertise of the Yahoo Japan Group to help customers prepare for the start of service and to improve operations after commencement. Nikkei Asian Review reported Yahoo Japan planned to use BitARG’s technology to launch its own cryptocurrency exchange in 2019. No revenue or user metrics were disclosed in the coverage.

Led · Series B · Aug 2017

IndoorAtlas provides a SaaS geomagnetic indoor positioning platform that uses built-in smartphone sensors to detect anomalies in the Earth’s magnetic field to determine indoor location. Its cloud platform supports Android and iOS and lets developers build location-based services without purchasing or maintaining physical infrastructure. Customers can use the platform’s geoinformation for proximity advertising, search and way-finding within applications. Led by CEO Erik Piehl, the company intends to use the new funding to advance and further commercialize its sensor-fusion positioning technology. The company is based in Oulu, Finland and Palo Alto, California, and its board includes Jari Sonninen, Dongmin Li, Harry Santamäki, Kazuhiro Ninomiya and founder Janne Haverinen. The reported financing round provides additional capital to support commercialization efforts. IndoorAtlas provides a cloud Platform-as-a-Service that uses patented geomagnetic technology to deliver indoor positioning and tracking. Its software leverages the compass sensor in smartphones to detect anomalies in the Earth's magnetic field and achieve sub-two-meter positioning accuracy on Android and iOS. The platform is used by approximately 25,000 developers to build venue-based location services such as proximity advertising, search and wayfinding for shopping centers, airports, hospitals, resorts and other indoor venues. The company emphasizes scalability and cost-effectiveness by avoiding the need to purchase, install and maintain large amounts of WiFi or beacon infrastructure. IndoorAtlas says it will continue focusing on providing new features for developers and platform users. Financially, IndoorAtlas was awarded a €2.2 million grant from the European Commission under the Horizon 2020 program. IndoorAtlas develops indoor mapping technology that uses the earth's geomagnetic field to determine locations inside buildings with roughly two-meter accuracy. The company creates positioning solutions intended for integration into location-based services and mapping apps. It has entered a strategic partnership with Baidu that grants Baidu exclusive rights to use IndoorAtlas’ technology in China. IndoorAtlas will use the $10 million capital from the deal for research and development, engineering, and business development across the U.S., Asia, and Europe. CEO Janne Haverinen said the partnership gives the company access to over 1.34 billion new subscribers through Baidu. Baidu plans to integrate IndoorAtlas technology into its LBS and mapping products and will demonstrate a customized IndoorAtlas product at the Baidu World conference. Indoor Atlas, founded in 2012 as a spin-off from the University of Oulu, develops a toolbox for indoor positioning and mapping. The solution leverages magnetic anomalies inside buildings together with smartphones to accurately determine indoor positions. It enables businesses and individuals to create indoor location‑aware applications for store promotions, mobile gaming, logistics efficiency and indoor navigation in shopping centers and airport terminals. Use cases cited include analyzing and influencing customer behavior to increase sales, helping universities chart classrooms, aiding hospitals to streamline patient movement, and allowing organizations and governments to track movement for convenience and safety. The company is led by CEO Dr. Janne Haverinen. Financially, the company received an investment from Mobility Ventures; the amount was not disclosed in the article.

Led · Equity · Mar 2017

SB Drive was created last year to develop autonomous vehicle technology for public transportation in Japan. The company focuses on making public transport smarter in rural areas and on fixed-route services, including buses and freighter trucks. It has run "social trials" and testing using fixed-route public buses and freighter trucks and has struck partnerships with four municipalities in Japan. SB Drive plans tests on public roads next year and has a target of launching a commercial service by 2020. Yahoo Japan led a 510 million JPY (~$4.6M) investment into the business, and Yahoo plans to act as a strategic partner by linking SB Drive with Yahoo Maps and using related data to help with planning and deployment. Post-investment ownership is split between SoftBank, Yahoo Japan, and founding partner Advanced Mobility.

Participated · Series A · Apr 2016

Twiggle provides a Semantic API that layers atop existing search engines to let shoppers use conversational, store-clerk style queries rather than keyword brainstorming. Its core product applies natural language processing to improve relevance and search results without requiring retailers to replace their search infrastructure. The company plans to use new capital to scale the Semantic API, add search-related features, hire additional executives, and expand its U.S.-based sales team. Twiggle is also developing feature extraction from product images to augment textual content like descriptions and reviews for better recommendations. The company reports relevance and clickthrough improvements of up to 30% and conversion-rate gains of around 20%. Founded in 2014 by Amir Konigsberg and Adi Avidor, Twiggle has investor relationships including Alibaba, Naspers, and Yahoo Japan. Twiggle is developing an e-commerce search engine designed to return more accurate results from conversational shopper queries and to power desktop, mobile, and voice-based product search. The company plans to use the new capital to grow its research and development team. Twiggle has struck deals to be integrated into several major e-commerce sites this summer, though it has not disclosed specific clients. The startup was founded in 2013 by CEO Amir Konigsberg and CTO Adi Avidor. Its board and leadership additions include Udi Manber (board) and Noa Ganot (VP of product). Financially, TechCrunch reports Twiggle has raised just under $20 million to date across seed and Series A tranches. Twiggle’s core product is an e-commerce search engine that combines natural language processing, data science, and artificial intelligence to let shoppers enter queries in normal sentences. The system analyzes those sentences into keywords and technical criteria, builds a large knowledge graph from the broader web, and returns ranked results and contextual product specifications. That approach is intended to surface answers (for example ranking by quietness or showing key specs like memory and camera megapixels) rather than simply directing users to product pages. The company says this reduces shopper frustration and increases the likelihood of purchase. Twiggle was co‑founded in 2013 by CEO Amir Konigsberg and CTO Adi Avidor, both formerly at Google Israel. Financially, Twiggle has raised $12.5M in this Series A and $14.7M in total to date, and it plans to use the capital to hire engineers, integrate its engine into e-commerce sites, and later build a mobile and voice-to-text ecosystem.

Participated · Series A · Apr 2016

Virool offers an Inline video ad unit that launches video ads within articles and other editorial content and has been served across more than 2,000 online properties. Its units are designed to be non-intrusive (muted by default, sound on hover or when explicitly engaged on mobile). Virool also develops eIQ technology that uses webcams to help advertisers gauge viewers’ emotional responses to videos. The company works with publishers including Mashable, Adweek and The Onion and positions its mission as making advertising more human by encouraging more engaging, shareable videos. Virool was incubated at Y Combinator and is led by CEO Alex Debelov. Future plans include more mobile ad units and geographic expansion, including efforts in Japan. Virool provides a self-serve platform that allows video producers, artists, studios, agencies and individual promoters to target audiences (country, age, gender, interests, platform) and buy pay-per-view distribution for YouTube-hosted videos. Its network reaches close to 22 million people across websites, blogs, Facebook games and mobile applications. Since launching the self-serve product, Virool grew from 200 to 30,000 registered advertisers and has promoted 20,442 videos to date; the site was signing up about 450 new advertisers per day and running roughly 80–90 campaigns daily. Campaign spend ranges from a $10 minimum to large brand campaigns (Intel ran a reported $300,000 campaign). The company was founded in late 2011 and participated in Y Combinator’s Summer 2012 batch. With the new funding Virool plans to staff up—particularly on sales—and scale the service worldwide. Virool is a San Francisco-based social video advertising startup launched in May 2012 by CEO Alex Debelov. The company’s platform allows videomakers to reach desired target audiences on Facebook, mobile phones and niche sites. Its services have been used by brands including Clorox, Colgate, Intel, Levis, Orbitz, Samsung, Sony and Volkswagen. The company raised $509,800 via the online venture capital platform FundersClub. Investors in the round include TMT Investments, Y Combinator, 500 Startups, Yuri Milner and others. Virool is a San Francisco-based online video advertising service offering a self-service platform for distributing long-form videos. Launched a few months earlier by CEO Alexander Debelov, the platform allows creators to distribute videos over 30 seconds to targeted audiences across a network of online publishers, blogs, social games and mobile apps. It also provides an application that enables publishers on Facebook, iOS, Android, blogs and other media channels to plug into the network and provide advertising space. The company reported it already has over 7,000 advertisers using the platform. Virool received US$400k from AIM-listed TMT Investments PLC. The company previously raised capital from Y Combinator (including Andreessen Horowitz, SV Angel, Yuri Milner and General Catalyst), Thomvest Ventures, 500Startups, NetPrice, Global Venture Alliance, Plug and Play Ventures, Ryan Tu, Paul Buccheit, Garry Tan, Harj Taggar and Alexis Ohanian. Virool operates a self-serve platform that lets YouTube video producers boost views by placing videos in Facebook and mobile apps. Publishers can integrate via an API and advertisers link YouTube videos, set keywords and geographic targets, and pay as little as $10 to promote content. The startup positions itself as an "AdWords" for longer-form video, targeting videos longer than a minute and charging only when viewers watch at least 45 seconds of a minute-long video. Virool reports more than 5,000 advertisers, is adding about 200 new advertisers daily, and serves over half a million video views per day. Revenues are doubling every month and the company is already profitable, with repeat advertisers and early brand customers including Sephora, Skittles, GM, and Clorox. To keep growing, Virool has raised $500,000 in seed funding.