企业营销服务商时趣获联想控股5850万美元战略投资
联想控股今日正式对外宣布5850万美元战略投资时趣Social Touch（以下简称时趣），但并未透露具体占股比例。这也是时趣的D轮融资，借助本轮融资将更强力推进上下游资源的整合、投资产品与技术创新、吸引业内优秀人才。
时趣成立于2011年，是移动社交时代企业数字营销解决方案提供商。创始人为张锐，曾在摩根士丹利工作多年，2005年回国创业创办同城活动社交魔时网，2011年又创办如今的时趣，专注于移动数字营销领域，主要通过一整套包含了战略-软件-大数据-广告投放为一体的营销解决方案帮助客户实现数字营销的价值，进行移动互联网的转型。2013年10月，公司宣布完成规模超过千万美元的 C 轮融资，本轮融资由 Sierra Ventures 领投，在 A、B 轮融资时进入的君联资本、纪源资本跟投。
据了解，时趣客户主要分为两类：一类是传统企业的移动社交转型，代表客户涉及快消、线下零售、电子产品、金融服务等品牌；另一类是数字化的创新企业，代表客户是一些互联网应用、电子商务平台、在线服务等类型的企业。
目前，时趣Social Touch拥有四大业务组合，分别是营销策略和执行服务、移动原生广告采购和投放服务、企业移动营销管理软件和实施服务、企业移动营销数据管理和数据分析服务。
联想控股表示，互联网，特别是移动互联网是联想控股战略投资的重要方向之一，此次投资时趣主要基于两方面原因：
第一，看好时趣所在行业。万众创业的浪潮下，中国涌现出大批中小企业，而传统企业的商业模式也在重塑，各行业都在面对互联网化的趋势，企业服务市场，特别是营销领域有很大的成长空间和投资空间，未来有机会走出新的行业巨头；第二，看好时趣及其团队。
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2015年08月31日
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客户管理工具Intercom完成C轮3500万美元融资
Intercom 成立于 2011 年，总部位于旧金山。
Intercom 为企业提供一个同时集成销售、市场、产品和售后服务的客户沟通系统，让多部门的人员能基于网页、手机应用、E-mail 为客户提供支持。
本轮投资由 coniq Capital 领投，Bessemer Venture Partners，The Social+Capital Partnership 跟投。
消息来源：techeu
Irish-founded business-to-consumer communication software startup Intercom raises $35m to scale globally
Intercom, which has developed a platform that businesses can use to communicate with customers directly online and via apps, has raised $35 million in Series C funding.
The company is based in San Francisco, but was founded by four Irish entrepreneurs and has its entire R&D and product management team based in Dublin. All in all, 50% of Intercom's 140 staff is based in Dublin today (and half of its 7,000 paying customers are outside the United States).
The funding round brings Intercom's total funding to $66 million. ICONIQ Capital took the lead, with Series A lead investor The Social + Capital Partnership and Series B lead investor Bessemer Venture Partners chipping in.
Intercom says its customers communicate 3 million times per day, with over 250 million of their end users on the platform today. The company also says it nearly tripled headcount in 2014, and plans to double again both in Dublin and San Francisco in the next 12 months.
That's the kind of growth investors obviously love to see.
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2015年08月28日
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云服务企业Velostrata完成A轮1400万美元融资
Velostrata 是一家成立于 2014 年公司，总部位于美国加州。Velostrata 为客户提供混合云解决方案，降低企业服务器的计算压力，将数据存储部署在本地，在云上运营虚拟的计算器。本轮投资由 83 North 领投，Norwest Venture Partners 跟投。
消息来源：Xconomy
Velostrata Lifts Veil On New Hybrid Cloud Model, Raises $14M
San Jose, CA-based startup Velostrata emerged from stealth mode today with $14 million in hand and a new option for businesses that are wary of storing their data in the Web-based servers of the “public cloud.’’
Velostrata’s software makes it possible for companies to tap into the computing power available from that shared Web-based infrastructure, without also being required to store their data in the public cloud. Customers can quickly switch some of their processing workload to an outside company such as Amazon Web Services, but continue to store their data in their own in-house IT centers, according to Velostrata. Dozens of businesses have been using the software in beta testing.
The tactic of “decoupling compute from storage” allows companies to use Web-based computing as needed, and avoid the expense of overbuilding their own infrastructure to handle periods of peak demand, says Velostrata founder and CEO Issy Ben-Shaul (pictured above.) The startup, which Ben-Shaul founded in 2014 with Velostrata chief product officer Ady Degany, claims its technology is the first of its kind.
“The most consistent feedback we have heard from customers, analysts and press, is that they have not heard (of) any company that does this, so there are no competitor(s) that offer decoupling compute from storage,” Ben-Shaul said in an e-mail exchange with Xconomy.
Ben-Shaul was previously a co-founder of Actona, a wide area networks optimization company that was acquired by Cisco in 2004, and Wanova, a desktop virtualization company bought by VMware in 2012.
Velostrata announced today that it has closed a $14 million Series A funding led by Norwest Venture Partners and 83North, formerly named Greylock IL Partners.
Norwest Venture Partners general partner Dror Nahumi, in a statement about the funding announcement, said Velostrata’s technology addresses a bottleneck in the adoption by businesses of the “hybrid cloud”—the combined use of public and private computing and storage infrastructure as needed.
“Every CIO is being asked by the management team and board to migrate enterprise infrastructure to the cloud, yet a mere fraction of IT spending goes toward cloud services,” Nahumi said. “Adoption is low because current cloud migration technologies are plagued by challenges like security and compliance risks, cost, migration time, complexity and vendor lock-in. Velostrata provides an innovative hybrid cloud approach that eliminates all these challenges and empowers CIOs to accelerate the migration quest using an evolutionary, secure, and highly cost effective platform.”
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2015年08月28日
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企业通讯工具Eko获570万美元A轮融资，近期欲进军中国市场当Slack被人们广泛关注时，依然有很多人在使用着其他企业通讯工具。
Eko，这众多工具中的一款，在今天透露他们已获得570万美元的A轮融资，由中国的戈壁投资（Gobi Partners）领投。融资将用于新用户的拓展。
在16个月前Eko完成了一轮由500 Startups领投的种子轮融资。之前的投资者在A轮融资中再次参投。
Eko的创始人兼CEO Korawad Chearavanont说道：“Slack注重的是那些雇员人数在50以下的公司，我们针对的却是更大型的公司。带给我们回报最大的一个客户拥有近15万名雇员。这类公司和小型企业解决问题的方式是不一样的，而我们就致力于解决这类难题。”尽管Eko的目标客户是大型公司，它的App还是本着“移动优先”的原则，并且有着和即时通讯应用WhatsApp相似的界面设计。
Eko的下一个目标是中国市场。Korawad声称他们在中国已经引起了一些关注。的确，Eko的很大部分利润来源于中国。受此激励，他们计划在接下来的几个月里在北京开设分部。
Korawad说，如果进军中国市场，他们预备和诸如政府一类的机构进行合作。但是具体的合作对象和合作方式还未公布。中国的创业公司很多也有自己的职场聊天工具，脉脉是使用最广的一个。脉脉在去年曾获得2000万美元的B轮融资。
Korawad认为他们取胜脉脉的法宝就是——同大型公司进行紧密合作。“我们将会以一种非传统且盛大的方式在中国亮相。我们的首要任务是发展平台，其次才是推广品牌。”
不论Eko会选择怎样的进军方式，至少它已经有了一个紧密的中国盟友——戈壁投资。
Workplace chat app Eko gets $5.7M series A funding to make teams productive, quit Slacking
While Slack gets all the headlines, most people around the world are using one of dozens of other workplace messaging apps. One of those apps, Eko, today revealed that it has secured US$5.7 million in series A funding to help it pick up new users. The investment in the Thai-American startup was led by China-based Gobi Partners.
It comes 16 months after the Eko team nabbed seed funding led by 500 Startups. Earlier backers also contributed to the series A round.
Teen entrepreneur
“Whereas Slack is very strong for companies with under 50 employees, our product is not as strong for that segment,” says Korawad Chearavanont, the 20-year-old founder and CEO of Eko. “Our product only begins to truly add value to bigger companies. Our biggest revenue-generating customer has approximately 150,000 employees, for example.”
“They have a very different set of problems from small businesses, and we work to resolve those features,” he adds.
Even though Eko is going for larger firms, the app has the mobile-first mentality and the WhatsApp-esque interface of the new wave of business chat apps that are toppling the old dinosaurs like Yammer – apps like Slack, HipChat, Flowdock, Convo, Cotap, Pie, and Fleep.
Korawad says Eko works a bit differently from some of its rivals by having a “high touch” relationship with some corporate clients that extends to them getting custom versions of the Eko app – not the app available for download on Google Play or Apple’s App Store. “I can’t yet disclose certain customers, due to the stage of launch, but I can say a few top 10 ASEAN banks are paying customers and they have a very specific set of security and regulation needs which we can fulfill, whereas Slack cannot,” he explains.
The startup is keeping the number of active users under its hat.
Korawad is the son of billionaire telco tycoon Suphachai Chearavanont, the president and CEO of True – and he’s the grandson of Dhanin Chearavanont, the wealthiest man in Southeast Asia with a net worth of over US$14 billion. Eko was started up from Korawad’s New Jersey boarding school dorm room when he was 17. The main product office remains in New York, and the startup has opened up a business office in Bangkok.
Charging into China
The next step for the Eko team is China, where Korawad claims the app already has some traction. Indeed, most of Eko’s revenue is generated in China. Inspired by that, the startup plans to open an office in Beijing within the next few months.
He says the app has grown “organically through word of mouth from execs in current clients” in China. It’s also taking a tailor-made approach for some major clients in the country.
“Our full launch in China was not intended or planned until much later. Our traction is different from the traditional early traction many startups may get. In China, we work with entities associated with the government,” Korawad says, but further details on who or how are kept under wraps.
Chinese startups are working on enterprise chat apps of their own – most noticeably Maimai, which this time last year got US$20 million in series B funding.
Korawad sees Eko standing out from Maimai just as it does from Slack – by working closely with some of the huge companies that use it. And he hints at more to come, propelled by this growth in China. “We will enter [China] in an unconventional and big way, which, when we do, you may not recognize us. Our priority is to grow our platform – growing our brand is secondary. Our long term vision is not to be an enterprise messaging app, but rather to be a mobile enterprise platform.”
Whatever form that takes, the startup has a China ally in its newest investor.
Source:Techinasia
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2015年08月27日
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招聘软件Greenhouse获3500万美元C轮融资
这轮融资由 Thrive Capital 领投。这笔资金将为Greenhouse 走向全球市场提供动力，并为 Greenhouse 继续完善其软件提供资金支持。
Greenhouse 是招聘领域的 一家 SaaS 软件服务商，它通过定位、考核以及评估人才等为企业提供专业的招聘服务。在寻找应聘者环节，Greenhouse会将企业所有应聘者的来源（包括来自于招聘网站，猎头的推荐、社交媒体等等）汇总在一个招聘仪表盘里（dashboard），接着该软件会按照职位要求对应聘者进行A/B测试并实时提醒应聘者相关的岗位信息。在面试环节，Greenhouse会帮助雇主拟好相关面试问题并收集应聘者回答，使企业更加方便进行比较和选择。
融资历史：
2013年进行过一轮270万美元的融资。
2014年8月获得了总值750万美元的A轮融资，领投方为Facebook前Facebook前副总裁卡马斯·帕里哈毕提亚（Chamath Palihapitiya）创办的风投基金Social+CapitalPartnership。
2015年3月获 B 轮 1360 万美元融资。此轮由 Benchmark、TheSocia+Capital Partnership 和 Felecis Ventures 共同完成。
Hiring Software Juggernaut Greenhouse Swallows $35M Series C
“We’re not trying to be the all-singing, all-dancing HR system. I don’t know how to be kickass at payroll” says Greenhouse CEO Daniel Chait. But what his startup is kicking ass at is hiring software. It now has over 800 customers including Slack and Pinterest, almost double the 450 it had when it announced its $13.9 million Series B in March.
That progress, plus dreams of international expansion and selling to even bigger corporations, has won Greenhouse another round that brings it to about $60 million in funding. The $35 million Series C led by Thrive Capital will give Greenhouse fuel to grow abroad and refine its software for larger clients. It’s not a unicorn yet, but will be soon at this rate.
The Greenhouse product fertilizes a company’s recruiting and hiring efforts. It compiles sources of job candidates such as job boards and referrals in a hiring dashboard where companies can A/B test job listings and remind employees about openings to be filled. Then during the interviews it helps hirers coordinate, Greenhouse structures the questions asked and answers received so they’re easily comparable. It all makes going from empty desk to strong hire quicker and cheaper.
Greenhouse’s revenue is set to quadruple over the course of 2015 and headcount is swelling as employees pile onto the rocket ship. But Chait’s top concern is keeping his human resources company human.
Staying personal is easy when the whole company fits around a few desks, but now Greenhouse has 125 employees. “You have a culture, but it’s very implicit, based on the founding team. As you grow, in order to sustain that culture you have to make it more explicit, talk about it, hire based on it.”“We try to act like real people” he tells me. “There’s a tendency of a lot of people where when you show up at work, you put on your worker personality and leave your real personality at home. I don’t think that does anyone justice. If you hire great people, they you should let them be themselves.”
Chait tells me payroll, hiring, and other HR tools all used to be sold in “one big monolithic system from a vendor that did everything.” Think Oracle’s omni-tool Taleo. “I want to make the case to the customer that you can be 10X better at this stuff” by using dedicated software that does a smaller set of things.
At least Chait won’t have to worry about funding for a while, since the Series C brings in more than all its previous rounds combined. He says he chose Thrive Capital because “they’re very smart, very hands-on, very involved. They’re not some corner office banker looking at a spreadsheet.”
Greenhouse has only 10% of its business overseas right now, so the funding will partially go towards more international sales offices and staff. It will also go to development of better infrastructure and compliance so Greenhouse’s software can serve even larger massive clients. There’s a few secret R&D projects in the works too.
Meanwhile, Greenhouse is hoping to keep its focus on functionality while beautifying the interface. When asked about mobile-first hiring startup Lever, Chait admitted its platform is “better looking than ours, it’s pretty.” But he stressed that hiring and setting up interviews is inherently complicated, and warned against over-simplifying it.
“When you start out, you gin yourself up to this idea that there’s this big opportunity but you can only picture so many steps ahead,” Chait says with a tinge of nostalgia for quieter days. “At this point, it’s a really tangible set of problems that we’re trying to solve. The imagination is already there.” While others sing and dance, it’s time for Greenhouse to execute.
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