HaaS云服务提供商Altiscale完成B轮3000万美元融资
一提到Hadoop，大家可能就会想到数据中心复杂的内部设置，但Altiscale希望通过将全部服务转向云端，并提供Hadoop即服务（Hadoop-as-a-Service，简称“HaaS”），减少这种工作的复杂性。今天，Altiscale宣布完成B轮3000万美元融资，用以继续推进这一目标。
此轮融资由Northgate领投，红杉资本和General Catalyst Partners等现有投资方跟投，Altiscale的融资总额也由此达到4200万美元。
Hadoop是一个旨在帮助企业处理大数据的开源项目。
Altiscale同时还宣布，麦克·马希亚戈（Mike Maciag）加盟该公司担任首席运营官。马希亚戈具有丰富的从业经验，在加盟AltiScale以前已经在5家创业公司工作过。在这5家公司中，已有两家上市，有两家被收购，还有一家至今仍在运营。
马希亚戈曾见证了Hadoop开源平台的发展历程。他表示，自己之所以最终加盟AltiScale，是因为该公司已经打下了在这一领域获得成功的基础。正如他所说，AltiScale已经开发了相关产品，并证明该产品可以投入规模运营。现在，AltiScale需要更多的资金将这项工作推向深入，同时进军更广阔的市场。
此轮融资还表明投资方对AltiScale的产品创意非常有信心。之前1200万美元的融资令AltiScale有了今天这种成绩，现在他们需要更多的投资，创建一个组织来发现和支持更多的客户。
AltiScale在众多Hadoop厂商中之所以能脱颖而出，是因为该公司诞生于云时代，具有处理Hadoop工作负荷的明确目标。正如AltiScale创始人兼首席执行官雷米·斯塔塔（Raymie Stata）告诉我，运营Hadoop并不是一件轻松的事情，仍然需要付出大量艰辛。斯塔塔在雅虎开始了自己的职业生涯，雅虎旗下有一个庞大的组织来支持Hadoop相关项目，但大多数采用Hadoop平台的公司并没有这种资源。
斯塔塔表示，这也是他创建Altiscale的主要原因之一。通过将服务放入云端，Altiscale可以将Hadoop推向更广阔的受众，在客户遭遇一些不可避免的问题时，他们完全可以信赖Altiscale的服务。有时，Altiscale会在处理阶段发现问题，有时则是客户主动上报问题，因此客户不是被迫自己去追踪问题，然后留给Altiscale来解决。
斯塔塔称，解决问题的时间可以从几天缩短至几小时，因为他的公司完全专注于Hadoop。相反，对于大多数IT部门来说，这是另一个他们需要解决的问题。
值得一提的是，Hadoop近来已成为一个热门领域。另一家Hadoop厂商Hortworks最近宣布，该公司将提交S-1文件，迈出公开上市的第一步。去年3月份，Cloudera宣布该公司的估值超过了40亿美元。
Altiscale Lands $30M To Continue Building Hadoop Cloud Service
When you think of Hadoop, you probably think of a complex on-premises set up in your data center, but Altiscale wants to reduce some of that complexity by moving the whole thing to the cloud and offering Hadoop as a service. Today it got $30M in Series B funding to continue that quest.
The round is led by Northgate, with participation from previous investors Sequoia Capital and General Catalyst Partners. Today’s funding brings Altiscale’s total raised to $42M.
Hadoop is an open source project designed to help companies process big data.
The company also announced it brought Mike Maciag on board to be its Chief Operating officer. Maciag is a seasoned industry veteran with experience at five startups before joining AltiScale. He indicated two had gone public, two were sold and one was still operating.
Maciag, who has seen this process before, says what attracted him to Altiscale was that they have the pieces in place to succeed. As he explained, the company has created the product and proven it works at scale. Now, they need more money to bring that to the next level and take it to a broader market.
And presumably, it shows investor confidence in the idea. The first $12M got them to this point, but they needed a significant investment to build out an organization to find and support more clients.
What makes Altiscale unusual among Hadoop vendors, is that it was born in the cloud with the express purpose of processing Hadoop workloads. As company founder and CEO Raymie Stata told me, running Hadoop is not a simple matter and it’s still a bit rough around the edges. He got his start at Yahoo! which has a huge organization supporting its Hadoop efforts, but most companies trying to work with Hadoop don’t have that luxury.
He says that’s one of the main reasons he created Altiscale. By putting the service in the cloud, it brings Hadoop to a much wider audience and customers can lean on his company when they hit those inevitable issues. Sometimes the company picks them up in the processing stage and sometimes it’s in the form of a help ticket from the customer, but instead of being forced to track down the problem themselves, customers can leave it to Altiscale to do that.
And he says, that process of solving the problem can be reduced from days to hours because his company is entirely focused on Hadoop. Whereas for most IT departments it’s just another problem among many to track down.
It’s worth noting that Hadoop has been a hot commodity lately. Just recently Hortworks, another Hadoop vendor announced it was going public by filing an S-1. Last March Cloudera announced a valuation of more than $4B.
来源：TC
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2014年12月12日
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培训即服务创业公司Lesson.ly融资110万美元，2014年营收增长850%
提供上岗培训管理和培训工具的创业公司 Lesson.ly 在今天早晨宣布，已获得 110 万美元投资。此轮融资由 Allos Ventures 领投，数位天使投资人参投。Lesson.ly 是首个接受“ExactTarget 三位联合创始人作为投资人”的公司。ExactTarget 是一家与 Lesson.ly 类似的美国中西部公司，于 2013 年被 Salesforce 收购。
Lesson.ly 在 2013 年获得过一小笔种子融资。该公司拒绝透露先前一笔融资的具体金额。不过却表示最近一笔融资获得了超额认购，其最初计划融资 100 万美元，最终却多获得了 10% 的资金。
Lesson.ly 计划利用这笔资金来增加营销开支，扩展产品和扩充团队人数到正常水平。
TechCrunch 上一次报道 Lesson.ly 还是在 2013 年底，当时 Lesson.ly 只有三名员工，每月的营收增速达 245% 。考虑到当时这家公司成立还不久，相对比例没什么意义。现在 Lesson.ly 拥有 10 名员工，预计到年底员工数将达 12 名，并计划在 2015 年让员工数翻番。
Lesson.ly 的创始人兼首席执行官马克思·尤德(Max Yoder)表示，Lesson.ly 今年的营收增长了 850% 。他预计 Lesson.ly 2015 年的营收将增长 300% 。
尤德向 TechCrunch 表示，Stripe 和 Lyft 都是 Lesson.ly 的客户。我问尤德，Lesson.ly 是不是严重依赖于某一个客户，得到的答复是没有一个客户对营收的贡献超过 10% 。
作为一家热切希望向硅谷客户销售的非硅谷公司，Lesson.ly 很出众。我问尤德，中西部创业环境近况如何。他提到了不少退出案，并表示“天使投资要比以往任何时候都强，芝加哥和俄亥俄州风投对中西部创业公司的兴趣在这些年也大幅增加。”我曾经也是芝加哥科技圈的参与者，这话我爱听。
培训并不是最性感的行业，但增长是一家年轻公司能展示的最具吸引力的东西。Lesson.ly 是否能实现其 2015 年的增长预期令人期待，祝他们好运。
Training-As-A-Service Startup Lesson.ly Picks Up $1.1M After Growing Its Revenue 850% In 2014
Lesson.ly, a startup that provides onboarding and training tools, announced this morning that it has raised a $1.1 million round led by Allos Ventures, and participated in by several angels. The firm claims to be the first company to “count all three ExactTarget co-founders as investors.” ExactTarget, a Midwest company like Lesson.ly, was acquired by Salesforce in 2013.
The $1.1 million follows a smaller seed round in 2013. The company declined to detail the amount of its former fundraising. It did note that its most recent capital event was oversubscribed — the company had initially planned to raise a flat $1 million, but accepted 10 percent more cash.
The company intends to use its new capital, it informed TechCrunch, to grow its marketing spend, and build out its product, normal enough stuff.
TechCrunch last discussed Lesson.ly in late 2013, when the company had three employees, and revenue growth in the hundreds of percent per month. Given its youth at that stage, however, the relative percentages weren’t too meaningful — the law of large numbers does work to the inverse, in reverse. Today, Lesson.ly has 10 employees, expects to make it to 12 by the end of the year, and plans to nearly double its staff in 2015.
According to the company’s founder and CEO Max Yoder, Lesson.ly’s revenue has grown 850 percent this year. He expects the company’s top line to grow 300 percent in 2015.
Lesson.ly counts companies like Stripe and Lyft among its customer base, Yoder told TechCrunch. I asked if the company was heavily dependent on any single customer, but was told that no single account constitutes more than 10 percent of its revenue.
As a company, Lesson.ly stands out somewhat for being a staunchly non-Valley play, but one that is more than willing to sell to Valley-centric customers. I asked Yoder how the Midwest startup scene was growing. He cited several exits as important moments, and stated that “angel funding is stronger than ever, and interest from Chicago and Ohio VCs has grown significantly over the years.” I was once a participant in the Chicago technology scene, making that somewhat edifying to hear.
Training is not the sexiest technology, but growth is the most attractive thing a young company can post. It will be interesting to see if Lesson.ly can not only meet its 2015 growth expectations, but best them.
来源：techcrunch
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2014年12月09日
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台湾教育应用开发商QLL 融资45万美元，剑指国际市场
QLL（Quick Language Learning，快速语言学习系统）是一家台湾教育类移动应用开发商，该公司获得了45万美元投资，领投方为B Dash Ventures，参与投资的还有Incubate Fund，Pinehurst Advisors，Viling 以及Coent Venture Partners。这家创业公司与加速器项目AppWoks 是同期毕业生。
自从2007年成立以来，QLL 已经开发了大约150款iOS 及Android 应用，该公司称这些应用在台湾被下载了650万次，目前月活跃用户数超过30万人。其产品包括Pocket Chinese Tutor，一款能纠正用户中文发音的应用，以及数款针对儿童的双语故事应用。所有的QLL 应用都对用户数据进行分析，从而提供个性化的学习课程。
如今QLL 希望杀入包括日本、韩国、东南亚、加拿大、美国在内的国际市场，其武器则是一个能让教育工作者开发、交换电子学习资料的平台，即便他们不懂编程也能使用。这一平台将会覆盖包括移动设备以及智能电视在内的多个平台，。QLL 将首先在新加坡推出应用作为试点市场，接着才会进军美国以及加拿大，在那里该公司将会寻找当地渠道合作伙伴。在印尼，QLL 很可能会选择华为作为他们的分发合作伙伴。
该公司专注于为二到六岁的儿童开发应用，此前曾与索尼、华为、富士康以及Fuhu 公司则样的硬件制造商合作，从而将其软件预装到平板电脑、智能电视和智能手表中。
联合创始人兼首席执行官叶璐璐（音译，Lulu Yeh）表示，QLL 之所以能与多邻国（Duolingo）相提并论，是因为这家创业公司也专注于语言学习，不过与面向个人用户的多邻国不同的是，QLL 的目标市场为教育工作者和学校。QLL 与可汗学院（Khan Academy）的相似之处在于同样提供了视频内容和测验项目，不过QLL 的不同之处在于它专注于亚洲语言课程，而可汗学院目前并不提供相应内容。
QLL 的收入来源于将内容授权给公司或在线教育工作者，应用销售和应用内购买，以及广告（叶表示，目前QLL 应用内广告每月展示量达到1000万次）。
原文：
Taiwan-Based Educational App Developer QLL Raises $450,000 For International Expansion
QLL, a Taipei-based developer of educational mobile apps, has raised $450,000 in funding led by B Dash Ventures, with participation from Incubate Fund, Pinehurst Advisors, Viling, and Coent Venture Partners. The startup is an alumnus of accelerator program AppWorks.
Since its launch in 2007, QLL has developed about 150 iOS and Android apps, which it claims have been downloaded 6.5 million times in Taiwan and now have over 300,000 monthly active users. Its products include Pocket Chinese Tutor, which corrects users’ Chinese pronunciations, as well as several bilingual storytelling apps for kids. All of QLL’s apps leverage user analytics to deliver personalized learning sessions.
Now QLL wants to expand into international markets, including Japan, Korea, Southeast Asia, Canada, and the U.S. with an online platform that will allow educators to develop and exchange digital learning materials, even if they don’t know how to code. The platform will be available on multiple platforms, including mobile devices and smart TVs. QLL will first launch its apps in Singapore as a test market, before moving onto the U.S. and Canada, where it will seek local channel partners. In Indonesia, QLL will likely work with Huawei as a distribution partner.
The company focuses on apps for children aged two to six and has previously partnered with hardware makers like Sony, Huawei, Foxconn, and Fuhu to put its software on tablets, smart TVs, and smart watches.
Co-founder and CEO Lulu Yeh says QLL is comparable to Duolingo because the startup also focuses on language learning, but unlike Duolingo, which is geared towards individual users, QLL’s target market is educators and schools. It is also similar to Khan Academy in that it offers video content and tests, though QLL differentiates by focusing on Asian language courses, which Khan Academy currently does not offer.
QLL monetizes by licensing its content to businesses or online educators; through app sales and in-app purchases; and advertising (Yeh says QLL’s in-app ads currently get 10 million impressions per month).
来源：TC
大学毕业生招聘平台Tyba 再获3100万美元融资
Tyba是一家致力于让科技创业公司这样的企业更加有效地招聘大学毕业生的“新人招聘市场”，该公司去年曾完成了由Sunstone Capital 领投的总额为1300万美元的一轮融资。如今他们再次融资3100万美元，投资的还是Sunstone Capital，还有一家新投资方加入——风险投资基金Impulse，隶属于全球第七大主权财富基金科威特投资局（Kuwaiti Investment Authority）。
Tyba 的理念在于用户在该平台上提供的大量职业信息可以让招聘者和求职者之间实现更加精确的匹配。目前，欧洲14个城市的500多家创业公司使用这一平台寻找大学毕业生候选员工，Tyba 希望这一数字能够增加到1000。
年轻一代的新求职者可以通过这个平台以普通的网络资料或简历之外的方式展示自我。接着招聘者可以根据“软技能”以及毕业生的兴趣进行信息的过滤。
其竞争对手包括Collegefeed，一家将众包和社交相结合的服务，在学生和其他学生以及潜在雇主之间建立联系。Collegefeed已获180万美元融资，投资者包括Accel Partners。另一家竞争对手Graduateland 则试图打造一个基于全球各大院校的大型招聘网络。
Tyba 的三位创始人埃索·康德（Eiso Kant），佐治·施努拉（Jorge Schnura）以及菲利普·冯（Philip von）于2011年在马德里创办了这家公司，目前已有28名员工。
Tyba– a “junior recruitment market” aimed at allowing companies like tech startups to more efficiently hire university and college graduates – last year raised $1.3 million in an investment round led by Sunstone Capital. It’s now raised another $3.1 million, once again from Sunstone Capital and a new investor, the VC fund Impulse, which is part of the Kuwaiti Investment Authority (KIA), the world’s seventh largest sovereign wealth fund.
Tyba’s idea is that the large amounts of professional information that users provide on the platform allows for a more accurate matching of hirers and prospects. Currently, over 500 startups in 14 different European cities use its platform to target graduate candidates and it hopes to increase that to 1,000.
New young recruits are offered the ability to showcase themselves beyond ordinary web profiles or their CV. Then recruiters filter the information around ‘soft-skills’ and the interests of the graduates.
Its competitors include Collegefeed, a service that combines crowdsourcing with social networking to connect students with each other and potential employers. Collegefeed has raised $1.8 million from investors including Accel Partners. Another, Graduateland, is trying to create a large recruitment network based on international universities.
Tyba founders Eiso Kant, Jorge Schnura and Philip von created the company in Madrid in 2011 and it now has 28 staff.
来源：TC
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