SundaySky helps retailers create Web videos
SAN FRANCISCO (Venture Capital Journal) - If Cisco's push into the consumer market earlier this month with its in-home telepresence system proved one thing, it's that video technology is becoming a more immersive part of everyday life.
As such, SundaySky (www.sundaysky.com) might be aptly poised. The New York-based company, which provides video advertising services for online retailers, has raised a $9 million Series B round led by Norwest Venture Partners and including Carmel Ventures and Globespan Capital Partners.
The company previously raised $8 million in early 2009 from Carmel and Globespan and an undisclosed amount of seed funding from angel investors before that.
SundaySky, which was founded in Israel in 2006, provides automatically generated videos for online retailers, such as Overstock.com and Shoebuy, to help sell products and market their brand. Once SundaySky's platform is plugged into a site, a retailer's online site has video clips that are automatically created and customized for each product. For example, if a site offers travel services, SundaySky's software scans the website and can integrate price, product info, travel information and even reviews into a video clip.
"This is how the Web and video usage is evolving," said SundaySky CEO President Mitch Praver. "What Cisco is doing is moving it forward, as well, but we're finding that more retailers are using videos for increasing their brand exposure and increasing their sales."
In 2009, about 18 percent of retailers used video technology to sell products online, according to Praver, citing data from Forrester Research.
"But in 2010, that figure has jumped to 65 percent, and in 2011 you're going to see the year of video acceptance as more retailers roll out video," Praver said.
Meanwhile, VCs have grown increasingly interested in video-related Internet companies. So far this year, they invested about $800 million in 110 such deals, up from $714 million in 104 video-related Internet companies in the same period a year earlier, according to Thomson Reuters.
As part of the funding, Dror Nahumi, a partner at Norwest, has joined SundaySky's board of directors, which also includes Jonathan Seelig, managing director at Globespan, and Avi Zeevi, general partner of Carmel.
In addition to SundaySky, a select list of VC-backed companies to raise early stage funding rounds in the last few days included the following:
BIOTECH
BioDtech Inc.
Birmingham, AL
Amount/Round: $600,000/seed stage funding
Investors: Undisclosed
Details: Develops products for the bioresearch and bioprocess markets, such as a technology that detects and removes biological toxins from researchers' test samples. The Birmingham Business Journal reported that BioDtech previously raised $1 million from the Birmingham Technology Fund.
CLOUD
Proferi
Redwood City, CA
Amount/Round: $6.3 million/Series A
Investors: Greylock Partners (led), Andreessen Horowitz and individual investors Dave Duffield (former chairman of PeopleSoft)
Details: Develops cloud-computing technology. As part of the funding deal, Ben Horowitz, a partner at Andreessen Horowitz, and Aneel Bhusri, a partner at Greylock, have joined the board of directors at Proferi. Proferi is still operating in stealth mode, but the company said on its website that it is working on "cloud-based, community-managed applications that become smarter through the power of the network."
CLEANTECH
Cyber-Rain
Encino, CA
Amount/Round: $1.8 million/Series B
Investors: DeWaay Investment Partners (led), Athenian Venture Partners, Momentum Venture Management and Funk Ventures
Details: The company makes an Internet-based smart sprinkler controller system for commercial and residential uses. Momentum Venture Management and Funk Ventures previously invested in the company's Series A round in 2009. DeWaay Managing Director Adam Claypool has joined the company's board of directors.
CONSUMER INTERNET
Fashion Playtes Inc.
Salem, MA
Amount/Round: $4 million/Series A
Investors: Fairhaven Capital Partners led the round, and was joined by seed backers New Atlantic Ventures, Launch Capital and Golden Seeds
Details: The company operates a website that provides a design-it-yourself fashion services for young girls, ages 5 through 12. Since 2009, the company has now raised $5.8 million in funding. Fashion Playtes, which counts among its partners San Francisco-based Sanrio Inc., the creators of the Hello Kitty brand, expects to bring its services to malls via a series of kiosks.
INTERNET MARKETING
AdKeeper
New York, NY
Amount/Round: NA/seed stage funding
Investors: True Ventures, DCM, Spark Capital, First Round Capital, New York times Co., Betaworks and Lerer Ventures
Details: Develops technology that allows consumers to bookmark Internet ads to come back to review at another time. The company was launched by About.com founder Scott Kurnit. The service is expected to launch in January.
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GutCheck
Denver, CO
Amount/Round: $2 million/A
Investors: Highway 12 Ventures. Village Ventures, iModerate Research Technologies and Benenson Strategy Group
Details: The company provides online qualitative market research. As a result of the financing, George Mulhern of Highway 12 Ventures will join the company's board of directors.
MED TECH
ALung Technologies Inc.
Pittsburgh, PA
Amount/Round: $14 million/Series A
Investors: Eagle Ventures Inc. (led) and Birchmere Ventures
Details: Develops respiratory medical equipment. The company plans to use the capital to support clinical trials for its Hemolung Respiratory Assist System in Germany and move onto commercialization as early as 2011 in Europe and 2013 in the United States, according to Peter DeComo, chairman and CEO.
SECURITY
NitroSecurity
Portsmouth, NJ
Amount/Round: $6 million/Series B
Investors: Brookline Venture Partners, First Analysis and NewSpring Ventures
Details: Develops database security management technology. The company said that the funding will be used to expand its market presence, develop its product and to fund acquisitions, including its recent acquisition of LogMatrix, a Marlborough, Mass.-based provider of risk-based assessment and correlation technologies, for an undisclosed amount.
SOFTWARE
AnovaStorm
Austin, TX
Amount/Round: $2million/Series A
Investors: CAG Investments
Details: The company, which was founded in July, develops software designed to automate the deployment of Web-based software applications. The funding will be completed in several tranches that should reach $2 million, according to CEO Derek Hutson, who is also a principal at CAG Investments.
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