YFM Private Equity has invested £300,000 in UK software vendor, FreshTL.
The financing is part of a £600,000 co-investment deal with Greener House Investments, and marks YFM’s first investment from the North West Interim Venture Capital Fund.
FreshTL has created a crowd computing platform that is a combination of software from IBM and Bricsys – a Belgian software vendor.
Yoom.de, an innovative online platform for tenant-to-tenant residential real estate transactions, has raised further growth capital from Earlybird Venture Capital. Currently, Earlybird manages over 430 million Euros of assets for an international investor base investing in innovative, fast growing companies with outstanding management teams and high growth potential in international markets. Earlybird’s portfolio currently includes more than 25 companies in seven countries, they invested in over 70 companies and scored several successful trade sales and IPOs.
The company received seed financing from angel investors in spring 2009 while the new round is rumored to be in the single-digit million Euro amount, following its successful market entry.
Hopefully they will use the money to put up an english version and enter other european markets.
Malte Niebuhr, Managing Director at Yoom.de, is delighted: ”Earlybird Venture Capital is a high-class investor who has already very actively supported us during our start-up phase and continues to do so in the growth phase we are now entering and very much looking forward to.
Yoom.de enables current and new tenants, landlords and asset / facility managers to efficiently execute the tenant changing process without involving real estate agents, whilst at the same time providing an economic benefit for all parties by revolutionising the value chain.
Dr. Christian Nagel, Managing Partner at Earlybird Venture Capital, comments: “Yoom.de is an innovative business model with the potential to eliminate a market inefficiency – namely high real estate agent commissions without agents providing a noticeable service or value-ad in return. The first transactions on the platform have proven that the model offers significant advantages not only to previous and subsequent tenants, but also to landlords and asset / facility managers compared to the estate agent-model. We are very convinced of the business idea.”
A lot has been said and written about group-buying lately, following the success of US-based Groupon. It certainly is one of the hottest online sectors at the moment and, given the low barriers to entry, has attracted a significant level of competition across the planet. For those who are not familiar with the model, group-buying is about aggregating online demand around local services and getting large discounts for the end users. For the local merchants it’s a new channel to market their service and acquire new customers on a ‘per action’ basis. Unlike the late ’90s, when online group-buying first appeared (Mercata, Letsbuyit, etc.), this is the perfect time for such a model: the penetration of social networks in fact allows users to easily share the offers with their friends or followers, which creates scale and virality.
The European scene has heated up in early 2010 with the appearance of a number of group-buying startups in Germany and in the UK. Some have already been backed by well-known investors, like the German CityDeal and DailyDeal and, lately, the UK-based Keynoir. Some have rushed out too quickly and have already entered the deadpool (Snippa, VivaVoucher, DealBunch, alongside a number of German clones) or are about to enter it. Some others, like the one I am reviewing today, seem to be doing well despite being self-funded.
Founded by fellow italians Yannick Roux and Luca Faloni, Likebees defines itself as a new and engaging way of discovering, experiencing and sharing the coolest things to do in town with friends, while saving money. They are currently live in London only, but they confirmed they have expansion plans across Europe once their model has been oiled up. As it currently is, Likebees looks like a traditional group-buying website, although I must point out a few differences. First, it just looks a lot better than its competitors from the design and branding perspective. While this might not be seen as a unique selling point, a distinctive image definitely helps with brand awareness (for instance, I still get confused between CityDeal, DailyDeal and others). Image also helps them secure quality deals, as merchants are, according to the founders, increasingly reluctant to be associated with brand-diminishing “voucher” sounding websites.
The second element which differentiates Likebees from the crowd, and which perfectly ties in with their brand name, is the social focus. Likebees in fact also allows users to purchase the deal for a group of people rather than only for a single person. “We want to encourage the socialisation at the moment of consumption, not only at the
moment of purchase. This is only the first step towards a more social and user-generated model” say the founders. We will certainly be looking forward to new and more social features coming out, as the two co-founders did not want to give away too many details. Likebees has so far been completely self-funded, but the founders are in discussions for a seed investment.
Despite being one of the most competitive online spaces at the moment, group-buying allows for a different number of players. Whether differentiation or funding will make the difference remains to be seen, what is certain is that the lack of both will keep adding to the deadpool. The next 6-12 months will define the European group-buying scene and consolidation is already under way.
SeedRocket offers a complete Seed Funding Venture Program for Entrepreneurs with technology-based startups. They provide the initial investment and they work together with the founders through the early development stages.
You can apply now to the Entrepreneurs Camp, an intensive 8 day event held in Barcelona on May 2010. SeedRocket provides an incredible experience for the selected teams, with a full program including training sessions and workshops. They also have a mentor network of senior entrepreneurs and venture capitalists that will help the selected teams put together the foundations of a viable business.
They are looking mainly for companies in the following sectors: consumer internet, mobility (android, iphone), cloud computing or internet among others.
In the Closing Session of the Entrepreneur Camp, you will have the opportunity to present your company to investors and Venture Capital Firms, and they will make the funding decision to invest in three teams.
Those teams will be asked to relocate in the SeedRocket facilities to take part on the six month mentoring and support program that is designed to help the startups get to the next leve and prepare to close a larger investment round: SeedRocket provides access to investors and business angels with a strong focus on technology-based startups at a seed stage.
High-Tech Gründerfonds (HTGF), DuMont Venture and bAV Consult have sold their stakes in northworks Software to games provider Travian Games in early March.
Now, the same High-Tech Gründerfonds, now together with RapidTainment, have also made a seven figure seed round in online game company UP Web Game GmbH.
“People enjoy playing with each other,” the founders Ibrahim Evsan and Thomas Bachem comment “and the Internet makes it possible to realize completely new concepts.” Evsan and Bachem have developed the idea behind the game since 2005, until they put it aside for some time in order to found the video platform sevenload. “However, we are entrepreneurs, and sometimes you can’t let an idea go. This game is one of those very special projects, and we are happy to finally implement it together with strong partners”.
Tobias Hartmann, who joined end of 2009 as co-founder: “Our two investors complement each other perfectly. RapidTainment AG is a very powerful partner with an exciting strategic vision, while HTGF contributes an excellent VC network and a high degree of professionalism”.
ClickandBuy is to become a wholly-owned subsidiary of Deutsche Telekom AG. Via its venture capital company, T-Venture, Deutsche Telekom has held shares in ClickandBuy since 2006 and currently owns 20.2 per cent of its shares.
Other investors included Intel Capital and 3i. Deutsche Telekom has now acquired all remaining shares in the internet payment service provider ClickandBuy. The agreement was finalized yesterday. The supervisory bodies of the companies concerned and the UK’s Finacial Services Authority (FSA) have already approved the process.
Klaus Konrad, Investment Director of Intel Capital: “ClickandBuy has become one of the top three online payment providers in the world and is a European investment success story.This shows that even in challenging economic periods, it is possible to grow top performing organizations through great management and the right investment strategy.”
ClickandBuy’s CEO, Charles Fraenkl, welcomed the deal: “Our minority shareholders T-Venture and Intel Capital with their dedication and commitment have contributed a lot to the success and growth of ClickandBuy.With the support of our new shareholder, ClickandBuy, already one of today’s leading providers of online payments solutions, will continue to strengthen and expand its market position in the future. ClickandBuy is in an exceptionally good position and is very happy about the huge advantages this synergy contains regarding the realisation of its global strategic goals which will be made possible through the involvement of Deutsche Telekom.”
ClickandBuy is one of the leading payment services in the internet.Certified by McAfee and tested by Germany’s Technical Inspection and Testing Association (TUV), this online payment system is used for internet purchases by over 13 million people. Having doubled its turnover generated by traders and end customers to EUR 922 million (TTV) in 2008, the ClickandBuy Group first crossed the billion euro threshold in 2009.
Over 16.000 online traders use ClickandBuy’s e-payment system for their e-commerce, retail, online entertainment, and paid content & services billing, including Deutsche Telekom, Scout24 Group, Apple iTunes, Napster, Orange, msn, AOL, Meetic, Parship, Electronic Arts (EA), Codemasters, McAfee, Panda, RTL, Playboy, Financial Times Deutschland, Foto.com, Deutsche Boerse Group, KPMG, Yamaha, Digital River, Redcoon, bonprix (Otto Group).
Founded in 1999, ClickandBuy represents over 10 years of experience and expertise in the e-payment market. The online payment system is operated by ClickandBuy International Ltd. in London. As an e-money institution licensed by the UK’s Financial Services Authority (FSA), ClickandBuy’s complete service includes 120 currencies and offers 50 national and international modes of payment throughout 31 countries.
