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Austin Ventures team starts a new firm
Austin Ventures veteran Venu Shamapant (right) and three others from AV are breaking out on their own.
They have founded LiveOak Venture Partners, which will invest in early-stage technology startups in Austin and statewide.
Shamapant, 42, joined Austin Ventures in 1999 and became a general partner in 2005. At Austin Ventures, he and his LiveOak co-founders focused on investments in startups specializing in semiconductors and telecommunications equipment.
He co-founded LiveOak with three other Austin Ventures colleagues: Krishna Srinivasan , formerly a partner at Austin Ventures, and Ben Scott and Joe Marengi , former venture partners with Austin Ventures. Marengi also is a former Dell Inc. executive.
You can find my story about LiveOak here.
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Did HomeAway score with Super Bowl ad?
Austin-based HomeAway Inc.’s Super Bowl ad didn’t top any major “Best Of” lists, but it garnered generally positive media reviews and its Web site got a traffic jolt.
The 30-second spot, featuring Chevy Chase and Beverly D’Angelo reprising their “National Lampoon’s Vacation” roles, was shot as a movie trailer. The idea was to steer viewers to a 15-minute film short about the Griswolds, and the benefits of renting a vacation house instead of a hotel, on HomeAway’s Web site.
I’m not sure whether folks who didn’t already know about the online film would have picked up on it from the ad. But viewers did head to HomeAway’s Web site, which received an aggregate traffic spike of 460,000 views during the third quarter, compared to an average of 275,000 per minute during most of the game, according to data from Akamai.
HomeAway spent more than $2 million on the ad, including advertising time during the game and the cost of producing the ad in Los Angeles. The film features Clark and Ellen Griswold going off on a short second honeymoon before joining their kids at a rented beachfront home for a family vacation. Needless to say, the hotel experience is a disaster, starting with the $40 parking fee and a snotty hotel clerk.
The SuperBowl ad kicks off a five-month promotional campaign for the company, which runs a worldwide network of vacation home Web sites.
Media reactions were generally positive. The Hollywood Reporter called it “hilarious,” and the New York Times gave it a thumbs up : “The Chase-D’Angelo reunion worked because the commercial made a product-focused plea: The HomeAway Web site helps travelers avoid vacations that family and friends will lampoon.”
But the Wall Street Journal said HomeAway’s ad “didn’t score well” among advertising and marketing executives surveyed by the paper. Izzy DeBellis, executive creative director for MDC Partners’ Kirshenbaum, told the Journal: “Some things shouldn’t be remade.”
HomeAway tied for 12th on USA Today’s 22nd annual Super Bowl Ad Meter, which tracks the second-by-second responses of a panel of viewers and ranks them best to worst. No. 1 was the Snickers ad featuring Betty White.
UPDATE: You can find my story about how the ad scored with viewers and media analysts here.
You can see the ad here.
What did you think?
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HomeAway bets on the Super Bowl
HomeAway Inc. CEO Brian Sharples passed up two free VIP tickets to the Super Bowl. Instead, he’ll be with his employees at a downtown Austin bar on Sunday to watch as the company’s first Super Bowl ad hits the air.
During the third quarter, a national audience expected to exceed 100 million viewers will see a HomeAway commercial starring Chevy Chase and Beverly D’Angelo reprising their roles in “National Lampoon’s Vacation,” the hit 1983 comedy about a disaster-plagued family trip.
You can find my story about the ad here.
And here is HomeAway’s behind-the-scenes video about the ad.
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CompassLearning charts a new course
After three long years of ownership by Reader’s Digest, educational software maker CompassLearning has a new investor and a fresh blast of energy at its headquarters in downtown Austin.
Last week, the company was sold to Marlin Equity Partners , a California private equity firm, for $32 million, as Reader’s Digest exited bankruptcy.
Tonight, CompassLearning’s 270 employees will gather at a surprise Austin venue to celebrate the beginning of a new chapter.
You can find my story about the company, and a video featuring employees here.
Below: CompassLearning workers create an online learning program.
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Calif.-based LegalZoom may expand in Austin
LegalZoom, a Los Angeles online legal services company, is considering opening a regional headquarters in Austin, with plans to create 600 jobs over the next several years.
You can find the details here.
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Venture investing hit 13-year low in 2009
Venture capital investing in Austin companies slid to a 13-year low in 2009, according to a new survey.
A total of $171.3 million was invested in 47 deals last year, according to PricewaterhouseCoopers and the National Venture Capital Association.
That’s down 49 percent from 2008, when 67 companies raised $333.3 million.
The 2009 total marks the lowest dollar total and the fewest deals since 1996, when money was just beginning to flow into Web-related startups.
In the fourth quarter, 11 Austin companies raised $35.8 million, a 38 percent decline from the fourth quarter a year ago.
But there are promising signs in the new year. In the past three weeks, four investments totaling $57.6 million have been announced. In the two biggest deals, Spiceworks Inc., which makes network management software, raised $16 million from Institutional Venture Partners and others, while CSIdentity Corp., which develops software to prevent identity theft and fraud, raised $35 million in a private equity investment from Investcorp Technology Partners.
Here’s who got money in the fourth quarter:
Troux Technologies, corporate governance software, $10 million
Gowalla, Internet social networking games, $8.4 million
CoreTrace Corp., IT security software, $5.28 million
Terapio Corp., therapeutic applications, $5 million
Undisclosed, medical devices, $3.5 million
Undisclosed, electronics, $1 million
UpLogix Inc., network management, $1 million
HyPerformix Inc., planning/management software, $991,000
cGate Health Inc., health information technology, $338,000
KLD Energy Technologies Inc., electric motor systems, $260,000
Perception Software Inc., enterprise software, $37,000
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Austin startup tracks social media efforts
Social media campaigns have become standard marketing fare, but measuring their effectiveness is still next to impossible.
Austin startup Spredfast says it has the answer with its new Web-based software that helps companies manage their social media efforts.
The five-person company, formerly known as Social Agency, lets clients plan, execute and monitor campaigns across multiple social media outlets, including Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and blogging platforms.
Spredfast has managed more than 200 campaigns since September for clients including IBM Corp., Cisco and AOL. University of Texas’ Harry Ransom Center used Spredfast to promote its Edgar Allen Poe exhibit, while Austin restaurant Truluck’s kicked off its social media outreach with the software, adding 659 Facebook fans in four months. Now Truluck’s is using Spredfast to integrate its blog and Flickr photos as well.
“We can measure every piece of content you distribute,” says Ken Cho, Spredfast co-founder. “That lets clients automate the task of collecting metrics, and immediately determine the impact of their message.”
Spredfast offers a free version of its software, in which metrics go away after a month. A standard packages costs $50 per month per campaign.
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Virtual Bridges raises $4 million
Austin-based Virtual Bridges has raised $4 million from Austin Ventures to expand sales, marketing and development of its virtualization software.
Founded in 2006, the company sells virtual desktop infrastructure software, which lets companies change the way desktop software is managed by IT administrators and accessed by employees. By running desktop PCs from a central server room or data center, companies can cut costs and improve security and compliance.
With AV’s backing, Virtual Bridges, which was previously self-funded, will double its staff from 15 to 30, build out sales and marketing and continue developing its flagship product, VERDE, said CEO Jim Curtin.
Curtin said Microsoft’s new Windows 7 operating system will serve as a catalyst for businesses moving to a virtualized system.
“If you’re going to upgrade your operating system and your enterprise to Windows 7, it’s a very logical thing to consider doing that through virtualization,” he said. “Desktop management is one of the biggest expenses in the IT department, and we’re excited to be ushering in a new era where everything will be virtual. We think the opportunities are enormous.”
Virtual Bridges is going up against two long-time industry players — VMware and Citrix.
“In our view, what we have in our favor is a technical advantage, and sheer nimbleness,” said Chris Pacitti, an Austin Ventures general partner.
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Austin tech community launches Haiti campaign
Austin’s high-tech community is swinging into action to help Haiti, with a program that will match up to $535,000 in donations from employees of area high-tech companies.
The matching money is coming from Austin Ventures, philanthropists Donna and Phil Berber, the MFI Foundation, Silicon Laboratories Inc., the Entrepreneurs Foundation of Central Texas and others.
A committee chaired by Austin Ventures general partner Phil Siegel will direct the money raised to organizations providing emergency relief to the earthquake-stricken company. Donations can be made at www.givetoaustin.org/helphaiti
The Entrepreneurs Foundation and Austin Ventures organized a similar campaign after Hurricane Katrina and raised $500,000 to help Austin area nonprofits that provided services to people displaced by the hurricane.
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Spiceworks snags $16 million
In the biggest venture investment in an Austin company since late 2007, Spiceworks Inc. has raised $16 million.
The company, founded in 2006, makes software to manage information technology networks. It also operates an online social network for information technology workers.
The lead investor was Institutional Venture Partners, a Silicon Valley firm that has backed high-profile companies such as Twitter, Netflix and Austin-based HomeAway Inc.
Austin Ventures and Shasta Ventures, which were earlier investors in Spiceworks, also participated in this round. Spiceworks has raised a total of $29 million from investors since it was founded.
You can find my story on the deal here.
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Powered acquires three other companies
Austin-based Powered Inc. announced today it has acquired three smaller companies in a move that the company claims makes it the largest social media marketing agency in the country.
It acquired New York companies Crayon, and Drillteam and Portland, Ore.,- based StepChange in a rollup acquisition financed by Austin Ventures and a second venture investment firm that was not identified.
The terms of the acquisitions were not disclosed, but the company said it has the resources to make other acquisitions or do additional hiring to “fill in the gaps.’
“We believe we are the industry’s first full-service social media agency with scale,” said Joseph Jaffe, former head of Crayon, a consulting firm, who will remain with Powered under the informal title of “chief interrupter.”
The combined company will be based in Austin with more than 70 workers in Austin, New York and Portland and more than 60 corporate clients.
The company intends to work with corporate clients on social media campaigns and with traditional ad agencies, said Aaron Strout, chief marketing officer. Strout said the company aims to add another 20 to 25 new clients this year.
Powered was founded in 1999 as an electronic learning company. It shifted toward social media marketing in the past few years, Strout said.
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Austin’s Phurnace acquired by BMC
Austin-based Phurnace Software, which began as a class assignment by a University of Texas MBA student, has been acquired by BMC Software of Houston.
Financial terms of the deal, announced Thursday morning, were not disclosed.
Phurnace sells software that simplifies the installation of Java applications. The company was started in 2006 by Daniel Nelson as a class project. He and Robert Reeves, a UT economics major, teamed up to pursue the idea, and their business plan won the 2006 Moot Corp competition at the University of Texas McCombs School of Business.
“This is truly a Texas-grown company, from winning Moot Corp. to being a member of the Austin Technology Incubator to raising money from Texas investors,” said Larry Warnock, Phurnace CEO. “Now we’re excited to be acquired by another Texas company, which will rapidly accelerate our growth.”
Phurnace has raised $5 million from backers including Austin investor John Hime, S3 Ventures of Austin and DFJ Mercury, a Texas-based venture fund affiliated with Draper Fisher Jurvetson of Menlo Park, Calif.
BMC said Phurnace’s 21 employees will remain on board. In addition, BMC plans to expand both the product and staff, said Scott Fulton, BMC vice president of service automation products.
“This is a small company with a brand new, powerful technology, and to the best of our assessement, this is the only one out there that’s really proven with large enterprise customers,” Fulton said.
Phurnace significantly reduces the time that large companies spend rolling out and upgrading Java applications, he said. “What used to take weeks or months to accomplish, Phurnace can achieve in minutes or hours,” Fulton said. “Considering that some companies, like banks, upgrade custom applications every few weeks, that’s a dramatic difference.”
BMC plans to invest in the Austin team, including adding development positions, Fulton said.
“In addition to the technology, the thing we liked about the company is the DNA of their technical team, and we want to build on that,” he said.
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National Instruments creates ETF grant program
Austin-based National Instruments said today it has created a grant program to provide software and training services to companies that receive funding from the Texas Emerging Technology Fund.
Companies that receive ETF funding in 2010 are automatically qualified for the NI Texas Emerging Technology Grant, and those who have received funding in previous years can apply for a grant. NI is also accepting applications from companies that qualify for an ETF grant but have not yet received funding.
National Instruments said the goal of its program is to help Texas-based startups get their new product concepts to market quickly by using its prototyping technology.
The ETF was created by the Texas Legislature in 2005 to help expedite the development and commercialization of new technology created in Texas. Twenty-four Austin companies have received ETF funding.
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Austin’s Lombardi acquired by IBM
Austin-based software maker Lombardi Inc. said today it has agreed to be acquired by IBM Corp.
Financial terms were not disclosed.
Lombardi develops business process management software, which cuts costs by increasing efficiency in everyday business processes such as communicating with suppliers or handling billing.
The company, named after football legend Vince Lombardi, was created in 1998 as a division of now-defunct Austin software company Open Plus Inc. and spun off in 2000.
Over its lifetime, privately held Lombardi raised $64 million in venture capital from Austin Ventures, InterWest Ventures and Palomar Ventures.
CEO Rod Favaron said “this is very exciting for us. We’ve been building this business for a number of years and this is a tremendous next step. This marketplace is really exploding and frankly the demand is outpacing our ability to scale. Getting to plug into a global leader like IBM is a great next step for us.”
Lombardi’s 200 employees, 120 of them in Austin, are expected to remain with the company, Favoron said. IBM officials added that they plan to accelerate Lombardi’s efforts.
“Lombardi has built a world-leading team and product, and the passion and vision that the team has is an incredibly good fit for us,” said Craig Hayman, general manager for IBM Application and Integration Middleware. “Together we will take what’s created here in Austin and deliver it all over the world.”
Lombardi is the latest in a string of acquisitions of Austin tech companies by bigger players. Last month, LifeSize Communications Inc., an Austin-based developer of videoconferencing equipment, agreed to be bought in an all-cash deal by Swiss company Logitech International for $405 million, one of the highest prices paid for a local company in recent years. In September, NetQoS, which sells network performance management software, was sold to CA Inc. for $200 million in cash.
For Lombardi, joining forces with IBM provides access to the technology giant’s global sales force and customer base, as well as product development resources. In return, Lombardi gives IBM a foothold in the fast-growing business process management market.
Forrester Research analyst Connie Moore called Lombardi an ideal pick for IBM.
“Lombardi has been such a shining star in terms of its product, the quality of its customers and the quality of employees. It was always a little company that pulled way above its weight and was just really high caliber,” Moore said. “It’s not surprising that if IBM was in the looking-to-buy mode that it chose these guys.”
Lombardi has 300 customers in a range of industries including financial services, government, health care, telecom and manufacturing. They include Ford Motor Co., Dell Inc. and Pfizer. The company doesn’t disclose revenue, but said that in fiscal 2008, its sales almost doubled, rising 47 percent over those in 2007.
Lombardi has long been considered a candidate for an initial public offering, but Favaron said IBM offered the best opportunity for growth.
“All along, the plan was global dominance, and to fund that you either have to work with a company that already has a footprint or you go public. We always maintained options, and from our perpective, this one makes much more sense for the customers and the investors.”
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Austin group is riding the Google Wave
Last week I attended a Google Wave Austin meetup to find out more about how folks are using the Internet search giant’s new communications system.
The gathering drew an interesting mix of folks, from software developers to consultants to small business owners, all plugging into Wave in different ways. You can find my TechMonday column about the group — pictured above — here.
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Mirna Therapeutics gets $5 million state grant
Austin-based Mirna Therapeutics Inc., has received a $5 million award from the Texas Emerging Technology Fund to further its biopharmaceutical research and development.
State officials said it is the largest award of its type since the Emerging Technology Fund was created in 2005. Central Texas has been a leading recipient of grants, with more than $35 invested in about two dozen companies.
Mirna is a spinoff of Asuragen Inc., which is developing molecular diagnostic tests. Founder Matt Winkler spun Asuragen off from Ambion Inc. when he sold Ambion to Applied Biosystems in 2006.
The company is focusing on molecular therapeutics for the treatment of cancer and other diseases.
“Mirna is rapidly gathering momentum as a free standing company,” Winkler said, adding that its research is showing effectiveness in treating lung and protate tumors in mouse models.
Mirna said it has eight full-time employees and plans to expand to 20 over the next year.
Mirna is developing MicroRNA Replacement Therapy, which involves introducing synthetic microRNAs back into tumors to trigger their death.
The company is collaborating with the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center and UT Austin in the molecular therapeutic field. It said it currently has two molecular candidates directed against the treatment of tumors in lung, breast, protate and colon cancers.
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Austin’s Gowalla raises $8.4 million
Austin-based Gowalla has raised $8.4 million in venture capital to expand its social networking service for smart phones.
Gowalla received the funding from Greylock Partners, Maples Investments, Shasta Ventures and others. The company has raised a total of $10 million since it was founded in 2007.
Gowalla offers a location-based game that lets users share where they are and track their friends as they move around. Users collect electronic stamps from the places they visit, which can be traded with friends or hidden for others to find. The free service is currently available on the iPhone and on Android-based smart phones. (You can find their instructional YouTube video here.)
Greylock investor David Thacker said Gowalla “has rapidly attracted a passionate user base by creating an innovative, useful service that is also a lot of fun. It’s exciting to discover new places and earn stamps for your passport from places as diverse as Buckingham Palace and the Sydney Opera House to the coffee shop down the street.”
The company says 50,000 users — including 500 in Austin — have signed on since the service officially launched 10 weeks ago. In that time, users have created and checked in at 150,000 locations in over 8,500 cities in 100 countries.
Gowalla previously created the Facebook game PackRat, which debuted last year and involves collecting electronic icons. That game’s popularity — it has more than 450,000 users — spurred the company to create an icon-based game for smart phones. Its theme: “Go out. Go discover. Go share. Gowalla.”
“We just wanted to encourage people to go out and explore the world on their iPhone,” Williams said. “We had no idea we were going to be getting into something that turned out to be as hot as it is.”
Ten of the company’s 11 employees have moved to Austin over the past year from around the country, including Dallas, Kansas City and St. Louis.
“We decided if we’re going to build a product geared toward places and events, and we were developing technology, there’s really not a better place to be than in Austin,” says CEO Josh Williams.
Williams says the company will use the money to expand its engineering ranks here.
“We’re stretched thin, and we’ve got way too much to do,” he said. “Right now we’re really focusing on the product and the user experience, and we’re looking for developers, specifically Ruby on Rails developers.”
You can find my story about the deal here.
Pictured here: Williams, left, and co-founder Scott Raymond
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Boundless Networks raises $5 million in venture capital
Promotional products company Boundless Network plans to announce Thursday that it has raised $5 million in investment backing to expand its technology.
Austin-based Boundless provides branded merchandise to corporate and nonprofit customers. The company’s online catalog offers thousands of products — from mousepads to pens to t-shirts — on which customers can add their logo.
Boundless received the funding from Austin Ventures and Silverton Ventures. The company has raised a total of $13 million from the two firms since its inception in 2005.
In four years, Boundless has grown from two sales professionals to more than 130, and has more than 6,000 customers, including General Electric Co., Frito-Lay and Aveda Corp., said CEO Jason Black. Boundless expects to have revenue of about $30 million in 2009, up from $24 million in 2008, he said.
Thomas Ball, partner at Austin Ventures, said that “Boundless Network’s rapid growth despite the recent economic conditions is validation that the promotional products industry is ready for innovation. This investment demonstrates our confidence that their technology platform will enable them to rapidly scale their business.”
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DEMO looking for hot Austin startups
Organizers of the DEMO conference are returning to Austin on Dec. 14 in search of promising startups to showcase at their spring event.
The visit is part of cross-country scouting trip to look for breakout products and services. Other cities on DEMO’s December schedule include Atlanta, New York City, Seattle and San Francisco.
DEMOspring 2010 is scheduled for March 21-23 in Palm Desert, Calif. There is no fee to apply for a slot, but companies selected to participate pay $18,500.
The Austin networking event, which is free and open to all, will take place at J. Blacks Lounge from 6 to 8 p.m. You can register here: http://demoinnovatoinaustin.eventbrite.com
DEMO was last in Austin in June, when it was seeking participants for its September show in San Diego.
Fifty-six companies nationwide were chosen from a pool of 1,000 candidates. Two Austin companies — MicroAssist Inc. and Piryx Inc. — made the cut, earning six minutes to make their case to the audience.
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HomeAway brings back the Griswolds
HomeAway Inc. has recruited actors Chevy Chase and Beverly D’Angelo to play the Griswolds in its new national advertising campaign — which will debut during the Super Bowl.
The company, which operates the largest network of Web sites for people who want to rent vacation homes, said the campaign will recapture the spirit of the 1980s comedy classic “National Lampoon’s Vacation.”
“We intend to have a lot of fun with the ad campaign, highlighting the travel mishaps that always seem to follow the Griswold family, while also promoting the value and benefits of vacation rentals as an alternative to hotels,” said CEO Brian Sharples.
In the movie, the Griswolds embark on an ill-fated, cross-country road trip in the Wagon Queen Family Truckster. Homeaway said it has purchased a replica of the Family Truckster for use in the ad campaign as well as for promotional activities that will launch next year.
UPDATE: Some of you have reported seeing the Griswold car parked in front of WholeFoods at 6th and Lamar on Friday. It turns out that display was a teaser to today’s announcement. (You may have noticed that the truckster was getting its battery jumped by another car with a HomeAway logo.)
Sharples says the car is currently parked at an employee’s house, which astute reader Dinop spotted last night. (Something tells me it will be moved shortly. Sharples told me he thought it was in an enclosed garage and was surprised to learn that someone had spied it from the street.)
HomeAway, founded in 2005, did not disclose how much the CBS ad will cost. The company has raised about $397 million from investors, including Austin Ventures, Institutional Venture Partners and RedPoint Ventures.
Sharples has said that HomeAway had revenue of $100 million in 2008 and is on track to increase that by 35 to 40 percent this year. It has been profitable since its inception, he said.
You can find my story about the ad campaign here.
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Silicon Valley venture firm raises new fund
Austin startups could have a new source of capital: Silicon Valley venture firm Norwest Venture Partners has raised a new $1.2 billion fund for a range of investments.
Norwest is an investor in Austin’s LifeSize Communications, which earlier this month agreed to be acquired by Logitech International for $405 million. It also was an investor in San Antonio-based Rackspace Hosting Inc., and was the largest shareholder at the company’s initial public offering last year. Its 14 percent share was valued at $165 million.
As far as I can tell, Norwest’s only other Austin investment was Tivoli Systems, the software superstar that was acquired by IBM Corp. in 1996 for $743 million. (Norwest co-invested with Austin Ventures in both the LifeSize and Tivoli deals.)
Norwest’s strategy for the new fund sounds similar to the approach that Austin Ventures laid out when it raised a $900 million fund just over a year ago. Norwest, like AV, said it will continue to invest in early-stage technology-related startups, but will also make growth equity investments of $25 million to $50 million range in mature companies.
Norwest, however, is also doing deals China, Israel and India, including a $53 million investment in the National Stock Exchange of India. International markets don’t appear to be part of AV’s game plan. Not yet at least.
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Latest comments
Wake me up when they have made their hundreds of $m in venture funding back. I won’t hold my breath. Business plan seems to be buying out small vac rental businesses and barging their way into the limelight. Very visionary.
... read the full comment by skeptik | Comment on Did HomeAway score with Super Bowl ad? Read Did HomeAway score with Super Bowl ad?
I also saw their ad on Time Square, now ad on Superbowl. I heard they got 500% more unique visitors on the day of Superbowl after the ad ran. Sounds like they are blowing their VC money away for the short term gains.
... read the full comment by David | Comment on Did HomeAway score with Super Bowl ad? Read Did HomeAway score with Super Bowl ad?
This was the Top Story of the Day? You must be joking unless Statesman likes to give free ad time to Homeaway, a story not relevant to most Austinites. This is almost at dumb as the cutes couples ongoing piece.
... read the full comment by Greg | Comment on Did HomeAway score with Super Bowl ad? Read Did HomeAway score with Super Bowl ad?
I wouldn’t have blown the $ Mil or whatever if the company is already profitable. The recession will dictate its prospects more than anything else.
... read the full comment by Brian | Comment on Did HomeAway score with Super Bowl ad? Read Did HomeAway score with Super Bowl ad?
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