Q2 2009 Report
On a daily basis, TechCrunch is devoted to breaking news and profiling new products, companies and events in technology. The Q2 2009 Report takes a step back and discusses the major trends of the quarter. This report covers foundings, product development, financings and exits across a variety of technology sectors – search, social networking, cloud computing, mobile communications, ecommerce, and new media. CrunchBase is our newest tool for entrepreneurs and investors looking for information on the most significant companies and people in the technology business, and it is the source for much of the data discussed.
TechCrunch Q2 2009 Report
Is the worst behind us? The broad worldwide recession hit the venture capital and start-up communities hard last year. Memories of the NASDAQ meltdown and venture capital “nuclear winter” earlier this decade sent everyone into a tizzy as they feared a repeat performance – venture dollars froze and hundreds of thousands of tech workers were laid off. But it appears that the worst is over for now. Or at least, the broad indicators suggest that venture and entrepreneurial activity has stabilized and may in some cases be trending up. In Q2 2009 we tracked a total of 400 new startups founded, $6.4 billion in new venture capital financings and $15.8 billion in merger and acquisition activity. And we only tracked 20,000 new layoffs, just 10% of the 200,000 we saw let go in Q1 2009. Of course this could just be the calm at the eye of the storm, with significant additional turbulence up ahead. Venture capital returns continue to flatline – there are simply too many venture firms investing too much money, and the IPO market for startups remains effectively shuttered. We either need a path towards liquidity for startups or a much smaller venture capital market. Putting the economics aside, there are lots of exciting developments on the product front. Mobile hardware and software continue to evolve, with Apple’s iPhone leading the charge. Thousands of small development shops earn a living creating simple applications for the iPhone and other platforms, generating tons of hard-to-track entrepreneurial activity. Cloud computing is still in the nascent stage, and it’s clear that it will be the battlefield of the future. Google and Amazon are pushing the envelope with new services, and Microsoft is clearly preparing their own big products in cloud computing, too. We’re excited to see what comes next in this space, although we also note significant security issues. More and more sensitive corporate and personal data is just a password guess away from being stolen and misused. And then there is real time. What is it? We’re not exactly sure either. But the amount of data being created by people leaving simple status updates on Facebook, Twitter, Friendfeed and other services is staggering. New services are popping up to deal with sorting through and managing that data – from short URL services like bit.ly to entire search engines for real time microcontent like Topsy. Some of these new services will grow and become much more interesting. All of these trends and more are discussed in detail in the attached TechCrunch Q2 2009 Report, along with more data, charts, graphs and statistics than you can shake a stick at. Enjoy, and make sure to update your CrunchBase data early and often!
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Contents
Schedule of Interactive Exhibits Attached in Excel Format ........................................................................... 5 The TechCrunch Take Away on Q2 2009....................................................................................................... 6 Q2 2009 ..................................................................................................................................................... 6 Key Trends of the Quarter ......................................................................................................................... 6 Real Time ............................................................................................................................................... 6 Mobile ................................................................................................................................................... 7 The Cloud............................................................................................................................................... 8 Startup Launch Highlights: ........................................................................................................................ 9 Venture Highlights:.................................................................................................................................... 9 M&A Highlights: ........................................................................................................................................ 9 IPO Highlights: ......................................................................................................................................... 10 Community and Start-Up Losses: ............................................................................................................10 Most Discussed Events, Products and Innovations: ................................................................................10 Start-Ups Founded ...................................................................................................................................... 11 Venture Capital Funding..............................................................................................................................13 Venture Funding -- Notable Transactions ...............................................................................................19 Web .........................................................................................................................................................19 Facebook - $200 million from Digital Sky Technologies ......................................................................19 Fotolia - ~$75 million Series A round led by TA Associates.................................................................19 Wonga.com - $22.25 million Series B led by Accel Partners and Greylock Partners ..........................20 Swoopo - $10 million Series B led by August Capital ..........................................................................20 Enterprise ................................................................................................................................................21 ExactTarget - $70 million round led by Battery Ventures ...................................................................21 Workday - $75 million Series E led by New Enterprise Associates .....................................................21 eCommerce .............................................................................................................................................21 LoopNet - $50 million round led by Calera Capital ............................................................................21 Clean Tech ...............................................................................................................................................22 Tesla Motors - $465 million loan from the US Department of Energy and $50 million Series F from Daimler ................................................................................................................................................ 22 Fisker Automotive - $85 million Series D from Eco-Drive Capital Partners and Kleiner, Perkins, Claufield & Byers .................................................................................................................................22 A123Systems - $69 million Series E led by General Electric................................................................22 Other .......................................................................................................................................................23 FleetCor - $100 million Series E led by Summit Partners ....................................................................23 Semiconductor ........................................................................................................................................23 Imagination Technologies - ~$38 million from Intel and ~5.2 million from Apple .............................23 Entertainment .........................................................................................................................................23 Sirius Satellite Radio - $525.75 million debt round via XM Satellite unit............................................23 Bio Tech ...................................................................................................................................................24 Clovis Oncology - $145 million Series A led by Domain Associates ....................................................24
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Arena Pharmaceuticals - $100 million Series A led by Deerfield Management..................................24 Proximagen Neuroscience - $80.5 million...........................................................................................25 23andMe - $13.6 million Series B led by Sergey Brin and Google ......................................................25 Mobile/Wireless ......................................................................................................................................26 UQ Communications - $43 million round led by Intel Capital .............................................................26 Ooma – $18.3 million Series D led by Worldview Technology............................................................26 Aha Mobile - $3 million Series A led by Venrock.................................................................................26 Software ..................................................................................................................................................26 Tendril - $30 million Series C led by VantagePoint Venture Partners .................................................26 M&A Highlights ...........................................................................................................................................28 M&A – Notable Transactions ..................................................................................................................31 The reemergence of select major players ...............................................................................................31 Oracle Corporation acquires Sun Microsystems ($7.4