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2/17/12
Groupon Acquires NYC-Based Startup Hyperpublic
Groupon has just acquired Hyperpublic, a NYC-based startup that’s spent the last two years building technology related to geo-location and the layers of information — like deals and events — that live on top of it. -
2/7/12
SocialFlow Opens The Floodgates
After about a year adding accounts through a limited beta, SocialFlow is launching today to anyone who wants to try it out on a self-serve basis -
1/24/12
Social TV Startup Bluefin Labs Lands $12 Million Investment
Time Warner Investments Leads Round with Participation from SoftBank Capital, Redpoint Ventures and Lerer Ventures -
1/19/12
RI's Vertical Performance Partners expanding to Boston
Providence, R.I.-based Vertical Performance Partners plans to open a Boston office this quarter, as it grows its business for turning corporate training and marketing content into apps for the iPad. -
1/9/12
BuzzFeed Raises $15.5 Million; Traffic has More than Tripled to 25 Million Monthly Uniques
NEA Leads Round with Lerer Ventures, Hearst Media, SoftBank Capital and RRE Participating -
11/30/11
Burstly Raises $5.5M For In-App Ad Management; Launches Mobile Offer Mediation For iOS & Android
Burstly is today announcing that it has raised $5.5 million in series B financing from GRP Partners, Rincon Venture Partners, and SoftBank Capital. -
11/8/11
An Infusion of Money for Soundtracking, a Social Music App Developed by Schematic Labs
SoundTracking, a social mobile application that allows people to create “musical postcards” that can then be shared with friends on social sites, announced Tuesday that it has received $4.75 million in financing. -
9/22/11
Piictu Launches, Grabs Seed Funding To Grow Its Game-ified Photo Sharing App
TechStars company secures seed funding round led SoftBank Capital, RRE, and Betaworks. -
9/21/11
Startup Incubator TechStars Raises $24M, Increases Funding For Each Company By $100K
Startup incubator and network TechStars has raised $24 million in new funding from the Foundry Group, IA Ventures, Avalon Ventures, DFJ Mercury, SoftBank Capital, SVB Financial Group, RRE Ventures, Right Side Capital Management, TechStars Alumni, and several individuals. TechStars is actually already directly funded by over 75 venture funds and angel investors, but this new funding will be used to offer every single new TechStars company an additional $100,000 in funding in the form of a convertible note immediately upon acceptance into TechStars.
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9/19/11
CrowdTwist Raises $6M in Series A Funding - Social Loyalty and Rewards Platform Redefining Brand Loyalty in the Social Era
CrowdTwist, a leading social loyalty and rewards platform, today announced that it has secured $6 million in equity financing in a Series A round led by SoftBank Capital and Fairhaven Capital. A recent graduate of the inaugural TechStars New York class, CrowdTwist will use the funds to support accelerated growth.
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9/13/11
SoftBank Capital’s Joe Medved Selected by the Boston Business Journal for its 2011 40 Under 40 Class
The Boston Business Journal today announced the 2011 class of 40-under-40 honorees — business and civic leaders who collectively represent the next wave of talent and commitment in the Boston economy. Judges reviewed more than 500 nominations, considering not just professional accomplishments but also community involvement.
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8/15/11
Buddy Media Announces $54M in Series D Funding From Leading Late-Stage Investor
Buddy Media, the social media management software of choice for eight of the world’s top 10 global advertisers, today announced that it has raised $54 million in Series D funding from a group of leading late-stage investors. The capital will be used to more than double its product, sales and support staff in the next year as well as fund additional global offices and acquisitions.
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8/11/11
Mobile Q&A Service Opinionaided Delivers 125 Million Responses to Advice Seekers, Investors Respond with $4.3 Million in Funding
Mobile question-and-answer company Opinionaided today announced a $4.3 million round of funding to fuel the rapid growth of its service, which provides opinions on virtually any topic. The company’s dramatic rise is credited to its focus on building a utility with strong social appeal and the active community of users on iOS devices, who have delivered 125 million responses to consumer questions since its launch last year.
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7/28/11
Welcome!
Welcome to SoftBank Capital’s new website, which reflects our current thesis: investments that connect people, devices and the world. The site’s simple design is optimized for consumption across mobile, tablet, and desktop. With the site relaunch, we wanted to take the opportunity to provide an update on our fund, team, and affiliation with the SOFTBANK Group.
SoftBank Capital
SoftBank Capital has been investing in the United States in internet related technology companies since 1995. The most recent fund, SoftBank Capital Fund ’10, was launched at the end of 2009. This $100 million fund has been very actively investing, often in partnership with our SoftBank Capital Technology New York Fund. Our focus has been on primarily Seed and Series A companies building socially-driven apps, services and content that are accessible across platforms and devices. This thesis is influenced by the evolution of mobile in Japan and the global spread of the social web.Over the past year and a half, we have made 22 investments across the US. 14 of our 22 portfolio companies are based in New York City, where we have been one of the most active digital media funds for the past 15 years. Our recent commitments have ranged in size from $100K to $4M. We have taken board seats with a majority of these companies. We treat Seeds like our Series As, taking an active role in building the business with the goal of putting additional capital into the company long term.
Our new portfolio spans the sectors below:
- Consumer Mobile: Burstly, MocoSpace, Opinionaided
- Cloud Content Management: Boxee, Pogoplug
- Local Data: Hyperpublic
- Social Content: Cheezburger, Popdust, Spanfeller Media
- Social Enterprise: BestVendor
- Social Gaming/Entertainment: GameGround, Ohanarama, OMGPOP, YouAreTV
- Social Media: betaworks, Paper.li, SocialFlow, Taykey
While our portfolio companies have a primary focus on the US, we can often provide helpful insight from and access to the Asian markets. Increasingly, companies are realizing early in their development cycle that border constraints for US companies are dropping in the Asian market, particularly in Japan where SOFTBANK Mobile’s distribution of the iPhone (the country’s smartphone market share leader), the iPad, and Android devices provide easier access to developers. SoftBank Capital is uniquely positioned to help its portfolio companies thoughtfully and efficiently consider their Asian opportunities.
Team
As part of our new fund activities, Joe Medved has been promoted to Partner, and Nikhil Kalghatgi has joined the team as Senior Associate.Joe has been with SoftBank Capital since 2005 and investing in digital media for over seven years. He led many of our most recent investments including BestVendor, Ohanarama, Opinionaided, and YouAreTV. Joe is Co-Founder of the Digital Media VC/Corp Dev Connection and Chairman Emeritus of the New England Venture Network.
Nikhil is a recent Harvard Business School graduate, a TechStars Alum with Localytics, a former engineer with The MITRE Corporation, and co-founder of Partner6, an equities swing-trading investment fund.
SOFTBANK Group
Throughout our fund’s history, our investing strategy has been influenced by the Japanese market, home of SOFTBANK Group. The country’s advanced communication infrastructure has demonstrated areas of significant value creation potential, from the proliferation of broadband to the mobile web. Mainstream Japanese consumers were one of the first to adopt broadband technologies both connected and wireless. They also led the way in using their phones to play games, conduct social networking activity, make payments, scan barcodes, and watch video.SOFTBANK Group has been at the forefront of this innovation as a mobile carrier, content provider, broadband operator, and fixed line telco. SOFTBANK Mobile introduced the iPhone and iPad to the Japanese market. The company’s Asian assets include Yahoo! Japan, the country’s dominant portal; Alibaba Group, China’s leader in e-commerce; and RenRen, China’s leading social network. Masayoshi Son, founder and CEO of SOFTBANK, has led the company’s vision, embracing emerging technologies like Twitter, which according to comScore is now the leading social network in Japan. @MasaSon is the most followed individual in the country.
© 2011 SoftBank Capital.