There are several startups today, such as Carbon3D, Wrapify and Deep Genomics, which play an integral role in disrupting the ecosystems they exist in. In the spirit of World Innovation Day, Tracxn today looks at a few startups that are on the forefront of revolutionizing their respective business segments.

The following companies have been covered in this list: New Byte Order, Cato Networks, Casper, Boxed, Mobcrush, Vulcun, ThoughtSpot, Elementum, Snaps, Wrapify, Photomath, Versame, Abra, Lemonade, MedicSen, Deep Genomics, Carbon3D, Psikick, Impossible Foods, Dispatch, Origami Energy, Ossia

Has Supercell cracked MOBA for Mobile with Clash Royale, or is its success linked to franchise effect of Clash of Clans ?

Clash Royale, Supercell’s most recent mobile game, a Multiplayer Online Battle Arena (MOBA) game for Mobile platform has reportedly achieved a debut month revenue of $100+ million – making it one of the most successful debuts in the mobile gaming domain. The game has two key characteristics that could have contributed to its success –

• MOBA gameplay mechanics tweaked for Mobile platforms
  • The competitive gameplay mechanics of MOBA have been tweaked to suite the limited screen size and controls on Mobile and have taken into account the shorter game engagement periods on Mobile platform.
• Key characters from the Clash of Clans universe
  • The game has key characters from the Clash of Clans universe thus ensuring the huge user base of Clash of Clans relates to the new game and also allows for a steeper learning curve due to similar character parameters and functions.

ClashRoyale is taking a different approach to Mobile MOBA

Multiplayer Online Battle Arena games leverage the competitive nature of gamers with highly engaging and competitive gameplay mechanics. The past few years has seen an exponential increase in the popularity of this genre with games such as League of Legends and Dota 2. Another key factor that has contributed for the popularity of this genre is its close fit with the eSports ecosystem.

With the improving hardware specs of mobile phones and increasing number of users, the mobile gaming sector has evolved from casual games with basic graphics and controls to mid-core games with high-end graphics and complex controls. As a continuation of this evolution there is demand for engaging and competitive games for mobile. Since past few years game developers have been attempting to port the MOBA genre to the Mobile platform. Games such as Vainglory and Heroes of Order & Chaos, have tried to maintain the overall gameplay similar to the popular PC MOBA games but scaled down to suit the needs of Mobile platform. On the other hand games such as Clash Royale are taking a different approach to Mobile MOBA by scaling down and tweaking the gameplay to suite their mid-core user base.

List of interesting games in the MOBA Mobile space

The coming months will highlight the key factors for its debut success
The performance of Clash Royale over the next few months will highlight the key factors contributing to its debut success. If it has truly cracked the MOBA for Mobile domain then we can expect the active user base to grow aggressively. On the other hand if their initial success is linked to the franchise effect of Clash of Clans then it is to be seen if the game can keep players engaged with its 3 minute bite-sized gameplay.

SunEdison’s collapse is one of the biggest in the industry and is a perfect example of how uncontrolled desire for growth leads to downfall

SunEdison, the world’s largest solar energy developer, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection last night. Once the darling of investors and the energy industry, SunEdison imploded in a matter of 9 months. The company traded around $32 in July last year with a market cap close to $10B. Shares of SunEdison were at 34 cents when trading halted. The company had eroded more than 99% of its value in the 9-month period.

SunEdison’s collapse is one of the biggest in the industry and is a perfect example of how uncontrolled desire for growth leads to downfall. SunEdison started on its acquisition spree in 2014 and acquired several renewable energy developers and energy projects across the globe. To finance these acquisitions, the company raised large sums of money in the form of debts. In its Sept 2015 filing, SunEdison reported a debt of $11.7B.

The key to the fall was the July 2015 announcement of proposed $2.2B acquisition of Vivint Solar, a distributed energy generation player focused on the residential market in the US. The news was not taken well by the investors. The rising debts and SunEdison’s sudden planned diversification into the rooftop business resulted in a dwindling of investor confidence. SunEdison stocks began to tumble and the giant was brought to its knees in a matter of months.

Clean energy is still a young industry and has seen companies rise and fall. A number of companies have flourished in recent years and the technology is improving every day. Governments of several countries have started giving importance to renewable energy and have come up with plans and targets for near future. This collapse should just be a small bump on the path to a glorious future of this industry. However, this story puts forth some important lessons in relation to the innate desire to grow. Companies and investors should learn from the SunEdison story and be careful of letting the desire to get go out of hand.

SunEdison’s complex financing structure led to its demise, and companies like SolarCity and Vivint too also have extremely complex financial models. The impact of SunEdison bankruptcy on the stocks of these companies is something to be seen in the coming months. However, it is sure that investors would now think twice before investing in similarly complex financial models.

Over the last couple of years, we have been witnessed to a large number of technological developments in multiple areas. New technologies, and their innovative use cases in various applications, from Medical to Marketing, are seeing fast pace of adoption, with some innovative startups taking the helm, and visionary investors placing their bets on them. To celebrate World Creativity and Innovation Week, Tracxn looks at some of the most exciting trends happening in the startup world.

Companies covered in this list are Digital Genius, X.ai, Magic Leap, Blippar, MindMaze, Lytro, Razer, Zero Motorcycles, Carbon3D, CAE Healthcare, Simulaids, WiTricity, UBeam, Sonnenbatterie among the others. 

While the investors who have made their bets in these technologies include Two Sigma Ventures, Rothenberg Ventures, Qualcomm Ventures, GGV Capital, Google Ventures, Sequoia Capital,  Ben Franklin Technology, Andreessen Horowitz and others.

MindMaze tops the list raising $100M in 2016 alone, and causing a surge in funding for the sector during the year

Over the last few year, Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality have been buzzwords in the technology world, and a tremendous amount of focus has been towards the applications of AR/VR in fields beyond entertainment. Among them, the applications of VR and AR in Healthcare have, in particular, generated a lot of interest.

In terms of funding in the segment, Healthcare VR and AR Technologies have seen a fair amount of investor interest, with funding activity in the sector been gradually increasing in 2010-2015. But in 2016, the investments into the space has shot up dramatically by 263%, with $120M being invested during the year so far.

This large surge is funding is purely because of Mindmaze, which raised a massive $100M from the Hinduja Group in February 2016. This single deal is greater than the combined total funding received  for the last five years in the VR / AR healthcare sector.

This obviously makes MindMaze the most well-funded company, with more than $118M in investments since its first funding round in 2012. MindMaze develops interfaces for neuro-rehabilitation, game training, and 3D imaging, using VR/AR and neurophysiological recording technologies.

Besides MindMaze, a list of the top companies in Healthcare VR and AR would include the likes of LensAR, which develops laser technology for cataract surgery, with an AR feature to image a patient’s eye to provide information a surgeon needs to plan a femtosecond laser procedure. The list also includes Augmedix, which uses Google Glass as an electronic medical record solution, thereby saving time for documentation and increasing the time spent on patient consultation.

Messaging Apps have overtaken Social Networking Apps in terms of the user base

According to the BI Intelligence’s recent study, close to 3 billion users (Yes, that’s more than the population of India and China put together!) are active on big 4 messaging apps, much more than the active users of big 4 social networking apps.  With the large user base, these apps are attracting a lot of interest from different businesses (advertisers, content providers, service providers, retailers among others). That’s where chatbots come in.

Through chatbots, recent developments in AI coupled with availability of cheap computational power and data can be leveraged to understand the intent of the user in the “chat” and provide an appropriate response real time. The sector boasts of large deals like Apple’s acquisition of Siri & VocallQ and Facebook’s acquisition of Wit.ai to name a few.

Chatbots are being widely used as an assistant in both enterprise and consumer sectors
Apart from search and entertainment, Chatbots are being widely used as an assistant in both enterprise and consumer sectors. For example in Enterprise – Sales, chatbots can be used as an email assistant answering to the customer query or scheduling a meeting with a potential sales lead. In the consumer sector,  it could potentially be used for concierge service ranging from booking movie tickets or making restaurant reservation or suggesting one, placing orders, travel recommendations  among others. They are also being used for health and medical assistance, by banks for customer queries, shopping assistance, personal organizer and real estate advisor. Companies are making contextual characters and personas to engage customer and audience in real time.

Large companies are adopting to chatbots

Disney has funded Imperson which enables movie studios and TV networks to create authentic conversational characters that engage in personal, one-on-one conversations with fans. Microsoft, Taco Bell, and KLM are still experimenting with them. One can find chatbots of CNN, 1-800-flower.com and Miss Piggy on Facebook Messenger.  Other companies here include Wall Street Journal, retail giants Sephora and H&M, United Airlines(Alex), TAP Portugal (Sofia), RBS(Luvo). Here is a list of top acquisitions in this domain

How Chatbots could change the industry

1. Advertising – “botnet-induced traffic is responsible for 54 percent of the eyeballs to display ads on the Web, burning a $6 billion hole in advertisers’ pockets for eyeballs that aren’t and will never buy” Link

2. Customer Support – Direct interaction with a consumer and their social network means that brands can actively design features by gathering feedback from customers directly and in real time. Chatbots could  increase the responsiveness of a business to customer queries, there by increasing customer satisfaction.

Venture funds too are riding on the chatbot wave
Other than Facebook, Twitter, Microsoft, Kik & Telegram recently announcing their plans of providing platforms for chatbots, the chatbots sector has received a lot of attention from investors as well. Below is the list of some notable deals.

The Consumer Health space has been witnessing a lot of investor interest over the last 15 months with over $3.9B being invested across 396 rounds. Rockhealth has led the space with a total of 26 investments, followed by Sequoia [21], Khosla [20]. Interestingly, each fund has at least one portfolio company in which they have invested in multiple rounds. Of the 396 rounds, more than 50% of the investments were early stage with 100+ deals coming in at the angel/seed stage.

Here is a list of top 10 Consumer Health Investors with their portfolio. It includes the likes of Andreessen Horowitz, Accel, Felicis among others.

Disclaimer: Companies that have raised multiple rounds from the same investor have been included just once in the portfolio. This analysis does not include Accelerators/Incubators. 

The following investors have been covered in this blog: Rockhealth, Sequoia, Khosla, NEA, Matrix, KPCB, Andreessen Horowitz, Accel, Felicis, Healthbox

InsuranceTech companies to watch out for in 2016

With 2015 being a stellar year for InsuranceTech in terms of funding, 2016 too is riding on the InsuranceTech wave. The first quarter of 2016 already witnessed $756M being invested across 39 rounds. Ironically, InsuranceTech companies have continuously been innovating a sector which has not changed for years. The InsuranceTech companies are disrupting all the layers of the value chain and this most likely is going to attack the insurance agents.

Here is a list of innovative InsuranceTech companies in US

Pinterest plays an important role in shaping the funding trend for the entire sector, consistently raising funding since 2010. Pinterest led the funding in 2015 raising $553M Series G through two deals.

According to our Tracxn Report, funding in Product Discovery increased by 80% in 2015/16 YTD, with startups in the space raising ~$867M during the period, vis-a-vis the $481M raised in 2014. Pinterest led the surge raising $553M Series G in 2015 through two deals.

In fact, Pinterest plays an important role in shaping the funding trend for the entire sector, consistently raising funding since 2010. While the above graph indicates a drop in funding for 2014, this is purely due to Pinterest raising $425M through two deals in 2013, while raising $200M in one deal in 2014. If we were to completely exclude Pinterest’s funding raises, we would see an upward trend in funding volume for the space.

Our Product Discovery report covers companies that help users discover products through their platform, either redirecting to other e-commerce portals to complete the transaction such as Refinery29 or providing a universal checkout such as Lyst. According to the report, the companies have raised more than $2.2B in cumulative funding in the last 5 years, of which $1.3B was invested in Pinterest alone.

The number of Funding Rounds have decreased since 2013

The Product Discovery sector is one where larger companies like Pinterest are witnessing the majority of the funding and the number of funding rounds has been decreasing leading to an increase in the average ticket size.

Excluding Pinterest, the highest average funding/round was seen in the period 2014-16: $6M in 2014 and $8.5M in 2015/16.

The sector is seeing a decrease in the number of early-stage rounds with 2015 seeing 33 deals. The Influencer Recommendation segment saw the highest number of early stage rounds- 41%, followed by Personalized Recommendation at 22% and Community Recommendation at 19% making up 82% of the total rounds, with the average deal size being $2M.

On the other hand, the number of late-stage rounds has increased, with 40% of them happening in the Community Recommendation, followed by influencer Recommendation at 28%, with the average deal size being $71M ($26M excluding Pinterest).

Community Recommendations is the most funded Business Model

Currently, in terms of funding, the Product Discovery space has been dominated by the Community Recommendation space, with Pinterest being a significant part of it. The Community Recommendations space has so far raised a total funding of $1.5B with a total of 83 companies, out of which Pinterest alone has raised $1.32B which is 60% of the total funding.

Influencer Recommendation startups follow, having received a total of $649M funding with a total of 104 companies including Ipsy, Refinery29, GlossyBox, Birchbox, StitchFix, and Keep.

SV Angel, Lerer Hippeau Ventures, and First Round Capital are the Most Active Investors

SV Angel has Pinterest, Like.com., Who What Wear, Kaboodle, PS Dept, and Style for Hire in its portfolio. Lerer Hippeau Ventures investments include Refinery29, Birchbox, Keep, Into the Gloss, Who What Wear, and Trendabl. First Round Capital also features with a portfolio which includes (Pinterest, Birchbox, Refinery29, Like.com, Keep, and Wanelo.

Note: Companies that enable discovery on their retail platforms (such as Spring) are not covered in the report. These platforms use an affiliate marketing based revenue model.

Check out the report here:

The sector witnesses higher funding volumes on a YoY basis, and 2015 has kept the momentum, with the highest funding volume being raised in the year

Funding volumes in Online Retail still see high levels, with the trend continuing in 2015 as well. The sector witnesses higher funding volumes on a YoY basis, and 2015 has kept the momentum, with the highest funding volume being raised in the year. So far, 2016 has seen $1.8B in investments. Notable rounds over past 6 months include Jumia’s (part of Africa Internet Group) $326M funding led by Goldman Sachs, AXA, MTN Group, Rocket Internet, and Souq’s $275M round led by Tiger Global, NASPERS, IFC.

The funding has been dominated by the established players in the space, marking gradual consolidation for the industry. For instance, 41% of total funding in 2014-2015 was received by companies founded in 2010 & 2012. Due to this, 2014, in particular, witnessed a surge in funding, with a 94% increase. But there have also been instances of newer companies raising large sums of funding, such as Jet and Mataharimall which received more than $500M in the first 18 months of their conception.

The Tracxn report on the Online Retail space encompasses the sale of consumer goods via a digital channel to a private end user (B2C). According to the report, Over $36B has been invested since 2010, with Marketplace model for horizontal B2C retail, Fashion sector, and private label electronics being the top funded segments.

Another sign of consolidation is the fact that there is a slight fall in the number of deals, indicating higher average ticket sizes. Moreover, funding activity during the last year has been dominated by mature segments such as Horizontal and Fashion.

In terms of geographies, U.S. startups have consistently seen the majority share of the funding But over the last two years, this trend has changed with Indian and Chinese startups now seeing increased funding by value over the last 2 years.

Horizontal is the most funded segment

Among the various segments in Online Retail, startups in the Horizontal segment which include companies selling products across multiple categories have raised the most funding, raising $12.8B funding in 249 rounds since 2011. While the segment consists of large companies including Amazon, eBay, Rakuten, Flipkart, Snapdeal, Coupang, Paytm, Lazada etc., it is also seeing newer unicorns coming from emerging markets such as Souq, Shopclues, and AIG, riding the wave of increased mobile & internet penetration.

The Fashion segment follows, having received ~$8.7B in total funding since 2011 in 847 rounds. Most of the segment’s funding comes from established companies with only one-third of the funding in the period being towards companies founded in 2011 and beyond.

500 Startups is the Most Active Investor

Early Stage VC firm 500 Startups tops the list of active investors, having invested in 15 companies including Ipsy, Barkbox, Le Tote, and Tokyo Otaku Mode. Tiger Global, Accel Partners, and Sequoia Capital also feature.

Disclaimer: Lazada’s recent $1B funding round has not been included in the report

Preview the report here:

The funding volumes in Local Services surged by 176%, with 2015 seeing the highest amount of funding with a total investment of $2.3B

According to our Tracxn Report, the funding volumes in Local Services surged by 176% over the last year, seeing the highest amount of funding with a total investment of $2.3B. The funding surge began in 2014 with the funding amounts in the Horizontal segment increasing by more than three times. In fact, Investments in the Horizontal and Personal Services sub-segments witnessed an increase of 267% and 238% in 2015 compared to 2014. Notable investments during the year include 58Daojia raising $300M in Series A funding from Alibaba Group, global investment firm KKR and Ping An Group. The year also witnessed Handy raise $50M in its Series C funding led by Fidelity Management.

Our Local Services report covers companies operating in Local Services market that provide web/mobile platforms for consumers to discover and book services/service providers for home services (i.e. cleaning, repair, painting, landscaping, remodeling etc.), personal services (laundry, beauty, massage, fitness), auto services, caregivers and technical support. According to the report, the companies have raised more than $4.7B in cumulative funding through 844 deals.

In terms of deals, the sector has also seen a greater number of rounds in 2015, increasing to 285 from the 191 deals in 2014. Among these deals in 2015, the Home services and Personal Services segments accounted for 27% and 25% of the total funding.

The deals in 2015 have largely been in the form of Early stage rounds, with their number increasing to 310, compared to the 177 deals in 2014. The number of late-stage deals has also increased significantly. The Horizontal segment accounted for ~40% of the late-stage deals while Home Services and Personal Services sub-segment accounted for 30% and 29% of the early stage deals.

Along with the increase in investments, the sector has also seen a 67% rise in the number of startups being founded, compared to 2014. 45% of these companies are founded in Personal Services segment. Companies in Horizontal segment has seen an increase of 152% in 2015 when compared to 2014.

Horizontal is the highest funded segment followed by Home Services and Personal Services

Currently, in terms of funding, the Local Services space has been dominated by startups in the Horizontal space, raising around $1.35B out of which $565M was secured in 2015. Angie’s List and Yelp are the two major players in Horizontal segment to go public in November 2011 and March 2012 respectively. Thumbtack (founded in 2008) achieved unicorn status in 2015.

The Home Services segment follows, raising a total of $1.2B, 55% of which came in during 2015. Startups in this segment include Handy, Houzz, To8to, Porch, Helpling, and PaintZen.

500 Startups is the Most Active Investors

Early Stage venture capital firm 500 Startups is the most active investor in local services, having invested in four companies, namely StyleSeat, TaskRabbit, MyTime, and KFit. Y Combinator, Sequoia Capital, Matrix Partners, Great Oaks Venture Capital, and SV Angel, also feature in the list.  
Note: The Report excludes offline first companies, classifieds, local shopping, transport services and hyper-local delivery players operating in Food industry.

Preview the Report here:

A daily newsletter summarizing recent activity & interesting start-ups globally

RECENT NOTABLE ACTIVITY – BITCOIN

• Coinsource, a Bitcoin ATM network operator, opens the city’s first bitcoin ATM in San Francisco. Link
• Kraken, a bitcoin exchange, raises an undisclosed amount in series B funding from Money Partners Group, expands in Japan. Link
• BitKan, a bitcoin focused data and trading services provider, raised $1.6M in series A funding from Bitmain, Beijing based mining giant. Link

SOME INTERESTING STARTUPS FOUND

PayGroove (2015, Sydney) – Bitcoin payment services for game developers.
Card for Coin (2014, Atlanta) – Bitcoin payment services enabling bitcoin payments in coffee shops.

LEADER BOARD – BITCOIN

Trading and Investments – Exchange
Coinbase (2012, SF, $106M) – Digital wallet and payment gateway solution provider for Bitcoins. Backed by DFJ Growth, Reinventure, NYSE, BBVA Ventures.
itBit (2012, Tower (Minnesota), $28M) – Provider of Blockchain & Bitcoin trading and transaction services. Backed by RRE Ventures, Canaan Partners, Liberty City Ventures.
Bitstamp (2011, London, $10M) – Bitcoin Exchange for European Union. Backed by Pantera Capital. 

Trading and Investments – Enablers
TradeBlock (2013, NYC, $2.8M) – Online platform for Cryptocurrency data and research. Backed by FinTech Collective, Andreessen Horowitz.

Mining
21 Inc. (2013, SF, $121M) – Provider of Bitcoin mining hardware. Backed by Pantera Capital, RRE, Khosla Ventures, Qualcomm Ventures, .
Bitfury (2012, SF, $65M) – Provides mining hardware for Bitcoins. Backed by DRW, Georgian Co-Investment fund, QueensBridge Venture Partners.
KnCMiner (2013, Stockholm, $29M) – Provider of ASIC chips software & services for Bitcoin mining. Backed by Accel Partners, Creandum.

Payments – Payment Gateway
Bitpay (2011, Atlanta, $32.5M) – Bitcoin payment processor. Backed by Index Ventures, Founders Fund, RRE Venutres, TTV Capital.
Bitnet (2014, SF, $14.5M) – Digital commerce platform. Backed by Highland Capital Partners, DCG, Commerce Ventures, Buchanan Capital.

Payments – Wallet
Circle (2013, Boston, $76M) – Digital currency wallet with offline storage. Backed by Breyer Capital, Accel Partners, Pantera Capital, General Catalyst Partners.
Xapo (2012, Palo Alto, $40M) – Cold storage vault and Bitcoin wallet. Backed by Ribbit Capital, Index Ventures, Emergent partners, Greylock Partners.
Blockchain (2011, SF, $30M) – Bitcoin wallet and block explorer. Backed by Lightspeed Venture partners, Future perfect Ventures.

Payments – ATM
Bitaccess (2013, Ottawa, $10M) – Bitcoin ATM provider. Backed by Pantera Capital, Y Combinator.

Alternate Financing
BTCjam (2013, SF, $7M) – P2P Bitcoin lending. Backed by Ribbit Capital, Pantera Capital, Funders Club, Foundation Capital.
Bitbond (2013, Berlin, $938K) – A Bitcoin based P2P lending platform. Backed by Point Nine Capital.

Alternate Cryptocurrency
Neucoin (2014, Paris, $2.25M) – Alternate cryptocurrency for micro transactions. Backed by Angel Investors.
Digibyte (2013, Idaho Falls (US), $250K) – Altcoin based decentralized payment network.

Leader board includes all the top funded, IPO and successfully running bootstrapped companies along with their location, founding year and funding amount.

For latest updates, visit Bitcoin feed.

A daily newsletter summarizing interesting Indian startups and recent activity both in India & globally

INTERESTING STARTUPS

Zarget (2015, Chennai) Provider of web optimization tool based on A/B testing. Founders are from Zoho and Anna University. Global comparable is Optimizely (2010, SF, $146M)

INDIA INTERESTING NEWS

Milkbasket (2015, Gurgaon) Subscription based daily need items delivery company raises $500K in pre-series A funding led by EVC ventures Link

CareOnGo (2016, Delhi) Mobile chain of co-branded pharmacies raises undisclosed amount in pre-series A funding led by Farooq Oomerbhoy of FAO ventures Link

Letreach (2015, Delhi) Online tool for sending newsletters through social media and Spinsvilla(2015,Douglas) Entertainment gambling website raises funding from vCommission (2008, Delhi) CPA based affiliate network Link  

Sandiip Modi, Mumbai based entrepreneur acquires Street Jumper (2014, Jaipur) Mobile app for local delivery in an all cash deal Link

Hello Curry (2013, Hyderabad) Quick service restaurant acquires First Meal (2015, Hyderabad) Online subscription based breakfast delivery company Link

Enam Holdings acquires minority stake in Arre (2015, Mumbai) Digital content platform Link

Snapdeal (2010, Delhi) Online retail marketplace appoints former HUL Brand Director Kanika Karla as VP of Marketing Link

GLOBAL ROUNDUP

Ant Financial, the Alibaba affiliate that runs Alipay and other financial services raises $4.5B in series B funding at a valuation of $60B Link

Remitly (2011, Seattle) Money transfer service raises $38M in a funding round led by Stripes Group with participation from DFJ, DN Capital, Bezos Expeditions, and Trilogy Equity Partners  Link

bitFlyer (2014, Tokyo) Bitcoin exchange and marketplace raises $27M in series C funding from Venture Labo Investment and SBI Investment  Link

RayVio (2012, Hayward) Provider of technology solutions for health and hygiene maintenance raises $26M in funding from IPV Capital and Tsing Capital with participation from existing investors Link

Trōv (2012, SF) Insurance technology provider closes a $26M series C funding from Oak HC/FT, with participation from Australian insurer Suncorp Group, Guidewire and Anthemis Group Link

tado (2011, Munich) Provider of Smart AC management devices for homes raises $23M in capital funding from Inven Capital, the venture capital arm of the Čez Group Link

TaskEasy (2011, Salt Lake City) On-demand exterior maintenance provider raises $12M in series B financing from Delta Electronics Capital with participation from new investors Moderne Ventures, MTD Products Link

Vidsys (2005, Vienna) Provider of Enterprise converged Security and Information Management (CSIM) software raises $11M in funding from Harmony Partners with participation from existing investors NewSpring Capital, Atlanta Equity, Flybridge Capital Partners, and JVax Investment Group Link

Unlockd (2014, NYC) App that allows customers to receive rewards in exchange of ads and special offers when unlocking their phones closes $11M series A round of funding from PLC Ventures, Peter Gammell, Sam Mostyn, Lachlan Murdoch, Radek Sali, and Greg Roebuck Link

UrbanStems (2013, Washington) On-demand flower delivery service raises $7M in series A funding from SWaN & Legend Venture Partners with participation from Middleland Capital, NextGen Venture Partners, Interplay Ventures, and Sagamore Ventures Link

Spark Cognition (2013, Austin) Machine Learning & AI powered security platform provider raises $6M in series B funding from CME Ventures (Chicago Mercantile), Verizon Ventures, The Entrepreneurs’ Fund (TEF) and Alameda Ventures Link

SynergySuite (2011, Dublin) Provider of a SaaS-based restaurant management solution closed an investment round of undisclosed amount from Oyster Capital Partners Link

Nokia (1865, Helsinki) Communication and Information technology company acquires Withings(2008, Moulineaux ) Developer of connected Health products for $192M Link

BBH Capital Partners, the private equity arm of Brown Brothers Harriman & Co., closes Fund V at $802M Link

HTC (1997, Taoyuan) Taiwanese Smartphone Manufacturer creates $100M fund for virtual reality startups Link

A daily newsletter summarizing recent activity & interesting start-ups globally

RECENT NOTABLE ACTIVITY – BANKING TECH

• Tandem Bank, a UK-based digital bank, raised an undisclosed amount in series B-1 funding from Omidyar Network. Link
• Koho, a Canada-based neo-banking application, raised an undisclosed amount from Power Financial. Link
• Travel Note, a US-based travel plan notifier to banks, was acquired by refund.me, an international air passenger rights service provider. Link
• Masthaven, a UK-based online first bank, secured a retail banking license from PRA and FCA. Link
• Goldman Sachs, a US-based investment bank, launched GS bank, an internet based savings bank. Link
• DBS Bank, a Singapore-based multinational banking group, launched a mobile-only bank in India. Link
• Atom Bank, a UK-based internet first bank, launched its mobile banking app. Link
• Yodlee, a US-based financial data API provider, launched a ‘Risk Insight’ solution for lenders. Link
• TD Bank, a Canada-based multinational banking group, launched MySpend, a money management app powered by Moven. Link
• Ally Financial, a US-based bank holding company, launched SplurgeAlert, a financial health app, in beta. Link

SOME INTERESTING STARTUPS FOUND

SolarisBank (2016, Germany) – An API accessible banking platform provider with German banking license.
Masthaven Bank (2015, London) – A licensed internet first bank, which is expected to be launched in Q3, 2016.

LEADER BOARD – BANKING TECH

Alternative Banking
Atom Bank (2014, London, $163M) – UK-based Internet first bank. Backed by Anthemis Group, Polar Capital, Toscafund, BBVA.
Nubank Brasil (2013, Sao Paulo, $98M) – Brazil-based Payments company issuing MasterCard flagged credit cards. Backed by Sequoia Capital, Kaszek Ventures, Founders Fund, QED Investors, Tiger Global.
Starling Bank (2014, London, $70M) – Full stack internet-first bank operating in the UK. Backed by Harald McPike, the founder of QuantRes, a quantitative investment manager.

Data APIs
Yodlee (1999, Redwood City, $134M, Acq.) – Financial data API provider. Backed by Warburg Pincus, Accel Partners, Institutional Venture Partners, Bank of America. Acquired by Envestnet for $590M in August, 2015.
Plaid (2012, SF, $15M) – Provides REST APIs to banks for transactional and account data from other financial institutions. Backed by Spark Capital, Google Ventures, New Enterprise Associates, Felicis Ventures, Homebrew, BoxGroup.

Front end Channel Providers
Strands Labs (2003, SF, $55M) – Personalized digital banking solution provider for banks. Backed by Debaeque, Sequel Venture Partners, BBVA, JLA Ventures.
MX Technologies (2010, Lehi, $53M) – Provides omnichannel banking platforms to the customers of partner banks and financial institutions. Backed by Commerce Ventures, North Hill Ventures, TTV Capital, Digital Garage.

Payments
AGS Transact Technologies (2002, Mumbai, $80M) – End to end payment solutions provider. Backed by TPG Capital and Actis.
Financial Software Systems (1991, Chennai, $70M) – Provider of electronic payment & financial transaction processing solutions. Backed by New Enterprise Associates, Jacob Ballas Capital India Private Limited, Carlyle Group.

Fraud & Risk Management 
Guardian Analytics (2005, Mountain View, $44M) – Provides fraud prevention solutions for protecting online channels and accounts for banks. Backed by Foundation Capital, Sutter Hill Ventures, Split Rock Partners, Triangle Peak Partners.
K2 Intelligence (2009, NYC, $29M) – Provides specialized risk services and solutions to banks, sovereign nations and individuals. Backed by RRE Ventures.

Marketing Solutions
Cardlytics (2008, Atlanta, $143M) – Card-linked marketing services provider for banks. Backed by Discovery Capital, Canaan Partners, Polaris Partners, TTVCapital, Aimia, Kinetic Ventures.

Regulatory & Compliance Solutions
Metricstream (1999, Palo Alto, $125M) – Provides solutions for quality management, regulatory compliance, risk management, and corporate governance. Backed by Gold Hill Capital, Montage Capital, Goldman Sachs, Advanced Equities, Vision Capital Advisors, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Sageview Capital, Kaiser AG.
Verafin (2003, St. Johns, $66M) –  Provides compliance, anti-money laundering (AML) and fraud detection softwares for banks. Backed by Spectrum Equity.

Back end Solutions
Alteryx (2010, Irvine, $163M) – SaaS Analytics business suite provider for banks. Backed by Sapphire Ventures, Toba Capital, Insight Venture Partners, Iconiq Capital, Meritech Capital Partners.
Fenergo (2009, Dublin, $80M) – Web-based client onboarding lifecycle management solution provider. Backed by Investec, Insight Partners.

A daily newsletter summarizing recent activity & interesting start-ups globally

RECENT NOTABLE ACTIVITY – INVESTMENT TECH

• Swanest, a platform for building and managing personalized investment strategies, raised $10M seed round led by Andreessen Horowitz. Link
• Asoko Insight, a database for information on African private companies, raised an undisclosed amount of funding from Singularity Investments. Link
• Dataminr, a crowdsourced data analytics platform, raised $130M Series D funding led by Fidelity. Link
• Robinhood, a zero commission stock trading app, launched China wait-list. Link

SOME INTERESTING STARTUPS FOUND

Dwellxchange (2015, NYC, Undisclosed) – Online marketplace that allows homeowner to sell an equity interest in their property, to a third-party passive investor, using crowdfunding.
Spark Finance (2015, San Diego) – Mobile app for scanning, analyzing and sorting stocks based on technical, fundamental and sentiment data.

LEADER BOARD – INVESTMENT TECH

Public Market Investing – Securities Trading
Charles Schwab (1971, SF, IPO) – Financial institution providing flat-fee brokerage service. Went public in 1987.
Vanguard (1975, Pennsylvania) – Privately owned investment manager with a discount brokerage arm for self directed investors.
E*Trade (1982, NYC, IPO) – Online discount brokerage for self directed investors. Went public in 1996.
MotifInvesting (2010, San Mateo, $126M) – Online flat-fee brokerage offering theme based investing. Backed by Renren, JPMorgan Chase, Foundation Capital, Norwest Venture Partners, Goldman Sachs, Ignition Partners and Balderton Capital.
Robinhood (2012, Palo Alto, $66M) – Zero commission, mobile first trading platform. Backed by Index Ventures, NEA, Google Ventures, Ribbit Capital, IT Ventures, QueensBridge Venture Partners.

Public Market Investing – Algorithmic Trading
Quantopian (2011, Boston, $24M) – Browser based algorithmic trading platform. Backed by Spark Capital, Khosla Ventures, Bessemer venture Partners, Wicklow Capital.
Rizm (2011, NYC, $4.5M) – Platform for creating, back testing, simulating and launching trading algorithms. Backed by angel investors.

Public Market Investing – Social Trading
EToro (2007, Limassol, $73M) – Social network for traders to connect with peers and mirror their trades. Backed by Spark Capital, Social Leverage, BRM Capital, Cubit Investments, SBT Venture Capital, Venture 51.
Covestor (2005, Boston, $24M, Acq.) – Platform for individual investors to select successful investors and mirror their trades. Acquired by Interactive Brokers Group in April 2015.
Ayondo (2008, London, $10M) – Social trading network that allows traders to copy the actions of the expert traders automatically. Backed by Luminor Capital, Next Generation Finance Invest, Falk Strascheg Holding.

Wealth Management 
Schwab Intelligent Portfolios (2015, SF, IPO) – Fully automated investment advisory service for consumers offered by Charles Schwab & Co. Also offers an Institutional version for RIAs. The parent company went IPO in 1987.
Vanguard Personal Advisor Services (2015, Pennsylvania) – Robo-hybrid service offered by Vanguard group that manages client portfolio using in-house technology.
Wealthfront (2008, Palo Alto, $129.5M) – Fully automated investment service with a focus on the mass affluent. Backed by Spark Capital, Index Ventures, Ribit Capital and DAG Ventures.
Betterment (2008, NYC, $105M) – Fully automated investment service with a focus on goal based investments. Also offers a B2B service for RIAs. Backed by Francisco Partners, Menlo Ventures, Bessemer Venture Partners, Northwestern Capital & Globespan Capital.
PersonalCapital (2009, Redwood City, $104M) – Robo-Hybrid service that provides digital investment advise. Backed by Corsair Capital, Crosslink Capital, Venrock Capital and Institutional Venture Partners.

Private Market Investing – Venture Capital
CircleUp (2011, SF, $53M) – Platform that provides direct investment access to accredited investors in consumer products and retail private companies. Backed by Canaan Partners, Union Square Ventures.
AngelList (2010, SF, $24M) – Platform facilitating fundraising for startups from accredited investors. Backed by Google Ventures, Atlas Ventures.
Gust (2004, NYC) – Platform for accredited investors to connect with startup companies and fund them. Backed by Rose Tech Ventures.

Private Market Investing – Real Estate
RealtyMogul (2013, LA, $45M) – Online marketplace for real-estate, connecting borrowers and sponsors to accredited and institutional investors. Backed by Sorenson Capital, Canaan Partners.
Fundrise (2010, Washington, $40M) – Real-Estate investing and crowdfunding platform. Backed by Renren, Camber Creek.
RealtyShares (2013, Mountain View, $34M) – Online marketplace for real-estate investing. Backed by Menlo Ventures, General Catalyst Partners, 500 Startups.

Private Market Investing – Precious Metals
BullionVault (2005, London, $18M) – Online marketplace for buying selling gold and silver. Backed by Augmentum Capital and World Gold Council.
BitGold (2014, Toronto, IPO) – Platform for savings and payments in gold. Backed by PortVesta Holding, Power Capital Markets, Soros Brothers Investments. Went public in 2015.

Data Platform
Bloomberg (1981, NYC) – Privately held data company providing financial data, analytic, news and insights.
S&P CapitalIQ (1999, NYC) – Data service that provides multi-asset class and real time data, financial research and analytics.

A daily newsletter summarizing recent activity & interesting start-ups globally

RECENT NOTABLE ACTIVITY – TRANSPORT TECH

• Cab-hailing app Cabify raises $120m at a $320m valuation led by Rakuten. Link
• On-demand valet parking app, Luxe raised $50m in Series B funding from Hertz Global Holdings, Redpoint Ventures, Venrock and others. Link
• Hyper-local online marketplace that facilitates auto-rickshaw rides and food and grocery deliveries, Jugnoo raises $10 million in funding round led by Paytm. Link
• TransLoc, a leading provider of transit technology, raises $8 Million Series A round led by SJF Ventures and Fontinalis Partners. Link
• On-demand Valet service, Valet Anywhere raises funding from Cambridge Technology Enterprises. Link

SOME INTERESTING STARTUPS FOUND

Mom On Wheels (2016, London) – Provides on-demand and scheduled rides for kids.  
Kommen (2016, Frisco) – Mobile app that lets users book scheduled Uber rides.
Urban Taxi (2016, Guatemala) – Reverse auction based Taxi hailing platform.

LEADER BOARD – TRANSPORT TECH

Cab hailing
Uber (2009, SF, $10.11B) – To ride-seekers, Uber is a taxi service, while to drivers, it functions as a referral service. Recent valuation of $55B. Backed by First Round Capital, Benchmark, Menlo Ventures, Baidu, Fidelity Investments, Google Ventures and Tata Capital among others.
Didi Kuaidi (2012, Beijing, $4.42B) – Didi Kuaidi is a company made up of China’s two largest taxi-hailing firms- Didi Dache and Kuaidi Dache as result of a merger in Feb 2015. Valued at $15 B. Backed by Tencent and Alibaba among others.
Lyft (2012, SF, $2.11B) – Lyft facilitates cab hailing and peer-to-peer ridesharing by connecting passengers who need a ride with drivers. Majority ride providers are professional drivers. Backed by A16Z, Alibaba and Facebook among others.
Ola (2011, Bengaluru, $1.2B) – A mobile app for personal transportation in India focusing on cab-hailing. Backed by Tiger Global, Matrix Partners, SoftBank, Sequoia, Accel and Didi-Kuaidi among others.
Yongche (2010, Beijing, $790M) – Yidao Yongche is a Chinese domestic platform that enables users to book professional car reservation services online. Backed by ZhenFund, Morningside Group, Qualcomm, LeTV among others
Grab Taxi (2012, Singapore, $680M) – GrabTaxi is an automated location based smartphone booking and dispatch platform for the taxi industry in South East Asia. Backed by Vertex Ventures, Tiger Global, SoftBank and Qunar among others.

Ride Sharing
Blablacar (2004, Paris, $311.5M) – BlaBlaCar connects drivers who have empty seats with people looking for a ride through their car share service. Focuses on longer trips. Backed by Index ventures, Accel and Insight partners among others.

Peer to Peer Car Rentals 
PPZuche (2013, Shanghai, $120M) – P2P car sharing platform. Backed by Tiantu Capital, Sequoia, Morningside Group and IDG Capital Partners.
Turo (2009, SF, $95M) – P2P car sharing platform. Backed by KPCB, Google ventures, August Capital and GM ventures among others.

On-Demand Driver
Edaijia (2011, Beijing, $125M) – Edaijia allows users to find and connect with the nearest available temporary drivers via their app. Backed by LSVP and Matrix Partners among others.
 
Public Transport
Moovit (2011, Ness Ziona, $81.5M) – Moovit gives commuters a complete real-time snapshot of what their trip will be like and suggests the fastest, most comfortable routes. Backed by Sequoia and Gemini investors among others.
 
Smart Shuttle Service 
Dada bus (2014, Shenzhen, $59M) – Dada Bus is a bus ridesharing app for a shuttle service that leverages big data to smartly match users with routes. It currently operates over 800 buses in seven Chinese cities

Bi-Cycle
Zagster (2007, Boston, $7M) – Zagster is a bike sharing service that designs, builds, and operates private bike sharing programs backed by Fontinalis Partners and Launch Capital among others. 
 
Employee Transportation Services
Move In Sync (2009, Bengaluru, $3.5M) – MoveInSync Technology Solutions is a employee transportation solutions provider. Backed by Inventus Capital Partners, Qualcomm Ventures, Saama Capital
 
Route Optimization
Auto Navi (2002, Beijing, $40M, Acq.) – AutoNavi Holdings is the leading provider of digital map content and navigation solutions in China. Acquired by Alibaba for $1.5B in 2014.
 
Traffic Optimization
Inrix (2004, Kirkland, $143M) – Inrix is a global SaaS company which provides applications pertaining to road traffic control. It is a serial acquirer targeting comprehensive traffic data. Backed by August Capital, Venrock, Bain Capital, KPCB, Intel Capital, Porsche

A daily newsletter summarizing recent activity & interesting start-ups globally

RECENT NOTABLE ACTIVITY – FIELD FORCE AUTOMATION

• Mobilelogix, a mobile workforce management software raises $2.2M. Link
• Gobridgit, a construction software provider for field workforce raises $1.7M. Link
• MarketsandMarkets estimates field service management market to grow from $1.97 Billion in 2015 to $5.11 Billion in 2020. Link

SOME INTERESTING STARTUPS FOUND

Crew (2015, SF) – Messaging and communication app for mobile workforce with features to send tasks and goals and manage group schedules.
Aecore (2015, San Jose) – Cloud based construction project collaboration software with features for RFI, document sharing and task management. 

LEADER BOARD – FIELD FORCE AUTOMATION

Services – Suites
PTC (1982, Needham, IPO) – Offers software products for manufacturing companies for 2D & 3D Computer Aided Design, Product Lifecycle Management, Engineering Calculations, Application Lifecycle Management, Technical Documentation and Service Lifecycle Management. Went public in 1989. Acquired Coldlight in May, 2015. 
ClickSoftware Technologies (1996, Burlington, IPO, Acq.) – Provides service optimization suite of solutions with features for service scheduling and routing by balancing resources and organizational preferences, performance measurements etc. Went public in 2000. Acquired by Francisco Partners in 2015.
TOA Technologies (2003, Beachwood, $96M, Acq.) – Provides workforce management solution with time-based predictive analytics platform which learns field work according to each employee and tracks progress on real time. Backed by Intel Capital, TCV, SHV, Fort Washington. Acquired by Oracle in 2014.
Servicemax (2007, Pleasanton, $202M) – Provides field service managment solution with equipment and inventory tracking, scheduling, workforce optimization, dispatching features. Backed by KPCB, GE Ventures, Trinity Ventures, Premji Invest, CrossLink Capital, Mayfield Fund, Adam Street Partners, Meritech Capital Partners, Emergence Capital Partners.

Services – Suites – Home Services
ServiceTitan (2012, Glendale, $18M) – A SaaS based field service solution for home services with features such as CRM, intelligent dispatch, comprehensive reporting, marketing management tools, mobile connectivity for field techs etc. Backed by BVP, Mucker Capital, I2BF Digital, and AMENALAV Group.
 
Services – Data Collection
ProntoForms (2001, Ottawa, IPO) – Platform for field personnels to help in data collection, surveys, inspections with features for customization, work orders etc. Went public on Canadian Venture Exchange in 2005.

Sales & Marketing – Suites
Spring Mobile Solutions (2001, Seattle, $78M) – Provides SaaS based solution for field sales marketing and distribution teams with features to plan routes for sales and delivery, messaging and collaboration, sales materials, territory management etc. Backed by Goldman Sachs, NEA, Sapphire Ventures.
Clari (2012, Mountain View, $26M) – Mobile app for sales personnel which enables sales managers and sales ops teams to view deal progress in real-time along with predictive analytics. Backed by Sequoia, Bain Capital, North Gate Capital.
 
Sales & Marketing – Data Collection
Gigwalk (2010, SF, $18M) – Provides crowdsourced field data collection as well as app for field workforce management and data collection for enterprises. Backed by Nokia Growth Partners, Greylock, August Capital, Soft Tech Ventures and Harrison Metal .

Construction – Suites
Vela Systems (2005, Burlington, $22M, Acq.) – App for Jobsite worker to access documents and to complete QA/QC inspections, worklists, punchlists, field reports etc. Backed by Launchpad Venture, Common Angels, Coomonwealth Capital Ventures. Acquired by Autodesk in 2012.
Procore Technologies (2003, Carpinteria, $101M) – SaaS based tool for construction project management, provides mobile app for bidding, document management, budgeting, creating RFIs and managing contracts. Backed by Iconic Capital and Bessemer Venture Partners.

Construction – Collaboration
Plangrid (2011, SF, $59M) – Plangrid is an application to store and publish construction document and plans in the cloud and publish changes so that all the users can get updated instantly. A Y-Combinator (W12) company backed by GV, Founders Fund, Sequoia, Navitas Capital and 500 startups.

Leader board includes all the top funded, IPO and successfully running bootstrapped companies along with their location, founding year and funding amount.

For latest updates, visit Field Force Automation feed.

A daily newsletter summarizing recent activity & interesting start-ups globally

RECENT NOTABLE ACTIVITY – IT OPERATIONS

• Nexthink, an end-user analytics solution, preparing for IPO after raising $40M Series E funding led by Highland Europe. Link
• Virtual Instruments, an infrastructure performance management platform merges with Load DynamiX, a storage performance analytics and gets funding of $20M led by HighBar Partners. Link
• Sysdig, a container monitoring company raises $15M Series B funding from Accel and Bain Capital Ventures. Link
• Takipi, SaaS based application error and performance monitoring solution, secures $15M Series B funding from LSVP and Menlo Ventures. Link
• Jolata, network performance analytics, raises $7M Series B funding from Spirent Communications, Ericsson and ATA Ventures. Link
• Druva, an enterprise endpoint backup & data loss prevention solution, receives an undisclosed strategic investment from NTT Finance. Link

SOME INTERESTING STARTUPS FOUND

DeferPanic (2015, SF) – Performance monitoring for Go language applications.

LEADER BOARD – IT OPERATIONS

As Netflix increases its footprint to 130 countries, the video streaming company will look at the expansion to increase its subscriber base. But Netflix’s dominance across these different geographies, including the U.S., will be challenged by the local players, many of whom are being backed by gigantic media houses such as Sony Pictures or Warner Brothers.

In line with this, Tracxn looks at some of the Netflix’s biggest competitors from home and across the globe.

Netflix has been a bellwether in the video streaming space for quite some time now. It has the tools and the knowledge to enter new geographies and make its mark there. But with local players being as dominant as they are, Netflix will find certainly find a seat in Asia but where it will dominate these markets is yet to be seen. 

The following companies have been covered in this infographic : Ivi.ru, Zoomby.ru, Amazon Prime, Hulu, Vudu, iROKOtv, ONTAPTv, ShowMax, iflix, HOOQ, Voot, hotstar, iQIYI, LeTV, QQLive, Quickflix, Presto, Wuaki.tv, and Watchever

The re-emergence of electric vehicle industry

Electric Vehicles came into existence in the early 19th century and became popular towards late 19th century. Post this, the preference for petroleum-based vehicles increased over the years. However, in the last 30 years, the ill-effects of fossil fuels and the rising oil-prices have led to the re-emergence of the electric vehicle industry. Many traditional automakers started developing electric vehicles powered by lead acid batteries in 1990s. This is where Tesla came in.

Tesla responded with better technology: the rise of battery powered cars

Tesla Motors responded with Li-ion battery powered cars and others followed suit. Tesla, an electric sports car manufacturer, was founded in 2003 and brought out its first all-electric model in 2008. Automakers such as Mitsubishi, Nissan, General Motors, BMW, Toyota, Mercedes and others started working on improved electric cars during this period and soon launched their own all-electric versions. The market started to pick up. A number of companies started working on developing advanced electric vehicles and the market saw the birth of companies like Fisker Automotive and Coda Automotive. Investors also started showing interest in the industry and funds starting pouring in.

Support infrastructure developed parallely

With the increase of electric vehicles in the market, the need for support infrastructure and solutions also saw a rise. This resulted in companies focusing on developing charging stations and infrastructure. A number of companies such as Car Charging Group, ChargePoint, Better Place and ECOtality were founded around 2006-2009. These companies raised significant funding over the next few years.

A small bump in the ride of electric vehicles industry

The years from 2011 to 2013 were the years of mixed emotions for the electric vehicle industries. On one hand, sales of electric vehicles were on a high while on the other some of the major players in this industry were facing financial troubles and shutting down their operations. Companies like Fisker Automotive, Coda Automotive and Think Global, three of the major electric car manufacturers went bankrupt after raising huge sums of money. The financial troubles were not only witnessed by the vehicle manufacturers but also by companies developing charging infrastructure and those developing electric vehicle components. 

List of companies which collapsed after raising huge funding

This was just a small bump in the ride of the electric vehicle industry. Along with the electric cars, the market saw the rise of companies focused on developing electric two-wheelers such as scooters and motorcycles. These companies have also seen high funding in the last 3 years.

List of major two wheeler developers

Globally the sector is  being looked at with high potential

Last two to three years have seen investments from some large conglomerates in electric vehicle. Even renowned names from outside the electric vehicle industry have joined in and are actively supporting the growth of the industry :

• Panasonic Corporation invested in a $130M funding round in Gogoro, a Taiwan based electric scooter and battery-swapping infrastructure developer. Panasonic is the battery cell manufacturer for Gogoro. Gogoro is also backed by Dr. Samuel Yin, the Chairman of Ruentex Financial Group and Cher Wang, the Co-Founder, Chairwoman, CEO & President at HTC.
• LeEco (aka LeTV), a Chinese conglomerate, unveiled its concept car LeSEE a few days back. LeSEE is an all-electric autonomous car. LeEco has also partnered with Faraday Future, an upcoming electric car developer.
• Padmasree Warrior joins in as US CEO for NextEV, a Chinese electric car company which raised a $500M funding round in 2015. Padmasree Warrior was the Chief Technology & Strategy Officer at Cisco and before that CTO at Motorola. She also sits on the Board of companies like Microsoft, Box and Gap.

The industry is on its rise. Though, the recent oil-price crash of 2015 can be seen as a threat to the electric vehicle industry.