Today is the anniversary of the Lehman Brothers collapse, which triggered the financial meltdown. That was when ReadWriteWeb started tracking Series A deals in Web technology. Thanks to our partner ChubbyBrain, we can now do this reliably and easily. Executive summary for August: down from July, with seed deals very weak. Analysis: decadent Europeans are not the only ones who take holidays in August. Read on for details.
All That Beach Time Is Bad for Business
August clocked in at $78.6 million, well below the blistering months of May and July, but on par with April and June’s $77.1 million, and more than double that of dismal January.
Here are the month-to-month growth numbers for seed and Series A deals in the Web and mobile space in the US:
- January: $30.3 million
- February: $45.5 million
- March: $55.7 million
- April: $73.7 million
- May: $103.2 million
- June: $77.1 million
- July: $93.5 million
- August: $78.6 million
Get back to work VCs!
Trend-Spotting
Seed activity was pathetic, with only two deals, totaling $1.75 million. This could possibly have been a tracking issue, because seed deals often aren’t reported. That is the next frontier of innovation financing transparency.
Which Ventures Received Money?
- Akademos
- BL Healthcare
- Continuity Engine
- DealBase
- Decision Maker Media
- Fanbase
- Fashion Playtes
- Fwix
- Isocket
- JanRain
- Keisense
- Magnify.net
- Mog
- MyWebGrocer
- NetProspex
- OpenRoad Integrated Media
- Queplix
- RadioTime
- RightsFlow
- Roblox
- SCVNGR
- ShowClix
- SkyBlox
- Socialware
- Urgent Career
- Ustream.TV
- Wanova
- Workface
- Z2Live
- Zumbox
Which VCs Wired the Money?
Co-investors are shown on a single line.
- Altos Ventures, First Round Capital
- Art Bilger, Rick Braddock, Michael Eisner, Bill Guthy, Donn Rappaport
- Arthur Ventures
- Bay Area Equity Fund
- Benchmark Capital
- BlueRun Ventures
- Connecticut Innovations
- DFJ Frontier
- Draper Fisher Jurvetson, Blumberg Capital, Plug and Play Ventures, SoftTech Venture Capital, Founders Fund, TechStars, Metamorphic Ventures, Accelerator Ventures, Quest Venture Partners, GSD&M; IdeaCity, undisclosed angel investors
- First Round Capital
- Greylock Partners, Carmel Ventures, Opus Capital
- Highland Capital Partners
- ICCP Venture Partners, Startup Capital Ventures, ICCP Venture partners
- iNovia Capital
- Javelin Venture Partners
- Kohlberg Ventures
- Madrona Venture Group
- Menlo Ventures, Simon Equity Partners, Scott Jones
- Mueller Media, Undisclosed Angel Investors
- New Atlantic Ventures, LaunchCapital
- NextStage Capital, New York Angels, Rose Tech Ventures, Chris Anderson, Undisclosed Angel Investors
- Originate Ventures
- Pittsburgh Equity Partners
- Richard Tahta, Undisclosed Investors
- Ross Siegelman, Bob Zipp, Josh Hannah, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Amicus Capital, Matrix Partners
- SGIO LLC
- Silverton Partners
- Stripes Group
The Three Biggest Deals
- Wanova: $13 million
Based in: San Jose, California.
Investors: Greylock Partners, Carmel Ventures, Opus Capital.
“Wanova provides Distributed Desktop Virtualization solutions that transform how companies manage, support and protect their desktops and laptops.” - MyWebGrocer: $13 million
Based in: Colchester, Vermont.
Investor: Stripes Group.
MyWebGrocer runs websites on behalf of grocery chains and sells advertising to consumer packaged goods companies across all of the sites, which collectively have a reach of 4 million shoppers. - Zumbox: $8 million
Based in: Westlake Village, California.
Investors: Art Bilger, Rick Braddock, Michael Eisner, Bill Guthy, Donn Rappaport.
Zumbox delivers paperless mail online, from street address to street address.
It is interesting that the investors for the third largest deal are individuals and not a company. $8 million is a lot for individuals. Is this a threat to institutional VC?
Also, the second largest deal comes from a relatively unknown fund (Stripes Group) and a location not normally regarded as a white-hot den of technology (Vermont).
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