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Irish firm Profitero wins IBM Global Entrepreneur of the Year

Edward — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 11:43:23 +0000

Volodymyr Pigrukh, Dmitry Vysotski and Kanstantsin Chernysh

Profitero has won the IBM Global Entrepreneur of the Year at the IBM SmartCamp Global Finals in San Francisco, California. The Dublin-based technology company provides a next-generation pricing intelligence service for retailers and manufacturers.
Profitero has already raised €750,000 million in venture capital from Delta Partners and Enterprise Ireland. It has 13 full-time employees.
The firm was founded by Volodymyr Pigrukh (CEO), Dmitry Vysotski (CTO) and Kanstantsin Chernysh (VP Engineering) in late 2010. It has grown in the retail analysis space since its foundation, and now hopes to partner with IBM to expand its operations in the UK and throughout Europe.

Watch video of the founders after their win.

Is VC money for start-ups drying up?

Stephen — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 11:34:10 +0000

Are the geese with the golden eggs flying south for a while?

While the last few years have seen a bit of a boom in venture capital funding for Irish start-ups, the next two years don’t look so rosy. In 2011, 159 Irish technology companies raised €274m from investors while in 2010 tech firms received €310.2m, according to the Irish Venture Capital Association (IVCA).
Since the start of the credit crunch in 2008, 547 Irish SMEs raised venture capital of €1.1bn. “These funds were raised almost exclusively by Irish VCs who during this period supported the creation of up to 20,000 jobs,” says Regina Breheny, director general, IVCA.
“However, there was a sharp fall off in funding in the second half of 2011. This decline is largely due to a pull back by overseas VC investors,” says Maurice Roche, chairman, IVCA and partner, Delta Partners. “We have serious concerns that Irish venture capital firms too will start to run short of funds in 2012. This will place a major brake on the future expansion of Ireland’s indigenous tech sector. In particular start-ups that have received investment in recent years from the Seed Funds will have great difficulty raising additional capital.”

2011 Summary:

Funds Raised
The IVCA VenturePulse survey shows that high tech Irish companies raised €274.4m from investors in 2011, despite the continuing global credit crunch. This compares with funds raised of €310.2m in the same period of 2010 and to €288.1m in 2009. While first half funding in 2011 rose 58% over 2010 to €161.9m, the second half of 2011 saw a decline of 46% to €112.5m.

Companies
The number of companies that raised funds in this period was 159, compared to 156 in 2010 and to 139 in 2009. Amounts raised ranged from €100K to €20m.

Seed/Early Stage
In 2011, 82 companies raised €104.9m (38% of funds raised). This compares with 63 companies and €53.6m (17% of funds raised) in 2010 and with 65 companies and €71.2m (25% of funds raised) in 2009.

Pinterest – the sleeping social giant to watch

Emma — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 10:28:30 +0000

If you haven’t tried using Pinterest, you should. Why? Because it’s quietly becoming a dominant social force on the web and it’s where all the cool people are hanging out. Forget Facebook, Pinterest is a visual social network where people can show off their good taste, not their bad behaviour.

How does it work?
Pinterest is easy and fun. Users simple ‘pin’ content from different sites on the Web to a virtual cork board. There are numerous categories on the cork board such as photography, food, fitness, clothing and home. Users create their own boards and ‘pin’ stuff they find interesting and their followers can see what they pin. Users and followers share information with each other in a visual and interesting way and users can ‘re-pin’ stuff they find interesting.
According to the Ignite Social Media blog, Pinterest’s audience is mainly female – between the ages of 25 to 54. ComScore says the social network has over four million users and the Google Ad Planner shows nearly 1.5 million unique users are visiting Pinterest daily, and spending 14+ minutes on the site. Compare this with the average Facebook user who spends 23 minutes on the site each day.

Getting smarter
What’s interesting about Pinterest is its philosophy – it’s a discover & share social network and poses no real threat to individual privacy. The most ‘damaging’ thing it can do is show other people you have poor taste.
Brands are also paying attention to it. For example, online shopping site Etsy is using it to great effect. It has over 45,000 followers on its Pinterest brand page and every time it pins a new item to its page it essentially advertises that product to its followers.
Brands also don’t have to rely on complex data processing to target specific groups of people because if people are interested in a brand’s products, they’ll simply follow it.
As the first generation of Facebookers mature and it slowly dawns on them that sharing one’s life with hundreds of virtual contacts probably isn’t the smartest thing to do, they will look around for alternative ways of expressing themselves. As people get older they become more private but they remain interested in what other people are doing. Pinterest is a social network for people who are interested in what other people find interesting. That’s what makes it a sleeping giant.

Facebook makes history with its IPO

Gerard — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 10:09:46 +0000

Let the good times roll?

Facebook’s initial public offering (IPO) has thrown up some interesting figures – the kind of figures that either excite or disappoint would be investors. The IPO, which will raise at least $5 billion for the firm this Spring, but could raise as much as $10 billion, is historic. It values the company anywhere between $75-100 billion.

The shape of things to come:

• The company produced a $1.6 billion profit last year from $3.71 billion in revenues
• Zuckerberg has a 28.4% stake in his company but more importantly has 56.9% of the voting shares
• Zuck has complete control of his company and will “control all matters submitted to stockholders for vote, as well as the overall management and direction of our company”
• Zuck only received a salary of $500,000 in 2011 with a bonus of $220,000
• Advertising brought in $3.2 billion of revenues in 2011 compared to $1.9 billion in 2010
• Facebook has 845 million users worldwide, up 39% from 2010
• Research and development costs rose to $114 million in 2011 from $9 million in 2010
• Facebook pocketed $557 million in revenue from social gaming partners such as Zynga in 2011
• The number of ads on the site grew 42% and the average price per ad grew 18% between 2011 and 2010
• Google’s IPO raised $1.9 billion at a valuation of $23 billion in 2004, making Facebook’s IPO the largest ever for a digital company

READ MORE: Who will cash in if Facebook is worth $100 billion?

The year social media made money

Stephen — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 15:51:35 +0000

As Facebook prepares for its IPO and Google+ changes Google search and Twitter sits back on its big pile of investment cash – 2012 in the land of the social media giants already looks interesting.
2011 was the year that defined the big social networks in that they finally started to make some real cash (and late to the party investors looked up).
According to the most recent figures from eMarketer, Twitter’s ad revenues grew 233% in 2011 to reach €139.5 million. LinkedIn, which went public, enjoyed a 95% increase in ad sales to hit $154.6 million. However, with revenues of $4.27 billion in 2011, $3.8 billion of that from advertising, Facebook is the big Daddy on the farm. It also now controls 28% of the online display ad market in the US.
eMarketer predicts Twitter will continue to grow and land ad revenues of $540 million by 2014.

App of the day – Sleep Cycle Alarm Clock

Alejandro — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 15:27:19 +0000

Platform: iOS (iPhone, iPod Touch)

Price: €0.79

Download it from AppStore.

Have you ever woken up feeling completely wrecked when the alarm clock goes off, despite the fact that you have slept “enough” hours? This usually happens when you wake up during a deep sleep phase (and you turn into a zombie for the rest of the morning). Sleep Cycle Alarm Clock uses the accelerometer on your iPhone to detect movement when you are sleeping, and then determine which sleep phase are you in (deep sleep, medium sleep, light sleep or falling sleep). This app uses a 30 minute alarm window that ends at your set alarm time and wakes you up in the lightest sleep phase, so you will be happy and full of energy for the rest of the morning. Obviously, this app is not a substitution for a good night’s rest, but it’s really helpful on nights that you don’t get as much sleep as you wanted. It has a nice design, it’s easy to use and the price is great taking into account the quality of the app. So place your iPhone on your bed before going to sleep and give it a try. Please comment and let us know if you liked the app and if it was useful for you. Sweet dreams!
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Seeking social entrepreneurs – €10,000 on offer

Alejandro — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 15:22:42 +0000

Ben & Jerry

If you have a business (or a business idea) and are committed to sustainability, then you’re what’s known as a [potential] social entrepreneur. The latest prize fund made available for European social entrepreneurs comes from Ben & Jerry’s, the ice cream brand.
The brand is looking for five socially responsible entrepreneurs from across Europe to win the ‘Join our core’ competition. Each winner will receive €10,000 in cash and mentoring from Ashoka. Successful entrants will pitch their ideas to a panel of industry leaders, including Jerry Greenfield (co-founder of Ben & Jerry’s), The Fairtrade Foundation and Ashoka.

Go to joinourcore.com for further details.

70 start-ups apply for NDRC Launchpad

Stephen — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 11:26:28 +0000

70 start-ups, both national and international, have applied for one of the 15 places available on the NDRC (National Digital Research Centre) Launchpad accelerator programme. The programme is designed for digital start-ups and 15 will be selected for the investment stage which starts in mid-February and ends in a competition for a follow-on investment sourced from VCs and angels. NDRC provides up to €20,000 per project in micro-seed investment to support the founders during the programme.
Last year, NDRC Launchpad was identified in the top six best accelerators in Europe following a study by the US Kaufman Fellows Programme. NDRC has supported the acceleration of 30 start-ups through its Launchpad programme since it was established in 2009.
With 70 start ups applying for 15 places, there is clear evidence that more accelerator programmes of the standing of the NDCR Launchpad would be welcomed. The NDRC and its participating start-ups have secured investments of €4.8 million from third party partners in the past 18 months.

Sony experiments with ‘3D sound’

Stephen — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 11:08:32 +0000

Here’s an interesting experiment from Sony. While we know what 3D video is, Sony wanted to add 3D sound to 3D video. So what exactly is ‘3D sound’? Sony says it uses “binaural ’3-Dimensional’ sound overlaid onto imagery”. (Yes, we’re none the wiser either).
The film below was created by acclaimed sound designer Nick Ryan and Sony World Photography Award winner Andrew Scriven. Their task was to “produce a multi-dimensional journey where you, the viewer, can watch and hear what it’s like to be a rock star preparing to go on stage at O2 Academy Brixton”.

Go create your own
You too can get in on the action and create a soundscape. All you need is a microphone or two, a recorder, headphones and sound, then head to the Sony Ireland Facebook page. You can also upload to YouTube to share your creations. Mark your projects with the hashtag #soundscape.

Google set to upgrade its OnePass system

Gerard — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 15:00:49 +0000

paidContent has reported that Google will make some major upgrades to its OnePass paid content system. OnePass, a payment system that lets publishers set the terms for people to access their digital content, is just a year old and hasn’t recruited as many publishers as it first hoped. The changes to the system are, no doubt, an attempt to re-ignite publisher interest.