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Plenummedia Raises $6.5M To Help SMEs In Spain And LatAm Do Business Online, More Acquisitions Expected
More investment activity from Seaya Ventures, after it participated in OpenTable competitor Restalo’s recent $10 million Series B round. This time the Spanish VC is leading a $6.5 million Series B round for Plenummedia, which claims to be the leader in the Spanish “Do-It-For-Me” SME market.
The Madrid-headquartered company provides a full suite of technology tools and services to help small and medium sized companies do business on the Internet, ranging from desktop and mobile websites, email, SEO, Social Media to SEM.
Plenummedia says it plans to use the additional funding, adding to the $4 million it had already raised from private investors, to accelerate growth in Mexico and expand into other LatAm countries. It will also use the new capital to power what it’s calling a “Buy & Build” strategy that should see it add to the four acquisitions it’s already made over the last 18 months to enable it to bolster its proposition to SMEs.
We should also be note that Seaya Partner Michael Kleindl is President and co-founder of Plenummedia, as well as being a previous backer, so the choice of investor isn’t all that surprising.
Calling Plenummedia a one-stop-shop, CEO and co-founder Juan Muñoz Blanco says the startup’s strategy is based on two main assumption. “First, small and medium sized business owners in Spain and LatAm do require service, so we totally believe in the ‘Do-It-For-Me market’,” he says. “Secondly, SME customers do want a fully integrated solution, they do not want the hassle of dealing with different providers for web, mobile, email, SEO, SEM, Social Media etc. Thats why we are building a fully 360 Degree Service and Technology offering tailormade for the SME market.”
Founded in 2009, Plenummedia claims to have broken even in Q1 of 2013, despite having 180 employees in Spain and Mexico. It has 10,000 customers in the two countries it operates in, pointing out that many of these produce reoccurring revenue based on the company’s service model.
Echoing the sentiments of new investor Seaya Ventures, the Plenummedia CEO is also talking up the opportunities offered by the LatAm market, noting that it’s “hugely under-penetrated” and immature in “all areas of digital”, not least in the SME segment, while the main economies are growing at a decent rate and are politically stable. “In our business, contract loyalty, low bad debt rates and relatively low cost of operation favours our model,” he adds.
But, perhaps best of all, there’s “almost no competition”, with Plenummedia’s largest competitors, Reach Local and Yodle, yet to enter the region.
Curated Accessories Startup Boticca Acquires Local French Player, Begins International Expansion
Hot on the heals of its $4M Series A round led-by London-based MMC Ventures, ‘curated’ accessories market Boticca is gunning to be the ‘Fab of accessories’, rolling out internationally. It last funding rounding had a heavy French investor participation – including French Internet entrepreneurs’ fund ISAI – and sure enough its new roll-out is in… France.
Boticca’s main ‘appeal’ is that women get connected to the designer, which is an important component of this market and their brand.
It’s acquiring L’Atelier De La Mode, a leading Paris-based fashion designer marketplace, and simultaneously launching its French website Boticca.fr, its first non-English language website.
Launched in 2008 by Jonathan Lipfeld, L’Atelier De La Mode has garnered close to 100,000 customers in France which now brings Boticca’s own database to 500,000 customers globally. L’Atelier De La Mode’s site will be redirected to Boticca.fr. No employees from L’Atelier De La Mode will be joining Boticca as part of the transaction. The acquisition was for cash and terms were undisclosed sum.
“France was the logical geography for us to begin our internationalisation strategy”, says Kiyan Foroughi, Boticca CEO and co-founder “it’s our number one non-English speaking market, fourth globally in terms of sales after the UK, the US and Australia. The French market is full of potential and we look forward to making the most of it”. It might help that Foroughi and cofounder Avid Larizadeh, are French and grew up in Paris.
Similar US-based companies are doing well. Gemvara has raised $45.2M in total to date. BeachMint has raised $73.5M for its Jewelmint brand.
Android Remote Application Framework Provides True Multi-Screen Experiences For Mobile
Android doesn’t really have an AirPlay equivalent – its Miracast and Mirrorlink technologies are similar, but lack the kind of opportunity Apple’s tech provides to build second screen experiences that work independently of what’s being shown on the original. That’s why Solution57 created their Remote Application Framework (RAF for short), which goes even further, making displays attached to Android devices work more like displays attached to traditional desktop PCs.
Using RAF, Android devs can build experiences that run an app on a remotely connected display while also running separate software on the host device. The host device runs all the apps, and the receiving one displays its contents. UI is completely separate on both devices, which means that a user can play games while also running GPS on a second attached display. It’s a single system, with who separate displays, just like when you plug a monitor into your MacBook Pro.
It’s not exactly the same, though – the connected display still needs to be running some kind of OS itself, which is why RAF is being touted initially as a feature for in-vehicle infotainment (IVI) systems. You can imagine how a GM or a Nissan could implement this kind of functionality easily, no matter whether they’re using an IVI based on QNX or any other non-Android software, allowing users to either opt for their own in-built tools, or have an experience where their Android phone can take over entirely, just like Apple is proposing with its iOS in the Car feature introduced with iOS 7.
It doesn’t require any special changes to Android or the individual apps themselves to work, but Solution57 Director Rafal Malewski tells me in an interview that it would help greatly with adoption if RAF became part of the Mirrorlink official specifications.
“For automotive integration between mobile and IVI, to get proper penetration, we need this to get adopted as an extension to the Mirrorlink spec,” he explained. “We have initiated contact to the Car Connectivity Consortium to see if they are interested in picking up the technology.”
Meanwhile, Solution57 is already in talks to a couple of OEMs for non-IVI use of the remote tech. It’s in use in consumer-facing VNC clients that work on Android, iOS, QNX, Windows and Linux, and there are all kinds of potential applications Malewski sees as possible, including for secondary displays on wearable tech, or on smart controllers for Android-based gaming consoles and smart TVs.
Ultimately, Solution57 wants to see this adopted as a built-in technology by Google, which they’d likely hope would happen via an acquisition of the Danish firm. Currently, it’s available for OEM licensing, and the first devices with RAF integrated should start shipping around the middle of next year is all goes as planned, per Malewski.
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