03/17/2008
Gizmoz raised $6.5 million from Japanese mobile operator DoCoMo
Gizmoz, a provider of 3D talking characters that enable individuals to put a unique face and voice to their digital communications, raised $6.5 million in Series B financing. The investment was led by DoCoMo Capital, a subsidiary of Japan's biggest mobile phone operator NTT DoCoMO, with additional funding from ngi capital. Series A investors Benchmark Capital and Columbia Capital also participated in the round.
Gizmoz also announced an agreement with AOL to allow users of its instant messaging service AIM to create 3D, talking Gizmoz characters to personalize their messages. The highly-engaging, animated Gizmoz Expressions can be customized, using a digital photograph and personal message, to trigger verbal and facial reactions as key words are typed in the instant message window.
Gizmoz will use the new strategic round to fund expansion into the Asian mobile internet market. "Gizmoz has enjoyed widespread adoption by consumers, advertisers and media partners over the last year, and with a number of exciting new products, programs and partnerships underway, the company is poised for significant expansion in 2008," said Eyal Gever, Gizmoz CEO. "As we move forward on a number of key initiatives, building cross platform synergies into our service is at the top of the list. To pursue our strategy, Asia will be key. This financing will play an important role in helping us develop unique offerings for this market."
"Gizmoz has done an excellent job of creating a social media platform for user-generated content that is unlike anything that exists in the world today," said Nobuyuki Akimoto, president and CEO of DoCoMo Capital. "Gizmoz's offerings come at an opportune time in the development of Japan's extensive mobile ecosystem, and they should feed the strong desire of Japanese consumers to embrace innovative content enhanced by Gizmoz's technology."
In May 2007, the Israeli provider of 3D animated avatars has secured $6.3 million Series A investment from Benchmark Capital and Columbia Capital. The company has offices in Menlo Park, CA and Ramat Gan, Israel.
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18:40 Posted in User Generated Content | Permalink | Comments (0) | Email this | Tags: Gizmoz, DoCoMo, AOL, AIM service, social media platform, 3D animated avatars, user-generated content
01/23/2007
Blog and media search startup Wikio raised $5.3 million from Lightspeed and Gemini Israel Funds
European blogging platform and news search startup Wikio has raised $5.3 million in a financing round led by Lightspeed Venture Partners along with Gemini Israel Funds. The new round of financing will enable Wikio to expand globally, and deliver innovative and customizable web based information services.
Wikio, launched in France in June 2006, and currently operating sites in France, United States, Germany, Italy and Spain, is the first European blog and media search engine. The launch of the Wikio UK site is planned for the second quarter of 2007, followed by additional European and American sites.
“The tremendous growth and popularity of Wikio boils down to its innovative product. Personalizing and organizing information in a compelling way is becoming an increasingly important tool for consumers,” said Yoni Cheifetz, partner, Lightspeed Venture Partners. “Coupled with the company’s strong business model, we’re in a very good position to help Wikio become a leading information platform for European and global customers.”
Based on Web 2.0 technologies, Wikio allows users to easily create and build their own personalized webpage of information based on tags that they select. Wikio, like the US based popular news aggregators websites Digg and Netscape, present news headline with links to original article, that generated by european users. Wikio’s shareholders include business angels such as Loic Le Meur, VP Sixapart Europe, Martin Varsavsky CEO FON, Freddy Mini COO Netvibes, Ouriel Ohayon Editor Techcrunch France, and Jeff Clavier.
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18:45 Posted in User Generated Content | Permalink | Comments (1) | Email this | Tags: blogging tools, search engine, startup, Wikio, Ouriel Ohayon
11/09/2006
Answers.com acquires Wiki-based community site FAQ Farm for $2 million
Answers Corp, creators of information sites Answers.com, acquires of FAQ Farm, a wiki-based community site website, for $2 million in cash. The initial integration of FAQ Farm into Answers.com is expected to launch in Q1, 2007.
Founded in 2002 by Chris Whitten, FAQ Farm generates over 12 million pageviews per month, has 280,000 unique questions and answers on its website, and over 100,000 registered "FAQ Farmer" contributors. As is common in wikis, FAQ Farm's questions and answers are submitted by members of the community and then enhanced over time to increase accuracy, reliability and relevance.
"The acquisition of FAQ Farm is the next logical step forward in our mission of becoming the leading online answer-engine, whether answers come from our existing library of licensed, branded, attributable reference titles, from the web, or now from a community of experts or interested participants," said Bob Rosenschein, CEO of Answers.com.
Answers.com offers visitors free access to comprehensive information on almost four million topics, drawn from over 100 branded encyclopedias, dictionaries, thesauruses and other sources. FAQ Farm acquisition represents Answers' initial foray into the burgeoning area of community and user generated content.
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19:35 Posted in User Generated Content | Permalink | Comments (0) | Email this | Tags: user generated content, We 2.0, Answers.com, FAQ Farm
11/07/2006
NuConomy launches incentives platform to moneterise from user generated content
Web 2.0 startup NuConomy announced the beta release of NuConomy Studio, a new incentives management platform that gives web based businesses the opportunity to moneterise from user generated content (UGC).
With NuConomy Studio platform, digital content providers can seamlessly build customized revenue sharing, reward point or club card programs based on user performance and contribution. The full-scale OLAP based BI solution can analyze users from each and every possible perspective: by content quality, membership lifetime, overall contribution and more.
NuConomy was founded in 2006 by ex Microsoft Technology Center executive. Shahar Nechmad, NuConomy CEO, was the business development manager of Microsoft MTC in Israel, and Haggai Shachar, NuConomy CTO, was held the position of Integration Division Manager at the Microsoft Technology Center in Israel.
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15:55 Posted in User Generated Content | Permalink | Comments (1) | Email this | Tags: User generated content, Web 2.0, Microsoft Israel, Shahar Nechmad