PR Analytics Startup TrendKite Raises Another $5M

Erik Huddleston joined PR analytics startup TrendKite as its new CEO back in the middle of 2014, and he told me the company’s been growing quickly since then — there’s been triple digit revenue growth “not just quarter-over-quarter, but almost month-over-month,” and headcount has gone from six employees to 35.

Now Hudddleston plans to speed things up even more with an additional $5 million of funding. That’s on top of the $3.2 million Series A that the company raised last year, and it comes from the same investors, Silverton Partners and Mercury Fund. Huddleston said he’d planned to pitch other investors, but Silverton and Mercury “preempted me” and offered to put up the additional money themselves with the terms that Huddleston was looking for.

TrendKite aims to help brands and agencies measure the effectiveness of their PR efforts. Huddleston said that before joining the company he’d “underestimated the hunger for PR ROI.” (Competitors trying to address that hunger include AirPR, which recently sold off its PR marketplace to focus on its analytics product.)

“PR has always been the red-headed stepchild of the sales and marketing budget,” he added. “It’s so freaking difficult to figure out what you’re actually getting for that spend. … The brands just go crazy for [the data], and for the PR agencies, all of a sudden that’s a killer way of justifying their retainers to the client.”

Not that every PR agency does a great job. Huddleston acknowledged that this can lead to some “awkward conversations,” but he said there are other agencies that actually promote TrendKite to their clients, because it gives them “a single version of the truth” when assessing how well the agency is doing.

Huddleston said the product has become “even sexier” (hey, he said it, not me) since he joined, with the team creating “an ontological representation of the PR universe.”

“By building that sort of ontological representation, we know the semantics of what it means to be Target,” he said. “We know that the articles about retail or fashion are more likely to be relevant to Target than those about, I don’t know, Skeet shooting.”

TrendKite works with more than 100 brands, including Campbell’s Soup, Pinterest, and the Centers for Disease Control. Huddleston plans to invest the additional funding in further product development and doubling or tripling the company’s headcount by the end of the year.

I should also note that, obviously, TrendKite will be running a report on the impact of this story. So, y’know, try to make me look good here, guys.

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Boston Meetup. Tonight. Be There.

Dear Boston,

TechCrunch has arrived. And even through all the snow, I can honestly say that you folks are looking wicked smaht this year.

The Meetup + Pitch-off is going down tonight at Estate at 6pm, and we literally can not wait to see you.

Ten wonderfully brilliant startups will be taking the stage tonight to tell you about their products in sixty seconds or less, with a panel of judges weighing and measuring each to decide who deserves a trip to TechCrunch Disrupt in May.

After the pitch-off, we’ll all get together and have a few beers and chat about what we’re working on.

It’s always fun, and I expect tonight to be better than all previous years combined. But you are a big part of that. You have to show up, with a smile on your face, and your Twitter feed tuned to #TCMeetup.

Sound good?

If you haven’t already done so, you can get tickets here.

Oh, and before I forget… TechCrunch Disrupt NY is going down in May and applications are open for the Disrupt Battlefield, so don’t tarry! Apply now!

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Jawbone Blames Manufacturing Woes For UP3 Delay

Jawbone announced the third generation of its fitness tracker last November but it has yet to ship. Appropriately called the UP3, the device builds upon its two predecessors, adding heart rate monitoring to the mix. The tracker was already delayed once. Now Jawbone tells me that it is having trouble manufacturing the device.

According to a Jawbone spokesperson, the company is having issues maintaining quality when scaling the manufacturing up to the levels it needs to bring the device to market. The UP3 devices built during small test runs work, according to this person.

Predictable, the spokesperson professed that quality is of the utmost importance to Jawbone and the company wants to get the product right. The company hopes to announce a ship date soon.

Jawbone opened pre-orders for the UP3 when the device was announced last November. The company is still taking preorders today even though the UP3 product page states the device will not ship for 10-11 weeks. Pre-orders are fully refundable, though, and Jawbone offered those who preordered the device early a $40 credit or an Up Move for their trouble.

This delay comes as Jawbone’s biggest competitors are managing to ship their devices on time. Fitbit just released three new fitness trackers and Garmin is steadily rolling out new wearables as well. Walk into a Best Buy and there is an aisle full of different fitness trackers and smart watches.

If Jawbone holds true to the UP3’s 10-11 week ship time, that puts its release window a month after the Apple Watch’s expected launch of April. Good luck with that.

Jawbone declined to comment on a report that Google is interested in a strategic investment in the company.

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Join Us For Hardware Alley In New York, Won’t You?

We want to see you in New York for Disrupt NY 2015, our annual celebration of all things startup. It’s a great time. You get to meet great funders and VCs and I’d love to meet you. Hardware is my favorite thing in the world and you’re some of my favorite people.

Disrupt runs from May 4 to May 6 and will be held at the Manhattan Center in New York City. It’s an amazing event and you can check it out here.

What is Hardware Alley? It’s a celebration of hardware startups (and other cool gear makers) that features everything from robotic drones to 3D printers. We try to bring in an eclectic mix of amazing exhibitors and I think you’ll agree that our previous Alleys have been roaring successes.

We’d like you to register as a Hardware Alley exhibitor. You’ll get to exhibit on the last day of Disrupt SF, May 6, to show off your goods and get access to some of the most interesting people (and most interesting VCs) in the world.

All you need to demo is a laptop. TechCrunch provides you with: 30″ round cocktail table, linens, table-top sign, inclusion in program agenda and website, exhibitor WiFi, and press list.

You can reserve your spot by purchasing a Hardware Alley Exhibitor Package here.

If you are Kickstarting your project now or bootstrapping, please contact me at john@techcrunch.com with the subject line “HARDWARE ALLEY.” I will do my best to accommodate you. I only have a limited number of discounted spots so hurry!

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SolarCity Creates $750M Fund For Residential Solar With $300M From Google

SolarCity, the solar power startup whose chairman is the seemingly ever-present Elon Musk, has announced a new $750 million fund created to help fund residential solar projects, including defraying the upfront costs of solar panel installation at homes in 14 different states across the U.S. and in D.C. The new fund includes a contribution of $300 million, or just under half the total value, from Google, which marks its largest clean energy investment to date, and helps make this the biggest fund of its kind in existence.

Typically, installation costs associated with making an individual household able to harvest and use its own solar power are very high, meaning they take many years to recoup for the homeowners funding the installations. That means there’s a high barrier preventing many from taking advantage, especially if homeowners think they might have cause to move before they make their money back on the initial build.

The new $750 million fund is designed to help “thousands” of homeowners defray those setup costs, covering the cost of installation, solar panels, and equipment. In exchange, homeowners pay SolarCity for the energy produced by their panels, or a monthly rent fee for the panels in a lease situation, similar to the arrangement they’d have with a typical utility company, but with cleaner energy, and, in most cases, lower costs, too.

This is the second time Google and SolarCity have teamed up in this way; back in 2011, Google committed $280 million to a similar fund with the aim of getting thousands of homeowners on board with solar power. Clearly that had satisfactory results, since the search giant is going back for more.

from TechCrunch http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/pDyvZa7hyeo/

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Wattpad Offers A Dedicated Sexy Stories App To Ride The ’50 Shades’ Wave

If you like your erotica like you like your restaurant recommendations, i.e., crowdsourced and free, then Wattpad has an app for you: It’s called After Dark, and it’s a free app that curates content from Wattpad’s social network for readers and writers that specifically offer titillation and romance. After Dark’s stories are divided by category to help fans find the stories best suited to their tastes, and the app carries a 17+ rating in the App Store, so you know it’s going to be good.

After Dark was actually a side project created in the experimental Wattpad Labs portion of the company where staff are encouraged to pick at projects not included in the general thrust of day-to-day business. It was a project born of the company’s Hack Friday, which is a monthly internal hackathon, and built over just two short weeks before being launched quietly earlier this month. It has racked up over 8,000 downloads, and Wattpad says it’s benefitting from a spike in interest in this kind of fiction following the release of 50 Shades of Grey in theaters.

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In fact, romance is one of Wattpad’s most popular genres, with over 23 million titles fitting that general description uploaded to the writing sharing network. Overall, Wattpad now claims 40 million active monthly users, with 100 million uploads total and 24 hours worth of new reading material posted every day across all categories.

Wattpad is still questing for a really solid funding model despite its considerable engagement and continued growth, but it’s ability to tap into the desires of its users seems to be one area where it has things well figured out.

from TechCrunch http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/zTDlbpR8cW0/

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Are You Ready For The Barcelona Meetup?

We’re less than a week away from the Pitch-Off in Barcelona and we’re excited to see you. If you’ve purchased tickets already, good for you. They are a rare commodity. If you haven’t then you’re kind of out of luck because the event is sold out. Special dispensations may be made if you contact us but I doubt we can help.

If you didn’t make pitch-off the cut, do not fear: just find us at the event and tell us a little about your startup. We’re happy to take cards and follow up.

Here are the contestants for the pitch off. They will have two minutes to pitch and four minutes of questions from TC Editors and a local judge. The winner will get a table at TC Disrupt Startup Alley in New York and the runner-up will get two tickets to the event. The contestants are:

Fueloyal

Kompyte

Avegant

Swytch

rendeevoo

Hirestack

EveryLayer

FACEmeeting

canguroencasa.com

Note: the event is sold out. We’re expecting an amazing turn out. I hope you bought your tickets early.

Date: Tuesday March 3, 2015

Time: 19:00 – 22:00. Pitch-off at 20:00.

Details: With open bar and tapas/snacks between 19:30 until 21:30 CET (last round).

Location: Ailaic, Passatge Utset 14, we will team up with the Dutch Mobile Networking Event that is the host.

Cost: €5.50

BUY TICKETS HERE

Thanks to the kind folks at DutchMobileNetworking this year’s Barcelona Meetup And Pitch-Off will be amazing. It’s great to have such a responsive and understanding partner. That said, they are handling all the sponsorship and still need your help. Please email myself at john@techcrunch.com or Caroline at caroline at dutchmobilenetworking.com.

Gold Sponsor



Vserv is a leading mobile marketing platform that delivers smart data led results to marketers, app developers, telcos and data partners. Powered by its award winning market first technologies, the company drives engaging mobile experiences for the emerging billion mobile internet users. Founded in 2010; Vserv has 500 million+ unique user profiles and a global footprint with offices across USA, UK, South Africa, India, Singapore, Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines & Vietnam.

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ExoClick is a self-funded start-up launched in 2006 by CEO Benjamin Fonzé which he now runs with his brother Adrien (COO). Based in Barcelona, Spain, ExoClick is an innovative global ad network serving 125+ billion geo-targeted ads a month to web and mobile advertiser/publisher platforms via its proprietary software. The company is currently ranked as the 5th largest ad network in the world by W3Techs and is the only Spanish company to be ranked three times in the Deloitte Fast 500. ExoClick is also positioned at number 11 in the Top 20 Best Workplaces in Spain in the category of companies with between 20-49 employees (PYMES).

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Estrella Damm

Dutch Mobile Networking Event & Place

On Monday 2nd of March the networking event accommodates 300 Dutch-speaking visitors from the telecom industry that have access through a controlled guest list. The majority of the DMNE visitors are C-level decision makers in the procurement of telecom services, software and hardware. Besides the traditional successful networking event (Monday 2nd of March) DMNE offers visitors a place where they can retreat during event days. It is also possible to organise your own event here in consultation with the organisation. Registered visitors can also attend round table discussions and presentations from this location. Content (like trend updates) from the Mobile World Congress can be followed through the channels of mediapartners Executive-People and Dutch IT-Channel through news feeds, interviews and video updates.

Would you like to sponsor our event? Please contact Caroline at caroline[at] dutchmobilenetworking.com. She has helped organize the entire event so far and is handling the food, drink, and jazz (!!). We look forward to seeing you!

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