Rustic Canyon in the News

New finance companies emerge for smaller companies

News Source Image for News: 
NAV
News Publisher: 
Fierce Finance
News Date: 
08/03/2010
News Story Detail: 

PlayFirst®, Inc., a leading publisher of emotionally engaging interactive entertainment, revealed today that Diner Dash® 5: BOOM! is the first PC/Mac download game to integrate a viral Facebook® Connect power-up feature. For the first time ever, Diner Dash 5: BOOM!allows players of the download game to gift Flo’s SuperSneakers™ to their friends on Facebook®. The Super Sneakers give recipients a fun and distinct advantage in the fast-paced world of Diner Dash 5: BOOM!, which marks the fifth anniversary of the award-winning, best-selling Diner Dash series."Playing games is an incredibly popular activity on Facebook, and is even more fun when played with friends,” said Facebook Platform Manager Gareth Davis. “We look forward to PlayFirst’s Diner Dash 5: BOOM! with Facebook Connect, enabling players to connect with each other in a new social game experience.”Diner Dash 5: BOOM! launches today, February 18th, with a special commemorative edition for $19.99 on PlayFirst.com. The standard edition of Diner Dash 5: BOOM! will launch approximately two weeks later on PlayFirst.com for $6.99. Both versions are integrated with Facebook Connect.“Diner Dash 5: BOOM! marks the first new Diner Dash title in over two years, during which time social gaming has exploded,” said Mari Baker, president and chief executive officer of PlayFirst. “Integrating Facebook Connect enables customers to share their passion for Diner Dash with their friends and to get a cool power-up – Flo is practically a blur on the screen she is moving so fast!”In addition to Flo’s Super Sneakers, players can involve their friends on Facebook in their Diner Dash 5: BOOM! game play by sharing and comparing high scores and trophies they earn on Facebook. Diner Dash 5: BOOM! players can also connect with one another, exchange strategy tips and information, and proudly display pictures of their customized restaurant on their profile. Diner Dash aficionados can become an official Diner Dash Fan on Facebook (facebook.com/dinerdash) and follow Diner Dash and Flo on Twitter (twitter.com/PlayFirst).Since the debut of the franchise in 2004, the Diner Dash series has been downloaded more than 550 million times across the globe, making it one of the most popular and recognizable gaming franchises of all time. Diner Dash has been successful on multiple platforms including mobile, iPhone®, Xbox® Live Arcade, PlayStation® Network, WiiWare®, and Nintendo® DS. With the launch of Diner Dash 5: BOOM!, PlayFirst is marking its commitment to growing its presence in the social gaming space.About PlayFirstPlayFirst, a leading publisher of emotionally engaging interactive entertainment, is committed to providing compelling experiences that always delight customers. By creating engaging story worlds that capture the imagination, PlayFirst teams publish quality gaming experiences across popular platforms worldwide including PC, Mac, iPhone, Facebook, and consoles. The company's game portfolio includes world-renowned titles, such as Diner Dash, Wedding Dash®,Cooking Dash®, Chocolatier®, and Dream Chronicles®. PlayFirst games are available in major retailers and on more than 500 sites in 20 languages. For more information, visit www.playfirst.com.Facebook® is a registered trademark of Facebook Inc.Photos/Multimedia Gallery Available: http://www.businesswire.com/cgi-bin/mmg.cgi?eid=6184332&lang=en

Better Buying with FoodLink Online

News Source Image for News: 
NAV
News Publisher: 
Grocery Headquarters
News Date: 
08/02/2010
News Story Detail: 

Perishables buyers need access to enhanced information to survive economic uncertainty and market inefficiency.Commodity food items have experienced unprecedented price vol a tility in recent years. According to a 2009 survey conducted by GE Capital, commodity pricing is the greatest concern among CFOs of major food companies. Average prices across all commodity categories increased by more than 100% in 2008, with some items experiencing much higher inflation. While environmental factors have raised retail prices for specific products such as tomatoes, produce prices in general have leveled off and even slightly declined for many items in 2009 and the first quarter of 2010. According to the USDA, fresh fruit prices decreased 1.9% in February 2010 compared with the prior year and fresh vegetable prices decreased 1.4% for the same period.Yet there are signs of the economy recovering in recent months. As reported by The Food Institute, based in Elmwood Park, N.J., in March 2010 wholesale prices are up 2.5% over the previous month and 6.8% over the previous year, with the biggest jump coming from fresh fruits and vegetables. Despite these increases, retail prices for fresh produce only increased 2.9% in March 2010 over the previous year. These higher prices, combined with retailers’ and wholesalers’ inability to pass these costs on to consumers because of the recessionary pressures of weakened demand, have led to serious reductions in profitability which indicates that retailers are absorbing the increase in their wholesale prices.  Uncontrollable factors such as weather and production levels will continue to alter product availability and pricing. These supply factors, along with more pronounced cuts in consumer spending, will continue to depress margins and wholesale price volatility will continue to be an area of scrutiny for food retailers.  The inefficiency of the perishable market as it currently operates is trying for buyers, many of whom use phone, fax or email to purchase up to 300 items in more than 30 categories from more than 200 vendors, each using different formats and product descriptions. The typical fresh food order changes an average of four times from initial purchase order to final invoice. Prices can vary up to 26% for the same exact item during the same buying period across nationally recognized produce suppliers. The laborious and error-prone manual processes buyers currently employ, combined with a lack of coordination among the vast number of growers, suppliers, distributors, brokers and wholesalers, makes it nearly impossible for buying organizations to sufficiently understand the market-clearing price for produce commodities and thus minimize their cost of goods sold (COGS).  In addition, the dispersion of growing regions and distribution center locations prevents buyers from aggregating their total perishable food demand, which reduces potential volume discounts and makes it difficult to implement efficient sourcing strategies.How can an organization successfully navigate the complex opportunity to reduce produce costs and manage the perishables supply chain more strategically in order to serve customers more profitably?There are several ways. For example, the FoodLink Online purchasing platform offers a “price discovery” tool that improves communication and transparency between buyers and their trading partners. Price discovery allows buyers to access price quotes for all perishable food items from local and nationally accredited vendors. Pricing information is presented in a buying guide according to the buyer’s preferred format, enabling side-by-side quotes from all suppliers for every commodity purchase. With approximately two-thirds of all produce items being commodities (green vegetables, stone fruits, grapes, etc.), the potential savings can make a substantial impact on margins. Extensive real-world experience among FoodLink Online customers has shown that using this tool can lead to a reduction in COGS of between 5% and 8%.FoodLink Online streamlines the entire order process, from purchase order creation to order change notifications to Advanced Ship Notice (ASN) reconciliation—leading to invoice match rates on average of 95% or higher and creating a win-win for buyers and sellers. By automating repetitive replenishment tasks, FoodLink Online frees up time for experienced buyers to concentrate on more value-add activities such as category management and strategic sourcing—which are vitally important to be successful in this volatile and uncertain market.   Ryan Schneider is vice president of marketing and business development for FoodLink Online, based in Torrance, Calif. He has been a presenter at FMI-sponsored events and guest lecturer at various graduate school programs. For more information, visitwww.foodlinkonline.com.

LoopNet Completes Investment In AuctionPoint

News Source Image for News: 
NAV
News Publisher: 
RTT news
News Date: 
03/17/2010
News Story Detail: 

(RTTNews) - LoopNet Inc. (LOOP: News) announced that it has completed a strategic investment in AuctionPoint Inc. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

AuctionPoint is a provider of broker-friendly online commercial propertyauction solutions.

As part of the partnership, LoopNet is endorsing AuctionPoint as its preferred online auction solution for commercial properties. LoopNet intends to provide LoopNet customers with discounts on AuctionPoint services.

Click here to receive FREE breakingnews email alerts for LOOPNET INC and others in your portfolio

by RTT Staff Writer

For comments and feedback: contact editorial@rttnews.com

PlayFirst Announces Debut of Game-Changing Facebook Connect Integration in Diner Dash 5: BOOM!

News Date: 
02/18/2010
News Story Detail: 

PlayFirst®, Inc., a leading publisher of emotionally engaging interactive entertainment, revealed today that Diner Dash® 5: BOOM! is the first PC/Mac download game to integrate a viral Facebook® Connect power-up feature. For the first time ever, Diner Dash 5: BOOM!allows players of the download game to gift Flo’s SuperSneakers™ to their friends on Facebook®. The Super Sneakers give recipients a fun and distinct advantage in the fast-paced world of Diner Dash 5: BOOM!, which marks the fifth anniversary of the award-winning, best-selling Diner Dash series.

"Playing games is an incredibly popular activity on Facebook, and is even more fun when played with friends,” said Facebook Platform Manager Gareth Davis. “We look forward to PlayFirst’s Diner Dash 5: BOOM! with Facebook Connect, enabling players to connect with each other in a new social game experience.”

Diner Dash 5: BOOM! launches today, February 18th, with a special commemorative edition for $19.99 on PlayFirst.com. The standard edition of Diner Dash 5: BOOM! will launch approximately two weeks later on PlayFirst.com for $6.99. Both versions are integrated with Facebook Connect.

Diner Dash 5: BOOM! marks the first new Diner Dash title in over two years, during which time social gaming has exploded,” said Mari Baker, president and chief executive officer of PlayFirst. “Integrating Facebook Connect enables customers to share their passion for Diner Dash with their friends and to get a cool power-up – Flo is practically a blur on the screen she is moving so fast!”

In addition to Flo’s Super Sneakers, players can involve their friends on Facebook in their Diner Dash 5: BOOM! game play by sharing and comparing high scores and trophies they earn on Facebook. Diner Dash 5: BOOM! players can also connect with one another, exchange strategy tips and information, and proudly display pictures of their customized restaurant on their profile. Diner Dash aficionados can become an official Diner Dash Fan on Facebook (facebook.com/dinerdash) and follow Diner Dash and Flo on Twitter (twitter.com/PlayFirst).

Since the debut of the franchise in 2004, the Diner Dash series has been downloaded more than 550 million times across the globe, making it one of the most popular and recognizable gaming franchises of all time. Diner Dash has been successful on multiple platforms including mobile, iPhone®, Xbox® Live Arcade, PlayStation® Network, WiiWare®, and Nintendo® DS. With the launch of Diner Dash 5: BOOM!, PlayFirst is marking its commitment to growing its presence in the social gaming space.

About PlayFirst

PlayFirst, a leading publisher of emotionally engaging interactive entertainment, is committed to providing compelling experiences that always delight customers. By creating engaging story worlds that capture the imagination, PlayFirst teams publish quality gaming experiences across popular platforms worldwide including PC, Mac, iPhone, Facebook, and consoles. The company's game portfolio includes world-renowned titles, such as Diner Dash, Wedding Dash®,Cooking Dash®, Chocolatier®, and Dream Chronicles®. PlayFirst games are available in major retailers and on more than 500 sites in 20 languages. For more information, visit www.playfirst.com.

Facebook® is a registered trademark of Facebook Inc.

Photos/Multimedia Gallery Available: http://www.businesswire.com/cgi-bin/mmg.cgi?eid=6184332&lang=en

Sony Online Entertainment Expands Relationship with Live Gamer to Power Microtransactions Experience Across Multiple Platforms

News Source Image for News: 
NAV
News Publisher: 
LiveGamer
News Date: 
01/25/2010
News Story Detail: 
New York, (January 25, 2010) – Live Gamer (www.livegamer.com), the leading global provider of total commerce solutions for microtransaction-based businesses spanning online games, virtual worlds and social networks, today announced significant upgrades to Elements, an enhanced technology platform for both primary and secondary markets.

Sony Online Entertainment LLC (SOE) is to become the first publisher to implement Elements and significant platform enhancements for powering microtransactions across their social, web and in-game channels. SOE and Live Gamer will work closely over the next quarter to seamlessly augment and upgrade SOE’s existing proprietary infrastructure. This collaboration will enable a unified cross-platform e-wallet and item merchandising experience within SOE’s traditional client-side PC online game business. Games to take advantage of the Live Gamer platform will include PoxNora®, Free Realms™, EverQuest® and EverQuest®II, as well as future titles.

Live Gamer’s advanced Elements microtransaction platform improves publishers’ ability to drive improved conversion rates, average revenue per user and retention through new tools such as an upgraded enterprise storefront, retail merchandising capabilities, advanced item offers and new analytics features for payment gateway optimization. Live Gamer’s Elements is ideal for browser-based games, social networking platforms, social applications and client-side MMOs and can be configured easily for different types of integration.

SIGNIFICANT PLATFORM UPGRADES INCLUDE:


•SaaS or on-premise installation: Leverage Live Gamer’s world-class hosting or run the platform inside publisher’s own data center
•Support for the global economy: Dynamic currency conversion and full support for localization
•Enhanced user management: Per user e-wallet policies including overdraft or maximum balances, the industry’s most advanced velocity limiting, full parental controls around spending limits, gifting policies
•Robust API support for integration into existing and 3rd party platforms, products, and applications: RSS-like data feed to build alerts, reports and actions around certain in-game economic activity
•Batch programming: Improves complex business logic to be performed at high speeds
•Enhanced storefront: Web-storefront supports both OpenSocial integration and Facebook connect.
•New reports build on industry leading analytics: Over 130 reports available including new reports showing revenue performance per payment gateway
•Advanced tools to manage complex product configurations such as combined physical/virtual bundles, subscriptions plus virtual currency bundles and others
•Recommendations and Promotions: Advanced merchandising such as upgraded recommendation engine and flexible discounting functionality
•Advanced merchandising and discounting functionality
QUOTES:


"The microtransaction industry has become increasingly specialized, and Live Gamer has helped us with advanced functionality that allows us to continually stay ahead of the curve in ecommerce,” said John Smedley, president, Sony Online Entertainment. “We chose Live Gamer to power our payments, merchandising and primary-secondary market solutions based on innovative technology, recognized track record in the market and an advanced, holistic approach.”

"SOE practically invented the subscription-based billing model for online games," said Andrew Schneider, president and Co-Founder, Live Gamer. "With Live Gamer’s one-stop shop for total commerce solutions, they’ll be able to integrate advanced commerce functionality and gain greater speed to market for its games. As publishers continue to build out increasingly robust in-game virtual item strategies, the need for a dedicated total commerce solution has become essential."

“Live Gamer has a long history of providing cutting-edge innovations that enable developers to succeed with virtual economy-based revenue models,” said William Grosso, CTO and SVP of Product for Live Gamer. “Our relationship with SOE is incredibly exciting and is additional validation that our tool chain supports anyone, from the smallest developer to the largest publisher.”

About Live Gamer

Live Gamer is the global leader of total commerce solutions for micro-transaction-based businesses. Spanning online games, virtual worlds, and social networks, Live Gamer provides an advanced offering that goes beyond monetization to drive core business metrics and optimize new transaction-based revenue streams. Combining its micro-transaction platform, primary and secondary market management, fraud and security solutions, scalable publisher support and international payment gateways, Live Gamer's technology has been adopted by leading publishers in gaming, social and entertainment including Acclaim, Funcom, NHN USA, Quepasa, MEG Toys and Sony Online Entertainment, supporting over 65 million users in 23 countries.

Founded in 2007, the company is backed by $26 million in venture funding from Charles River Ventures, FirstMark Capital, Kodiak Venture Partners, Rustic Canyon Partners, Triple Point Capital and Venrock. Live Gamer is headquartered in New York with offices in Los Angeles and Palo Alto, CA and Seoul, Korea. For more information, visit www.livegamer.com or connect with us on Twitter (@livegamer), Facebook or MySpace.

About Sony Online Entertainment

Sony Online Entertainment LLC (SOE) is a recognized worldwide leader in massively multiplayer online games which have entertained millions of players around the globe. SOE creates and delivers compelling entertainment for the personal computer, online, game console and wireless markets. Known for its blockbuster franchise EverQuest®, its successful online trading card game Legends of Norrath®, as well as the recent kids' phenomenon Free Realms™, SOE continues to raise the bar for online gaming and players worldwide. Headquartered in San Diego, with additional studios in Austin, Seattle, Denver, Tucson, and Taiwan, SOE has a slate of engaging, high-quality games currently in development across new genres for all platforms and audiences.

SOE, the SOE logo, EverQuest and PlanetSide are registered trademarks and Free Realms and Legends of Norrath are trademarks of Sony Online Entertainment LLC.

LiveGamer: The OnMedia 100 Top Private Companies of 2010

News Source Image for News: 
NAV
News Publisher: 
AlwaysOn
News Date: 
01/20/2010
News Story Detail: 
It’s with great excitement that we introduce the 2010 OnMedia 100. This fresh batch of the hottest emerging companies in digital advertising joins illustrious alumni and gives us a great deal of insight into the coming trends in monetization.

Last year was digital media’s trial by fire. Some online business models were forged in the flames; many more were burnt to a crisp. As we look out on 2010, we see a more hospitable landscape. Advertisers are increasingly selecting online surgical strikes over offline dynamite fishing. A fact to which 2010 OnMedia 100 winners Yieldex, Yield Software, and YieldBuild can happily attest.

The digital media industry has good reasons for its optimism. J.P. Morgan is projecting more than 10% growth in U.S. graphical advertising and more than 13% growth in U.S. search advertising, representing a marginal increase in spending of roughly $4.5 billion in the coming year. Many of these new dollars will be directed toward or by 2010 OnMedia 100 companies.

Given this backdrop of anticipated growth, it’s not surprising that we see so much activity among OnMedia 100 alumni. In the last year, billions of dollars in value have been created by recent OnMedia 100 winners, including Zynga’s eye-popping $180 million financing, Google’s $750 million acquisition of AdMob, and Apple’s $275 million acquisition of Quattro Wireless, as well as dozens of significant financings, including major rounds to alumni like Quantcast, Aggregate Knowledge, and Ensequence.

Venture investing in media and entertainment from Q4 2007 to Q3 2008 totaled $1.9 billion (according analysis from PricewaterhouseCoopers and the NVCA). The same period during the following year saw this total drop precipitously to $1.2 billion. Clearly the flight to quality saw OnMedia 100 companies outperform in attracting growth equity.

We have every expectation that the class of 2010 will perform just as well as past winners in attracting customers, capital, and acquirers. Companies like ADVERTISING NETWORKS AND EXCHANGES winner MediaMath are letting advertising agencies more effectively leverage online channels on behalf of their clients. While HubSpot is the digital marketing command center for thousands of mid-market companies.

The explosion of local services has made small the new big. Winners like Yodle and Yext are bringing the full power of the Internet to bear on local merchants by finding the right recipe of cost effectiveness and ease of use. Our COMMUNITY PLATFORMS category winner, Gilt Groupe, has found the seam between tough economic times and demand for luxury products, letting its members find attractive merchandise at even more attractive prices—creating a new distribution channel to brand-conscious consumers.

Coremetrics leads our WEB AND MEDIA ANALYTICS AND RESEARCH winners and is rapidly establishing itself as the pre-eminent toolbox for online marketers. Services like GumGum for online content distribution, AdSafe Media for contextually appropriate advertising, and Lattice Engines for analysis and planning tools, are tackling specific challenges in online optimization and monetization.

While these new online services are polishing the Internet advertising apple, the mobile sector continues to be an increasingly wild, wild west. Fueled by the rapidly escalating thumbs-race between giants like Apple, Google, Nokia, RIM, and Microsoft, the stage is set for tremendous innovation in the private company community (and impressive returns for private capital).

Our overall winner for the 2010 OnMedia 100, Millennial Media, has positioned itself as one of the leading mobile advertising networks. With competitors (and previous OnMedia 100 winners) AdMob and Quattro Wireless acquired by Google and Apple respectively, and armed with a recent round of financing, the company is clearly capitalizing on its already impressive position.

The 2010 OnMedia 100 winners have survived the upheaval of 2009 and are positioned to advance on the opportunities represented by the return to growth in the digital advertising sector. Congratulations—it looks like we made it.

InSync Software, Inc. Announces $4.7 Million in Series B Funding

News Source Image for News: 
NAV
News Publisher: 
PR Newswire
News Date: 
10/20/2009
News Story Detail: 
Intel Capital and Rustic Canyon Ventures contribute second round of capital to support InSync's continued growth.

SAN JOSE, Calif., Oct. 20 /PRNewswire/ -- InSync Software, Inc., provider of the fabric for the world's leading RFID, GPS and sensor-driven line-of-business software applications, announced today that the company has closed $4.7 million in Series B funding. The latest investment round was led by existing investors Intel Capital and Rustic Canyon Ventures, along with participation by strategic individual investors.

The funding comes as InSync experiences increasing momentum and growth in its business. In 2009 alone, InSync has doubled its customer and partner base and completed major deployments of its award-winning iApp platform and Applications by market-leading companies such as Dole Foods, Bayer, SonicWall and others. Additionally, InSync has been rapidly expanding its global presence with customer wins in Asia, the Middle East, Canada and elsewhere. Much of this activity has been recognized by the marketplace, as InSync's products have increasingly garnered the attention of customers, partners and industry analysts alike in 2008 and 2009 - culminating in numerous product and company awards from organizations including NSF International (for Food Safety), Managing Automation (for Food Safety and Yard Management), Supply and Demand Chain Executive (for Supply Chain), Inbound Logistics (for Logistics) and others.

InSync has developed a strong partner network comprised of industry-leading hardware providers, systems integrators and technology companies such as IBM, IDENTEC Solutions, Intermec, Motorola, Hewlett Packard, Honeywell and Mojix.

InSync has also established itself as a leader in innovative application delivery models as the only automatic identification and data capture (AIDC) Software Company to offer its platform and application products as both a hosted, on-demand model (SaaS) and a traditional licensed model. Part of InSync's OnDemand offering includes access to the iApp Solutions Gallery - a collection of rich line-of-business application templates that enable partners and end-users to jumpstart application development and deployment. This infrastructure and flexibility allows InSync to cost-effectively and rapidly deliver its products to customers, and in the model of their choice.

"This funding is a significant milestone for InSync," says Ashish Chona, CEO and co-founder of InSync. "The investment comes at a crucial time, as momentum is increasing and the AIDC and RFID applications market is starting to mature. Our software solution is being deployed worldwide through our outstanding partner network, and we are seeing strong levels of interest and demand for both our platform and solution products."

"This investment helps to secure InSync's place as a leader in this industry," says Ravi Panja, CTO and co-founder of InSync. "We are the only company capable of offering these solutions as an on-demand service model, which resonates well with cost-minded managers in today's economy. The additional capital puts us in an excellent position for extended growth and success."

About InSync Software, Inc.

InSync Software, Inc. provides the fabric for the world's leading RFID, GPS and sensor-driven line of business software applications. InSync's renowned iApp Platform and iApp Solution Templates allow customers to rapidly develop and deploy applications to locate and track assets, improve operational efficiencies and manage risks. InSync's software combines sensory data and enterprise information (via ERP, WMS, etc.) to actively manage assets regardless of their location. InSync is headquartered in San Jose, CA, with offices in India and Asia.


SOURCE InSync Software, Inc.

The Wall Street Journal 2009 Technology Innovation Awards

News Source Image for News: 
NAV
News Publisher: 
Wall Street Jounal
News Date: 
10/19/2009
News Story Detail: 
Serious Materials Inc. of Sunnyvale, Calif., was recognized in this category for its EcoRock drywall substitute, which is made with recycled material and, the company says, requires 80% less energy to make and produces 80% less carbon dioxide than standard gypsum-based drywall. EcoRock, which is also termite- and mold-resistant, will be priced to compete with premium drywall products. Serious Materials has been selling limited test quantities of the product to a few contractors since early this year and plans to expand production and distribution over the next two years.

Though some judges wondered if a relatively high price would limit how widely the product is used, it is a "novel solution to a basic problem that has enormous impact," says Darlene Solomon, chief technology officer of Agilent Technologies and an Innovation Awards judge.

Serious Materials Building Up Green Construction Supply Co With $60M

News Source Image for News: 
NAV
News Publisher: 
DowJones
News Date: 
09/23/2009
News Story Detail: 
9/23/2009 – Serious Materials Inc. raised $60 million in a Series C round to further build up its green construction supply business, which it says is prospering while traditional construction-supply companies continue to suffer.

The Sunnyvale, Calif.-based company actually bought two manufacturing facilities from bankrupt window makers and renovated them to create energy-efficient window plants. It then hired back a total of 70 laid-off workers between these plants in Chicago and Pennsylvania.

"We're growing really, really fast right now," said Sandra Vaughan, Serious Materials chief marketing officer, in an interview with Clean Technology Insight. "A lot of other folks in the building materials space are struggling with challenges, we feel fortunate we're on an aggressive track."

She said she couldn't disclose specific sales figures, but that the company has grown from 125 employees last year to 250 now. The company has five plants in total, all in the U.S.

Vaughan said that the company would use the $60 million to expand the company's market share and develop new products.

The round was led by Mesirow Financial, a diversified financial services firm in Chicago. Additional new investors included Enertech Capital, Cheyenne Capital Corp., and Saints Capital. Previous investors participating in the round included New Enterprise Associates, Foundation Capital, Rustic Canyon Partners, Navitas Capital and Staenberg Ventures.

Serious Materials focuses largely on highly energy efficient windows, but also makes environmentally friendly drywall and other products.

Vaughan said that government stimulus money focuses a lot of attention on energy efficiency and is helping create demand for products such as those made by Serious Materials. But even after that pile of money runs dry in a few years, she said there is a business case to be made for her company's products as payback times on the company's energy-efficiency products can be as little as two years.

"We are selling the fact that we are saving people money," she said.

New Enterprise Associates and Foundation Capital led a $50 million Series B investment in the company in late 2007, with participation from Rustic Canyon Partners, Navitas Capital, and Staenberg. Rustic Canyon raised $5 million for Serious Materials in an A Round in August 2006. Angel investors backed the company before its Series A round.

Live Gamer Announces Acquisition of Twofish

News Source Image for News: 
NAV
News Publisher: 
Two Fish Live Gamer
News Date: 
08/24/2009
News Story Detail: 
New York City, NY — August 24, 2009 — Live Gamer (www.livegamer.com), the global leader of total commerce solutions for micro-transaction-based businesses spanning online games, virtual worlds, and social networks, today announced it has completed its acquisition of Twofish (www.twofish.com), the premier provider of virtual economy data solutions for casual gaming and social application developers.

The Twofish acquisition accelerates Live Gamer’s recent strategic initiatives over recent months. In conjunction with the recent acquisition of N-Cash, the combination of Live Gamer and Twofish creates the first truly global, end-to-end solution for the micro-transaction industry. Publishers can now turn to one partner – instead of many – for the entire spectrum of micro-transaction and in-game economy features.

Through the acquisition, Live Gamer adds Twofish’s powerful virtual economy data platform and focus on post-purchase intelligence to its Total Commerce Solution. Twofish’s core product, Twofish Elements, combines the deepest currency, inventory, and account data available, with an unparalleled ability to test and optimize retail pricing, economic policies, and in-game content. Twofish’s EasyElements application toolkit makes the most popular Elements features even simpler to implement, so that setting up a virtual marketplace take just a few hours, instead of days.

“With the microtransaction business model taking off rapidly in North America and Europe, our Publishing partners are increasingly looking for highly sophisticated technologies to manage and build their businesses. Twofish’s technology has set the gold standard for in-game virtual economy management and analytics,” said Mitch Davis, CEO and Chairman of Live Gamer. “Combining their engineering talent with our proven transaction platform, fraud management, large-scale publisher support, and international payment gateways provides an end-to-end commerce solution that goes beyond monetization to drive core business metrics.”

“This acquisition caps six months of explosive growth for Twofish,” said Lisa Rutherford, President of Twofish, “Virtual economies have become a driving force in social and casual gaming, and now we’re delighted to be joining the Live Gamer family to deliver best-in-class technology for our partners.”

The combined company has over 70 live customers handling over 3 million transactions per month. Live Gamer is already integrating the technologies to enhance the services for partners, and Davis expects to roll out new initiatives in the coming months.

In addition, two current Twofish Board members, Michael Kim from Rustic Canyon Ventures and Twofish co-founder Sean Ryan, will join the Live Gamer Board of Directors.

Live Gamer: Total Commerce Solution

Live Gamer offers publishers a seamless primary and secondary market engine leveraging a full e-commerce platform featuring virtual item SKU management; e-wallet and billing; global payment gateway integration; anti-fraud; and analytics and reporting. Handling 56M+ users in 23 countries from over 100 game integrations, this complete yet modular technology stack is one of the first market-proven total commerce solutions for online games, virtual worlds, and social networks, and allows operators the ultimate flexibility in choosing the right elements for their particular needs. Live Gamer works closely with publishers to drive ARPU and improve conversion rates while maintaining a great user experience.

About Twofish:

Twofish Elements is the only virtual economy data platform that harnesses powerful post-purchase intelligence to manage virtual economies for leading social, gaming, and entertainment experiences. The EasyElements application toolkit lets developers quickly launch a virtual economy, while still leveraging the scalability and security of the core Elements platform. Based in Palo Alto, California, Twofish is led by a team with world-class expertise in consumer Internet, electronic payments, and economic research, and is funded by Rustic Canyon, Triplepoint, and Venrock. For more information, log onto www.Twofish.com, blog.Twofish.com

About Live Gamer

Live Gamer combines leading e-commerce software with virtual economy advisory services to help online game publishers, virtual world operators, and social networks create and optimize new transaction-based revenue streams. Founded in 2007, Live Gamer began legitimizing the estimated $2 billion player-to-player market for virtual goods with its Live Gamer™ Exchange, adopted by leading game publishers including Acclaim, Funcom, GoPets, NHN USA, IAC’s InstantAction and Sony Online Entertainment, among others. With the acquisitions of Korea’s N-Cash, the world’s premiere micro-transaction platform, and U.S. based Twofish, the only virtual economy data platform that harnesses powerful post-purchase intelligence, Live Gamer now offers a total commerce solution to power any transaction-based business model. Headquartered in New York with offices in Los Angeles and Palo Alto, CA and Seoul, Korea, the company is led by pioneers in both the gaming and digital entertainment industries and is backed by $24 million in venture funding from Charles River Ventures, Kodiak Venture Partners, and FirstMark Capital. For more information, visit www.livegamer.com or connect with us on Twitter (@livegamer), Facebook or MySpace.

Media Contact
Vanessa Camones, Jennifer Lankford, theMIX agency
for Live Gamer and Twofish
livegamer@themixagency.com
415 - 829- 7902