Now Everyone Can Make Marketing Videos: PowToon Launches DIY Presentation Tool. We’re so over PowerPoint presentations, right?
Well, that’s the common refrain, at least. And we haven’t even been super-enthused about the new-fangled PowerPoint alternatives in a while – not since companies like Prezi, Animoto, and (VMWare-acquired) SlideRocket were making the rounds in the startup scene, that is. Even SlideShare, the service that made presentations social, launched a web meetings service Zipcast last year in order to bring a little video-enabled pizazz into things. Long story, short. We like videos now. So that’s exactly what newly launched (still private beta) startup PowToon is offering: more videos, which are more easily made. If web 2.0 startups were trying to simplify and jazz up the slideshow creation processes in hopes of becoming “PowerPoint killers,” PowToon wants to ride on the next bandwagon – our growing love for everything video. The U.K. The service opens to the public in August, but TechCrunch readers can click here for early invites now.
With $1.3M In New Funding, CodeGuard Launches Its Free Website Backup, Monitoring Service. At TechCrunch Disrupt NYC last May, the unanimous winner of the “Audience Choice” award was a young, Atlanta-based startup called CodeGuard.
The startup caught the audience’s attention based on a simple value proposition: To become a “time machine for your website.” In other words, CodeGuard’s free service allows any site owner to back up their website and revert to earlier versions, while monitoring for infections. After months of tweaking and beta testing, today CodeGuard is officially pulling back the curtain on a new-and-improved service, backed by a fresh $1.3 million in funding from Imlay Investments and a host of angel investors, including Palaniswamy Rajan, Bert Ellis, Tom Noonan, Matt Chanoff, and Merrick Furst. The new funding adds to the $500K the startup raised back in June of last year from Imlay and others.
All of CodeGuard’s seed investors have returned to re-up their investments and give the startup the fuel it needs to expand — now just under $2 million total. A/B Tester Optimizely Raises Funding From Battery And Google Ventures, Plans Mobile Launch. Optimizely, the Y Combinator-incubated startup that helps companies A/B test their websites, just announced that it has raised new funding from Battery Ventures, Google Ventures, and InterWest Partners.
The startup previously raised $1.2 million from angels including Ron Conway, Chris Sacca, and Ashton Kutcher, but this is its first venture round. Co-founder and CEO Dan Siroker (who was director of analytics for Barack Obama’s presidential campaign in 2008) says he isn’t disclosing the amount — which is the exact thing that a tech journalist doesn’t want to hear — because he doesn’t want to get into a competition over valuation and “vanity metrics.” So what are the numbers that Siroker thinks really matter? Revenue, for one. Optimizely says its revenue has increased 1,266 percent year-over-year. Optimizely’s goal is to make it as easy as possible to run A/B tests on your websites. Diffbot Raises $2 Million Angel Round For Web Content Extraction Technology. Diffbot, the super-geeky/awesome visual learning robot technology which aims to “see” the web the way that people do, is today announcing a new infusion of capital.
The company has closed $2 million in funding from a number of technology veterans, including EarthLink founder Sky Dayton; Andy Bechtolsheim, co-founder of Sun Microsystems; Joi Ito, Director of MIT Media Lab; Brad Garlinghouse, CEO of YouSendIt (and formerly of TechCrunch parent company AOL), Maynard Webb, Chairman of the Board at LiveOps, formerly eBay COO; Elad Gil, VP of Corporate Strategy at Twitter; Jonathan Heiliger, former VP of Technical Operations at Facebook; Redbeacon co-founder Aaron Lee; and founder of VitalSigns Montgomery Kersten. Matrix Partners also participated in the round. Of the new investors, Sky Dayton will be the first to join Diffbot’s board and will be taking an active role in the company, including plans to go hands-on with various Diffbot projects. T. Rowe Price Retirement Plan Services ~ Participant Website.