Accel Launches Second $100 Million Big Data Fund – AllThingsD. This whole big-data idea had better be real, because there’s a lot of money being invested in it.
The latest is coming from Accel Partners, which will on Tuesday announce that it has raised its second $100 million Big Data Fund, formally named Big Data Fund 2. Led by Accel’s Pin Li (pictured), the firm announced that it has added two executives — Anthony Deighton, the CTO of QlikView, and Shlomo Kramer, the CEO of data security startup Imperva and the co-founder of Check Point security company — to seats on its Big Data Fund Advisory Council. I talked with Li on Monday, and he told me that the target with this fund — the first was launched to invest in companies working primarily in the Hadoop ecosystem — is to fund companies working on what he calls “data-driven software.”
If the first wave of big-data investment was about building platforms from the foundation, this wave will be about building the software that actually helps reach the promise of big data. Angelsoft Lets Startups Find Funding Through New Investor Filtering Tool. Angel and VC funding platform Angelsoft has launched an investor filtering tool, allowing entrepreneurs the ability to access detailed profiles on over 1,000 venture capital firms and angel investment groups in the U.S.
Angelsoft allows startups to “push” their business ideas to over 400 angel investment groups and 15,949 investors across the world. The site formerly focused on connecting entrepreneurs to angel and early-stage investors only, but recently changed its model to include VC firms. Angelsoft calls it an investor search engine, but it lacks a search box (a big flaw). Instead, entrepreneurs use Kayak-like filters to adjust their sorting results by how much an investment firm usually invests, what terms they typically offer, as well as by company-based criteria such as industry, location and stage. VC and angel firm profiles include a snapshot of the fund, industry expertise, prior investments, executive profiles and links to the LinkedIn profiles of investors. IA Ventures Doubles Down On Big Data With A New $105M Fund. Before big data was a hot investing theme, Roger Ehrenberg was one of the first seed investors to focus almost exclusively on startups using data as a competitive edge.
His NYC-based fund, IA Ventures, has backed companies such as Billguard, Coursekit, DataSift, Next Big Sound, Simple, ThinkNear, and Yipit. His first fund, raised in 2010, was a $50 million seed fund. Now, IA Ventures just raised $105 million to double down on data plays in Fund II. AVCAL -Feature. www.ausindustry.gov.au/programs/venture-capital/vclp/Documents/PublicVCLPlist.pdf. Venture Capital Limited Partnerships (VCLP) InShare17 Top Content Website changes The Department of Industry’s Single Business Service is streamlining the way businesses access industry information and services by putting their needs first – reducing red tape and providing quality, consistent services at the lowest possible cost.
Single Business Service assistance is universal – available to all Australian businesses – made up of a consolidated online presence accessible anytime and anywhere, a contact centre and a face-to-face business facilitation network to link interested businesses with relevant programmes and services. As a part of this initiative, from 1 July 2014, the following websites are being merged into a consolidated, single resource for business: The price of invention: Patent fees to rise for SMEs. Small companies may no longer be able to afford patent protection for their inventions, says President of The Institute of Patent Attorneys of Australia, Graham Cowin.
Photo: Paul Jones New fees are being introduced for patent applications that will make it more costly for small and medium-sized enterprises in Australia to protect their inventions. The fees comes into affect on April 15 and are part of the “Raising the Bar” reforms to patent legislation introduced last year. Patents can provide effective protection for good innovations, but for SMEs struggling with budgets and limited funds at an early stage in product development more costs could make the difference between whether to seek patent protection or not. Experts say the higher costs could result in a decreased number of patent applications in Australia. It comes as the federal government announced its $1 billion jobs package in February that aims to boost innovation by SMEs.
Avcal.com. AVCAL -AVCAL welcomes Government's Venture Australia initiative. 18 February 2013 The Government undertook a thorough collaborative engagement process with industry and AVCAL welcomes the Innovation Statement and its focus on developing the jobs of the future for Australia.
We are particularly pleased to see the recognition of the importance of the Venture Capital industry to enable Australia’s innovations turn into products, processes and services that add to the economy and provide jobs in the future. The new round of the Innovation Investment Fund (IIF) with $350M committed will be a great boost to venture investing in Australia, especially taking into account the equal amount of private capital that will be invested alongside. AVCAL -About AVCAL. StartupSmart - Are Australian investors overly conservative? Why Convertible Notes Are Sometimes Terrible For Startups. Editor’s Note: This is a guest post by Mark Suster (@msuster), a 2x entrepreneur, now VC at GRP Partners.
Read more about Suster on his Startup Advice blog: Both Sides of the Table.