GigaOM » green startups

Eyeing international growth, Gigya raises $15.3M

Ki Mae Heussner — Mon, 11 Jun 2012 13:33:35 +0000

Gigya, a startup that provides businesses with a suite of tools to make their sites more social, announced today that it had raised $15.3 million in new funding from Condé Nast’s parent company, Advance Publications, as well as the Mayfield Fund, Benchmark Capital, DAG Ventures and Adobe.

The Mountain View, Calif.-based company reported that it already reaches 1 billion unique users a month through its more than 500 clients, but said that, supported by its new funding, it hopes to double its user base.

“We want to be the social technology for the rest of the Web,” said Patrick Salyer, CEO of Gigya.

About 20 percent of Gigya’s business is international, Salyer said, but added that it plans to expand its global footprint. The company recently opened an office in London and has strategic partnerships in Japan, but it’s now looking at Latin America and Australia, he said.

Gigya, which launched in 2006, offers technology that allows users to log in with credentials from social networks, as well as share content, comment, or join social games on publishers’ sites. The tools not only increase traffic and time spent on site, Gigya maintains, they provide insights for the businesses and manage social identity data. As it grows, it will have to continue to show publishers that its tools are more effective than those from other social sharing startups, such as AddThis and ShareThis, as well as companies exclusively focused on commenting and gamification.

In the last year, the company said its sales more than tripled and it now works with more than 40 percent of the comScore top 100 U.S. web properties.

In a statement, Andrew Siegel, Advance Publications’ senior vice president of strategy and corporate development, said they made the investment in Gigya after a positive experience with the company as its client.

“Social infrastructure has become a requirement for online businesses, and Gigya’s approach of offering everything a site needs to be social has been validated by its continued customer growth,” he said. Last week, Advance Publications announced a $10 million investment in Unified, a startup that offers a social operating platform to the enterprise.

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On LinkedIn, green startups are leading the way

Colleen Taylor — Mon, 26 Sep 2011 19:25:03 +0000

Portion of LinkedIn's Infographic (click to enlarge)

On Monday, LinkedIn released new stats about its membership growth, showing that the small business sector is a major player in the larger professional landscape. More than 4.7 million of LinkedIn’s members work for small businesses, according to an infographic published by the company.

And while green startups may have gone through some tough times recently, LinkedIn has seen a major uptick in members who work for small businesses in the industry. From 2009 to 2011, “renewables and environment” was the fastest growing sector within the small business landscape on LinkedIn, with the number of LinkedIn members in the space growing 29 percent in that timeframe. Interestingly, the second-fastest small business growth sector on LinkedIn was “oil and energy,” which grew by 20 percent from 2009 to 2011.

That greentech growth could just add credence to talk that the sector is ripe for a shakeout. But, as my colleague Katie Fehrenbacher wrote recently, there’s still a lot of progress that can be made in the space — if the right people put their minds to it.

Image courtesy of Flickr user Simon Peckham

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Flash analysis: the tech startup investment environment, Q3 2011

David Card — Wed, 24 Aug 2011 22:39:49 +0000

With the stock market in flux, do tech startups stand a chance when it comes to luring investors? To find out, we polled GigaOM readers on what’s hot, what’s not, which sectors might favor buyouts versus IPOs and how it all will change in the near and longer term. This research note examines and analyzes the survey’s responses to take the pulse of the current tech startup investment environment. Overall, optimism prevailed — but not without a healthy dose of caution. Companies mentioned in this report include Tumblr, Airbnb, Groupon and Zynga. For a full list of companies, and to read the full report, sign up for a free trial.

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Green Car Tech: Pinnacle Engines Emerges From Stealth With $13.5M

Katie Fehrenbacher — Thu, 31 Mar 2011 19:40:34 +0000

A lot of the innovation around next-gen car technology has focused on electric cars and biofuels, but there’s a massive need for technology that can make our current cars more fuel-efficient. On Thursday, a startup called Pinnacle Engines emerged with just such a technology and a round of venture capital backing, and the company says it can deliver an engine with 30 to 50 percent better fuel economy.

Pinnacle says it has created an entirely new four-stroke engine with a design that uses opposed-pistons and can operate in different modes depending on operating conditions, making it more efficient. The engine also has efficiencies via variable valve timing, direct injection, and turbocharging. Pinnacle says it plans to commercialize its engine by 2013.

Pinnacle is just one of a handful of startups working on more efficient engine technology. I caught up with Achates Power CEO David Johnson yesterday, and he said Achates is building a closed piston, 2-stroke engine that is 10 to 15 percent better than state of art diesel engines that exist today. EcoMotors is building a diesel engine with stackable modules, and where one of the engine modules can be shut off when it isn’t needed. (Here’s 7 startups building green car tech for a pre-electric world).

Achates and EcoMotors both have high-profile investors, as does Pinnacle, which has investors that include NEA, Bessemer Venture Partners and Infield Capital; it has raised $13.5 million from this group. Pinnacle also announced that Ron Hoge has taken over as Pinnacle’s new chairman and CEO.

Building new engines, getting them manufactured and convincing auto makers to put the engines in their cars is a long road. Achates says it could take three to six year depending on the project. Pinnacle’s engine is two years away from the market, and the company says it has a joint development and licensing agreement with an Asian vehicle maker.

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