The Next Web

Online games = experience = money! Just ask PlayFish

Written on October 28, 2008 – 2:51 pm
Ernst-Jan Pfauth, editor in chief

Hey you know what? I’m just gonna link all today’s tech news to Calacanis latest news letter. He wants, needs, and breathes the attention, and he does a great job in getting it. I mean, his emails are really good reads.

As I’ve mentioned before, Calacanis predicted a great time for experience companies. People don’t have a penny, but they do want good experiences to make up for the tough times. Digg and StumbleUpon will flourish, as well as the online gaming industry.

This industry is doing great anyhow, with games spreading over almost any platform (from iPhone to Facebook). So VC’s won’t be afraid to supply online games service with a financial injection.

In that light, it makes perfect sense that London-based Playfish has raised a $17 million series B round led by Accel Partners and Index Ventures.

The newly acquired capital will be used for extra manpower in their four international offices. One of the new employees most important tasks will be including more platforms in PlayFish’s portfolio.

Its current claim to fame is the strong position in the Facebook app market. Playfish games regularly make it to the top ten gaming apps - which often comes down to 1 million daily active users. Mike Butcher even speculates that Playfish is the already legendary Facebook developer that makes more than a million dollars per month.

I hope you like that post!

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Accel Partners, facebook, index ventures, london, mike butcher, Playfish

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MyHeritage adds another branch to its tree: Kindo

Written on September 23, 2008 – 11:41 am
Ernst-Jan Pfauth, editor in chief

Isreali-based MyHeritage knows what to do with its recently financial injection. It has acquired London-based Kindo, a more visually appealing family tree service with less social networking.

Kindo team

OR.., Saul Klein knows how to bring good companies together. The Index Ventures partner found Accel Partners willing to co-invest 15 million dollars in MyHeritage last week and convinced the Israeli company to acquire Kindo - in which he also invested with TAG. Just my two cents, but who knows.

According to Mike Butcher, MyHeritage liked the fact that Kindo is all about the next generation, instead of just ancestors. By merging their services, MyHeritage leaves their competitors behind on that field.

So that makes four cents by two European bloggers, let’s focus on the facts now. What is already known about the merging of the two services? Venturebeat notes that new family trees cannot be created on Kindo anymore. There’s also an easy export function for Kindo members, so that they can extend their family tree on MyHeritage.

The amount of money it took MyHeritage to add the European family tree service is undisclosed. Read the story behind the acquisition on the Kindo blog.

Accel Partners, index ventures, kindo, mike butcher, MyHeritage, saul klein

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MyHeritage raises $15 million from Index and Accel

Written on September 8, 2008 – 4:18 pm
Ernst-Jan Pfauth, editor in chief

With a network of more than 25 million family members worldwide, 25 language versions, more than 260 million profiles, and 230 million photos, Tel Aviv-based myHeritage claims to be the “second largest online destination for families”. These impressive numbers come from a press release, issued yesterday, in which the company announces a $15 million funding round from London-based Index Ventures and Accel Partners. Index Ventures’ Saul Klein seems ecstatic, saying in the release that he believes “it has the potential to become as important to families as Facebook is for friends and LinkedIn is for professional relationships.”

MyHeritage is now certainly the largest when it comes to funding. One of its main competitors Geni, for example, has raised $11.5 million in total, which is less than half of myHeritage’s total funding ($24 million). The genealogy company will be using the investment to expand the team, establish commercial operations in London and develop new technologies.

A technology myHeritage has just launched is a face-recognizing feature. When users upload or import (e.g. from Flickr) a photo, the technology automatically checks who the depicted person is (as long as he or she is looking into the lens). That means a lot less tagging, you’ll have a machine to do that. MyHeritage will group photos with the same person on it, so that every family member’s vanity need is satisfied. Not a bad idea from myHeritage, which currently hosts around 230 million photos on its own site.

Accel Partners, facebook, Generations Network, index ventures, linkedin, london, MyHeritage, saul klein

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