The Next Web

RealMee, online ID tool for dummies, closes round A

Written on September 3, 2008 – 4:35 pm
Ernst-Jan Pfauth, editor in chief

The Dutch Creative Industry Fund (DCIF) is on a roll. After its recent €50,000 investment in VIDDIX, DCIF has now invested in online identity tool RealMee. The amount of funding is undisclosed, but the Dutch fund usually backs start-ups with a €20,000 to €40,000 money stack. RealMee helps people to manage their online identity by creating a profile which will show up in Google’s top results when searching for one’s name.

When I interviewed founders Roland Carpentier and Hans Helms in February, they assured me that no tricks like cloacking and linkfarming were used to push RealMee pages up in the search results. An important part of their strategy is urging users to link to their RealMee profile from social network profiles.

The service isn’t interesting for people who’ve already built a significant web presence. But ordinary people who haven’t created any web content, will gladly welcome RealMee. Moreover, the service will soon learn these folks how to take advantage of the upcoming open standards - since RealMee will start providing OpenID services. They will also suggest users new web applications (there’s your business model).

So far, RealMee has 3000 users. That isn’t impressive number, so it won’t be surprising to hear that Carpentier and Helms will use the financial injection to attract new users. I’m pretty sure they’ll ask DCIF partners Telegraaf Media Groep and Ilse Media - large media companies - to help them gaining some traction.

I hope you like that post!

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dcif, google, Open standard, openid, search engine, social network, Telegraaf Media Groep, Web content

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Video presentation start-up VIDDIX raises €100.000

Written on August 21, 2008 – 2:50 pm
Ernst-Jan Pfauth, editor in chief

Dutch start-up VIDDIX (review here) has received €100.000 in a first round of funding. The Dutch Creative Industry Fund (DCIF) has invested €50.000. The Netspider Group and an angel made up for the other €50.000.

VIDDIX, which started as a study project and launched in February this year, can be best described as a combination between YouTube and Slideshare. The video is playing at a panel on the left, while different web content - such as slides, pictures, YouTube videos, HTML and Flash embeds - shows up in a so-called iPanel at the right.

DCIF’s financial injection in VIDDIX is bigger than the fund regularly gives. Gert-Jan Bennen, fund manager, said in the release: “We’re investing in VIDDIX because its tool is a valueable contribution to existing webvideo services (..). We foresee a good role for this tool in the future of online video.” The Dutch fund normally invests between €20.000 and €40.000, says their website.

Example of VIDDIX video featuring my co-editor Boris

VIDDIX CEO Sébastien Willems is particularly excited about the network of DCIF. He told Emerce that his company is already negotiating with Holland’s largest Internet publisher, Ilse Media. VIDDIX is also working with onine shopping giant Bol.com, the results of which we will see at the end of this year.

In the comments on my review of VIDDIX, Edo van Santen en “1234gybotf” raised questions about VIDDIX’s business model. Turns out that the video company is aiming at a B2B approach, while offering the service for free to normal users. Sounds like a solid plan to me.

angel, b2b, business model, dcif, funding, netspider group, slideshare, viddix, youtube

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