Wednesday, August 30, 2017

Bay Area Tech Wire - Aug. 30

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BAY AREA TECH WIRE -- Aug. 30, 2017
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Inbox Summit East - Sept. 29 - DC
http://www.inboxsummiteast.com/


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San Francisco-Based TravelBank Lands $25 Million in Second Round
o Vulog Raises $20 Million, Plans to Open U.S. Headquarters in San Francisco
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San Francisco-Based Gigster Raises $20 Million in Second Round
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Pleasanton-Based Blackhawk Network Acquires CashStar for $175 Million
o Report: Facebook's Appeal Fading Further Among Teens, Young Adults
o (Correction) Palo Alto-Based Recvue Lands $2 Million in New Funding
>
Inbox Summit East - Sept. 29 - DC
o Briefly Noted:
Western Digital - Upthere
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> Job/Event/Marketplace Classified Listings (Full Listings Below Stories)

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Inbox Summit East - Sept. 29 - DC
--Mid-Atlantic Marketing Summit - Baltimore - Sept 15

Full Job, Event, Marketplace and Services Descriptions Below in Classified Ad Section

Post Job/Event/Marketplace ad at: http://www.bayareatechwire.com

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o San Francisco-Based TravelBank Lands $25 Million in Second Round

San Francisco -- TravelBank, the San Francisco-based developer of a travel, expense and rewards app for business, said on Wednesday it has landed $25 million in its second round of funding, which the company will use to expand its staff and continue product development. DCM Ventures led the round, which included participation from Propel Venture Partners, DHVC, New Enterprise Associates (NEA), Accel and Silicon Valley Bank. DCM will take a seat on the company's board of directors. Users on TravelBank can book flights on more than 200 airlines, including all major U.S. and international carriers, and see their rewards points values when they book. Unlike most rivals, the company gives travelers more points when they choose less expensive options, helping businesses save money on travel costs and encouraging a corporate culture of financial responsibility. TravelBank, which now has raised just over $35 million since launching in October, also announced a new auto rewards program last month. .
https://www.travelbank.com
http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/travelbank-business-expense-and-travel-booking-disruptor-announces-25-million-in-series-b-funding-round-300511324.html 
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o Vulog Raises $20 Million, Plans to Open U.S. Headquarters in San Francisco

San Francisco -- With plans to open its U.S. headquarters in San Francisco next month, Vulog, a French developer of software designed to help mobility operators -- such as car rental companies -- launch and operate car-sharing services, said it has raised $20 million in its second round of funding. Frog Capital, Inven Capital and previous backers Bpifrance and ETF Partners took part in the round, which the company will use to expand its sales and marketing teams and further develop its technology. Plans include the hiring of "dozens" of new employees over the next three months. "In the past year, we have seen our company grow by more than 100%, and the funding comes at the right time to allow us to execute the next steps of our plan, including an acceleration of our operations in North America," said CEO Greg Ducongé. Vulog counts Evo Car Share in Vancouver, emov in Madrid, GreenMobility in Copenhagen, Mevo in New Zealand and Urbano in São Paolo among its clients.
https://www.vulog.com/ 
http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20170829006157/en/Vulog-Raises-20-Million-Accelerate-Growth-Opens 
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o San Francisco-Based Gigster Raises $20 Million in Second Round

San Francisco -- Gigster, the San Francisco-based creator of a software development service that combines developers and designers with automation tools, said it has raised $20 million in its second round of funding, led by Redpoint Ventures. Previous backers Andreessen Horowitz, Y Combinator and Ashton Kutcher and Guy Oseary's Sound Ventures also took part in the round, along with Marc Benioff and Adam D'Angelo and basketball legend Michael Jordan. The company, which addresses everything from custom built software and product design to innovation consulting, said it will use a portion of the proceeds to hire more than 100 new employees over the next year, more than tripling the size of its core team. Founded in 2014 by Roger Dickey and Debo Olaosebikan, Gigster now has raised over $32.5 million since its inception. The company serves an increasing number of enterprise clients, including Fidelity, MasterCard, Square, U.S. Bank, Wyndham, OpenTable, Airbus and PepsiCo. Separately, the company has named Lori Williams as its vice president of fulfillment. Williams previously was a general manager at cloud services company Appirio.
http://www.gigster.com
https://gigster.com/series-b-announcement 
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o Pleasanton-Based Blackhawk Network Acquires CashStar for $175 Million

Pleasanton, Calif. -- Blackhawk Network, a Pleasanton-based financial technology company, said on Wednesday it has paid $175 million in cash to acquire Maine-based CashStar, a developer of gift card commerce tools. The company said the deal strengthens its position in the digital gift card market. CashStar is now part of Blackhawk's digital and incentives businesses. Ben Kaplan, the company's former president and CEO, will continues to manage the business. CashStar's Commerce platform is used by merchants to increase revenue and reduce costs across channels, and the CashStar Exchange platform is used by gift card distributors and loyalty programs to procure and deliver gift cards from hundreds of brands. Clients include brands like Sephora, Starbucks, The Home Depot, Uber and Walmart, and distribution partners such as American Express Membership Rewards, Great Lakes Scrip, Maritz Motivation Solutions, MyCokeRewards, Raise.com and United MileagePlus X. "We're looking forward to leveraging the synergies across our businesses and technologies to offer comprehensive gift card solutions for a brand to sell directly to consumers or businesses through digital channels," said David Jones, Blackhawk's general manager of digital and incentives.
http://www.cashstar.com
http://www.blackhawknetwork.com 
https://blackhawknetwork.com/blackhawk-network-acquires-cashstar/  
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o Report: Facebook's Appeal Fading Further Among Teens, Young Adults

New York -- Despite an overall 2.4% increase in Facebook's user base, the appeal of the popular social network continues to wane among teens and young adults, according to a new report from eMarketer. The firm said that Facebook's monthly user base among the 12-17 age group will fall 3.4% to 14.5 million this year, the second straight year of decline. And usage by those under 12 and between the ages of 18-24 will grow more slowly than previously forecast. "We see teens and tweens migrating to Snapchat and Instagram," said Oscar Orozco, senior forecasting analyst at eMarketer. "Both platforms have found success with this demographic since they are more aligned with how they communicate -- that is, using visual content. Outside of those who have already left, teens and tweens remaining on Facebook seem to be less engaged -- logging in less frequently and spending less time on the platform." At the same time, the firm said it's now seeing "Facebook-nevers" -- children aging into their tween years who appear to have skipped Facebook altogether, choosing to engage instead with Facebook-owned Instagram. "Facebook is fortunate that it owns Instagram, which remains a strong platform for teens," said principal analyst Debra Aho Williamson. "Although usage of the main Facebook app is declining among teens, marketers will still be able to reach them on Instagram."
https://www.emarketer.com/Article/Instagram-Snapchat-Adoption-Still-Surging-US-UK/1016369
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o (Correction) Palo Alto-Based Recvue Lands $2 Million in New Funding

Palo Alto, Calif. --Recvue, the Palo Alto-based developer of a recurring revenue and billing management platform, said on Tuesday it has raised raised $2 million in a new round of funding, led by Cota Capital. The company, formerly known as ad-Orb, said it plans to use the proceeds to help accelerate growth. Recvue's platform is designed to helps clients provide better customer service by simplifying the management of subscription contracts.
http://www.recvue.com
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o Briefly Noted:

(San Jose, Calif.) San Jose-based Western Digital, developer of storage technologies, said it has completes its acquisition of Redwood City-based cloud services company Upthere. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. Upthere's technology is designed to act as a single home for all of a user's photos, videos, documents and music. Chris Bourdon, the company's CEO, will join the team as a "strategic leader."
http://investor.wdc.com/releasedetail.cfm?ReleaseID=1038433 

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> Inbox Summit East - Sept. 29 - Washington, DC

Inbox Summit East is a one-day conference that puts a spotlight on the latest and most effective techniques for email marketing. With dozens of panels, presentations and networking opportunities, the summit in Washington, D.C. will take a deep dive into current developments in email marketing and email strategy. Topics will include: Email Deliverability Issues, Current Email Metrics, Integrating Email With Social and Mobile Platforms, Email Content, List Building and Maintenance, Personalized and Customer Centric Email, and the Future of Email.
http://www.inboxsummiteast.com/

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> Mid-Atlantic Marketing Summit - Baltimore - Sept. 15

The Mid-Atlantic Marketing Summit: Baltimore will be held on Sept. 15 at Pier 5 Hotel in Baltimore. Now in its sixth year, the annual summit has become the "must-attend" marketing event for the Mid-Atlantic region and beyond. The summit brings together 300+ CMOs, Senior Marketers, Agency Professionals and Technology Executives from throughout the Mid-Atlantic area. The event features dozens of case studies, keynotes, and presentations on the most important issues facing marketers in 2018.
http://mamsummit.com/

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