Rocket Internet’s...

Lazada , the e-commerce site founded by Rocket Internet in a bid to build the “Amazon of Southeast Asia,” announced today that it has landed another $100 million from returning investors Holtzbrinck Ventures, Kinnevik Investment AB, Summit Partners and Tengelmann Group, as well as new investor, Belgian-based family-owned investment holding company Verlinvest. This is the largest single round that Lazada has raised to date, and brings its total amount of funding raised since its launch in March 2012 to more than $236 million. News of Lazada’s latest and biggest funding round comes just one month after Zalora, Rocket Internet’s Southeast Asia-facing fashion retail site, announced that it had also raised $100 million in a round led by many of the same investors , including Rocket Internet, Summit Partners, Kinnevik Investment AB, Verlinvest and Tengelmann Group. The two rounds are among the largest ever for e-commerce startups in the region. Lazada operates in Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam. The site has a lot of room for growth in the region, but also a lot of catching up to do because, according to its own estimates, 99% of Southeast Asian consumers still prefer to do their shopping offline. CEO Maximilian Bittner  told Reuters that Lazada’s latest funding will be used to improve logistics and the company’s supply chain, a key factor in the the site’s growth across the region, especially since key rival Amazon announced earlier this month that it would ship some items from the U.S. to Singapore and India for free. Like Amazon, Lazada offers a mix of books, household goods, consumer electronics, toys and sports equipment. The company is also readying the launch of its iOS app, an important move because many Southeast Asian consumers bypass PCs and rely solely on their mobile devices for Internet access (Lazada already has an Android app). Rocket Internet’s continued investment in Lazada, Zalora and its other e-commerce sites in emerging markets represent a departure from its previous strategy operating as a “clone factory” that copies high-growth online sites and then flips them for a profit –often to the very businesses cloned (for example,  when Rocket Internet sold Citydeal to Groupon in 2010 ). Instead, Rocket Internet is now focused on positioning itself as an e-commerce leader in emerging economies with rapidly-growing middle class consumers. Other retail sites Rocket Internet has launched in emerging markets include fashion site Lamoda in Russia (which raised $130 million in funding earlier this month ), Zappos clone Namshi in the Middle East , home furnishings site Mobly in Brazil  and African retail site Jumia .

30 Days In, Bitcoin Ang...

As has been written ad nauseam, we’ve seen a lot of activity in the wild and wacky world of cryptocurrency of late, thanks primarily to the tech industry’s new obsession with Bitcoin. Depending on whom you ask , digital currency like Bitcoin will either be worth nothing in 10 years, or its value will make Warren Buffet weep. It’s a polarizing topic at its very essence, but one thing is for sure: So far, venture capitalists are loving this emerging market , and startups are beginning to follow suit. In late May, we introduced you to the Bitcoin market’s latest growth milestone: The launch of BitAngels , the first multi-city angel network and incubator dedicated exclusively to digital currency startups. Appropriately given its focus, BitAngels is a distributed network of angel investors and entrepreneurs that came together over the course of a few days in the wake of the Bitcoin 2013 Conference . At launch, some 60 angels had joined the network and had pooled together just under $7 million in Bitcoin, which the founders planned to invest in $20K chunks, or increments thereof. While BitAngels isn’t a formal fund per se (so the Bitcoins are soft-circled, not in escrow), all involved are accredited, experienced investors, many of whom have made themselves available as advisors. Like Bitcoin itself ( or not, depending on the day ), the angel network and incubator is growing like crazy. One month removed from launch, BitAngels has doubled its number of investors to 120 and has added nearly $10 million in capital to its reserves, bringing its total to just under $18 million. Behind this steady growth, the network announced that it is has officially completed its first investment. Its first $100K investment went to BlueSeed , the “seasteading venture” that incubates startups in international waters not far off the coast of Silicon Valley. Naturally, its offshore incubator has drawn a handful of Bitcoin companies, as they aren’t subject to any regulation from Uncle Sam during their seafaring incubation. The angel network and incubator for cryptocurrency startups is the brainchild of Engine.co founder David A. Johnston and SocialRadius CEO/Marketwire founder Michael Terpin, along with four additional founding board members Gyft CEO Vinny Lingham, Memory Dealers CEO and “Bitcoin Jesus” Roger Ver, Tradehill CEO Jered Kenna and angel investor Sam Onat Yilmaz. BitAngels also tells us that it is in the final stages of due diligence with three other Bitcoin startups and, although it can’t yet reveal their identities, the founders expect to fund one or more of them in the next 30 days. For more, find BitAngels at home here .

Why MakerBot Is Like Ap...

When we first discovered that MakerBot was looking to partner with Stratasys, I was a bit non-plussed. MakerBot, as I’ve noted before, has a certain indie cred that makes this move a bit unpalatable. But, at the same time, it’s immensely important. Stratasys makes expensive, industrial-quality 3D printers. They are the “big iron” of the 3D printing world. Items printed on Stratasys hardware are as solid as anything produced by, say, injection molding, and the resolution make them indispensable for engineers and designers. In short, Stratasys is making mainframes and MakerBot is making the Apple I. While I’m loath to claim that Bre Pettis is Woz (let alone Steve Jobs), he is a charismatic leader who makes 3D printing fun, something the folks at Stratasys probably could never do. And, like Apple, MakerBot had to ramp up. By signing with Stratasys, MakerBot will be able to maintain its breakneck speed and growth. The company recently opened a 50,000 square foot space in Brooklyn where it is assembling machines and it has office space in downtown Brooklyn overlooking the Brooklyn Bridge. They have made it big with very little investment – they recently closed a $10 million round and were nosing around for more before this news – and they suffered from some severe growing pains along the way, especially in employee satisfaction . This purchase gives the company some breathing room, at the very least. Could MakerBot have made it without selling? Possibly, but it wouldn’t have been pretty. Home 3D printing is taking off. It’s not ubiquitous, to be sure, but it’s a method to turn bits into atoms that will become increasingly important in a post manufacturing world. Sadly, VCs are still suspicious of hardware startups (but that’s changing) and Makerbot could have gotten a few infusions of cash to help them glide to cruising altitude. Now they’re already there. Many will say that MakerBot sold out. Many will complain that the company lost open-source roots. Many will claim that there are better printers out there. None of these claims are absolutely false, to be clear, but things are not as cut and dried as we like to think. MakerBot took something simple and made it amazing. They sold when they had to, especially considering issues with quality control and support, and I trust Pettis will bring the open-source ethos to Stratasys headquarters and tell them it’s off limits. 3D printing isn’t new, just as computing wasn’t new when Apple hit the scene. MakerBot, like Apple, made it accessible. [ image via MakerBot ]

Well Done, Microsoft

The reveal of the Xbox One didn’t go as Microsoft hoped . Gamers loved the system, but hated the absurd restrictions placed on the games. But Microsoft listened and just today reversed its stance on some of the more ridiculous policies. Good for them. Good for us. I mean, the outcry was hard to ignore . The memes, the tweets, the visceral anger was everywhere. Even the talking heads on nationwide morning talk shows were debating the curious DRM restrictions. Gone is the daily Internet check. Gone is the very limited region locking. Games can now be rented and traded and passed among friends just like always. Things are essentially back to normal, for better or worse . This move was clearly to save face and eliminate potential digs Sony and Nintendo could (and would and already did ) take at the Xbox One. The last thing Microsoft needs is Sony pointing out that the PS4 doesn’t require an always-on Internet connection like the Xbox One. Microsoft didn’t have to reverse its stance. It could have taken the potshots and rolled out, touting the Xbox One’s features alongside the forward-thinking requirements. After all, the company has historically been pretty good about not responding to consumer feedback in a timely manner. Just look at Windows 8. Or Windows Vista. Or Xbox Live. The company has a long history of doing whatever the hell it wants. Even with the crazy restrictions, the average consumer would have probably purchased the Xbox One anyway. Gaming forums and Twitter represent just a small (if noisy) portion of the One’s target market. And with the One launching months from now, in the midst of the holiday season, the talk would have quieted down before it hit Walmart’s shelves. The Xbox One still requires a Kinect to always be connected, and today’s reversal removes some of the more novel features like game sharing from the system. But at least Microsoft is listening and responding quickly. That’s new. Gamers wanted to love the Xbox One but Microsoft made it impossible. Now things have gotten slightly better. [Image via Flickr/ dalvenjah ]

Microsoft Heeds Gamer F...

Attention gamers: you win. The folks at Redmond infuriated many when it revealed that the Xbox One would come with a long list of potential caveats — there was the automated 24 hour check-in to keep the console in playable condition, and the restrictions on who you could share disc-based games with, not to mention the fact that it would shipped region-locked. Unsurprisingly, the gaming community lashed out in a big way, and Microsoft is finally doing something about it. According to a recent mea culpa from Microsoft Interactive Entertainment President Don Mattrick, the company has suddenly decided to drop all that nonsense due to an outpouring of (largely negative) feedback. It’s generally welcome news considering just how off-base Microsoft seemed to be with its apparently overzealous approach to DRM, but the move doesn’t come without its drawbacks. The ability to store your entire game collection (even copies of games you physically bought) in the cloud? Gone. Kotaku also reports that this late-stage change means that the Xbox One will have to be patched by players as soon as they received them. Still, considering just how viscerally gamers reacted toward Microsoft’s policies (the image macro above is pretty mild compared what others have said), it’s frankly hard to see how the company could’ve played this any other way. Rather than standing on its own numerous merits, the Xbox One was almost immediately bogged down in important questions about how it would handle seemingly mundane actions like passing game discs among friends. What was Microsoft going to do, push the Xbox One onto store shelves knowing that a non-insignificant chunk of the gaming populace hated the thing on principle? Some would argue that’s exactly what Microsoft should’ve done, but it’s likely Microsoft felt its hand was being forced. Of course, it didn’t help that rival Sony adroitly seized that opportunity . All Sony had to do to endear itself to legions of eager gamers at E3 was to point out just how un-Microsoft it was by sticking to a more traditional (read: hands-off) approach to managing how people play games. Between dealing with gamer rage and the looming threat of a competitor that was eager to capitalize on the Xbox One’s shortcomings, Microsoft finally wound up doing what it should’ve done far earlier in the One development process — listening to the players.

Twitter Acquires Local ...

Twitter today acquired Spindle, an app that uses mobile devices and social networks to make a smarter localized search engine. The Spindle team will move to San Francisco and shutter the Spindle app. Using social networks, the time of day, and your location, Spindle would show you places you may want to visit, like restaurants or stores or other points of interest. “We’ve spent the past two-and-a-half years building a product that helps you answer the question: “What’s happening nearby right now?” Every time we’ve experimented and looked beyond local discovery, we’ve been amazed by the breadth and quality of content shared on Twitter,” the company wrote in a blog post today . “By joining forces with Twitter, we can do so much more to help you find interesting, timely and useful information about what’s happening around you.” Spindle comes from ex-Microsoft engineers and raised $2.3 million in funding before being acquired by Twitter. The company introduced version 2.0 in March, which featured interesting Google Now-esque push notifications based on user preferences. The Spindle team also said they will be relocating from Boston to San Francisco to join the Twitter team, and will be “sunsetting the Spindle service today to focus on these new and exciting opportunities.” It’s not immediately clear what the Spindle team will be working on, but we obviously expect them to keep answering the question, “What’s happening nearby right now?” Combined with Twitter’s resources and social graph, the team could produce a product to rival Foursquare or Facebook’s local search. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. I reached out to Twitter for comment, who mostly pointed to Spindle’s blog post but also offered this tweet: Welcome! “ @spindle : Exciting news: Spindle has been acquired by @Twitter and joins the flock! http://t.co/zJdccsGKto ” — Twitter Comms (@twittercomms) June 19, 2013