Portfolio News: Palma Ceia Closes Series B Funding, Internet of Things Connectivity to be Accelerated

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Palma Ceia SemiDesign (PCS), a fabless semiconductor company offering wireless chips, modules, systems and IP supporting emerging Machine-to-Machine (M2M) WiFi and cellular standards for the Internet of Things (IoT), today announced it has completed a Series B round of financing. Leading the round is Global Connective LP, a U.S. subsidiary fund of Inspiration China Ltd Pty, based in Adelaide, Australia. Inspiration China has extensive experience with China’s wireless and industrial sectors, key markets for Palma Ceia. Inspiration China’s business model is to assist international leading technology companies in accessing global markets, especially China’s booming market.

Read the press release here

Portfolio News: Apple buys Band Portfolio Company Shazam

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The Band has had another nice headline exit with the news that Apple Computer has bought our portfolio company Shazam (July 2001 Dinner) for approximately $400M. They were a small team out of Stanford when they presented in the same room at the Los Altos Golf and Country Club that we still meet to this day. We invested at a $2M pre-money valuation at a time that the dot.com bubble was bursting and a nuclear winter in venture investing was soon coming. There is pride in having seeded a company with as much impact on the world as Shazam. The little project we helped get off the ground became the most downloaded app on the Apple App Store with more that 100 million active daily users. With this acquisition, of the Band's 277+  investments, 60 have now been acquired for a profit to investors, and 11 have gone public.

Read the TechCrunch article, which was first to report the acquisition.

Portfolio News: Hooch - This App is the Moviepass of Cocktails (and more)

You may have heard of HOOCH before. It’s an app that gives you a free drink every day at hundreds of high-end bars and restaurants worldwide for just $9.99 per month (aka less than the price of a single drink in most New York bars). It’s a pretty great deal — sort of like the MoviePass of cocktails. Well, now they are launching HOOCH BLACK — a super-premium concierge service and discovery platform that can not only get you VIP tickets to Coachella, but can actually get them for you at a discount.

Read article at FashionWeekDaily