Startup Talk: Amazon Creates New ‘Launchpad’ for Startups
by July 30, 2015 5:33 am 131 views
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AMAZON CREATES NEW ‘LAUNCHPAD’ FOR STARTUPS
Amazon on Wednesday announced a new program that makes it easy for startups to launch, market, and distribute their products to hundreds of millions of Amazon customers across the globe. The program, called Amazon LaunchPad, offers a streamlined onboarding experience, custom product pages, a comprehensive marketing package, and access to Amazon’s global fulfillment network, all geared toward helping startups successfully launch their innovations and share their stories.
Amazon is working with more than 25 venture capital firms, startup accelerators, and crowdfunding platforms to bring startups into the Amazon Launchpad program. To learn more about the Amazon Launchpad program, visit here.
VENTURE CAPITAL INVESTING EXCEEDS $17 BILLION FOR FIRST TIME SINCE 2000
Venture capitalists invested $17.5 billion in 1,189 deals in the second quarter of 2015, according to the MoneyTree Report from PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP (PwC) and the National Venture Capital Association (NVCA), based on data provided by Thomson Reuters.
Quarterly venture capital (VC) investment increased 30% in terms of dollars and 13% in the number of deals, compared to the first quarter when $13.5 billion was invested in 1,048 deals. The second quarter is the sixth consecutive quarter of more than $10 billion of venture capital invested in a single quarter.
“In addition to a significant uptick in total investing in Q2, the $7.3 billion invested in software companies exceeded the total VC dollars invested across all industries in 51 of the last 82 quarters,” said Tom Ciccolella, U.S. Venture Capital Leader at PwC. “We saw 26 megadeals (deals $100 million or greater) in Q2, including yet another billion dollar investment. After seeing the very first billion dollar VC investment in Q1 of last year, we now count four of the last five quarters with companies receiving billion dollar investments, adding to the ever-growing herd of unicorns which is approaching triple digits. Given the current pace of investing, VC in 2015 is on track to well exceed the $50 billion invested in all of 2014.”
MoneyTree Report results are available online at this link.
CONSUMER CONFIDENCE IN TECHNOLOGY RISES IN JULY
Consumer confidence toward technology spending rose slightly in July and consumer sentiment toward the overall economy decreased slightly, according to the latest data released by the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA). The CEA Index of Consumer Technology Expectations (ICTE), which measures consumer expectations about technology spending, climbed 0.6 points to reach 88.4 for July.
“Consumer sentiment toward tech spending continues its three-month streak, with another increase in July,” said Chris Ely, senior manager of industry analysis for CEA. “To some extent, we credit recent earnings announcements that smartphones performed well in the second quarter.”
CEA recently released its semi-annual report U.S. Consumer Electronics Sales and Forecasts, which finds smartphones continue their position as the leading sales category in the tech industry, with revenues expected to generate $54 billion in 2015 – a 10% increase from last year.
APPTEGY REVOLUTIONIZES CONTENT DISTRIBUTION FOR SCHOOL DISTRICTS
When Jeston George sold his direct marketing company two years ago, he was looking to start a new business that did more than just make money. After discovering that his nephew’s school didn’t make information about campus-related events easily available to the public, he got the idea of building mobile apps for schools and school districts. Read his startup success story-in-the-making at this link.