“Today, we’re excited to share that Mapillary has joined Facebook to be part of their open mapping efforts. As some of you know, Facebook is building tools and technology to improve maps through a combination of machine learning, satellite imagery and partnerships with mapping communities, as part of their mission to bring the world closer together.” the blogpost says

Mapillary started as a crowdsourced google-streetview alternative. The startup has a big community that has uploaded billions of images to its service over the years. This the plan is to continue, and to have a strong support for OpenStreetMap.

“Our commitment to OpenStreetMap stays. The plan is for the rights given to OpenStreetMap editors to remain unchanged and for our work with OpenStreetMap communities and companies to continue on the same path as always. Mapillary will continue to spearhead a collaborative model where all map communities, companies, cities, and others work together to keep the maps of our world accurate, detailed, and up to date.”

The exact terms of the deal are not known. Previous investments in the startup have been Atomico, Sequoia Capital, Samsung Catalyst and BMW.

You can read more over at TechCrunch as well.

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“We just reached 1 billion images on Mapillary. People and companies across the world upload millions of images to Mapillary every day to get the data they need to make better maps. And better yet—the imagery and data is available to anyone, to make better maps everywhere” said the startup about the news

If you want to read more about the background, read their blogpost.

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The Series B is €12 million, led by BMW Ventures with support from Samsung Catalyst Fund, NavInfo and previous backers. The main driving force is to get better data for self-driving cars which may be on a brand new car paint.

“With everything that’s happening around autonomous driving, we know the need for a collaborative, device-agnostic, and map-agnostic platform will be steadily growing,” says Jan Erik Solem, co-founder.

The scale of Mapillary’s operations has grown to serve over 22 billion map objects to an increasing number of organizations and customers in mapping, cities and the automotive industry.

“There is a growing need for an independent provider of street-level imagery and map data, which also acts as a sharing platform among different players. Data sharing is crucial to maintaining accurate maps and to the development of safe autonomous vehicles. Mapillary has made great progress and built technology that will let everyone update maps in a scalable way.” says Uwe Higgen, Managing Partner at BMW Ventures.

Mapillary has since the start been about enabling street view style photos, but for everyone, and not owned by one giant, such as Google.

“While the application of Mapillary for automotive use might be new, the underlying idea is the same since our first day: sharing data so that everyone wins. Our new investors will help us navigate this rapidly changing automotive market, and bring expertise in distributing map data that will help us realize Mapillary’s global potential.” says Jan Erik

You can read more over at their blog.

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This year’s list has witnessed some 200 nominations of various companies from all over Sweden. Among the 33 finalists are seven companies from Southern Sweden, according to 8till5.

1. Acconeer – Lund-based startup that develops sensors for next generation portable devices. Acconeer was established in 2011. Estimated product launch is 2017.
2. Anima – Malmo-based company that makes smart watches and jewelry. Anima was established less than a year ago but has already raised 94 mln SEK (10 mln euro) from a Chinese company Goertek. The first collection of watches will be presented at the end of this year.
3. Mapillary – Malmo-based company that works wih crowdsourced map solution as an alternative to Google Maps. It is the 3rd time Mapillary lands among 33-listan companies. This year Mapillary also took in a 68 mln SEK (over 7 mln euro) investment to scale its operations.
4. Nattaro Labs – Lund-based company that develops products and services to prevent and combat bedbugs. The company was founded in 2011. Nattaro Labs has established a partnership with one of Germany’s largest distributors of pest control: PPS GmbH.
5. Orbital Systems – Malmo-based company that uses space technologies to reuse 90% of shower water and 80% of heat. It is the 2nd time Orbital Systems lands among the 33-listan companies.
6. Senzagen – Lund-based company that develops a technology for creating allergy tests without animal experiments. At the beginning of the year Senzagen signed an agreement with an international pharmaceutical company. It is the 2nd time Senzagen is on the 33-listan.
7. Spiideo – Malmo-based company that develops software for image analysis and a service for advanced video recording.

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Founded in 2013, Mapillary is the best described as a service for crowdsourcing map photos. By collecting images from the public, the company provides an alternative open online map services. Currently the Mapillary has over 18 000 registered users and a database of over 50 million images from 170 countries.

“Our model is proven, for everyone but the extreme skeptics. It works. And now we want to scale up and do more,” – said Mapillary’s founder Jan Erik Solem in the interview with DiDigital.

This is the second investment large for Mapillary over the past year. In January 2015 the company took in over 12 million SEK ($1.5M) lead by Sequoia. The money will be allocated for developing core computer vision technology, increasing community activities, and improving service tools and applications

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“We just closed a $1.5M seed round led by Sequoia. Also participating in the seed round are some great funds, Playfair, Wellington, and LDV Capital, and a number of prominent angel investors.”

– the startup writes on it’s blogg. This is an impressive list of investors, and the first external investment in the company. Being run by known serial entrepreneurs Jan-Erik Solem (former Polar Rose) and Peter Neubauer (Neo Technologies), the team behind it has the track record and the vision required.

“With this we are set for growth. Our team will grow, our service and tools for the community will improve. We will make bold attempts at claiming a spot as an independent player in a space dominated by giants. We firmly believe in this vision and our new investors do too.”

The rest of the short blogpost reads. The team has already achieved great success, currently having over 6.5 million photos uploaded to their service, which in total cover over 200 000 000 meters of roads, pathways and bicycle lanes being able to be seen digitally. Even if a long way to go for being as comprehensive as Google Streetview, they already cover places where Google has not been.

You can see what others write about the investment here: TechCrunch, 8till5.

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Established entrepreneurs Hampus Jakobsson and Karl-Anders Johansson are the brilliant minds behind the new plot for having bought the property after receiving an expert property advice, and then turning it into an entrepreneur-house. The two have worked together in Tat, which they co-founded.

The 15th of January is moving-in day and renovations are currently in full swing Several of the companies moving in currently reside in Jard on Stora Nygatan 36.

According to Hampus Jakobsson, there’s no need to worry about bad blood between the rental owner of Stora Nygatan and the entrepreneur-duo. The move is purely in the interest of acquiring more space and the two have nothing but praise for their former location:

“The Jard building was too small, so we decided to find something new. But to anyone who is seeking a central facility of 200 square meters, Jard is super nice.”

The new entrepreneur-house is also the center for the start-up entrepreneur group Malmo Startups. The house includes ample meeting and recreation areas which Hampus Jakobsson believes is important to get business started.

We all know that the most defining characteristic of a house is its name, although Shakespeare might not agree, so what do they plan to call it?

“We don’t know yet, it’s tricky. Either we keep Jard or we come up with something new,” says Hampus Jakobsson.

We wish the two entrepreneurs and the twelve companies involved the best of luck and hope for a safe and hassle-free move!

Read more on the story at SydSvenskan.

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Deep insights with 4 cases

If you ever have thought about raising money then this event sounds like a must. With four very different startups having promised to tell every detail of how they raised money, as well as Hampus Jakobsson talking about his view on investments as a business angel. We have been told the event will really dig into the subject in a very meaningfull and transparent way.

“Creating a company has many challenges that you can’t study to learn but usually need to figure out the hard way. Things like how to raise money, find co-founders, come up with a good idea for your startup… Some of these are irreversible and might lead you down a path of doom. Building Blocks is a series that give overview of a topic and then companies telling their honest and transparent stories.” says Joel Larsson, one of the organisers.

The event will have four speakers telling about funding from angels, VCs and crowdfunding. The cases will be Userbin, Mapillary, Everplaces, and Form (the guys behind the recent Point Kickstarter).

The speakers talk about:
• What was required for each funding (metrics, passion, fit…) sharing feedback, slides, metrics, etc when possible
• Share their opinions on dilution, equity to employees, good and bad money, any other common questions and pitfalls
• General tips, tricks, and recommendations for someone raising money

When: 1 dec, 13:00 – 16:00
Where: Media Evolution City
Registration: At eventbrite (the event is free)

Image credits: Bidgee

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User generated content that works

The business has grown organically since start. The service has had a growing community around it – people around the world making streetview images with their mobile phones. So far over 25 000 km of roads, lanes and path have been covered – which is more then half-way around the globe!

“We are very happy with our growth and organic adoption. Currently we are seeing over 100 000 uploads/week.” says Jan Erik Solem, co-founder.

Picture nr 1 million, seen above and which can be found here, also shows the reach of the community surrounding the service – being taken in Svalbard, where there still is snow at this time of the year. This map of all locations covered gives a good idea of the organic spread the Mapillary team has reached, to places all over the world. A great work for the four guys that are the Mapillary team!

Making the world a better place

The startup is nice example of things that happen in an evolved startups scene. With founders that are serial entrepreneurs, and with different background, coming together to create a world-chaging product. The team of four includes Peter Neubauer with his background within databases and large dataset from Neo Technology, who matches well with Jan Erik Solems background in image processing from Polar Rose and Apple.

“We are a great little team that’s very passionate about building this service. Our vision is to have photos of every place on the planet so there is lots to do.”

The aim is not just to have an open and free streetview of every place in the world. But also to provide a good and reliable service for emergency disaster zones or other instances where up to date imaging can help a lot of other. By only requiring a mobile phone and no special 360° equipment, the service is quick to set up and use.

The business model is inspired by GitHub and Prezi, with every image being public and accessible for free, but having the option to have private images for paying costumers.

“We are working with some bigger initial clients as early testers of commercial Mapillary use.”

Costumers here include construction companies that need good up-to-date imaging of sites, as well as place marketing or turist organisations, that see the value in having good streetveiw in their areas – including pedestrian sidewalks and hiking trials.

Think Mapillary is an interesting service? If you want to help in the open street view ambitions, you can download the app here: iOS, Android and Windows phone.

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A startup conference for investors

The conference, which is an evening and one full day, is limited to 70 participants. It’s focus is unlike most on the investors, and not the startups. This is noticeable in the participants – being mainly business angels from all over Scandinavia and venture capital firms from all over Europe and the US. Ten startups from the Nordics were invited to present their businesses to what was a high profile crowd. Many video transcribing services were also hired so as to help the participants who were not fluent in English, understand the discussions that were going on at the conference.

The aim of the event is twofold – to build relationships between investors in the Nordics, as well as being a good place for later stage startups to present themselves for further investments. The smaller size of the event achieves an intimate and open atmosphere.

Quality over Quantitiy

The attendees list included some of the biggest international venture capitalist firm in the startup community, including Accel Parterns, Balderton Capital, DFJ Esprit, Wellington Partners, and Early Bird Ventures, as well as most of the local Nordic firms including Creandum, North Zone, Open Ocean Capital, MOOR Capital. Northcap and Conor.

Besides this there were also a lot of business angels, including both those that are in the spotlight as well as those staying out of it. Hampus Jakobsson, Thomas Madsen-Mygdal, Göran Tollstam and Klaus Nyengaard, as well as others from all over the Nordics such as Henrik Torstensson and Erik Byrenius where present. You can view some of the featured guests here: here.

What do venture capitalists think about business angels

One of the highlights was a panel discussion with four venture capital firms present.

Participating where:

• Chrysanthos Chysanthou from Accel Partners – who invest in B2B SaaS, mainly series A rounds.
• Katja Bergman from MOOR Capital – Private investment firm from the Rovio founders. Only 6 investments so far, but because they are evergreen the feel no pressure to invest.
• Wayne Gibbins from Notion Capital – Who invest from € 0,75 M to € 50 M, but who have a sweetspot at Series A levels)
• Harry Briggs from Balderton Capital – A Europe focused VC firm, also mainly focusing on Series A rounds.

Some of the topics discussed where business angels, and how they looked at business angels roles in a startup after it has raised a series A or B round. There was no consensus, and some said that they like business angels to stay on board and provide further help and guidance, while in other circumstances early business angels cannot contribute efficiently any longer after a larger investment. It is really a focus on what is good for the startup and it’s product, that is the most important.

There we also talks about new ways to raise financing. Wayne said:

“We did B rounds with angels. We brought in startups to pitch a $ 10 million investment round, we took the lead, and filled up with angels.”

Something which he said worked remarkably well even with those sums involved.

Also, angel list and its new syndication focus was mentioned multiple times, as well as crowdfunding and the signals it sends as investment oppertunities

“We look a lot at crowd funding” said Harry

Business angels was a recurring topic in the VC panel session. That business angels can cause problems, especially if they have the wrong focus or attitude, was mentioned.

“High profile angels from big companies can be problematic” said Harry

What is meant was that they to easily have the ‘if you have a hammer, everything looks like a nail’ perspective – that they often think their own solutions to problem they have faced before are the right ones. Which can be a misleading thought, because it is hard to judge what effects were really effective afterwords, and too easy to overestimate ones own importance.

Investment in gaming

Nikolaj at Sunstone held an talk and open discussion about investing in the gaming sector. He talked about the evolvement the gaming scene has gone thru, from big blockbusters and triple A titles, to todays apps.

“Gaming is no longer video games. Old games had a half-life of 5 days. Now gaming companies like Supercell and Rovio have stayed on top for over 24 month.”

He things gaming startups should see themselves not as games, but rather as the new Hollywood and compare themselves to the movie industry and entertainment business.

“Gaming has the ability to be the new digital entertainment”

“The nordic game scene is great at making enjoyable games. But they are not that good at building IP and characters. Disney would not buy Supercell. The people coming out of Rovio are the best bets at making the change to create strong IP and characters in the region.”

Not everyone present agreed, saying that movie and music studies also have a lot of revenue from old titles and IPs, something the gaming sector has not. Not at the moment at least.

Lessons from investments

Apart from the startups presenting, there were keynotes, panels and a fireside chat with Tim Jackson from Lean Investments. A lot of wisdom and insights were shared. Thoughts of interest for anyone who is in a startup has had an early seed or angel investment, or a Series A.

Tim shared his thoughts on investments in general, and also about learning, both from his background as a journalist, entrepreneurs and now VC. Amongst other he emphasised that as a successful entrepreneur you easily give the wrong advice, because you think what you did was the right thing, even tho it might be mostly luck and hard work that made you succeesfull.

“it’s tempting to teach others what you did was the right thing. But you actually do not know. I believe in life long learning.” was one of his wisdoms.

He also talks about being an entrepreneurs, and how he sees that now compared to before, when he was just writing about entrepreneurship for The Economist and The Financial Times:

“it’s a lot harder then most people realise”

Also shared were some advice from his current position as venture capitalist to what they are looking for. His four must haves in a startup:

“A good team, traction related to the amount of money, a big enough market and barriers to entry for others. Those are the most important. It must be a long term sustainable business, so entry barriers for competitors are important”

When asked what he thinks about pitching and if he has any tips, he emphasised that it all depends on if it is an early startup looking for a first € 100 000 angel investment or if it is a € 1 – 10 000 000 VC investment they are looking for. Depending on that the pitches require very different things.

Interviewed by Joakim Jardenberg, who now is amongst other ‘Chief of Internet’ at the city of Helsingborg, the discussion also was about public services and entrepreneurship, as Tim is on the board of UKs GDS.

“We should definitely keep an eye, and help, the public sector going into the digital age”

What is the difference between VC firms

Another topic that was discussed during the day was that it is hard to tell different VC firms apart – how do they really differentiate.

“All of us VCs say we are entrepreneurial driven, and have a product focus. So in order to see who fits your needs, you should talk to us, and ask us how we do that.“

Nikolaj also mentioned that becoming more focused, such as he himself – investing only in Open Source or gaming startups – is another way to know who is the most relevant. And it also to makes their own live simpler – one of the VCs mentioned they have last year looked at over 900 cases, but only invested in 6 – making the ratio 150:1. Something other VCs agreed with, the ratio startup to investment is very high, and takes a lot of time and focus.

Startups showcase

The startups presenting where from all over the Nordics. They were not asked to pitch, but rather showcase their businesses and present themselves. Being in fundraising mode was not a requirement to be selected – however multiple of them were. Sometimes the best time to build a relationship with an investor is when you aren’t fundraising. Therefor the aim was to seek out interesting founders with businesses operating at different stages and in different industries.

Present where:

• Brisk.io – Hampus Jakobsson told about their ambition to make people love their CRM system.
• Barnebys – making arts, antiques and collections accessible for anyone
• Mapillary – Enabling street view anywhere with mobile technology.
• Clue – Ida, about how they aim to become a mobile technological alternative to the pill for fertile women worldwide
• Safello – Ludvig Öberg about their safe approach to Bitcoin and their new wallet, including their bitcoin ATM machine
• Conferize – Jon Schäffer about how they aim to be every conference online plattform and community.
• Kahoot! – about making a tool for educations, and how they have reached a massive 4 million unique players already!
• Tinitell – About making a wristphone that kids can use, including a GPS tracker. Got a lot of attention lately for their recent kickstarter.
• Sprinkle – making a widget for suggested reading for newspapers and magazine, achieving better returns then traditional ads.
• Airhelp – how they are helping people claim delayed airplane compensation, at a remarkable level!

All in all, a very good event, with a lot of interesting people and a good crowd. Benjamin Page, Michael Hoy, and Daniel Kipowski who organised it did a great job, and we are looking forward to next year already.

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