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Funding Activity (March, 2007): 1st Round Internet Companies - Recent Relations

April 6, 2007 on 10:29 am | In Company Analysis, Investor Analysis, New Features, Web 2.0, Month in Review |

LinkSViewer 1.2 has the ability to search and view recent Silicon Valley funding activity.  This post demonstrates the how, what, and whys of this feature.  For this example, I was interested in 1st round Internet Sector companies that received funding in March, 2007.  I mapped these companies together and then filtered for companies that only received funding in the past year.

1st Round SV Internet Companies Recent Activity Relational Map.  Large blue boxes indicate Internet start-up (1st round) companies that were funded in March, 2007.  Small blue boxes indicate all Internet companies that were funded in March, 2006 or later.  The goal is to map recent activity in the SV Internet Sector.

Network Commentary:

• 14 Internet-Sector 1st Round SV companies were funded in March, 2007 (Industrious Kid, Wesabe, Outspark.com, Scribd, Xobni, kwiry, Fliptrack, Teracent, Popular Media, Oodle, Rock You, Kongregate, Flixster, & cFares) - Source: LinkSV.com
• David Sze (Greylock: Marquee, LinkedIn, & Digg) has the most board ties (3) for Internet companies that received funding over the past year
• Peter Sonsini (NEA: Compiere & Teracent) and Ravi Mhatre (Lightspeed: Flixster & Kosmix) both have 2 board ties on the map - one 1st round company funded in March, 2007 and one over the past year

Honing in on the investor relations from the above map, I dropped pendants and for the below Investment Map: 

1st Round SV Internet Companies Recent Activity Investment Map (Pendants dropped).  Large blue boxes indicate Internet start-up (1st round) companies that were funded in March, 2007.  Small blue boxes indicate all Internet companies that were funded in March, 2006 or later.  The goal of this map is to indicate recent investment relation activity in the SV Internet Sector.

Network Commentary:

• 9 Internet-Sector 1st Round companies funded in March, 2007 have investment ties over the past year (Scribd, Xobni, Teracent, Popular Media, Oodle, Industrious Kid, Rock You, Kongregate, & cFares)
• Sequoia Capital is the most active VC in the past month (Rock You & Popular Media) and year (Xoom, Tutor Vista, NetPickle, LinkedIn, & Clearwell Systems) - 7 total investment links in the past year
• LightSpeed Ventures has 3 common investment links with Sequoia (NetPickle, RockYou, & Tutor Vista) and one other with Jeff Clavier (Wikia)
• NEA (GarageBand, Teracent, & Xoom), Greylock (Oodle, LinkedIn, & Digg), and Jeff Clavier (Wikia, Kaboodle, & Kongregate) each have 3 past-year Internet-sector investments
• Jeff Clavier and Reid Hoffman (Digg, Kongregate) are the only two angel investors on the map
• Y Combinator (Scribd & Xobni) Steamboat Ventures (Popular Media & Industrious Kid) both have 2 Internet-sector investments in the past month

Practical Uses (Whys)

The above map and analysis can be used to see who has been active in the Internet Sector over the past month and year.  It is meant to save users time by illustrating funding activity in one map with one-click summary information (in the Information Window or to LinkSV Company Summaries or People Profiles).  This information can be used by companies seeking funding, VC firms or angels surveying the investment space, or anyone looking for latest trends.  Some potential specific questions:

• Who are the recently active investors?
• What companies are they co-investing in?
• How are these companies related to each other? 
• How are these companies related to my company?
• What are the capital-based ties for collaboration?

Of course, LinkSViewer 1.2 can generate similar activity maps for different sectors, datelines, keywords, rounds, capital $, etc.  It can also be used to find board member and/or management team relations in addition to investments.  Registered users are encouraged to play around with either of the above maps (e.g., filter, node or link alteration).  We plan on integrating this festure into our front page as a way to help registered users quickly discover recent funding activity and relationships (Thanks to Paul Sherer at PodTech for this suggestion).  Contact us if you have any suggestions or specific requests for activity maps.