VC Web 2.0 List: Big Money For New Media and Marketing Companies
SiliconBeat has published a list of all "Web 2.0 companies" that received venture backing over 2005 and so far in 2006. The list was created by PricewaterhouseCoopers and the National Venture Capital Association. In the comments to SiliconBeat's post, two prominent 2.0 VCs have dissed the list. Peter Rip thinks it's "ridiculous", saying that "Web 2.0 is an investment fad, for sure, but this classification is pointless in its generality." Brad Feld agrees with Peter, noting that the classification is awful.
Be that as it may, the list is a useful resource - at least in terms of quantifying certain things.
The most interesting analysis I can think to do on it right now is seeing which companies have received the most funding. The resulting tables are below.
In 2005 Vonage got a staggering $200 Million in VC backing, while a company called Datran Media Corporation (according to its website "a leading performance-based marketing company") garnered $60M.
Meanwhile in 2006 Sling Media (a TiVo competitor in the digital television space) has raked in $46M so far this year, with advertising software company Claria Corp (formerly Gator Corporation) pulling in $40M. ePrize, which bills itself as "an interactive promotion agency" is third on the 2006 list. RazorGator is another which has received over $20M in 2006 - they're an event ticket sales company.
While I haven't digged deep into the spreadsheet that was kindly offered up by SiliconBeat, it does seem noteworthy that the companies receiving the most funding are media, advertising/marketing and e-commerce businesses. Indeed recently I noted here on Read/WriteWeb that online advertising is hot in 2006 - and that seems to be borne out in the VC investment list.
When it comes down to it, there aren't many companies in the tables below that I'd have immediately classified as "web 2.0". Let's see... definitely Riya, Zimbra and Sharpcast - maybe a few others. But it seems the startups attracting VC dosh are in the new media, marketing and business sectors. Is that really a surprise? I'd suggest a little bit, but then a lot of so-called web 2.0 companies don't require a lot of cash to do business (one of the hallmarks of this current era).
On the other hand, it perhaps does suggest that the real money in this era will be made not on the trendy web 2.0 companies - but on the new media and marketing businesses. Thoughts anyone?
2006 - 1st Quarter - sorted by Amount
| Name | Industry | Amount |
| Sling Media, Inc. | Media and Entertainment | 46600100 |
| Claria Corporation (FKA: Gator.com) | IT Services | 40000000 |
| ePrize, LLC | IT Services | 32000000 |
| RazorGator, Inc. | Media and Entertainment | 22800000 |
| Riverbed Technology, Inc. (FKA: NBT Technology, Inc.) | Telecommunications | 19999900 |
| Netli, Inc. | Telecommunications | 18000000 |
| Command Information, Inc. | Software | 16000000 |
| mFormation Technologies, Inc. | Software | 15300000 |
| Snocap, Inc. (FKA: Open Copyright Database, Inc.) | Software | 15000000 |
| Riya, Inc. | Media and Entertainment | 15000000 |
| Metaweb Technologies, Inc. | Software | 15000000 |
| Cape Clear Software, Inc. | IT Services | 15000000 |
| Zimbra, Inc. (FKA: Liquid Systems, Inc.) | Software | 14500200 |
| Healthline Networks, Inc. (FKA: YourDoctor, Inc.) | Media and Entertainment | 14000000 |
| Sharpcast, Inc. | Software | 13500000 |
| Vcommerce Corporation (AKA: Vstore, Inc.) | Media and Entertainment | 13000000 |
| StubHub, Inc. (fka; LiquidSeats) | Media and Entertainment | 12310000 |
2005- sorted by Amount
| Name | Industry | Amount |
| Vonage Holdings Corporation | Telecommunications | 200000000 |
| Datran Media Corporation | IT Services | 60000000 |
| Azul Systems, Inc. | Telecommunications | 42226800 |
| CEH Holdings, Inc. | IT Services | 32320000 |
| Azul Systems, Inc. | Telecommunications | 30133200 |
| Perfect Commerce, Inc. (FKA: eScout LLC) | IT Services | 30000200 |
| Turbine, Inc. (FKA: Turbine Entertainment Software Corp.) | Media and Entertainment | 30000000 |
| Art.com, Inc. (FKA: Allwall.com) (FKA: Pokers.com) | Media and Entertainment | 30000000 |
| RazorGator, Inc. | Media and Entertainment | 26000000 |
| Navio Systems, Inc. (FKA: Aplaud Technologies, Inc.) | IT Services | 25400000 |
| The Vermont Teddy Bear Company | Consumer Products and Services | 25331000 |
| SunRocket, Inc. | Telecommunications | 25000000 |
| Revenue Science, Inc. (FKA: digiMine, Inc.) | IT Services | 24181000 |
| eStyle, Inc. (AKA: Babystyle.com) | Retailing/Distribution | 22215000 |
| Bitfone Corporation | Software | 22000000 |
| Zappos.com, Inc. | Retailing/Distribution | 20508000 |
| Glu Mobile (FKA: Sorrent, Inc.) | Media and Entertainment | 20000100 |
| WhenU.com, Inc. | IT Services | 20000000 |
| Altura International (aka; Shop.com) | Media and Entertainment | 20000000 |
| IdenTrust, Inc. (FKA: Identrus, Inc.) | IT Services | 20000000 |
| Shutterfly, Inc. | Media and Entertainment | 20000000 |
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It's a stretch to assume the VCs as a group know where money will be made. They're practically the definition of a mindless herd. True to form, they're doing rear-view mirror investing or chasing fads that don't even pretend to be real businesses.
I could not agree more about this being a media business. Web 2.0 is no longer about technology for the most part. And here VCs are vastly outgunned by the media empires. Take a ringside seat to watch some serious destruction of capital, albeit at a much smaller scale than the dot-com implosion.
The biggest surprise in this list is that someone categorized it as Web 2.0. This looks more like an ad:tech exhibitor list. The fact that the lead gen (er, performance-based marketing) guys dramatically outnumber the Web 2.0 guys shows that the vc's know what they're doing - investing in teams that understand revenue. I'll take Datran over Newsvine any day.
Interesting, but seems to fall short of what companies are where and misses quite a few...
Library House (based in Cambridge,uk) released a UK venture-backed report on their site yesterday and got coverage in the Daily Telegraph this morning.
Apparently its based upon 'the complete' uk venture-backed set of companies, so its going to be complete/accurate rather than the PwC spreadsheet, includes all of the high-tech companies etc for the UK.
report @ http://www.libraryhouse.net/ukvb/
P.