SparksLab Global Venture investment thesis:

The Future is Data

We are looking to invest in companies that:

• Are generating valuable data around usage patterns, customer behavior, company information
• Have innovative & disruptive business models build around strong products
• Have high engagement with their customer base (consumer or enterprise)
• Have highly talented, driven team that can clearly articulate their vision and do whatever it takes to succeed.

Our approach:

Fast, Global, Connected

Business is now truly global, but most investors are not. Exceptional entrepreneurs, that are building strong, category defining companies at highly advantageous valuations – can be found anywhere. This is the future of investing: Truly global, virtual, fast and highly networked.

Growing Entrepreneurs

We are a new type of seed-stage fund. We believe business is now truly global. Exceptional entrepreneurs, that are building strong, category defining companies at highly advantageous valuations – can be found anywhere. SparksLab Global Venture are a team highly experienced in finding such talent and helping our entrepreneurs to develop, grow, network, and scale into other markets throughout the world.

Woo Sports, the Boston-based maker of technology that tracks statistics for kiteboard and snowboard enthusiasts, has raised $2.7 million in new funding, according to a Monday regulatory filing.

A request for comment was not immediately returned.

Former Facebook Executive, Net Jacobsson; Former Horizons Ventures Board Director for Summly, Spotify and Siri, Frank Meehan; and SparkLabs (Korea) Co-Founder, Bernard Moon, Will Invest Across Asia, Europe, Israel and the U.S.

PALO ALTO, CA--(Marketwired - Oct 24, 2013) - SparkLabs Global Ventures is launching a new $30 million seed-stage fund that will invest in early-stage companies looking to rapidly scale their innovations. The fund's worldwide network of experienced partners identified strong demand from the best startups for on-the-ground regional support for partnerships and expansion opportunities to drive their growth.

The founding partners are Bernard Moon, Net Jacobsson, Frank Meehan, Jimmy Kim, John Lee, and Jay McCarthy. Bernard, Net and Frank will be the primary operating partners.

"SparkLabs Global Ventures was founded on our strong momentum from our SparkLabs accelerator in South Korea, where we have already invested in 16 fantastic startups. Jimmy Kim, John Lee, Jay McCarthy and I were planning to launch an angel fund covering Asia and the U.S. When the opportunity came to partner with Frank and Net on an angel fund, it was a no-brainer. We immediately found our combined network and entrepreneurial experiences for many entrepreneurs an exciting value proposition," said Bernard Moon.

Net Jacobsson was Facebook's first international executive and led their initial mobile business development efforts. He has been a highly successful active angel investor and advisor to companies such as Openfeint, Crowdstar, and King.com.

"Throughout my entire career, I've always been Mr. International, helping companies entering new markets or taking them global. Now, I finally have an opportunity to really be able to assist entrepreneurs in a more meaningful way both as an investor as well as an entrepreneur together with my talented partners," said Net Jacobsson.

Frank Meehan was part of Li Ka-Shing's Horizons Ventures team, representing Horizons on the boards of Spotify, Siri, Summly, Affectiva, Bitcasa, DoubleTwist, Fixmo, TOM.com, and others. Prior to that he was the global director for the mobile operator Three's handset business, and pioneered early mobile and internet communications integration with the Mobile World Congress award winning devices, INQ1 and 3 Skypephone.

"Entrepreneurs are no longer satisfied with just being a hit in their home market. They are hungry to bring their amazing products to the world, and are looking for experienced seed investors that can actively support them. For example Asia-based startups now have the management teams that can globalize, and they are poised for explosive growth. The investors in SparkLabs Global Ventures are very excited about being able to support our entrepreneurs' expansion plans more effectively than other funds," explained Frank Meehan, who was named to Wired UK's Top 100 (2012) and selected in Vanity Fair's "The Next Establishment" list (2010).

Jimmy Kim is Co-founder and President of N3N, a provider of next generation control room solutions for Fortune 500 companies and governments. He was previously CEO of Nexonova and EVP of Nexon Corp, which services over 20 games across 60 countries to an audience of 300 million.

John Lee is Co-founder & EVP of Corporate Development and Strategy of Hostway. He serves additional responsibilities as CEO of Hostway India. John and his fellow co-founders bootstrapped Hostway into a top 5 web hosting company in the world with over 700 employees.

Jay McCarthy is Founder and Managing Partner of Pacific Advisers, which advised, financed and invested in a range of deals in Asia across industries, principally mining & energy, technology, luxury consumer and property.

"We are excited about this new fund since all of us enjoy helping other entrepreneurs and we know there are great entrepreneurs not only in Silicon Valley but throughout the world," said Net Jacobsson.

About SparkLabs Global Ventures

SparkLabs Global Ventures is a new seed-stage investment fund. We believe business is now truly global, but most investors are not. Exceptional entrepreneurs that are building strong, category defining companies can be found anywhere. SparkLabs Global is a team of highly experienced entrepreneurs and operators based in London, Tel Aviv, Seoul, Singapore and Palo Alto, CA that will focus on helping our entrepreneurs to develop, grow, network, and scale into other markets throughout the world.

Contact:

Bernard Moon

Co-founder & General Partner

+1-650-454-5244

Chrisitine Aum has joined SparkLabs Global Ventures as a senior associate. Previously, Aum was at Mirae Asset Securities as a member of the equity research group.

PRESS RELEASE

Chrisitine Aum has joined SparkLabs Global Ventures (www.sparklabsglobal.com/) as a Senior Associate.

Previously, Ms. Aum was at Mirae Asset Securities as a member of the equity research group.

Mirae Asset Financial Group, the parent company, is an independent financial services group in Asia with over $58 billion under management.

SparkLabs Global Ventures is a $30 million global seed-stage fund investing in primarily pre-Series A companies.

More information on Christine Aum:

Christine is a Senior Associate at SparkLabs Global Ventures. Christine was previously an analyst at Mirae Asset Securities and has experience of analyzing Korea’s two biggest industries, Automobile and IT sectors.

She was responsible for forecasting the market and share prices of the companies that are listed in Korea’s stock market, and published analyst reports, which involves analyzing data and fundamentals of the relevant industries and companies.

She also managed relationships with IR teams of various different companies in Korea and investors in Seoul, Hong Kong, New York and London.

Christine graduated from the University of Michigan with BA degree in Economics and Chinese language. Christine loves traveling and collecting new electronic gadgets. She also enjoys playing games, online shopping, exploring new entertainment (movies/music/games) and reading blogs on new electronic products in her free time to keep up with a new trends in culture and technology.

About SparkLabs Global Ventures

SparkLabs Global Ventures is a new seed-stage investment fund.

We believe business is now truly global, but most investors are not.

Exceptional entrepreneurs that are building strong, category defining companies can be found anywhere. SparkLabs Global is a team of highly experienced entrepreneurs and operators based in London, Tel Aviv, Seoul, Singapore and Palo Alto, CA that will focus on helping our entrepreneurs to develop, grow, network, and scale into other markets throughout the world.

SparkLabs Global Invests in Good.co, Its First Company in the HCM (Human Capital Management) Tech Space, and Zanbato, a Platform for Alternative Asset Classes Co-Founded by Joe Lonsdale

SparkLabs, which first brought the Silicon Valley-style startup accelerator to Korea last year, is taking another page out of the U.S. technology playbook.

The announcement of SparkLabs’ angel fund comes shortly after the launch of Homebrew LLC, a similarly-sized San Francisco-based fund that makes early-stage investments in tech startups. In recent weeks, Homebrew, which was founded by two former Google employees, announced its first investments, which include the developers of a small-batch shipping app and a legal services app.

There aren’t a tonne of funds focused on seed-stage funding worldwide, but we can add a new one to the list today. SparkLabs, the company behind the accelerator program in Korea, is expanding its scope with its first seed-stage fund that will “help great startups go global.”

Not only will the SparksLab Global fund – which has a total kitty of $30 million — zoom in on seed-stage investments, in addition to the early stage focus of its accelerator, but it will have a far broader global remit. The fund will invest across Asia, Europe, Israel and the US, going beyond the accelerator program’s primary focus on Korea and the US — although it does accept startups from other parts of the world.

The caliber of its founding team is impressive. Bernard Moon, co-founder and General Partner at SparkLabs, will be a primary operating partner alongside Net Jacobsson — who was Facebook’s first international executive and has advised Openfeint, Crowdstar and King.com — and Frank Meehan — formerly of Horizons Ventures, who has worked with Spotify, Siri, Summly and others.

The founding team totals six, and is spread across the US, Israel, Europe and Korea. That will see it not only invest in a range of markets, but also leverage their global networks to help startups push into new regions. That’s a very different prospect to the many Silicon Valley-based VCs who refuse to invest in startups that are anything less than an hour’s drive away.

Moon tells TNW that the fund is targeting the gap between early stage ideas and Series A — an issue he is well aware of from his work with graduates of the SparkLabs accelerator program.

The fund will typically invest between $250,000 and $1 million in deals, Moon says, and he expects that will see it last a maximum of three years. Like its broad geographical focus, SparkLabs is also keeping a wide berth in terms of the type of companies that it will target.

Moon is interested in companies dealing with big data, and he’s broadly keen on general consumer plays, enterprise business models and the growth of education technology. We can expect around one-third of investments to be for Asia, with the rest spread across the US, Europe and Israel, he adds.

There are already deals in the pipeline, with startups spread right across the world, so we can expect to get a clearer picture of SparkLabs’ position in the market soon.

Sparklabs Global Ventures is proud to be part of PayPal's Startup Blueprint program. Startup Bluerprint provides innovative startups with tools needed to grow and succeed. It is a global program that partners with top tier startups incubators, accelerators and VCs.

Our portfolio companies receive free PayPal payment processing where transaction fees are waived for 18 months or up to $50,000 USD. Also free Braintree payment processing where transaction fees waived for 18 months or up to $100,000 USD of total payments volume. They receive top-notch dedicated customer service, ongoing mentorship with thought leaders and PayPal Developer Relations teams.

SparksLab Global Venture - Petnet(io) announced today that it has entered into an agreement to acquire SlimDoggy Inc., giving Petnet access to SlimDoggy’s world class pet food database and patent pending technology which the company plans to incorporate into its “Smart” line of pet products. Together, Petnet and SlimDoggy aim to make feeding a pet and selecting appropriate pet food as simple and convenient as possible. The acquisition allows Petnet to leverage the data and methodologies SlimDoggy has developed into an innovative pet feeding system that empowers pet owners to improve the overall health of their pets through proper diet.

In the U.S., pet owners are estimated to have spent nearly $24 billion on pet food in 2014. As the industry continues to thrive, data indicates that there are now more pets than children in U.S. households, with 180 million dogs and cats in the U.S. and more households owning a pet than having children. Additionally, consumer spending on smart home systems and products is expected to hit $39 billion by 2019.

Petnet addresses the food-related needs of this growing demographic using a combination of pet food data and sensors to make proper pet feeding simple and convenient. The Petnet SmartFeeder will not only ensure proper servings of the correct food, but it will also alert the pet owner when the food supply is running low and will automatically have more delivered to your door when it is needed.

"Our acquisition of SlimDoggy helps us to accelerate our vision of using technology to build a better world for pets,” said Carlos Herrera, Founder and CEO of Petnet. “We’re deploying a sensor-enabled system powered by SlimDoggy’s data that will guide pet owners to the perfect food recipe for their pet, help them maintain healthy portions, and automatically deliver food to their home when they need it. It`s the epitome of the connected home and the future of commerce.”

The majority of pet owners are unaware of the correct portion size and quality of food to feed their pet. In the U.S., more than one-half of the dogs and cats are overweight or obese, which leads to 15 percent shorter lifespans, and increased risk of disease including diabetes, osteoarthritis, cardiovascular problems, and even some forms of cancer.

“The amount and type of pet food is the single biggest decision a pet owner can make to impact their pet’s health. With the long and confusing pet food labels, consumers are left to guess when trying to make intelligent, healthy food and portion control decisions,” said Steve Pelletier, Founder and CEO of SlimDoggy, Inc. “We are excited to work closely with Petnet to improve the way pet food is served, evaluated, and purchased, all the while helping to keep pets as healthy as possible.”

About Petnet:

Petnet(io) is driven by a team of designers, engineers and pet food experts who are committed to developing innovative products, using cutting edge technology, that empower pet owners to make the healthiest choices for their pets. Petnet has developed an intelligent and custom food evaluation and portioning system, tailored to a pet’s type, age, weight, and level of activity. The SmartFeeder provides pet owners with the peace of mind that they can leave their pets and know they will be fed on time, with the proper proportions. Petnet`s app monitors the purchasing habits of its pet owners, providing tips and recommendations, and helping to connect pet owners with brands they can trust.

Petnet believes pet food information should be transparent and widely accessible, enabling pet owners to make the healthiest choices for their pets.

About SlimDoggy:

SlimDoggy was created to inform and inspire pet owners on raising healthy, fit pets. With sister site, SlimKitty.com, SlimDoggy focuses on awareness of the food you feed your pets and the use of exercise, both mental and physical to increase the longevity and quality of your pet’s life. The Company was inspired by Jack, at the time, a 105 lb. Labrador rescue who, using the SlimDoggy methodologies, was subsequently guided to a 25 lb. weight loss.

SlimDoggy has created a pet food database with calories, ingredients, and more information on almost 6,000 dog and cat foods and treats, which is used commercially by top pet technology companies. SlimDoggy also has developed patent pending algorithms to evaluate and recommend pet foods based on their ingredients and macro-nutrient profiles.