Conor - Designing Global Winners

Virtual fitting room provider Fits.me takes € 5.5 m in Series A funding

admin — Wed, 17 Apr 2013 07:00:24 +0000

Tallinn, Estonia & London, UK – April 16th 2013 – Fits.me today announced total Series A investment in the company of € 5.5 million. Series A investment has been subscribed by existing investor SmartCap, with new participation from Conor Venture Partners, Fostergate Holdings Limited and The Entrepreneur’s Fund.

Previously, in May 2009 and August 2010, the company received a total of € 2 m from Smartcap [formerly The Estonian Development Fund] and angel investors.

Fits.me develops, markets and operates virtual fitting room solutions on a software-as-a-service (SaaS) basis for online clothing retailers, helping them to overcome the problems of low online conversion rates and high garment returns rates caused by doubt over fit and poor fit respectively.

The company counts many well-known retailers among its clients, including Adidas, Avenue32, Barbour By Mail, Boden, Ermenegildo Zegna, Hawes & Curtis, Henri Lloyd, Hugo Boss, John Smedley, L.K.Bennett, Mexx, Nicole Farhi, Otto, Pretty Green, Superdry and Thomas Pink.

Fits.me will use the new funding to support accelerated Sales and Marketing programmes – including international expansion into the France, Germany, other EU countries and the USA – and to continue to scale up its Operations to meet predicted demand.

Conor Venture Partners’ Manu Mäkelä said: “While large swathes of retailing already takes place online, there are sectors for which the real online growth has yet to come. Apparel is chief among those sectors, primarily because buying clothes is such a subjective process – most obviously when it comes to ‘fit’. Fits.me has a sophisticated solution that works, delivers provable results, is easy for retailers to deploy and has been signed up by a growing band of

respected retailers and brands, on an international basis. From an investor’s point of view, there is tremendous growth potential.”

In February 2013 the company launched Fit Advisor, a complementary version of the company’s flagship Fits.me Virtual Fitting Room solution which delivers fit information and recommendations without the need for photography.

Heikki Haldre, co-founder and chief executive at Fits.me, said: “We are in a market that has started to move very quickly as retailers look to overcome their high street difficulties by focusing on online performance. It should be clear to everyone that we mean to do very good business by helping online clothing retailers to solve one of their most pressing problems.”

About Fits.me

Fits.me’s virtual fitting room solutions helps boost the revenues and the profitability of online clothing retailers by enabling them to overcome the online fit problem, increasing conversions and reducing garment returns.

The subjective nature of “fit” as it applies to clothing and fashion has inhibited online apparel sales for years – in 2012 the overall proportion of garment sales from online channels was still only 14-15%. The essential problem is the inability of shoppers to try on clothes to check the fit before they choose their size, while ‘fit’ is a matter of personal preference rather than mathematics. According to Mintel, widespread inconsistencies in sizing between different brands and retailers make online clothes shopping a challenge for six in ten shoppers.

About Conor Venture Partners

Conor Venture Partners is a leading early stage technology VC investing in Nordic and Baltic countries. Conor invests in disruptive technologies in ICT, embedded systems, electronics, new materials and optics. Conor’s main interest lies in companies that have the potential and drive to become global winners in their industry categories. The fund is privately owned and supported by local institutional investors and the European Investment Fund.

Contact
Manu Mäkelä, Partner, Conor Venture Partners Oy manu.makela@conor.vc
Tel + 358 400 442 873

Sticky brings in $3m from leading European tech investors to clean up the digital wasteland

admin — Thu, 11 Apr 2013 04:00:21 +0000

London (April 11, 2013) – Media technology company Sticky announced today that it has closed a $3M funding round with leading European tech investors Conor and Northzone.

Over 50% of online impressions are never seen. Thirty percent of those impressions that are considered “viewable” (in-screen) are never seen. So how do you make sure your ad is seen?

Meet Sticky – the next generation in ad accountability. Sticky is not another in-screen measurement tool; Sticky gets inside the eyes of a consumer showing you whether your ad is actually seen or not. Capable of tracking an entire ad campaign with a dashboard interface, Sticky is revolutionizing optimization for online brand advertising.

Sticky’s growing list of clients, includes P&G, L’Oreal, McDonalds, and GroupM, among others.

“With the Sticky Platform, brand advertisers will be able to optimize their campaigns and increase their ROI. Sticky technology will become a must-have in a world of ever increasing competition for attention, where online brand advertising has been left without quality measurement tools for much too long. Sticky has the potential to be the global leader in this category and we are thrilled to be backing them,” comments Jarkko Penttilä, Partner at Conor Venture Partners.

Representing Sticky, Mathias Plank, Founder and CEO, says, “We are looking forward to working with leading tech investors Conor and Northzone. Tapping into their wealth of experience will take us to the next step in becoming global leaders. Sticky has the potential to revolutionize this industry. Our mission is to help clean up the digital wasteland of advertising.”

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About Sticky

Sticky is the only media technology company that provides a platform to ensure that display ads get seen. Sticky’s disruptive technology provides brand advertisers with objective data to improve their digital performance, and can be used in conjunction with all partners in the digital ecosystem to increase ROI. Sticky is a product of rebranding from EyeTrackShop, the world’s first online eye tracking company initially funded by Tobii technology in 2009. EyeTrackShop will now be powered by Sticky continuing its market research studies alongside Sticky’s revolutionary technology. Sticky has offices in New York, San Francisco, London, Stockholm and Shanghai. (www.sticky.ad)

About Conor

About Northzone

Northzone was established in 1996 and has offices in London, Copenhagen, Oslo, and Stockholm. Since its inception Northzone has raised over $500 million, invested in more than 75 companies. Notable investments include Spotify, Avito, Lastminute.com, Pricerunner, Nimsoft and EPiServer. (www.northzone.com)

Contact

Mathias Plank, Founder & CEO, Sticky, mathias@sticky.ad, + 46 733 281501

Jarkko Penttilä, Partner, Conor Venture Partners, jarkko.penttila@conor.vc

Jeppe Zink, General Partner Northzone, jeppe@northzone.com

Sticky is the only media technology company that provides a platform to ensure that your display ads get seen. Our disruptive technology provides brand advertisers with objective data to improve their digital performance, and can be used in conjunction with all partners in the digital eco system to increase ROI.

February 25-28, 2013 – Conor at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona

Conor — Sat, 23 Feb 2013 08:13:28 +0000

Meet Jarkko Penttilä at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona on 25th – 28th of February 2013.

For more information on the event, please visit http://www.mobileworldcongress.com/

TactoTek

Conor — Sun, 03 Feb 2013 09:17:51 +0000

Head of Engineering, Finland

Controller/Office Manager, Finland

Senior Engineer, Opto-mechanics and -electronics, Finland

Senior Engineer, Embedded Software, Finland

February 14, 2013 – Conor at MoneyTalks in Tampere

Conor — Sun, 03 Feb 2013 08:48:54 +0000

Meet Jari Mieskonen at MoneyTalks in Tampere on 14th of February 2013.

For more information on the event, please visit http://www.technopolisonline.com/index/107?eventId=309

crystalsol has closed a Series A round financing of EUR 8 million to continue development of flexible photovoltaic film

Conor — Tue, 29 Jan 2013 08:35:49 +0000

January 29, 2013, Vienna, Austria - crystalsol, a Vienna (Austria) and Tallinn (Estonia) based company developing an entirely new type of flexible photovoltaic film announced the closing of a Series A round financing of EUR 8 million led by Conor Venture Partners. While maintaining existing investors, crystalsol received capital from Arax Capital Partners, an Austrian investor with focus on innovative and growth-oriented Austrian high-tech companies. Public funds also contribute significantly to this round.

Jari Mieskonen, Managing Partner of Conor says, “As lead investors into crystalsol we have managed to complete a substantial financing round to continue the development of crystalsol’s disruptive technology. Key focus is on ramping-up a low investment roll-to-roll pilot production line for our semi-finished photovoltaic film. This semi-finished product will allow true integration into building elements of different shapes and sizes and will thereby eliminate up to one hundred per cent of the sealing cost.”

Co-founder and COO of crystalsol, Thomas Badegruber, highlights, “We have made excellent progress and are working on unique semi-transparent and colored films to better integrate photovoltaic elements into facades and roof-tops. Our flexible production process enables us to easily tailor the film according to customer specifications of the Building Integrated Photovoltaic market.”

The unique advantages of crystalsol’s photovoltaic film already attracted partners like EDP Innovation. The company, belonging to the Portuguese utility group EDP, signed a collaboration agreement to get preferred access to the first 200 MW of crystalsol’s product.

About crystalsol

crystalsol develops an entirely new type of flexible photovoltaic film mainly for integration into building elements with a significant cost and versatility advantage compared to all currently known photovoltaic technologies. Core innovations of crystalsol’s technology are the unique light absorbing active layer made of crystalline semiconductor powder and the low-cost roll-to-roll production process, which ensures high throughput and yield. The crystalline semiconductor powder has a typical size of about 40 μm arranged as single layer fixed by a polymer film. The applied powder is made of the abundant materials copper, zinc, tin, sulphur and selenium (CZTS), avoiding the use of rare and expensive materials such as indium or tellurium.

crystalsol is supported by: Archimedes Foundation, Austrian Research Promotion Agency (FFG), austria wirtschaftsservice (aws), Enterprise Estonia, Klima- und Energiefonds, Technology Promotion Agency Vienna (ZIT) (www.crystalsol.com)

About Arax Capital Partners

Arax Capital Partners is an Austrian venture capital company. The investment focus concentrates on innovative and growth-oriented high-tech and bio-tech companies which require growth capital to realize their business ideas. The company is privately owned. (www.arax.at)

About Conor Venture Partners

Conor Venture Partners Oy is a leading early‐stage technology VC investing in Nordic and the Baltics. Conor invests in disruptive technologies in ICT, embedded systems, electronics, new materials and optics. Conor’s main interest lies in companies which have the potential and drive to become global winners in their industry categories. The fund is privately owned and supported by local institutional investors and the European Investment Fund. (www.conor.vc)

About Energy Future Invest

Energy Future Invest AS (EFI) is a Norwegian venture capital company dedicated to the Cleantech sector and with main focus on Clean Energy and energy efficiency. EFI invests in growth companies in the Nordic region and the fund is managed by the advisory company Contango Kapital. The two owners behind EFI are Eidsiva Energi and Hafslund. (www.energyfutureinvest.com)

Contact Details

crystalsol GmbH: Dr. Wolfgang Ressler, +43 (1) 890 18 79 0, wr@crystalsol.com

Arax Capital Partners: Kathrin Niedermayer, +43 (1) 370 74 74 0, k.niedermayer@arax.at

Conor Venture Partners: Jari Mieskonen, +358 50 563 69 92; jari.mieskonen@conor.vc

Energy Future Invest: Harald Olderheim, +47 90 502 256; ho@conkap.no

Supponor signed a landmark agreement with leading sports marketing and rights agency Pitch International

Conor — Mon, 14 Jan 2013 12:43:24 +0000

14 January 2013

Supponor has signed a landmark agreement with leading sports marketing and rights agency Pitch International which will see Supponor’s revolutionary billboard replacement technology used around the world at major football events.

The two-year deal will see DBRLIve used at major sporting events represented by Pitch, including Brazil Inernational friendlies leading up to World Cup 2014, England International matches and FA Cup matches.

Tony Ragan, Chief Commercial Officer, Supponor, said: “This agreement is a landmark for us as a company. It takes us to a new level and will see digital billboard replacement coming of age as a way of generating new revenue streams for rights holders. We will be pushing the boundaries as far as perimeter advertising is concerned, by regionalising ad revenues across different territories worldwide. DBRLive offers brands flexibility they have never had before and by working with Pitch, we get the opportunity to demonstrate what DBRLive can provide and prove that virtual advertising is the way forward for advertisers.”

Jonathan Rogers, Managing Director, Pitch International, said: “We are delighted to be working with Supponor and utilising ground-breaking technology that can generate new revenue streams for brands and rights holders by offering regionalised advertising across the world.”

Pitch specialises in the representation of rights for bodies such as sporting federations, clubs, rights holders and agencies, selling worldwide to television broadcasters, video/dvd distributors, media agencies and sponsors.

February 12, 2013 – Conor at Tech Chill in Riga

Conor — Wed, 12 Dec 2012 10:59:12 +0000

Meet Manu Mäkelä at Tech Chill -event in Riga on 12th of February 2013.

For more information on the event, please visit http://riga.techhub.com/events/tech-chill

January 24, 2013 – Conor at Enterprise Finland Venture Forum in Espoo

Conor — Tue, 11 Dec 2012 11:40:12 +0000

Meet us at Enterprise Finland Venture Forum in Espoo on 24th of January 2013.

For more information on the event, please visit https://efvf.b2b-match.com/2013/p_index.php

November 29, 2012 – Conor at MoneyTalks in Tallinn

Conor — Wed, 14 Nov 2012 10:06:59 +0000

Meet Jari Mieskonen at MoneyTalks in Tallinn on 29th of November 2012.

For more information on the event, please visit http://www.technopolisonline.com/index/107?eventId=226