Ex-Spotify Engineers Raise $2.2 Million For Lookback, A Mobile App Screen Recorder For User Testing

A team of ex-Spotify engineers has raised $2.2 million in seed funding for Lookback, a platform allowing developers to record onscreen activity within mobile apps – and even record the user’s face and voice, so they can explain what they’re doing when they encounter a bug or some other problem. The round was led by European investor Lakestar, and saw participation from Index Ventures and other angels, including Ilya Sukhar, co-founder of Parse.

The idea for Lookback actually began at Spotify, when Lookback co-founders Jonatan Littke, previously the lead web developer, and Joachim Bengtsson, the lead iOS developer, were talking to one of Spotify’s user experience designers, who was frustrated about her inability to access what are known as “pure” user experiences.

“Pure,” meaning those experiences where the user is not in some sort of test lab setting or is being told what to do, but is rather using the application on their own in an unbiased way. (That’s also the way I prefer to test startups’ apps, for what it’s worth. It really helps to identify the UX and UI issues, when you’re not given a tutorial – a crutch that many companies too heavily rely on today in order to get their new users up to speed.)

After identifying the problem, Bengtsson ended up creating a software solution that would allow a mobile developer to capture the screen, and the end user behind the screen using the front-facing camera, and the two left Spotify to work at Lookback full time. Littke’s brother, Carl, also a web developer, soon joined the team, as well, and a public beta was launched last September.

Until now, Lookback’s plug-in (an SDK) has been available for installation in pre-release apps, like those distributed on services like TestFlight, where it can be used to help collect bug reports. End users are prompted to activate the service by shaking their device to make a record button appear. After pressing record, everything on the screen is recorded. Meanwhile, the front-facing camera is also activated, so the user can talk about what they’re doing and what’s going wrong. (Here’s a demo).

Today, the company is releasing a new SDK that can be integrated into existing apps in the App Store, not just test versions. An opt-in experience, the updated plug-in allows any user to become a UX tester, who can report on bugs and leave comments about the UI and UX issues they encounter. Likely, many developers would like to offer some sort of solution like this, so they can redirect users to help the company collect data about the problems they see instead of having them angrily post App Store reviews.

However, Lookback already has a number of competitors that allow for onscreen recording of user sessions, including those TechCrunch has covered in the past, like Y Combinator-backed Watchsend or UserVOD (now Appsee), for example. There are also established services like UserTesting and Usabilla, which offer panels of users, so developers can watch them interact with their software.

But Lookback is interesting not only because it’s also recording the end user interacting on their own, but also because of the video quality.

“What we’ve been able to do is record in super high quality,” explains Littke. “We’re recording close to 60 frames per second. And what we’ve seen is a lot of the others are recording at 1 or 2 frames per second,” he adds.

The recordings are then stored on Lookback’s servers and organized in a dashboard-like interface, where developers can filter the results to see just those related to a particular section of an app, or those recorded from a specific app version or device, and more.

Today, the iOS-only solution is available for free, though the plan is to charge on a subscription basis (pricing TBD) in the future.

Lookback is now being used by 4,000 total companies, including Spotify, King.com, Yammer and Venmo, as well as other large firms, like banks and airlines. Combined, they’ve recorded 15,000 user experiences to date.

The new funding will allow the Stockholm-based team of three to hire additional engineers, as well as designers, product managers, and UX researchers. We’re told the goal is to build a distributed team, with the intention of adding 10 to 15 more employees give or take over the course of the year ahead.

The updated SDK, called “Lookback Safe,” is live on Lookback’s website here.

View the original article here

Ex-Spotify Engineers Raise $2.2 Million For Lookback, A Mobile App Screen Recorder For User Testing

A team of ex-Spotify engineers has raised $2.2 million in seed funding for Lookback, a platform allowing developers to record onscreen activity within mobile apps – and even record the user’s face and voice, so they can explain what they’re doing when they encounter a bug or some other problem. The round was led by European investor Lakestar, and saw participation from Index Ventures and other angels, including Ilya Sukhar, co-founder of Parse.

The idea for Lookback actually began at Spotify, when Lookback co-founders Jonatan Littke, previously the lead web developer, and Joachim Bengtsson, the lead iOS developer, were talking to one of Spotify’s user experience designers, who was frustrated about her inability to access what are known as “pure” user experiences.

“Pure,” meaning those experiences where the user is not in some sort of test lab setting or is being told what to do, but is rather using the application on their own in an unbiased way. (That’s also the way I prefer to test startups’ apps, for what it’s worth. It really helps to identify the UX and UI issues, when you’re not given a tutorial – a crutch that many companies too heavily rely on today in order to get their new users up to speed.)

After identifying the problem, Bengtsson ended up creating a software solution that would allow a mobile developer to capture the screen, and the end user behind the screen using the front-facing camera, and the two left Spotify to work at Lookback full time. Littke’s brother, Carl, also a web developer, soon joined the team, as well, and a public beta was launched last September.

Until now, Lookback’s plug-in (an SDK) has been available for installation in pre-release apps, like those distributed on services like TestFlight, where it can be used to help collect bug reports. End users are prompted to activate the service by shaking their device to make a record button appear. After pressing record, everything on the screen is recorded. Meanwhile, the front-facing camera is also activated, so the user can talk about what they’re doing and what’s going wrong. (Here’s a demo).

Today, the company is releasing a new SDK that can be integrated into existing apps in the App Store, not just test versions. An opt-in experience, the updated plug-in allows any user to become a UX tester, who can report on bugs and leave comments about the UI and UX issues they encounter. Likely, many developers would like to offer some sort of solution like this, so they can redirect users to help the company collect data about the problems they see instead of having them angrily post App Store reviews.

However, Lookback already has a number of competitors that allow for onscreen recording of user sessions, including those TechCrunch has covered in the past, like Y Combinator-backed Watchsend or UserVOD (now Appsee), for example. There are also established services like UserTesting and Usabilla, which offer panels of users, so developers can watch them interact with their software.

But Lookback is interesting not only because it’s also recording the end user interacting on their own, but also because of the video quality.

“What we’ve been able to do is record in super high quality,” explains Littke. “We’re recording close to 60 frames per second. And what we’ve seen is a lot of the others are recording at 1 or 2 frames per second,” he adds.

The recordings are then stored on Lookback’s servers and organized in a dashboard-like interface, where developers can filter the results to see just those related to a particular section of an app, or those recorded from a specific app version or device, and more.

Today, the iOS-only solution is available for free, though the plan is to charge on a subscription basis (pricing TBD) in the future.

Lookback is now being used by 4,000 total companies, including Spotify, King.com, Yammer and Venmo, as well as other large firms, like banks and airlines. Combined, they’ve recorded 15,000 user experiences to date.

The new funding will allow the Stockholm-based team of three to hire additional engineers, as well as designers, product managers, and UX researchers. We’re told the goal is to build a distributed team, with the intention of adding 10 to 15 more employees give or take over the course of the year ahead.

The updated SDK, called “Lookback Safe,” is live on Lookback’s website here.

View the original article here

Fresh From IPO, Wix Acquires Israeli Startup Appixia To Bring Native Mobile Commerce Support To 42M Users

Wix emerged in 2006 as part of a new generation of startups on a mission to do for website creation what Blogger, WordPress and Tumblr have done for bloggers and content creators. Riding the increasing demand for easy-to-use, DIY website builders, Wix is now one of the largest platforms of its kind on the Web, along with Weebly and SquareSpace. With over 40 million people now using its free web design tools, in November, Wix debuted on the Nasdaq as part of an IPO that valued the company at just under $800 million — representing the largest public offering for an Israeli company to date.

Today, in its first big move since going public, the Tel Aviv-based company announced that it is acquiring Appixia, a fellow Israeli startup which has developed a platform that aims to make it easy for retailers to take their stores mobile and build their own native “mCommerce” apps.

A graduate of Microsoft Ventures’ accelerator program in Tel Aviv, Appixia’s platform aims to make it easy for small mom-and-pop to medium-sized retailers to quickly add a mobile storefront to their existing eCommerce marketplaces. To do that, the startup’s platform supports a range of platforms, like Magento, Prestashop, Zen Cart, Shopify and eBay, automatically syncing with existing, live stores and backend systems so that merchants don’t have to manage their mobile presence separately from their online stores.

Like Wix for mobile, Appixia allows retailers to build HTML5-compatible mobile websites and native apps for iOS and Android without requiring any previous coding skills or knowledge of programming. However, the one place where Appixia differs from Wix: Whereas Wix allows anyone to build a website from scratch, Appixia currently doesn’t support retailers who don’t have an existing eCommerce store.

That said, Wix already offers a wide range of eCommerce features for those looking to quickly build eCommerce stores and automatically creates a mobile-optimized version of the sites its users create. Thus, the acquisition of Appixia allows Wix to extend its current eCommerce and mobilization functionality, giving users the ability to create an online store and then quickly add a mobile-optimized version of their store, along with native apps.

The acquisition is a strategic move in a larger sense, in that both companies offer code-free solutions that make complex and costly development processes simple and accessible, particularly for small businesses and entrepreneurs. Appixia also provides a complement to Wix’s current mobile adaptive solution, which has been growing fast since launching in October.

As part of its announcement today, the company said that users are now creating over 30K mobile sites every day and that 1.6 million mobile websites were created on its platform by the end of 2013. By integrating the startup’s technology, Wix will be able to add the kind of extended mobile functionality and features that have been missing from its platform, like support for push notifications, barcode scanning, location-based services (GPS), credit card scanning, Facebook and Twitter integration and so on.

As to the terms of the deal, while the company declined to share the price, Wix Director of Communications Eric Mason said that this was primarily a talent and technology deal and that the company does not expect the acquisition to have an impact on its non-GAAP operating results. However, the company does expect to “fully integrate” Appixia’s technology into its platform and that one of the startup’s co-founders, Tal Kol, will be leading the integration effort.

Mason also said that “time to market” was also an important factor in the acquisition, since the technology is already built, acquiring Appixia allows Wix to extend mobile support in “significantly less time” than if it had developed the technology in-house. For Appixia, which was apparently in the midst of its first funding round when it began discussions with Wix, co-founder and CEO Yigael Berger said that the team decided that the existing synergies and opportunity to reach 40 million-plus were too appealing to pass up.

For more, find Appixia at home here.

View the original article here

Fresh From IPO, Wix Acquires Israeli Startup Appixia To Bring Native Mobile Commerce Support To 42M Users

Wix emerged in 2006 as part of a new generation of startups on a mission to do for website creation what Blogger, WordPress and Tumblr have done for bloggers and content creators. Riding the increasing demand for easy-to-use, DIY website builders, Wix is now one of the largest platforms of its kind on the Web, along with Weebly and SquareSpace. With over 40 million people now using its free web design tools, in November, Wix debuted on the Nasdaq as part of an IPO that valued the company at just under $800 million — representing the largest public offering for an Israeli company to date.

Today, in its first big move since going public, the Tel Aviv-based company announced that it is acquiring Appixia, a fellow Israeli startup which has developed a platform that aims to make it easy for retailers to take their stores mobile and build their own native “mCommerce” apps.

A graduate of Microsoft Ventures’ accelerator program in Tel Aviv, Appixia’s platform aims to make it easy for small mom-and-pop to medium-sized retailers to quickly add a mobile storefront to their existing eCommerce marketplaces. To do that, the startup’s platform supports a range of platforms, like Magento, Prestashop, Zen Cart, Shopify and eBay, automatically syncing with existing, live stores and backend systems so that merchants don’t have to manage their mobile presence separately from their online stores.

Like Wix for mobile, Appixia allows retailers to build HTML5-compatible mobile websites and native apps for iOS and Android without requiring any previous coding skills or knowledge of programming. However, the one place where Appixia differs from Wix: Whereas Wix allows anyone to build a website from scratch, Appixia currently doesn’t support retailers who don’t have an existing eCommerce store.

That said, Wix already offers a wide range of eCommerce features for those looking to quickly build eCommerce stores and automatically creates a mobile-optimized version of the sites its users create. Thus, the acquisition of Appixia allows Wix to extend its current eCommerce and mobilization functionality, giving users the ability to create an online store and then quickly add a mobile-optimized version of their store, along with native apps.

The acquisition is a strategic move in a larger sense, in that both companies offer code-free solutions that make complex and costly development processes simple and accessible, particularly for small businesses and entrepreneurs. Appixia also provides a complement to Wix’s current mobile adaptive solution, which has been growing fast since launching in October.

As part of its announcement today, the company said that users are now creating over 30K mobile sites every day and that 1.6 million mobile websites were created on its platform by the end of 2013. By integrating the startup’s technology, Wix will be able to add the kind of extended mobile functionality and features that have been missing from its platform, like support for push notifications, barcode scanning, location-based services (GPS), credit card scanning, Facebook and Twitter integration and so on.

As to the terms of the deal, while the company declined to share the price, Wix Director of Communications Eric Mason said that this was primarily a talent and technology deal and that the company does not expect the acquisition to have an impact on its non-GAAP operating results. However, the company does expect to “fully integrate” Appixia’s technology into its platform and that one of the startup’s co-founders, Tal Kol, will be leading the integration effort.

Mason also said that “time to market” was also an important factor in the acquisition, since the technology is already built, acquiring Appixia allows Wix to extend mobile support in “significantly less time” than if it had developed the technology in-house. For Appixia, which was apparently in the midst of its first funding round when it began discussions with Wix, co-founder and CEO Yigael Berger said that the team decided that the existing synergies and opportunity to reach 40 million-plus were too appealing to pass up.

For more, find Appixia at home here.

View the original article here

Drifty, Makers Of The Ionic Mobile Framework, Raise $1 Million

Drifty, a participant in the TechStars Cloud 2013 incubator, and makers of a suite of tools for mobile developers building apps and websites, most notably, the Ionic framework, has closed on a million in seed funding, the company is announcing. The funding comes from Arthur Ventures, and will help the company grow its team and continue development on the Ionic framework.

The startup was founded in 2012 by Ben Sperry (CEO) and Max Lynch (CTO), childhood friends who have been working together since high school, building various online projects. Before starting Drifty, both worked at other startups developing mobile MMORPG games.

The two decided to start Drifty to help developers build mobile apps and responsive websites, Sperry says. Today its two products Codiqa and Jetstrap offer simple drag-and-drop prototyping to over 250,000 developers around the world, he adds, and the company has grown revenue by 10x, while bootstrapping its way to profitability in 2013.

But as they worked on building their first two tools, the team realized there was also a big opportunity in cross-platform mobile development, in terms of introducing tools that would allow developers to take better advantage of web technologies.

Ionic, launched late last year, intended to fill that gap, with its open source HTML5 mobile app framework that lets developers build native-feeling apps using web technologies, like HTML, CSS and AngularJS.

Explains Sperry, Ionic is similar in some ways to something like Sencha Touch, but is licensed differently. “It’s completely, 100% open-sourced. It’s MIT-licensed, which means anyone can use it, commercial or personal – it doesn’t matter to us,” he says. Sencha’s framework has a more proprietary license, Sperry adds. “We don’t think that’s the right way to offer a framework, which is why we made ours free.”

The product promises better performance, clean and simple design, and is modeled off of native mobile development SDKs to make it easier for mobile developers who have built for iOS or Android in the past, the website explains. After the coding is complete, developers using Ionic push the app through PhoneGap for deployment. As noted, Ionic competes with other mobile UI frameworks, including jQuery Mobile, Sencha Touch, and others.

These days, over 200 apps are being created with Ionic every day, says Sperry, and traffic is nearly doubling month-over-month. The project is also now one of the top 260 on GitHub, and has seen thousands of mobile apps based on Ionic built to date, typically those from smaller companies or developers doing client work for others.

With the additional funding, the founders plan to now focus solely on developing Ionic further, with plans to improve gestures and animations, plus roll out mobile services in 2014 that would make using Ionic a viable alternative to native app development. Areas of focus include things like analytics, notifications, and testing service. These would help the company generate revenue from its free platform.

The Madison, Wisconsin-area startup is currently a team of nine, and is looking to double its team going forward, mainly by hiring developers.

* Note: Sencha immediately responded, commenting that “Sencha doesn’t license Sencha Touch using permissive open source, but it is in fact open source – and the commercial version is free.” 

View the original article here

Fresh From IPO, Wix Acquires Israeli Startup Appixia To Bring Native Mobile Commerce Support To 42M Users

Wix emerged in 2006 as part of a new generation of startups on a mission to do for website creation what Blogger, WordPress and Tumblr have done for bloggers and content creators. Riding the increasing demand for easy-to-use, DIY website builders, Wix is now one of the largest platforms of its kind on the Web, along with Weebly and SquareSpace. With over 40 million people now using its free web design tools, in November, Wix debuted on the Nasdaq as part of an IPO that valued the company at just under $800 million — representing the largest public offering for an Israeli company to date.

Today, in its first big move since going public, the Tel Aviv-based company announced that it is acquiring Appixia, a fellow Israeli startup which has developed a platform that aims to make it easy for retailers to take their stores mobile and build their own native “mCommerce” apps.

A graduate of Microsoft Ventures’ accelerator program in Tel Aviv, Appixia’s platform aims to make it easy for small mom-and-pop to medium-sized retailers to quickly add a mobile storefront to their existing eCommerce marketplaces. To do that, the startup’s platform supports a range of platforms, like Magento, Prestashop, Zen Cart, Shopify and eBay, automatically syncing with existing, live stores and backend systems so that merchants don’t have to manage their mobile presence separately from their online stores.

Like Wix for mobile, Appixia allows retailers to build HTML5-compatible mobile websites and native apps for iOS and Android without requiring any previous coding skills or knowledge of programming. However, the one place where Appixia differs from Wix: Whereas Wix allows anyone to build a website from scratch, Appixia currently doesn’t support retailers who don’t have an existing eCommerce store.

That said, Wix already offers a wide range of eCommerce features for those looking to quickly build eCommerce stores and automatically creates a mobile-optimized version of the sites its users create. Thus, the acquisition of Appixia allows Wix to extend its current eCommerce and mobilization functionality, giving users the ability to create an online store and then quickly add a mobile-optimized version of their store, along with native apps.

The acquisition is a strategic move in a larger sense, in that both companies offer code-free solutions that make complex and costly development processes simple and accessible, particularly for small businesses and entrepreneurs. Appixia also provides a complement to Wix’s current mobile adaptive solution, which has been growing fast since launching in October.

As part of its announcement today, the company said that users are now creating over 30K mobile sites every day and that 1.6 million mobile websites were created on its platform by the end of 2013. By integrating the startup’s technology, Wix will be able to add the kind of extended mobile functionality and features that have been missing from its platform, like support for push notifications, barcode scanning, location-based services (GPS), credit card scanning, Facebook and Twitter integration and so on.

As to the terms of the deal, while the company declined to share the price, Wix Director of Communications Eric Mason said that this was primarily a talent and technology deal and that the company does not expect the acquisition to have an impact on its non-GAAP operating results. However, the company does expect to “fully integrate” Appixia’s technology into its platform and that one of the startup’s co-founders, Tal Kol, will be leading the integration effort.

Mason also said that “time to market” was also an important factor in the acquisition, since the technology is already built, acquiring Appixia allows Wix to extend mobile support in “significantly less time” than if it had developed the technology in-house. For Appixia, which was apparently in the midst of its first funding round when it began discussions with Wix, co-founder and CEO Yigael Berger said that the team decided that the existing synergies and opportunity to reach 40 million-plus were too appealing to pass up.

For more, find Appixia at home here.

View the original article here

With 5M Users Already On Board, Tynker Goes Mobile To Help Kids Learn To Code On The iPad

Historically, the U.S. educational system has struggled to get young people excited by and involved with STEM-related fields, especially computer science, which has actually seen a steady decline in participation over the last two decades, according to Time Magazine. Luckily, the winds of reform have begun to sweep into education, and parents, educators and even Uncle Sam have begun to pressure on schools to give computer science and engineering concepts a place in their curricula and introduce them in early education.

What’s more, a new generation of startups and app makers have begun to take up the mantle and are working to inspire younguns to take interest in technology and develop their programming skills. One of the most popular apps in this emerging category is Tynker, developed by a Silicon Valley-based education startup of the same name, which aims to make programming and engineering more accessible (and fun) for kids, regardless of prior experience.

Inspired by Scratch, a programming language and free coding education website for kids developed by MIT, Tynker makes use of Javascript, HTML5 and other open web standards to educate children of all ages on the basic thought processes behind lines of code. The product of serial entrepreneurs Srinivas Mandyam, Kelvin Chong and Krishna Vedati, Tynker got its start back in 2012, but has been grown quickly since.

Today, the startup’s learning platform is used by more than 8,000 schools and has helped over six million kids start programming. To support this early growth, Tynker raised $3.25 million in seed funding last year from venture firms like NEA, Felicis Ventures, NewSchools Venture Fund, GSV Advisors and 500 Startups, as well as a litany of angel investors.

Designed for both in-class and at-home learning, Tynker allows both teachers and parents to enroll their children via its website, enabling students to access its catalog of web-based lessons and learning content, which ranges from games and exercises to interactive tutorials to quizzes. To encourage engagement, Tynker has worked to create a fun, game-like environment around computer science education by allowing kids to learn via self-paced lessons, interactive videos and guided tutorials, for example.

Tynker makes its courses available for free for schools, while parents can purchase lessons for between $30 and $50, which includes those guided tutorials and exercises, and gives kids the ability to access different levels and earn badges as they progress. Up until now, the main point of access for Tynker’s learning content has been through its website. But over the past year, the team has been working to bring its platform to mobile devices, and this week the company finally announced the launch of its first iPad app.

The app, which is now live and has been featured by Apple, is designed to extend Tynker’s visual programming experience with a tablet-optimized, immersive gaming experience that allows kids to continue learning on the go and while in “airplane mode.” The company says that the intention is for its new app to expose its platform to a wider range of ages — making it accessible to kids as young as first grade — while making it easier for schools to roll out the platform to a wider audience and age range.

The iPad app includes story-based puzzles and games with titles like “Puppy Adventure,” “Lost in Space,” and “Sketch Racer,” which the company says are intended to introduce programming concepts like sequencing, repetition and conditional logic in a fun, interactive and game-ified way. Using the iPad’s touch interface, students drag and drop visual blocks to build a program, solving visual code blocks as they go to achieve their goal, like using logic and “loop variations” to help a lost puppy find his way home.

At launch, Tynker’s iPad app includes more than 130 puzzles, which aim to help kids understand how to recognize patterns, develop algorithmic thinking and computer drawing skills, debug programs and how to break down a problem into smaller, sequential steps.

Both Lost In Space and Sketch Racer are available at $1.99 and $2.99, respectively, which includes an additional 120 levels and concepts. And, going forward, the startup says that it will begin making additional “adventures” available for purchase within the app, allowing students who are farther along in the learning path to access more advanced puzzles and learning concepts.

For more, find Tynker at home here and on the App Store here.

View the original article here

Fresh From IPO, Wix Acquires Israeli Startup Appixia To Bring Native Mobile Commerce Support To 42M Users

Wix emerged in 2006 as part of a new generation of startups on a mission to do for website creation what Blogger, WordPress and Tumblr have done for bloggers and content creators. Riding the increasing demand for easy-to-use, DIY website builders, Wix is now one of the largest platforms of its kind on the Web, along with Weebly and SquareSpace. With over 40 million people now using its free web design tools, in November, Wix debuted on the Nasdaq as part of an IPO that valued the company at just under $800 million — representing the largest public offering for an Israeli company to date.

Today, in its first big move since going public, the Tel Aviv-based company announced that it is acquiring Appixia, a fellow Israeli startup which has developed a platform that aims to make it easy for retailers to take their stores mobile and build their own native “mCommerce” apps.

A graduate of Microsoft Ventures’ accelerator program in Tel Aviv, Appixia’s platform aims to make it easy for small mom-and-pop to medium-sized retailers to quickly add a mobile storefront to their existing eCommerce marketplaces. To do that, the startup’s platform supports a range of platforms, like Magento, Prestashop, Zen Cart, Shopify and eBay, automatically syncing with existing, live stores and backend systems so that merchants don’t have to manage their mobile presence separately from their online stores.

Like Wix for mobile, Appixia allows retailers to build HTML5-compatible mobile websites and native apps for iOS and Android without requiring any previous coding skills or knowledge of programming. However, the one place where Appixia differs from Wix: Whereas Wix allows anyone to build a website from scratch, Appixia currently doesn’t support retailers who don’t have an existing eCommerce store.

That said, Wix already offers a wide range of eCommerce features for those looking to quickly build eCommerce stores and automatically creates a mobile-optimized version of the sites its users create. Thus, the acquisition of Appixia allows Wix to extend its current eCommerce and mobilization functionality, giving users the ability to create an online store and then quickly add a mobile-optimized version of their store, along with native apps.

The acquisition is a strategic move in a larger sense, in that both companies offer code-free solutions that make complex and costly development processes simple and accessible, particularly for small businesses and entrepreneurs. Appixia also provides a complement to Wix’s current mobile adaptive solution, which has been growing fast since launching in October.

As part of its announcement today, the company said that users are now creating over 30K mobile sites every day and that 1.6 million mobile websites were created on its platform by the end of 2013. By integrating the startup’s technology, Wix will be able to add the kind of extended mobile functionality and features that have been missing from its platform, like support for push notifications, barcode scanning, location-based services (GPS), credit card scanning, Facebook and Twitter integration and so on.

As to the terms of the deal, while the company declined to share the price, Wix Director of Communications Eric Mason said that this was primarily a talent and technology deal and that the company does not expect the acquisition to have an impact on its non-GAAP operating results. However, the company does expect to “fully integrate” Appixia’s technology into its platform and that one of the startup’s co-founders, Tal Kol, will be leading the integration effort.

Mason also said that “time to market” was also an important factor in the acquisition, since the technology is already built, acquiring Appixia allows Wix to extend mobile support in “significantly less time” than if it had developed the technology in-house. For Appixia, which was apparently in the midst of its first funding round when it began discussions with Wix, co-founder and CEO Yigael Berger said that the team decided that the existing synergies and opportunity to reach 40 million-plus were too appealing to pass up.

For more, find Appixia at home here.

View the original article here

Fresh From IPO, Wix Acquires Israeli Startup Appixia To Bring Native Mobile Commerce Support To 42M Users

Wix emerged in 2006 as part of a new generation of startups on a mission to do for website creation what Blogger, WordPress and Tumblr have done for bloggers and content creators. Riding the increasing demand for easy-to-use, DIY website builders, Wix is now one of the largest platforms of its kind on the Web, along with Weebly and SquareSpace. With over 40 million people now using its free web design tools, in November, Wix debuted on the Nasdaq as part of an IPO that valued the company at just under $800 million — representing the largest public offering for an Israeli company to date.

Today, in its first big move since going public, the Tel Aviv-based company announced that it is acquiring Appixia, a fellow Israeli startup which has developed a platform that aims to make it easy for retailers to take their stores mobile and build their own native “mCommerce” apps.

A graduate of Microsoft Ventures’ accelerator program in Tel Aviv, Appixia’s platform aims to make it easy for small mom-and-pop to medium-sized retailers to quickly add a mobile storefront to their existing eCommerce marketplaces. To do that, the startup’s platform supports a range of platforms, like Magento, Prestashop, Zen Cart, Shopify and eBay, automatically syncing with existing, live stores and backend systems so that merchants don’t have to manage their mobile presence separately from their online stores.

Like Wix for mobile, Appixia allows retailers to build HTML5-compatible mobile websites and native apps for iOS and Android without requiring any previous coding skills or knowledge of programming. However, the one place where Appixia differs from Wix: Whereas Wix allows anyone to build a website from scratch, Appixia currently doesn’t support retailers who don’t have an existing eCommerce store.

That said, Wix already offers a wide range of eCommerce features for those looking to quickly build eCommerce stores and automatically creates a mobile-optimized version of the sites its users create. Thus, the acquisition of Appixia allows Wix to extend its current eCommerce and mobilization functionality, giving users the ability to create an online store and then quickly add a mobile-optimized version of their store, along with native apps.

The acquisition is a strategic move in a larger sense, in that both companies offer code-free solutions that make complex and costly development processes simple and accessible, particularly for small businesses and entrepreneurs. Appixia also provides a complement to Wix’s current mobile adaptive solution, which has been growing fast since launching in October.

As part of its announcement today, the company said that users are now creating over 30K mobile sites every day and that 1.6 million mobile websites were created on its platform by the end of 2013. By integrating the startup’s technology, Wix will be able to add the kind of extended mobile functionality and features that have been missing from its platform, like support for push notifications, barcode scanning, location-based services (GPS), credit card scanning, Facebook and Twitter integration and so on.

As to the terms of the deal, while the company declined to share the price, Wix Director of Communications Eric Mason said that this was primarily a talent and technology deal and that the company does not expect the acquisition to have an impact on its non-GAAP operating results. However, the company does expect to “fully integrate” Appixia’s technology into its platform and that one of the startup’s co-founders, Tal Kol, will be leading the integration effort.

Mason also said that “time to market” was also an important factor in the acquisition, since the technology is already built, acquiring Appixia allows Wix to extend mobile support in “significantly less time” than if it had developed the technology in-house. For Appixia, which was apparently in the midst of its first funding round when it began discussions with Wix, co-founder and CEO Yigael Berger said that the team decided that the existing synergies and opportunity to reach 40 million-plus were too appealing to pass up.

For more, find Appixia at home here.

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With 5M Users Already On Board, Tynker Goes Mobile To Help Kids Learn To Code On The iPad

Historically, the U.S. educational system has struggled to get young people excited by and involved with STEM-related fields, especially computer science, which has actually seen a steady decline in participation over the last two decades, according to Time Magazine. Luckily, the winds of reform have begun to sweep into education, and parents, educators and even Uncle Sam have begun to pressure on schools to give computer science and engineering concepts a place in their curricula and introduce them in early education.

What’s more, a new generation of startups and app makers have begun to take up the mantle and are working to inspire younguns to take interest in technology and develop their programming skills. One of the most popular apps in this emerging category is Tynker, developed by a Silicon Valley-based education startup of the same name, which aims to make programming and engineering more accessible (and fun) for kids, regardless of prior experience.

Inspired by Scratch, a programming language and free coding education website for kids developed by MIT, Tynker makes use of Javascript, HTML5 and other open web standards to educate children of all ages on the basic thought processes behind lines of code. The product of serial entrepreneurs Srinivas Mandyam, Kelvin Chong and Krishna Vedati, Tynker got its start back in 2012, but has been grown quickly since.

Today, the startup’s learning platform is used by more than 8,000 schools and has helped over six million kids start programming. To support this early growth, Tynker raised $3.25 million in seed funding last year from venture firms like NEA, Felicis Ventures, NewSchools Venture Fund, GSV Advisors and 500 Startups, as well as a litany of angel investors.

Designed for both in-class and at-home learning, Tynker allows both teachers and parents to enroll their children via its website, enabling students to access its catalog of web-based lessons and learning content, which ranges from games and exercises to interactive tutorials to quizzes. To encourage engagement, Tynker has worked to create a fun, game-like environment around computer science education by allowing kids to learn via self-paced lessons, interactive videos and guided tutorials, for example.

Tynker makes its courses available for free for schools, while parents can purchase lessons for between $30 and $50, which includes those guided tutorials and exercises, and gives kids the ability to access different levels and earn badges as they progress. Up until now, the main point of access for Tynker’s learning content has been through its website. But over the past year, the team has been working to bring its platform to mobile devices, and this week the company finally announced the launch of its first iPad app.

The app, which is now live and has been featured by Apple, is designed to extend Tynker’s visual programming experience with a tablet-optimized, immersive gaming experience that allows kids to continue learning on the go and while in “airplane mode.” The company says that the intention is for its new app to expose its platform to a wider range of ages — making it accessible to kids as young as first grade — while making it easier for schools to roll out the platform to a wider audience and age range.

The iPad app includes story-based puzzles and games with titles like “Puppy Adventure,” “Lost in Space,” and “Sketch Racer,” which the company says are intended to introduce programming concepts like sequencing, repetition and conditional logic in a fun, interactive and game-ified way. Using the iPad’s touch interface, students drag and drop visual blocks to build a program, solving visual code blocks as they go to achieve their goal, like using logic and “loop variations” to help a lost puppy find his way home.

At launch, Tynker’s iPad app includes more than 130 puzzles, which aim to help kids understand how to recognize patterns, develop algorithmic thinking and computer drawing skills, debug programs and how to break down a problem into smaller, sequential steps.

Both Lost In Space and Sketch Racer are available at $1.99 and $2.99, respectively, which includes an additional 120 levels and concepts. And, going forward, the startup says that it will begin making additional “adventures” available for purchase within the app, allowing students who are farther along in the learning path to access more advanced puzzles and learning concepts.

For more, find Tynker at home here and on the App Store here.

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Tipping Point: U.S. Mobile Data Revenues Outweighed Those Of Voice In 2013, On Track For $100B/Year

Tipping Point: U.S. Mobile Data Revenues Outweighed Those Of Voice In 2013, On Track For $100B/Year | TechCrunch #site-logo { background: url(http://s1.wp.com/wp-content/themes/vip/techcrunch-2013/images/logos/green.png) no-repeat !important; }if (!ads.isMobile()) {(function(window,$){window.TechCrunch.loader.on('tc_ads_wrapper_omniture', function(){if ( !window.ads.isAdPageSet ){if ( typeof window.adSetAdURL == 'function' ) {window.adSetAdURL('/wp-content/themes/vip/techcrunch-2013/_uac/adpage.html');window.ads.isAdPageSet = true;}}window.htmlAdWH('93311108', "LB", "LB", 'f', 'adsDiv412b6a6234');});}(this,this.jQuery));}Got a tip? Let us know.MenuSearchNewsChannelsStartupsMobileGadgetsEnterpriseSocialEuropeAsiaCrunchGovTrendingYahooAppleFacebookTwitterGoogleMicrosoftNSATCTVShowsTCTV NewsAsk A VCCrunchWeekFly Or DieFoundationFounder StoriesTechCrunch GadgetsGillmor GangKeen OnTC CribsTechCrunch MakersAll ShowsAll VideosEventsTechCrunch EventsDisruptCrunchiesMeetupsInternational City EventsHackathonHardware BattlefieldNews AboutSXSWCESE3All EventsSearch TechCrunchSearch TechCrunchCrunchBaseFollow UsFacebookTwitterGoogle+LinkedInYoutubeRSSEmailMoreLinkedInYoutubeRSSEmail

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China may be the biggest of all when it comes to the sheer volume of users in its mobile market — 700 smartphone and tablet users, and counting — but when it comes to revenues from the new wave of data services beyond legacy voice calls, it’s the U.S. that continues to lead. New research out today from Chetan Sharma notes that collectively mobile data revenues in the U.S. market were $90 billion for 2013, and that this year it will become the first country to pass $100 billion annually.

Overall, carriers and others made more from mobile data service revenues than voice for the first time this year. The U.S. is not the first country to do this, however: it’s actually seventh, Sharma says — Japan was first, in 2011. Nevertheless, growth in mobile data revenues is still not outstripping the decline of voice revenues: overall, ARPU declined by $0.39, with voice ARPU down by $1.51 while the average data ARPU up by $1.13. Each is hovering now around the $27/user mark.

In 2013, smartphone penetration reached 66% and 92% of all mobile handsets sold are smartphones. But when looking at all connected devices sold, tablets accounted for 49% of the volume.

Sharma also said that Apple “bounced back” against Android and took a 49% share of smartphones sold in Q4. But this is a relatively small bounce we’re talking about: over the whole year, the two dominant players were nearly level at about 48% each of all smartphone sales, with “crumbs” for the remainder of the field.

Not a pretty picture for the fate of BlackBerry, or Windows Phone/Nokia making any more headway than they have in years past — or any other would-be new entrant for that matter. “While it is fairly clear that Windows will acquire the #3 spot behind iOS and Android, the journey to a substantial and competitive market share is still ways off,” Sharma writes. It’s also not quite in line with figures from other analysts, so triangulate as you will.

Sharma bases a lot of his research around revenues reported by carriers, although he also incorporates data from tech companies that are making huge bets on mobile in the form of apps and resulting advertising and payments revenues. The number companies making more than $100 million per quarter on mobile continues to grow, evidenced by the likes of Facebook (53% of its revenues last quarter) and Twitter (75% of its advertising revenues), but also the thousands of app developers out there. Remember, Flappy Bird was pulling in more than $50,000 per day at its peak.

Some more interesting data points from Sharma’s report:

The U.S. mobile data service were up 20%  to $24.8B in Q4 2013 compared to the year before. The majority of new mobile subscriptions came from “non-phone devices.” Verizon led with 36% share followed by T-Mobile at 34%. Overall US carriers added 12M+ new subscriptions in 2013.Sharma notes that the U.S. now accounts for 22% of the world’s mobile data revenues, with China and Japan are following behind. Working out the math, that gives us a worldwide mobile data revenue figure of $409 billion.He also notes the impact that T-Mobile has had on the U.S. industry with its “Un-carrier” marketing push with new pricing plans that give much more flexibility to users and untie them from longer contracts and with different terms for devices. “More of that will happen in 2014 as consumers start to do the math of decoupling the device cost with the services expense,” he predicts.Still, it was Verizon and AT&T that led the pack in the last quarter, where they accounted for 68% of all mobile data services revenue and took 67% of the total subscription base. These figures contributed to the pair respectively holding on to number two and three positions for mobile data revenue globally.Sharma notes that 24% of the patents granted by the USPTO in 2013 were mobile related, with the usual suspects — Samsung, IBM, Microsoft, Sony, and Ericsson — accounting for the top 5.

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