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1 Fung Business Intelligence Centre Global Retail & Technology Flash Report Department stores strategies Copyright © 2015 The Fung Group. All rights reserved.

June 11, 2015

Last month, we had the pleasure of hosting seven startups introduced by the Entrepreneurs Roundtable Accelerator (ERA) at a Disruptors Breakfast held at the Peacock (the former Williams College Club) in New York City. The standing-‐

room-‐only event was a follow-‐up to our Hong Kong Disruptors Breakfast.

ERA is a nonprofit organization founded in 2007 that plays a key role in New York City’s ecosystem by providing select companies with a four-‐month, intensive program. This program is designed to grow early-‐stage companies by providing them with collaboration opportunities, and access and exposure to a wide range of mentors and companies in the New York area. ERA selects 10 lucky companies from 1,000 applicants three times a year; participants receive a $40,000 investment and come to New York to receive free coworking space in the Chelsea neighborhood and access to more than 200 mentors.

The startups’ founders also attend seminars and speaker events led by top

entrepreneurs, technologists and industry experts. In addition, they receive free legal, accounting and business support services. They also receive support from ERA’s 25+ sponsors and partners, and exposure to New York’s leading seed investors and venture funds. ERA, in exchange, receives common stock in the companies, which helps to align their mutual interests.

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After a brief introduction by ERA, seven startups gave their best elevator pitch to attendees. We believe one of the differentiators of ERA is the amount of time that they spend working with their startups on the quality of their pitches. That time and effort really showed: the audience was a large, diverse group, but all audience members had a deep understanding of what the companies did after just a five-‐minute pitch by the founders.

The startups included (in alphabetical order): • Bubbl, which places a native icon on online video sites for fans to create “snackable” clips of their

favorite plot twist, slam dunk or one-‐liner, which can be forwarded to and shared with millions of viewers via social media. The company has partnered with content providers so as to be able to monetize this content.

• Bunchcut, a B2B collaboration engine to intelligently manage visual content (i.e., images) in one place and in real time. The product helps team members who are spread out in various locations and time zones evaluate and select images to be used in articles and advertisements. Of note for all you creative types.

• CUPS, which offers prepaid coffee plans for a city’s best independent cafes. Consumers can subscribe to plans for a certain number of cups or for an entire year with a smartphone app that lets users find the nearest coffee shop. Several shops are offering free coffee to celebrate CUPS’ first anniversary. We love coffee and have already tried this!

• Eventable, a marketing-‐automation platform that helps brands engage their audiences through any calendar, enabling them to promote events and drive timely interaction. Users can subscribe to notifications they’re interested in (such as sporting events), and these items are saved directly on their calendar of choice. We think this could be amazing in the corporate world if the company’s leaders would like to take it in that direction.

• Ketchup, an engagement tool for publishers that provides readers with context relevant to their content. It can manage a timeline of news articles on specific topics and enable readers to delve deeper into topics of interest. We have always loved timelines and these folks have them in droves.

• SELECT, a members-‐only “black card” that provides access to exclusive events and savings and perks at thousands of locations across the globe, with insider-‐only rates, access and VIP treatment. SELECT works in concert with major credit cards, enabling the bearer to double up on points and benefits. We already signed up.

• TripleLift, an advertising solution for the visual web that uses image-‐recognition technology to identify a brand’s most compelling visual content across the web and then amplifies it across multiple advertising channels. The technology is able to provide native programmatic advertising that is put into templates and tailored for the viewer


Bubbl is a mobile video clip sharing service that lets users capture online video highlights. At the push of a button, Bubbl grabs the short “snip” of streaming content that matters most to the viewer, making sharing and digesting video content more engaging.

Basic Information

Use Case Example

Content providers can put a native icon on video sites for fans to create “snackable clips” of their favorite plot twist, slam sunk, or one-‐liner.

Year Founded 2014

Key People Rob Perkins Haydn Strauss Mauhan Zonoozy

Team Size 1–10

Location New York, NY

Funding $125,000

Investors

Rob Perkins IV Mauhan Zonoozy Warner Bros. Entrepreneurs Roundtable

Client Base Consumers

Key Clients NA

Applications Digital entertainment Video editing Social media


Bunchcut is an image collaboration platform that enables users to collect, organize, and share images. The platform is a powerful solution to the multibillion dollar visual content overload problem.

Basic Information

Use Case Example

Teams can sync images from Dropbox folders to Bunchcut boards, share the boards privately or publicly with clients and coworkers, and receive feedback from them in the form of votes and comments.

Year Founded 2014

Key People Alex du Preez Jan Pickard Nat du Preez

Team Size 1–10


Funding $40,000

Investors Entrepreneurs Roundtable Accelerator

Client Base Advertising Publishing

Key Clients NA

Applications Image collection Image organization Image sharing


CUPS is a mobile-‐first subscription service for coffee connoisseurs and the independent coffee shops that serve them. The app makes the city’s coffee scene accessible and convenient by offering Unlimited, Cup a Day and Prepaid subscriptions for use at participating coffee houses.

Basic Information

Use Case Example

CUPS is a mobile app that connects coffee drinkers with independent cafes. Its members purchase prepaid plans to get discounted drinks at some of New York’s best coffee shops. With the CUPS app, they can walk into any one of our cafes and use their smartphone to get a great deal on a cup of coffee.

Year Founded 2014

Key People

Michael Derazon Ron Givoly Roe Shami Gilad Rotem Alon Ezer

Team Size 1–10


Funding $40,000

Investors On Grid Ventures LLC Entrepreneurs Roundtable Accelerator


Key Clients NA

Applications Retail Food & beverage


Eventable is a marketing automation platform for the calendar. We help brands engage their audiences through any calendar, enabling them to promote events—from sports schedules to retail sales to TV programming. Eventable drives timely interaction through the calendars consumers already use to manage their daily schedules.

Basic Information

Use Case Example

Eventable connects customers and brands through calendars. Its marketing channel helps brands stay top-‐of-‐mind through personalized event recommendations in customers’ daily schedules (all major vendors). The company is disrupting traditional email messages by providing more engaging communications that drive online and physical traffic.

Year Founded 2012

Key People Akash Malhotra Sameen Karim

Team Size 1–10

Location Berkeley, CA

Funding $68,000

Investors Alchemist Accelerator Entrepreneurs Roundtable Accelerator

Client Base Diverse

Key Clients Sports Organizations

Applications Retail, Sports, TV, Music, Education, Services


Ketchup is an engagement tool for publishers that provides readers with context relevant to their content. Our technology powers a widget on publisher sites that displays a timeline of how a story developed over time, making it possible for them to surface and monetize the content they’ve produced. Basic Information

Use Case Example Ketchup’s technology powers a widget on publisher sites that displays a timeline of how a story developed over time, making it possible for them to surface and monetize the content they’ve produced.

Year Founded 2014

Key People Anthony Chien Kevin Li

Team Size 1–10


Funding $40,000


Client Base Publishers

Key Clients NA

Applications Publishing Research


SELECT is a members-‐only “black card” that provides access to exclusive events, savings, and perks at thousands of locations across the globe directly through the SELECT card. The SELECT community enjoys insider-‐only rates, access and VIP treatment at premier restaurants, hotels, nightlife venues, retailers, events and more. Basic Information

Use Case Example Users gain access to exclusive, consistent savings of up to 50% on top restaurants, hotels, movie theatres, car rentals, shopping and more. Members can save at any participating location, anytime and as much they want, with no black out days or times. The SELECT card or mobile app is used to redeem a discount.

Year Founded 2013

Key People Carlo Cisco Ken Byrne Benjamin Unger

Team Size 1–10

Location Berkeley, CA

Funding $40,000



Key Clients Affluent Consumers

Applications Entertainment Events Restaurants Travel


TripleLift is an advertising solution for the visual web that uses recognition technology to identify a brand’s most compelling visual content across the web and amplifies this content across display, social, and native advertising channels. Basic Information

Use Case Example TripleLift connects marketers to millions of consumers using in-‐feed native inventory across any device, at scale to transform seamlessly visual content like images and videos into native ads that match the unique look and feel of a publisher’s website.

Year Founded 2012

Key People Eric Berry Shaun Zacharia Ari Lewine

Team Size 1–10


Funding $6.1 million

Investors

Entrepreneurs Roundtable Accelerator iNovia Capital Laconia Ventures Liberty City Ventures Mesa Ventures NextView Ventures Social Starts The Social Internet Fund True Ventures

Client Base Advertisers

Key Clients NA

Applications Targeted Advertising


Deborah Weinswig, CPA Executive Director—Head of Global Retail & Technology Fung Business Intelligence Centre [email protected] Cam Bolden [email protected] Sunny Chan [email protected] Marie Driscoll, CFA [email protected] John Harmon, CFA [email protected] Aragorn Ho [email protected] John Mercer [email protected] Charlie Poon [email protected] Kiril Popov [email protected] Stephanie Reilly [email protected] Lan Rosengard [email protected] Jing Wang [email protected]

st new york - deborah weinswig - the retail technology ... word - disruptors breakfast fbic global...

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