DEMO Alumni Continue to Innovate and Win Business Development and Customer Deals; A Round Up of May’s DEMO Demonstrator News
SOUTHBOROUGH, MA – June 16, 2008 – Over the past 17 years more than 2000 companies have launched at DEMO conferences, which are known as a prestigious launch pad to introduce new and cutting-edge technology. In May many of the DEMO alumni around the world continued to innovate with expanded product offerings, partnerships and critical business milestones. This Tuesday, past demonstrators will gather together to discuss their successes at the DEMO alumni party on June 17th at the Rockit Room in San Francisco. For more information about the DEMO alumni party visit http://demo.com/community/?q=node/95638
"One of the things we are really proud of is the fostering of community among the DEMO Alumni as they continue on the road to business success," said Chris Shipley, product analyst and executive producer of the DEMO conferences. "By continually connecting, tracking and working together, DEMO has created a conference that supports entrepreneurs through several stages of their business growth. It's more than a conference. It's a long term relationship."
In May, many companies announced new milestones including:
— Aternity (DEMO 08) (http://demo.com/demonstrators/demo2008/124643.html)
which gives IT management a view of employees' computers to improve
services, has won three Israeli insurance company deals sealing about
70% of that market in Israel. Menora Mivtachim Group, Israel's leading
pension insurance company with about 500,000 customers has signed a
deal with Aternity.
— Skyfire (DEMO 08) (http://demo.com/demonstrators/demo2008/124750.html)
the makers of the free Web Browser Skyfire for mobile smart telephones
has received $13 million in Series B funding lead by Lightspeed Venture
Partners, and including early investors Matrix Partners and Trinity
Ventures. The additional money will finance moving the beta browser to
Nokia's Symbian operating system this summer and new partner
relationships.
— Sprout (DEMO 08) (http://demo.com/demonstrators/demo2008/124754.html)
software for creating and publishing multimedia information as Web
widgets, received $5 million in Series B financing led by Polaris
Venture Partners.
— Toktumi (DEMO 08) (http://demo.com/demonstrators/demo2008/124770.html)
a new small business telephone service, announced its first
distribution deal with giant office supplies retailer Staples.
Toktumi's computer-based service is an enterprise-grade, hosted office
telephone system for small businesses that can be set up in five
minutes and supports the use of any regular corded, cordless or speaker
phone via Toktumi's Phone Adapter.
— Zodigo (DEMO 08) (http://demo.com/demonstrators/demo2008/124787.html)
which spun out from Emmy-award winner Zodiac Interactive as an
independent company in late April, is now deployed in trials in 1.5
million homes as a proof-of-concept of the mash-up between interactive
television and mobile telephone marketing.
— ClipBlast (DEMOfall 07)
(http://demo.com/demonstrators/demo2007fall/112971.html), a web video
search and distribution platform announced a deal with video syndicator
ClipSyndicate (http) (DEMO 07) to index its 80 news sources and
200,000 professionally produced video clips.
— Tungle (DEMOfall 07)
(http://demo.com/demonstrators/demo2007fall/113070.html) released a
version for owners of BlackBerry(R) smartphones from Research In Motion
(RIM). Tungle provides a free business-class meeting coordination
service for software calendars.
— ZoomInfo (DEMO 07) (http://demo.com/demonstrators/demo2007/91380.html)
has spun out its six-month old business demographics ad targeting
business as an independent company called Bizo, Inc., which expects to