Well I guess Synthasite wasn’t all that desperate after all. The South African company has raised a $5 million round of financing to support their easy-to-use web page builder from Compagnie Financiè€re Richemont’s subsidiary, Swiss-based Columbus Venture Capital.
We first covered the company in late 2006.
Great idea, great name, great product.
I knew they wouldn’t have any trouble getting funded.
I think we are going to hear a lot more about South Africa in future. Watch this space !
Yeah, I agree it is a good idea. But of course depends on user experience and their design too. Ideal service would be a one place for designing, building and hosting a web site with real time interaction with experts. But as for they getting desperate, they have list of blogs which have reviewd them at their home page and also a digg button
We may be way down south but South Africa has some fantastic development and business talent and I’m not just talking about larger companies. I am privileged to know a number of these people and there is some wonderful innovation happening here.
All that killer south african skill comes from all the drive they get from playing some great rugby — go springboks!
I totally agree with Martin this is a really exciting space. Without an invite it’s a little hard to say that with confidence, but anything with drag and drop ease is sure to get my support and many others. The future of the internet is to break down walls and the digital learning curve is where you accomplish this. Web development as it stands is about to change at the benefit of the masses. Congratulations S. Africa, what a great place to start…
I like the idea of this site a lot!
http://www.GuessLotto.com
There are a few of sites like this,what’s the big deal ?? it’s not exactly innovative!
thats pretty good amount.
Poor investment!
Richmonte is South African remember the old Rembrandt…its not French or Swiss. Its controlled by the Rupert family from Stellenbosch.
So its South Africans financing South Africans.
Don’t count South Africans as third world. We did the first heart transplant. We gave the world “Holism” courtesy of Jan Smuts who later drafted the UN charter. Before Shuttleworth invented web security and then flew into space, a South african was the Royal astronomer. Rupert of course invented the crush proof cigarette package. The list of what less than 3 Million people who were born in South Africa accomplished is long and compelling.
Then don’t foreft the sports accomplishments too!
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I find it difficult to design what I want into a site. I have been following these guys and while I love their effective use of Ajax and JS libraries, as a professional Web designer and developer I have a tough time approaching the interface from a customization standpoint. I think my JoinSources could give it a run.
Honestly, I don’t get it … Five Mil ?!? What the ROI will be ? How exactly are those 5 mil going to be spend ? On hardware for hosting the site .. seriously, 5 million on hosting ? Or on salaries for the development team ? Or on expensive chairs and cars like the original Bubble 1.0 ? Can someone explain to me how those money are going to be justified by that company ?
#12 is SPAM; please remove!
Thanks for this informaion
Michael,
Don’t forget Freewebs, the leader in this space reaching 20 million uniques globally. Freewebs raised over $11m in funding last year from Novak Biddle and Columbia Capital.
Happy Turkey Day!
Shervin