Sharpcast has raised a $10 million round from existing investors Sigma Partners, Draper Fisher Jurvetson and Selby Venture. This brings the total raised to $26.5 million. The round is described as a “Series AA,” which implies that it was done at the same or lower valuation as the original Series A back in March, 2006. I’ve asked the company for clarification on that. Update: It was indeed a down round (i.e., at a lower valuation). CEO Laura Yecies confirms:
This series is labeled ‘Series AA’ because of the terms, participating investors and the overall recapitalization structure. It is a ‘down round’, but given the economic conditions at the time of the previous round (March 2006) and the current financial climate, we’re very happy with such a very strong vote of confidence from our investors.
Sharpcast offers file-syncing through its SugrarSync service, which syncs data across multiple devices (PCs, Macs, iPhones, Windows Mobile phones) and the cloud. For instance, using its iPhone app a user is able to view all the photos on her desktop if they are in a SugarSync folder.
Syncing is becoming a serious technology trend as people split up their digital lives across devices and the Web. It is one of the promises of Windows Live Mesh from Microsoft, which won the Crunchie for best technology innovation. Apple offers syncing through its MobileMe service. Startups like Sharpcast and Dropbox are looking to carve out their own niche here with both free and subscription services.
Sharpcast’s SugarSync is a subscription service, with prices ranging from $25 to $250 a year. The vast majority of the 20,000 people who have signed up since launch last March are paying $50 a year. Using back-of-the-envelope math, at $50 per user, that implies a $1 million run-rate. CEO Laura Yecies tells me she will use the $10 million to ramp up marketing and keep developing the product.
Yecies is going up against both Apple and Microsoft here. I asked if that worries her. She responds:
With MobileMe it is a very Apple centric solution, but not effective for people who are cross-platform. Live Mesh is still much more talk than actual software, but it will probably be more Microsoft-centric. We have a solution that is actually working now. Those companies have not been successful from a technical point of view. I don’t grant them automatic success.
Trust me, both Microsoft and Apple will figure this out. In the meantime, Sharpcast can build a nice little business and maybe get acquired.
Eric – What do you think the valuation was here? Do you think that it was a down round? There is a lot of competition in this space and it’s not clear to me that Sharpcast is the leader (or even the #2 in the space). I feel like investors must own most of the company.
They are calling it a Series AA, which tells me that at the very least the valuation hasn’t changed since 2006.
Startups like Sharpcast and Dropbox are looking to carve out their own niche here with both free and subscription services.
http://kisalt.net/d2
I dont see why they bother competing with DropBox
Its the same thing but more complicated and with more bugs.
oh, and no free product.
Regarding “it’s the same thing…”. It’s ludicrous to compare the Dropbox toy application built by a couple of students to SugarSync, the market leader in the space.
market leader? huh?
http://siteanal....com/?metric=uv
I agree — Dropbox has had lots of hype, but SugarSync is much better. Compete.com compares ‘eyeballs’ which is a silly Web 2.0 measurement. What’s Dropbox’s revenue?
SugarSync has many paying customers (myself included, plus 3 of my colleagues) and plenty of potential to build a *real* business.
I have a different view to whole syncing/collaboration concept.
Had files been non-proprietery or access to internal data would have been simpler, today’s sync vendors would have provided much more value to their end users.
Yes, today’s infrastructure helps moving files efficiently, but still its a file and with it comes locking/in-efficient syncing issues.
I am sure (or at least hoping) such a feature (which for now has to be done for each specific application out there and hence for even more niche markets) is on the drawing board of sync/online back file vendors.
I am no expert, but his is likely a flat round from the previous valuation.
If their terms changed significantly then they would have needed the lawyers to create new set of paperwork which would have created a Series B round.
This isn’t always how it works, but often it works this way.
okay, this is just another example of the STUFF I DON’T GET. I mean, why put another 10MM in, I haven’t seen much growth here, there is no BUZZ, the blogs are not touting it, or commenting on it. Something like Evernote seems to be MUCH better positioned and continues to innovate and appears to be adding user HOF. 10MM sure as heck better get them like 3 YEARS of burn, forget run rates.
well to be honest i truly believe that syncing of files across devices is just a temporary transition period , at the end it will all come to a centralized storage place on the servers (placed anywhere , isp , home wherever
google 
) whether you want it or not.
Voyant International Corp. This company’s RocketStream/RocketConnect file/web acceleration technologies could be the infrastructure key to high-speed file-syncing over the Web and between devices. It could help accelerate file-sync service providers offerings.
Softie purchased Foldershare a couple years ago, which is a fantastic cross-platform file synching service. It ain’t just vaporware.
I hope they succeed. I think there’s a huge need for a sync platform that developers can use to sync data across various applications (whether they are in the cloud, cloud-to-desktop, or whatever). I don’t think that need will ever go away.
With SharpCast, I think they ended up spreading themselves too thin by creating a consumer application for photos rather than working with application developers as the primary customers of their tools.
I’d say the new Palm webOS also brings some interesting competition to the table with the Synergy concept.
I agree with Pete that there is a strong market opportunities for syncing services. People need access to their data, on all devices, and at all times. It’s that kind of world now. Who, these days, works just from their office (if they even have one)?
In Europe we are seeing similar confidence from VCs in supporting efforts from players like NomaDesk to bring data syncing platforms to the market – even during tough economic times, financing this important technology is obvious.
try hibernater, its way better than just sync
Any ideas on number of subscribers? Revenues?
Taking $10M at a down round valuation indicates that they really need that much money. With so much competition coming from companies that have raised less (Box and ElephantDrive in the online storage space and DropBox and Syncplicity in the sync space), why do they need so much more cash?
They got slaughtered on this round valuation and have an estimated $6M in liabilities. A company their size will only end up with three or four months of runway on this round, putting them at a disadvantage against other competitors. I’d be surprised to see them survive 2009.
Our company purchased a product not long ago called FileCatalyst that not only did syncing but also compression and acceleration. We looked at a few other options too but we needed something in house on our VPN so this worked well for us.