June 20th, 2008
Seesmic raises another $6 million. Why?
TechCrunch mentions the fact Seesmic has raised another $6 million. My question is why? In a Skype conversation with Loic LeMeur, Seesmic’s CEO I asked whether the company had burned through the first $6 million. The answer a flat no.
I then recalled a conversation we had a while back where LeMeur had recommended attracting ‘rock star’ investors in the Series A round to attract the really big hitters in later rounds. I asked that if that remained true then why not a Bessemer or Sequoia? His response: “Getting someone like Pierre to help you has nothing to do with money Dennis. I did not need the money, but I really wanted him on board. What he and Eric bring is worth the dilution.”
Asked what the fresh money is for, LeMeur then talked about wanting to become a global brand but also said:
1. increase development on mobile
2. get early internationalization
3. grow our platform already supported by 1500 sites
I commented that mobile has been languishing in recent months. He agreed, saying there will be a new mobile version in the next six weeks. On the international front, Seesmic wants to be truly localized. LeMeur also said that as the company is scaling up, it needs high end hosting of the kind offered by Akamai, hinting at ‘big media deals’ to be announced over the next few weeks.
Dennis Howlett has been providing comment and analysis on enterprise software since 1991. See his full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations.
