testCloud has launched!
testCloud.de is a Berlin based start-up that provides crowdsourced software testing. Basically, they harness the power of the crowd to test all sorts of software and applications under real conditions with all browsers/operating systems. Check out their video (in German).
Also see the interview with co-founder Thomas here.
Richmond View Ventures (RVV) has recently launched its own website at www.rvv.tv
Richmond View Ventures was founded by Frederik Fleck in 2007. It provides capital and expertise for entrepreneurs and their ventures in internet, mobile and media space.
RVV operates in three major areas:
SMS Guru has closed its second financing round with Wellington Partners and IBB.
Please see the press release (in German):
SMS Guru schließt zweite Finanzierungsrunde erfolgreich ab
Berlin, 24.08.2009 – Die SMS Guru GmbH bekommt frisches Kapital: Der von der IBB Beteiligungsgesellschaft verwaltetet VC Fonds Kreativwirtschaft Berlin und die VC-Gesellschaft Wellington Partners unterstützen die Fortsetzung des starken Wachstums.
In der ersten Finanzierungsrunde hatten sich neben Wellington Partners bereits strategische Business-Angels an dem Startup beteiligt. Die positive Geschäftsentwicklung und die weiteren Perspektiven der SMS Guru GmbH sorgten dafür, dass die IBB Beteiligungsgesellschaft schnell vom Konzept des Wissensdienstes überzeugt werden konnte.
„Das SMS-Guru-Team besteht aus erfahrenen Brancheninsidern und hat bereits bewiesen, dass der SMS-Antwortdienst in der Zielgruppe ankommt. Durch die aktuelle Finanzierungsrunde wurden nun die Voraussetzungen dafür geschaffen, den Service national und perspektivisch auch international weiter auszurollen“, sagt Mischa Wetzel, Investment Manager bei der IBB Beteiligungsgesellschaft.
Die SMS Guru GmbH beantwortet Fragen jeglicher Art, die Mobilfunk-Nutzer über den SMS Short-Code 37000 einreichen. Nach dem Credo „Wir beantworten jede Frage“ wird jede eingehende SMS individuell von einem Expertenteam recherchiert und persönlich innerhalb weniger Minuten beantwortet.
„Die bislang vorgelegte Erfolgsgeschichte von SMS Guru machte es uns leicht, das notwendige Wachstumskapital für die Fortsetzung der Story zu finden“, so Frederik Fleck, Gründer und Chairman von SMS Guru. „Wir haben jetzt hervorragende Mittel, unsere Technologien zu optimieren und die Marktführerschaft auszubauen.“
Das Team um Geschäftsführer Christian Vennemann setzt weiterhin auf strategische Partnerschaften mit TV-Sendern und anderen Medienunternehmen. „Wir wollen den Weg, den wir bislang sehr erfolgreich in Deutschland gegangen sind, auch auf andere europäische Märkte ausdehnen. Wir sehen noch immenses Potential sowohl im B2C-Segment, als auch in der Etablierung von White-Label-Solutions für Drittunternehmen“, sagt Vennemann.
Hinter SMS Guru stecken ein kleines aber schlagkräftiges Team am Standort Berlin und ein ganzes Netzwerk an Experten, den „Gurus“. „Für uns arbeiten echte Recherche-Meister, die Fachleute in der Nutzung unterschiedlichster Wissens-Quellen sind und Ergebnisse prägnant formulieren können“, begründet Frederik Fleck die Qualität und Themenbreite.
SMS Guru wurde bei dieser Finanzierungsrunde beraten von Corporate Finance Partners (www.cfpartners.com).
The online gaming market is changing with www.gimigames.com, the first massive multiplayer cash 
game platform.
It’s about playing well known and easy games simultaneously against hundreds of players. You win real money if you are among the 50% of the fastest players, which means that you have to be better than the others.
For a start, the following three games are available: “Moneymemo”, a variation of the classic memory, “Wordsmilloinaire”, which is about finding words in a grid of letters and “Captain Math”, which tests your math skills. The developers were sensitively following the “brain jogging” trend, when choosing these games and assured to already have further games ready to publish.
The combination of friendly and well developed games, high transparency and the thrill when winning, is a success. At the moment, as a welcome-present, you get one euro real cash for free, which can be used right away in the games.
Frederik Fleck is an early business angel investor in the company.
Founded in 2006, ReputationDefender is the global leader in end-to-end online privacy and reputation management solutions for consumers.
Its product suite, consisting of MyReputation, MyPrivacy, MyChild and MyEdge, focussed wolly on preserving the personal privacy and reputation of the company’s worldwide customer base, representing over 35 countries.
Frederik Fleck is an investor in ReputationDefender and accelerates the business development in Germany and Europe.
Fashionette wants to make Fashion Rental – especially the rental of designer accessories like handbags, jewelry and sunglasses – popular in Germany and Europe over the internet and allow fashion victims to wear designer fashion must haves more frequently than before. 
Fashionette is a brand of Luxury Fashion Trade GmbH which was founded in October 2008 by Dr. Sebastian Siebert and Dr. Fabio Labriola (with headquarter in Frankfurt). The target group of Fashionette is between 25 and 45 years old – most of the women belong to the up-and-coming middle-class. The fashion assortment will switch from „pure handbag rental“ to „one-size-fits-all rental“ in 2009 – beside selected young / innovative designers the company will mainly offer TOP-brands like Louis Vuitton, Gucci, Prada etc.
Frederik Fleck is lead investor of Luxury Fashion Trade GmbH and helps the management team to set-up new sales-partnerships.
SMS Guru answers every question which is sent per text message to 37000, regardless whether the question deals with knowledge, sports, lifestyle, party or travel. An expert team researches every topic and sends the answer to the customers mobile in a few minutes. The business model based on SMS revenues and the founding team around Frederik Fleck, a pioneer of successful interactive business concepts in Europe, has convinced Wellington Partners as well as some well-known business angels like Christiane zu Salm, board member of German publisher Hubert Burda Media, to invest in SMS Guru.
Online Advertising Solutions Ltd. is delivering video ad solutions:
Captain Ad is the premier ad network for “longtail videos”. Captain Ad allows every publisher to monetize embedded video content from any of the big video networks on his own website. To use Captain Ad a publishers only has to register online at www.CaptainAd.com and integrate a simple javascript. Captain Ad then delivers ads on top of the video content and pays the publisher on a CPM basis. Currently about 2.000 websites are registered with Captain Ad.
SpotRails is an ad serving platform and an ad network for video- and widget-ads. SpotRails offers publishers an ad player that does the placement, targeting, delivery and monitoring of the ads into the content. Publishers can choose between a video player with an integrated ad player and an ad player for easy integration into their own video player or widget. Advertisers get easy and quick access to the combined ad inventory via www.SpotRails.com and can book their (video) ad campaigns centrally.
Frederik Fleck is an early business angel investor in the company.
TalentRun is a karaoke media service provider that runs Germany’s first online karaoke.
Ever since the success of TV shows like “Deutschland sucht den Superstar” (the equivalent for “American Idol”) or “Popstars” (the equivalent for “Making the band”) and the high demand for Sony’s PlayStation game “SingStar”, karaoke has become a mega- trend. The idea of users singing karaoke online first came up in Asia and the US in 2006. In summer 2007, Dirk Wischnewski and Matthias Krause, both longstanding karaoke fans themselves, decided to realize such a concept for the German market.
Having overcome the challenges in royalty law, the online karaoke portal TalentRun was launched in January 2008 and has been offering free karaoke for everyone ever since. No matter if you’re home alone in your living room or at a party with friends – singing enthusiasts just choose their favorite song and can then sing along to the music, while the lyrics are displayed on the screen. You can even record your own individual version of the song! After that, you can release your song within the TalentRun community, according to the come-and-participate concept of Web 2.0 or prove your talent in a contest, just as you would at a casting, while other users comment on your recording.
Frederik Fleck is an early business angel investor in Talentrun.
Ostrich Media pioneered Call TV in the UK by completing the first test of the format in late 2004 on the Entertainment Channel E4. In May 2005, Ostrich Media was formally established and commenced broadcasting the interactive Call TV show, Quiz Call. Until October 2006, it was majority owned by 4Ventures Limited, which is a subsidiary of the public-service commercial broadcaster Channel 4 Television Corporation. The company was subsequently bought out in a MBO. Since then Ostrich Media’s operations it has successfully expanded into Spain, Portugal, South Africa and China. To date, over £10m in prize money has been given away to over 50,000 winners and the company retains the record for the biggest Call TV jackpot in history of £1m.
The company was acquired in 2007 by Buongiorno.
Frederik Fleck founded Ostrich Media and served as its Managing Director until the end of his earn-out in March 2008.
Frederik Fleck’s Twitter
