Investments in the Widget Space, and an Omission

Patrick April 11th, 2007

While there remains debate in some circles as to whether widgets are capable of producing the returns on investment typically required by venture capital participation, a few VCs are clearly on the pro-widget side of the fence. In my discussion about the segmentation of the widget marketplace, I probably should have included FreeWebs in the Webtop category. FreeWebs allows users, currently at a rate of 20,000 people per day, to create websites essentially from widgets, and they’re now getting 18 million unique visitors per month, according to WashingtonPost.com. And more to the widget point, they offer web widgets as a way to customize sites created on FreeWebs.

But the Washington Post didn’t only remind me that FreeWebs had an interesting widget-related business, it highlighted the fact that they have received $11 million in venture capital. What other widget companies are getting money, how much, and where is it coming from? Here’s a starter list; help me build it by emailing me or replying in the comments..

  • Clearspring: $7.5 million from Novak Biddle, ZG Ventures, Mark jung, Steve Case, Ted Leonsis.
  • FreeWebs: $11 million from Novak Biddle and Columbia Capital.
  • NetVibes: $1 million from Index Ventures, Marc Andreessen, Pierre Chappaz (founder of Kelkoo and Wikio) and Martin Varsavsky (founder of Jazztel, Ya.com and Fon).
  • Slide: Rumor of $20 million from Mayfield, Khosla, BlueRun, and Founders Fund, the latter two of which participated in a first round.
  • Widgetbox: $1.5 million from Hummer Winblad listed, but that was last June. They’ve likely raised more.
  • WidSets: Financial support from Nokia Venture Organization unknown.
  • Zenzui: $12 million from Oak Investment Partners and Hunt Ventures, plus heavy R&D support from Microsoft.

Actually, I’ll need a good bit more time to compile this list, as other priorities demand my attention. But with the investments in widgets made by these companies, Apple, Yahoo, Microsoft, Bebo and others, its safe to say that the widget economy is a $100 million plus market and growing.

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