Overview

Product Description

Quixey was a mobile search engine that crawled apps. It provided better access and engagement with apps and provided the world’s leading mobile brands with Deep View Cards - a then-new way to deliver relevant app content and functionalities via ads, search, and social and messaging platforms.

Quick Stats

2009

Started in

Feb, 2017

Closed in

201-500

Employee (s)

$164,900,000

Total Raised

Why did Quixey fail?

Follow This Question - 1

Evan Lee

Updated on 25 Jul, 2017

Disharmony between team/investors

Competition

Debt

Quixey was a "deep search" search engine, which meant that users could retrieve information buried inside of apps. For example, if a user inputed “Italian food” in a hypothetical Quixey-powered app, a user's screen might have shown Yelp listings for three top-rated Italian restaurants, an OpenTable listing for the Italian place a user visited last week, and a user's Italian recipes in Evernote.During its lifetime, Quixey often made the press and sparked discussion because of its deep ties with Chinese search giant Alibaba, which invested over $80 million in Quixey. According to <a href="https://www.axios.com/behind-the-fall-of-quixey-2333564105.html">Axios</a>, it was Quixey's relationship with Alibaba that contributed directly to its downfall due to disharmony between the two parties.In October 2013, Quixey raised a $50 million Series C round led by Alibaba. At the same time, Quixey signed a separate commercial contract with Alibaba for $100 million– this meant Alibaba became both an investor and a customer. After Alibaba's IPO and corporate restructuring, Quixey found the changes disruptive, as Quixey now had to meet Alibaba's weekly deliverables (instead of quarterly) and didn't believe Alibaba was holding up its end of the monetization contract. However, Quixey raised another $60 million series C-1 funding led by Alibaba the next year.By mid-2016, Quixey believed it was owed around $37 million from Alibaba on the commercial contract. Alibaba, on the other hand, didn't believe terms of the agreement had been met. The two sides reach a private settlement whereby Alibaba paid Quixey $10 million in cash and agreed to provide a $30 million secured loan. The loan terms included 18-month repayment and a 2.2x liquidation preference, which&nbsp;effectively gave Alibaba veto power over future equity investments into Quixey.In early 2017, Quixey found $10 million of new equity, but did not raise enough money to pay back Alibaba's full loan. Quixey hoped the money would give it time to find a new large customer as the company believed its technology was ready for prime-time. However, Alibaba refused to allow new outside investment, which led to layoffs.&nbsp;In a statement, Alibaba said, "Unfortunately, the development of the company did not meet expectations and the board made a decision to end the business."&nbsp;Quixey also faced competition, as Apple and Google implemented better search features in their devices.

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Investors - 12

Funding Rounds - 7

Seed - $400,000

Series A - $3,800,000

Series B - $20,000,000

Series C - $60,000,000

Series C - $50,000,000

Debt Financing - $30,000,000

Debt Financing - $700,000

Founders

Tomer Kagan

Liron Shapira

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Evan Lee

Quixey

2009

Started in

Feb, 2017

Closed in

201-500

Employee (s)

$164,900,000

Total Raised

Why did Quixey fail?

Evan Lee

Updated on 25 Jul, 2017

Alibaba

Archimedes Labs

Atlantic Bridge

GGV Capital

Goldman Sachs

Innovation Endeavors

SK Ventures

SoftBank

Translink Capital

U.S. Venture Partners (USVP)

Webb Investment Network

WI Harper Group

Seed - $400,000

Archimedes Labs

Innovation Endeavors

Series A - $3,800,000

Innovation Endeavors

U.S. Venture Partners (USVP)

WI Harper Group

Webb Investment Network

Series B - $20,000,000

Atlantic Bridge

Innovation Endeavors

SK Ventures

Translink Capital

U.S. Venture Partners (USVP)

WI Harper Group

Series C - $60,000,000

Alibaba

GGV Capital

Goldman Sachs

SoftBank

Series C - $50,000,000

Alibaba

Atlantic Bridge

GGV Capital

Innovation Endeavors

Translink Capital

U.S. Venture Partners (USVP)

WI Harper Group

Debt Financing - $30,000,000

Alibaba

Debt Financing - $700,000

Undisclosed