The latest version of Emergence Capital's annual Mobile Enterprise Trends Report. Includes the key trends driving adoption of mobile in business, mobile enterprise venture funding statistics, and mobile enterprise predictions for 2017.
2. Mobile Enterprise Trends
2016 Highlights
• Mobile continues to be an important initiative for CIOs and other technology buyers. From
our conversations with technology decision makers, the key factors driving businesses to
consider deploying mobile technologies are:
• Mobile-savvy millennials are playing a greater role in the workforce.
• Deskless workers are receiving more attention from IT.
• Mobile applications are driving meaningful productivity gains.
• Funding of mobile enterprise companies grew 9% in 2016 despite the fact that the overall
venture funding market contracted by 11%.
• We believe this highlights investors’ relative enthusiasm for mobile enterprise versus the
index of other venture investment opportunities.
• More mobile enterprise companies are reaching meaningful scale. This resulted in an
increase in later stage financings of mobile enterprise companies in 2016.
• Dollars invested in Series B and later rounds rose 33% during the year.
• 2016 was a banner year for M&A in mobile enterprise.
• ServiceMax was acquired by GE for $1BN, marking the first billion-dollar exit for a mobile
enterprise company.
• In total, there were 5 mobile enterprise mobile enterprise acquisitions in 2016 totaling over
$2BN. This is the biggest year we’ve seen for mobile enterprise M&A.
4. Why Mobile is Important to Business
1
2 3
Millennials matter
Deskless dominates Productivity power
• By 2020, nearly half of all U.S.
workers will be Millennials.
• 20% of Millennials don’t use a
computer and have gone “mobile
only”
• 80% of the global workforce doesn’t
sit at a desk to do their job
• Mobile devices make it possible to
deliver business apps to these
workers for the first time
Source: University of North Carolina, ComScore, Google, Harvard Business Review, KPMG
• Mobile applications can increase
worker productivity by 40% or more
• Improving productivity is a top
priority of global CEOs and CIOs
and has been for the past decade
6. Mobile Enterprise Venture Funding
2016: Key Takeaways
• Mobile enterprise funding grew in 2016 despite a decline in the overall venture funding market.
• In 2016, venture firms invested $973MM in mobile enterprise businesses, up 9% versus 2015.
Overall U.S. venture funding was down 11% in 2016.
• The pace of early stage mobile enterprise funding slowed during the year. However, funding of
later stage mobile enterprise companies grew dramatically, highlighting the fact that a greater
number of mobile enterprise companies are reaching scale.
• Early stage funding of mobile enterprise companies was down 24% in 2016. This decrease is
roughly in line with the drop in the number of new mobile enterprise companies created during
the year (see the Mobile Enterprise Landscape section of this report).
• Later stage funding in the mobile enterprise space saw a meaningful uptick in 2016. Dollars
invested in Series B and later rounds rose 33% during the year.
• Industry-specific mobile enterprise companies saw the greatest growth in funding in 2016. We
believe this signals the relative demand for industry-focused mobile enterprise applications
versus horizontal applications.
• Mobile applications focused in industries such as healthcare, hospitality, and restaurant saw
significant percentage increases in funding during 2016. This continues a trend that began in
2015.
• Conversely, several major horizontal application categories saw saw slower or negative growth
over the year.
7. $M
$200M
$400M
$600M
$800M
$1000M
$1200M
Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec
Mobile Enterprise Venture Funding
2016 v. 2015
2015
$891MM
2016
$973MM
Source: CrunchBase, Emergence Capital analysis
Venture funding of mobile enterprise companies in 2016 outpaced 2015 by 9%, whereas
the overall US venture market was down 11% in the same period
Mobile Enterprise US Overall Venture
+9% -11%
8. Mobile Enterprise Venture Funding by Series
By Dollars Invested, 2016 vs. 2015
58%
42%
Early Stage Later Stage
71%
29%
2015 2016
Source: CrunchBase, Emergence Capital analysis
Mobile enterprise financing activity skewed more toward later rounds than early
stage rounds in 2016.
9. Top Mobile Enterprise Funding Categories
2016
Restaurant
Mobile applications used by restaurants to help
them manage their businesses
$77MM
Events & Contacts
Mobile applications used to manage events
and contacts
$22MM
73%
vs 2015
Source: CrunchBase, Emergence Capital analysis
Hospitality
Mobile applications that enable deskless workflow
for hospitality management and staff
$32MM
1005%
vs 2015
77%
vs 2015
Payments
Mobile applications used to facilitate b2b payments
$10MM
76%
vs 2015
Content
Mobile applications used to create or consume
documents, images or video
$15MM
76%
vs 2015
Funding has shifted heavily towards vertically focused apps from 2015 to 2016, and decreased in horizontal categories
like content and payments
Healthcare
Mobile applications used by healthcare workers
to simplify workflow and improve information access
$94MM
95%
vs 2015
11. Mobile Enterprise Landscape
End of Year 2016: Key Takeaways
• 2016 saw a slower pace of company creation in the mobile enterprise space.
• Our 2016 mobile enterprise landscape includes 358 companies, up 14% from 313
companies in 2015.
• This is down from the 21% growth in new mobile enterprise companies we saw in 2015.
• We believe fewer companies were started during 2016 due to several factors, including:
• It’s harder to build a mobile enterprise company than a traditional SaaS business. Multi-
platform development is challenging and expensive. Additionally, it’s tougher to manage
sales and marketing in an environment that relies on app stores.
• Many of the more interesting mobile enterprise markets are in areas where deskless
workers are prevalent. There are fewer entrepreneurs who today appreciate the
opportunities in these areas than understand how to build apps for deskbound workers.
• This was a banner year for M&A in mobile enterprise
• ServiceMax was acquired by GE for $1BN, marking the first billion-dollar exit for a mobile
enterprise company.
• In total, there were 5 mobile enterprise mobile enterprise acquisitions in 2016 totaling over
$2BN. This is the biggest year we’ve seen in dollar terms for mobile enterprise M&A.
12. H
O
R
I
Z
O
N
T
A
L
V
E
R
T
I
C
A
L BANKING/
INSURANCE
GOVERNMENT
OTHER VERTICALSEDUCATION HEALTHCARE REAL ESTATE/CONSTRUCT.
RESTAURANTS
ACCOUNTING, FINANCE, ITSALES, MARKETING & SERVICE
PAYMENTS
HOSPITALITY
CONTENT COMMUNICATION TASK MANAGEMENT &
CALENDAR
MOBILE FORMS
EVENTS & CONTACTS
OrderAhead
HR & RECRUITNG BI & ANALYTICS
ACQUIRED
RETAIL
TRANSPORTATION
MANUFACTURING
KURADO
PRODUCTIVITY
NeverEatAlone
Xplor
Mobile Enterprise Landscape
End of Year 2016
14. Largest Mobile Enterprise Venture Rounds
2016
Provider of mobile content
management solutions
$50MM
Series C
Provider of smartglass-based
productivity solutions for doctors
$23MM
Series B
Provider of tablet-based loyalty
solutions for retailers
$50MM
Series C
Source: CrunchBase, Emergence Capital analysis
Provider of mobile construction
management software
$50MM
Series H
Provider of mobile video
conferencing solutions
$100MM
Series D
Provider of mobile freight matching
solution for truckers and shippers
$22MM
Series B
Provider of mobile platform for
respiratory health management
$21.5MM
Series C
Provider of mobile workplace safety
and quality management
$23MM
Series B
16. Source: CrunchBase, Emergence Capital analysis
(3)
(6)
(2)
(3)
(3)
(3)
(3)
Most Active Mobile Enterprise Investors
2016
Number of 2016 mobile enterprise investments is shown in parentheses.
(5)
(3)
(2)
18. 2017 Mobile Enterprise Predictions
• 2017 will see another mobile enterprise company acquired for $1BN or more by a major
technology player.
• Realizing how far behind they are in terms of serving their customers’ mobile needs, a
leading technology company (i.e. IBM, Microsoft, Oracle, SAP) will make a significant mobile
enterprise acquisition. They will pay a “strategic” multiple — meaning higher than industry
valuation comps.
• An increasing number of mobile enterprise companies will be created that take advantage
of non-smartphone / non-tablet devices.
• Several companies on our landscape already utilize hardware such as head-mounted displays
and drones. These types of devices can be incredibly valuable — particularly in deskless
workforce environments. As this type of hardware becomes more capable and less
expensive, we will see more businesses built around it.
• More mobile enterprise companies will be created outside of Silicon Valley than within it.
• This will happen for two reasons. First, mobile is the preferred technology platform among
business users in many regions outside of the U.S. Entrepreneurs in these mobile-first
markets have a deep understanding of how to build compelling mobile enterprise apps.
Second, there is a greater understanding of deskless workers’ technology needs in areas
outside of Silicon Valley.
19. Emergence Capital (@emergencecap), is the leading venture capital firm focused
on early and growth-stage enterprise cloud companies. Our mission is to invest in
cloud visionaries who are building the world's most important business
applications.
Emergence’s investments include companies such as Salesforce.com (CRM),
SuccessFactors (SFSF, acquired by SAP), Veeva Systems (VEEV), Yammer
(acquired by Microsoft), ServiceMax (acquired by GE) and Box (BOX).
More information on Emergence Capital can be found at http://www.emcap.com.
About Emergence Capital