Hong Kong based EditGrid, a leading online spreadsheet that has also partnered with other Web Office startups, has just closed its Series A funding of $1.25M from WI Harper. We confirmed this with the founder and CEO, David Lee.
EditGrid, which we last covered in February 2007, was built by the 8-person company Team and Concepts Limited (TnC). The actual development of EditGrid began in January 2006 with funding from Silicon Valley-based angel investors and matching funds from the Hong Kong government. EditGrid was actually present in this market before Google Spreadsheets. Its public beta was launched in April 2006, two months before Google launched Google Spreadsheets. EditGrid got out of beta on 14 February, 2007 and then launched its subscription services. Since then, EditGrid has been partnering with a large variety of partners world-wide. Currently EditGrid has partnerships with Central Desktop, Salesforce, ShareMethods, StartForce and ThinkFree.
CEO David Lee told me that EditGrid’s goal is to re-define the spreadsheet. The innovations to have come out of EditGrid so far include:
- Real-time Collaboration: multiple people can access and edit the same spreadsheet at the same time, with updates synchronised to all active instances of the same spreadsheet.
- Remote Data: Live data on the web can be connected to designated cells and used in calculations. Currently EditGrid can retrieve stock quotes, currency exchange rates and even generic web content from the web.
- My Data Format: EditGrid can export data in XML format. Users data exported to XML can then be transformed to other formats using XML Stylesheet Transformation (XSLT), through EditGrid’s My Data Format (MDF) feature. This technology is useful for exchanging data between enterprise applications, especially XML-enabled ones.
- Data and Partner API: EditGrid has a comprehensive API layer. The EditGrid Data API allows manipulation of data stored in EditGrid spreadsheets. The EditGrid Partner API further supports user provisioning and can be used to incorporate EditGrid on the partner’s platform on a white-label basis.
The “Dragon’s web” is attracting more and more VC from overseas. With close to $400M under management, WI Harper is one of the first U.S.-based venture capital firms to create a value-adding bridge between the United States and Greater China. For nearly a decade, WI Harper has been building companies internationally by facilitating the flow of capital, technology and management best practices across both sides of the Pacific. WI Harper’s star portfolios in China include Focus Media, Beijing Xinwei, 3G.CN, Maxthon, VeriSilicon, and more.
As for the future of EditGrid, David told us:
“Microsoft defines spreadsheets with MS Excel. It has become entrenched as part of the “Office” set-up. Our take of online spreadsheets is that it will be the second most important online application after email – and this is the proposition we are working on.”
