SparkLabs Global Ventures invests in Code Kingdoms and MangoPlate; Maurice Werdegarsas, CEO of Western Technology Investment, joins as advisor
Yahoo Finance, December 18, 2014

PALO ALTO, CA--(Marketwired - December 18, 2014) - SparkLabs Global Ventures (http://www.sparklabsglobal.com), a global seed-stage fund, announces their investments into Code Kingdoms, a UK-based education technology startup, and MangoPlate, a fast growing restaurant discovery app in South Korea.

Code Kingdoms is a new learning to code game where kids build their own game levels with their friends. This school year several countries like the UK have integrated the essential creative skill for 21st century-code, into their core curriculum. The demand for new, game centric learning to code tools from schools and parents is huge, and Code Kingdoms intends to lead this market with a highly engaging game that was developed with kids by two Cambridge computer science graduates.

"SparkLabs Global has aided us with international aspirations from day one. Everything we do is oriented around building a viral game for kids to learn code where the experience of the SparkLabs team has been critical in targeting the correct markets and model for the product," said Ross Targett, Co-founder and CEO of Code Kingdoms.

MangoPlate is a restaurant search and discovery mobile app founded by a four-member team from Samsung, KaKao, Naver, and Apple. MangoPlate differentiates from other restaurant discovery apps by providing customized recommendations based on a user`s food personality and social profile. The recommendation engine runs on a database of 200,000 restaurants in Korea as well as algorithms that take into consideration other details such as cuisine type, ratings and location. The app was launched October 2013 and is available both on Android and iOS in English and Korean.

Maurice Werdegarsas, CEO of Western Technology, joins as an advisor to SparkLabs Global Ventures. Western Technology Investment (WTI) is the oldest and largest venture debt firm in the U.S. that has provided in excess of $3 billion of growth capital to market leading companies, including Facebook, Google, 3PAR, Brocade Communications, Cerent, IDEC Pharmaceuticals, IronPort Systems, Juniper Networks, Postini, and Youku.com. WTI invests globally in a wide range of technology companies ranging from seed-stage startups to publicly-held companies.

"We are very excited to have Maurice Werdegarsas on board as an advisor since he is highly engaged with the startup ecosystem in Silicon Valley and globally. Also Western Technology Investment is a firm that plays a critical role in the startup and technology ecosystem," stated Jay McCarthy, Co-founder and Partner at SparkLabs Global Ventures.

About SparkLabs Global Ventures

SparkLabs Global Ventures is a seed-stage investment fund. We believe business is now truly global, but most investors are not. Exceptional entrepreneurs that are building strong, category defining companies can be found anywhere. SparkLabs Global is a team of highly experienced entrepreneurs and operators based in London, Tel Aviv, Seoul, Singapore and Palo Alto, CA that will focus on helping our entrepreneurs to develop, grow, network, and scale into other markets throughout the world. For more information, please visit www.sparklabsglobal.com.

Contact:

Bernard Moon
Co-founder
+1-650-454-5244