PALO ALTO, CA, May 26, 2015 (Marketwired via COMTEX) -- SparkLabs Global Ventures (http://www.sparklabsglobal.com), a global seed-stage fund, announced their first investment in Latin America with Dating LATAM, an online dating startup founded in Lima, Peru. The startup`s MiMediaManzana.com site currently has over 300,000 registered users. It started originally in Peru and is now present in Mexico, Colombia, and Chile with a fully localized and customized solution for each country.

 

There are over 80 million single adults in the U.S. that generated over $2 billion in revenues during 2014 for the online dating industry. However, in Spanish speaking Latin America, there is an unaddressed market of over 104 million single adults that are not yet using the Internet to find potential partners.

 

"We love the Dating LATAM`s team, vision to dominate Latin America, and their analytical approach to building their company," stated Net Jacobsson, Co-founder & Partner at SparkLabs Global Ventures.

 

SparkLabs Global Ventures added a new advisor to their seed-stage fund, Seong Ohm, who is SVP of Merchandise Business Services at Sam`s Club, a division of Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. She has 25 years of experience in both the retail and supplier sectors, having previously spent 10 years with Walmart. Previously, Seong led the entertainment small business unit for Walmart and was awarded "Retailer of the Year" for her performance and leadership. She was also named one of the 15 top innovative women in business by Pink magazine.

 

"We`re excited and honored to have Seong Ohm as an advisor, especially with all the rapid growth and startup activity we`ve seen in e-commerce and especially in Asia," stated Jay McCarthy, Co-founder & Partner at SparkLabs Global Ventures.

 

"Seong`s general insights and experiences in retail and as a Fortune 500 executive will be valuable to entrepreneurs in our portfolio. Her breadth of experiences, such as helping to build out Walmart`s operations in Japan for nearly two years as their SVP & GMM of General Merchandise and Consumables, is very relevant to our startup CEOs and will be incredibly helpful," Jay continued.

 

 

SparkLabs Global Ventures is a new 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

bernard@sparklabsglobal.com

 

These are the best Apple Watch apps available for everything from navigating your way to work, to cooking a meal in a hurry.

 

 

Old favourite Citymapper returns in wrist-optimised form, working out fastest routes to destinations via walking, driving and public transport. It also alerts you when you`ve arrived with a gentle tap.

 

This app from global travel search engine Skyscanner provides travellers with directions back to their hotel when in their destination. Once a traveller ‘favourites’ a hotel within the Skyscanner app on their iPhone, they can then sync with their Apple Watch to access the direction service.

 

 

Booking Now, which draws from Booking.com’s selection of over 625,000 properties in more than 75,000 destinations, allows travellers to choose and book the nearest relevant hotel in just one touch.

 

View a detailed summary of your next flight, the flight number, route, departure time, flight status, a countdown to the departure time and the weather at the destination.

 

Trainline’s app for Apple Watch enables customers to check live train times, platform information, check their train is on route and access mobile ticketing straight from their wrist.

 

Demonstrated by Apple`s Kevin Lynch during the Spring Forward event, Uber on Apple Watch is the easy and serepticious way to hail a taxi during a night out, with no stopping at an ATM.

 

Pair the Watch with your iPhone to keep tabs on your average speed, distance travelled and set goals during a workout.

 

Lifesum is a useful way of tracking the amount of food and water you consume during the day, juxtaposed with the amount of exercise you`ve had.

 

RunKeeper`s handy goal-setting features, such as setting limits on how long you walk or run within a defined workout time, comes to your wrist.

 

 

CommitTo3 allows the user to set three important tasks for the day, and assign groups of friends, family or colleagues to complete them collectively - complete with `gentle reminder` notifications. Either a wonderful way of completing tedious activities, or incredibly annoying.

 

Managing your schedule has never been easier with Evernote for Apple Watch, allowing you to dictate notes, search through recently-added content and conveniently continue reading notes on your iPhone.

 

Prevent yourself sinking ever deeper into your overdraft with Mint Personal Finance. The app helps you set monthly spending goals and updates you with how much money you`ve got left over at the end of the week.

 

 

Keep an eye on the latest issue Twitter`s getting in a flap about from your wrist.

 

Pass the time on your commute by `popping` L-shaped boxes through 40 levels of BoxPop.

 

Daily brain workout Rules! keeps your grey cells active through 10 game stages, with a detailed breakdown of your progress.

 

 

Indicate your approval for filtered pictures of other people`s breakfasts through Instagram for Apple Watch.

 

Draw a masterpiece on your iPhone display by using the Watch as a remote paint palette for selecting new colours, brush thicknesses and rubbing out any mistakes.

 

 

Select the size of your egg, how runny or firm you`d like the yolk and potter away to your heart`s content until the Boiled Egg Timer app alerts you. One of those apps you never knew you could live without, possibly.

 

The Green Kitchen is designed to help guide you through cooking healthy recipes when paired with your iPhone, including by sending you alerts when a timed step in the recipe has come to an end. The slightly sinister notification “Your quinoa should have little tails by now” is one of the examples included on its website.

 

This app talks your through each part of a recipe step-by-step, bypassing the need to pull your iPhone out every two minutes.

Just Eat’s Apple Watch app will enable customers to access more than 22,000 takeaways across the UK and order their food on the go.

 

 

The app makes it easy to place and track orders via Apple Watch. Items can be added to orders just by speaking into the Watch and real-time order status updates are visible at a glance of the wrist.

 

The ASOS app makes use of the Apple Watch `Handoff` feature, enabling customers to add saved items directly to their bag and notifying them when a product comes back in stock or drops in price.  �D��?��