Liam Boogar
The War in Paris to Clean your Home
Riding the Paris metro or walking the streets, it’s impossible to miss the increasing number of advertisements for tech startups. Airbnb, Drivy, Blablacar, Uber – the sharing economy is after you, whether you’d like to share or be shared. And, in the past 60 days, the latest war isn’t over your car, or your bed, but […]
Digital art marketplace Curioos raises $1.9 Million from NY investors
New York- and Paris-based Curioos.com has raised $1.9 Million from private New York investors, the startup announced today. With more than 3000 digital artworks to choose from, with prints starting at just $30, Curioos has grown to become quite the resource among the digital art community, amassing 250K+ followers on Tumblr, and 50K+ followers on Fancy. Launched in […]
Yelp acquires Cityvox to double down on French market
Review site Yelp has acquired its French equivalent, Cityvox, for an undisclosed sum, the company announced this week. Cityvox, founded in 1999, was purchased by telecom company Orange in 2008. As JournalduNet reports, the company counts 1.3 Million members and 300,000 reviews across various cities in France – staggeringly small compared to Yelp, Foursquare, or […]
Vente Privée’s failure in the US; former employees point to founder mismanagement and megalomania
The French company that coined “Flash sales,” a phenomenon that has been cloned around the world by the likes of Gilt Groupe and others, has announced it will discontinue activity in the United States just a few years after launching a joint venture with American Express. Vente Privée has built a powerful eCommerce business in France, where […]
Still not shipped, Lima responds to critics 1 year after its KickStarter campaign
On September 8th, 2013, Lima completed its KickStarter campaign, raising $1,229,074 (well beyond its $69,000 goal, which it shattered in a matter of hours), despite having to change their name midway through the campaign. At the time the largest KickStarter campaign in France (they have since been leapfrogged by Giroptic), the company went on to raise another […]
Balderton poaches Xange’s Nicolas DeBock to doubledown on French investments
Balderton Capital announced this month that they will be bringing on board Nicolas Debock, of Xange, as a Principal. Debock will be based primarily in Paris, and will lead up Balderton’s investments in France. Balderton Capital already has a fellow Francophone Partner, Bernard Liautaud, who announced Debock’s arrival during a private get together last week in […]
Breaz.io opens up its Tech Talent Auctionhouse to Interns
Earlier this year I wrote about Breaz.io, an auction-house for Tech talent. Starting this past Summer, Breaz began hand-selecting 10 programmers/developers/graphic designers/sysAdmin’s – tech talent – and putting them up on the auction block for companies to bid for – those companies include Tinyclues, Algolia, PeopleDoc, Prestashop, and many more. On average candidates find employment just 2 weeks after […]
On-Demand Delivery heats up in Paris
Paris might not be reputed for customer service – in fact, it is hyperbolically, categorically difficult to get something in France at all. Grocery shopping on a Sunday or after 9PM? Don’t count on it. Ordered that café 30 minutes ago? It’ll get there. Waiting in line in front of multiple cash registers only to find […]
Autodesk CEO Carl Bass welcomes the Connected Hardware community in Paris
Earlier this month, Autodesk brought a small piece of their infamous San Francisco gallery to Paris, focusing on the future of how things are made. The #GalerieAutodesk has hosted several events from various members of their community base, which includes nearly 15 million professional customers worldwide. The pop-up gallery hosted Tuesday the Connected Hardware & maker community, including LeFabShop’s […]
Clustree uses Big Data to help employees identify their career path
Bringing Big Data into the HR sector, Clustree announced a €600,000 seed round from Alven Capital (led by Raffi Kamber), which also includes business angels such as Fred Montagnon & Jean-David Blanc, but also Dataiku founder & CEO Florian Douetteau. Founded by Bénédicte de Raphélis Soissan in 2013, Clustree provides tools for large corporations in order for them to identify […]