Liam Boogar
European train ticketing platform Capitaine Train raises €2.5M to fuel growth
European train ticketing platform Capitaine Train has raised €2.5M from Index Ventures and CMC-CIC Capital Privé in order to continue to bring a unified interface for buying the cheapest train tickets from A to B. The service, which launched last year, now sells tickets from six of Europe’s biggest train companies – SNCF, Eurostar, Thalys, […]
5 Awesome startups I saw at Futur En Seine
Last week Futur en Seine, a digital festival in Paris, kicked off its 10 day event, with both Fleur Pellerin and Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault making appearances. The event falls somewhere in between a SXSW for France and some sort of museum of modern innovation, with school children of all ages making field trips to come […]
Appsfire’s latest update adds Breaking News around hot app updates & announcements
App marketing and promotion company Appsfire released a new version of their popular iPhone app, adding a “Breaking News” feature to the app, which will provide a newsfeed of updates to popular apps. The service, which monitors the quality of apps, as well as updates, has fire hose access to the Apple App Store, and […]
3DSystems bets big on 3D Printing with its 4th acquisition in France
3DSystems announced today that they have required Phenix Systems, a leading global provider of Direct Metal Selective Laser Sintering 3D Printers based in Riom, France. While the details of the acquisition have not been closed, 3DSystems is expected to acquire an 80% stake in the company, with a maxmium payout of 13 euros per share – […]
French court sentences 15 day ban from Internet in piracy suit
A French court in the suburbs of Paris laid down a ruling this week in piracy case, fining the individual 600 euros, as well as blocking their access to the internet for 15 days. The defendant will supposedly still have access to telephone, private messaging and email, as well as TV & telephone; however, it […]
Looking to launch your company this fall? TechCrunch Disrupt Berlin might be the answer
For those of you who haven’t heard, TechCrunch is bringing their coveted TechCrunch Disrupt event to Berlin for the first time this October. Like many startup conferences, the event will have a variety of great speakers, likely of the US variety, which will be a great opportunity for European entrepreneurs to build their US network, […]
In France, there’s a huge difference between an Entrepreneur and an Auto-Entrepreneur
In recent weeks, the “Auto-Entrepreneur” status has been in the forefront of political discussions, as the government assesses whether to lower the revenue cap that auto-entrepreneurs can make. The status was created by previous president Nicolas Sarkozy in order to enable out-of-work and independent workers to begin making money more easily; the seemingly simple (as it […]
Airbnb contributes €185 Million to the Paris economy, so don’t write-off the Sharing Economy just yet.
Peer-to-peer marketplace Airbnb has released an economic study of its Airbnb hosts and guests in Paris, looking at key figures pertaining to guests & hosts. The study, which comes a few months after a similar study on Airbnb’s effect on the San Francisco economy, showed some pretty interesting stats, such as the €185 Million contributed […]
Orange bets big on NFC, but will it pay off?
“Name one other technology that took 10 years to take off?” One skeptical colleague said to me over dinner when I told them I had just come from Orange’s NFC Awards which took place yesterday. The Awards ceremony concluded a six-month competition which saw 212 NFC projects submitted, of which the top 20 were invited […]
Fleur Pellerin discusses French Innovation on her 1st LinkedIn Post. The Internet disagrees.
After a long trip around the world, including Korea, Israel and the Silicon Valley, the Minister of SMEs, Innovation, and the Digital Economy Fleur Pellerin has given her thoughts in the form of a post on LinkedIn as one of LinkedIn’s influencers. Ignoring all sarcastic remarks about why she didn’t post on Viadeo, let’s get […]