Liam Boogar
TechStars Boulder announces latest startup batch, including Paris-based Hull.io
TechStars Boulder has announced its 2013 batch of startups, which includes Paris-based Hull.io, a tool that allows social features that developers can add simply, quickly and without code to mobile and web applications. Hull.io previously competed in the London Web Summit startup competition, and having met founder Romain Dardour before just a few months back, I […]
ICANN announces .paris & .bzh among 6 French gTLDs coming this year
Last week the ICANN announced a suite of new gTLDs (generic top-level domains) which will usher in a new era of domain extensions – I’m still holding out for .rude, but it looks like that will be awhile. The domain extensions that have passed ICANN’s rigorous examination include .PARIS, whose application was submitted by the City […]
Apple, Google, Amazon & Netflix in France’s radar with new smartphone/tablet tax
François Hollande will receive a report today resulting from nine months of studying how the digital economy can contribute to cultural funding in France. This report will detail a plan to add a tax on smartphones and tablets, a tax which will go to pay for art & culture in France -whether it be keeping […]
Web2Day’s startup competition to feature some “killer” startups
This week I, along with most of the Paris Startup Scene, will head down to Nantes for a few days. No, it’s not for some arbitrary set of French holidays (that was last week), instead it’s for Web2Day, a 2-day startup conference that gathers some of the best local and international startups and digital businessmen […]
Seedcamp announces the 20 teams participating in Seedcamp Week Berlin next week
Seedcamp has announced the 20 teams that have been accepted to Seecamp Week Berlin, its week-long event that it announced earlier this year, which will provide selected teams with access to a world-class network of mentors, including investors from Index Ventures, Point Nine Capital, Balderton Capital, BDMI, Earlybird, DFJ Esprit and T-Venture. The event, hosted by BDMI, The Wyre & The Factory, includes startups […]
Nanigans launches in Europe to help companies scale up their Facebook advertising
For companies who have been experimenting with Facebook advertising and have begun to identify the right times, demographics, and ad-formats to target their audience with, Nanigans‘ Facebook advertising platform might be the best way to scale. Founded in 2010, the Boston-based company has announced its European launch today, fresh off a $5.8M round of funding […]
10 Successful Web Startups founded by HEC Alumni
Ever since I wrote about 10 French Stanford Alumni who are rocking it in the startup scene, I’ve found myself wondering what Universities in France are churning out more entrepreneurs. When I spotted that LeWeb & Seesmic founder Loic Le Meur was giving a talk to HEC Entrepreneur students in California last month, I began […]
Optimizely brings its A/B testing service to Europe
In late April in Amsterdam, I met up with Optimizely CEO Dan Siroker to talk about Optimizely’s arrival in Europe. Fresh off a $28M round of fundraising announced last month, Optimizely is bringing its A/B testing web application to Europe, having just opened up its European office in Amsterdam – which means they are actually in […]
VeryLastRoom raises 400K€ to bring its last-minute hotel reservation service to every town in France
Founded by Nicolas Salin, VeryLastRoom announced last week a seed round of funding of 400,000€ in order to spread VeryLastRoom to every city, town & village in France. The service offers users the ability to choose between 50-60 hotels in a given city for a last-minute reservation, taking advantage of a hotel’s leftover rooms, as […]
Mobile payments provider Flashiz hedges bets with its NFC- and QR-compatible technology
Back in April, I met up with Luxembourg-based startup Flashiz during The NextWeb conference to talk about how they were going to squeeze into the tightly fit online payments space. As one of the first certified electronic money institutes in Europe (admittedly, like 50% of online payments startups), Flashiz’ solution hopes to offer merchants a […]