Liam Boogar
French Startups are getting invested in, just not by French VCs
In the beginning of the year, we reported on the state of investment in France -more money went to startups in 2012 than 2011, a total of 543 million euros, or a 93% year-to-year growth. It was made very apparent that this funding was concentrated, with “Deezer(€100M), Criteo(€30M), Spartoo(€25M), Viadeo(€24M), Fotolia(€117M) and Sensee(€17M)’s impressively large […]
We’ve got the Pitch Deck for TheFamily, Paris’ newest Accelerator
We announced earlier this month that LeCamping’s manager Alice Zagury has left LeCamping to start her own accelerator, named TheFamily, though details at the time were scarce as to how they were planning on differentiating themselves. LeCamping receives a combination of regional and national funding from the government and also counts several corporate partners, who […]
Eventbrite, Airbnb and Fab tell tales of fighting off the Samwer Brothers
At hy!Berlin this past weekend, Eventbrite CTO Renaud Visage was interviewed by TNW European Editor Martin Bryant on the topic of Selling to the World, during which Renaud hinted that Eventbrite would be hiring in Paris very soon, in addition to Berlin and other European cities. The company, headquartered in the US, has had tremendous […]
What role for Berlin in the European Startup Ecosystem? Community.
During Hy!Berlin last week, Milo Yiannopoulos, Editor in Chief at The Kernel, interviewed Carter Caterfield of Art.sy, a New York-based startup working on bringing art deals online. The interview, which played on the theme of the intersection of Art and Technology, was aptly placed in the Hamburger Bahnof, a museam of modern art in Berlin. […]
Bouygues is getting ClockBlocked from having an iPhone monopoly in France
In the weeks coming up to the iPhone5 launch last year after the new phone was announced, most of Europe was buzzing with one common problem – not one single carrier was running the correct frequency (1800MHz) in order to provide the iPhone with 4G. Most of the carriers had built 2600MHz & 800MHz frequencies […]
Why I’m in Berlin for a week (And Why no one is in Paris)
For the next seven days, I will be getting an unofficial crash course in the Berlin startup scene. I have been invited by hy!Berlin at their expense to come out to Berlin and see what it has to offer, and with DLD Munich just around the corner (I will not be attending) and The Europas […]
In the end, Free has opt-in (Google) ad blocker on FreeBox & Mobile
After what can be described as the world’s worst publicity move followed by an even worse reaction from the government, Free has relaunched their ad “filter,” allowing all mobile and fixed internet subscribers to opt-in to the ad blocker. Originally opt-out, the ad blocker launched weeks ago, much to the discontent of Net Neutrality advocates, […]
Orange announces Orange Horizons, their newest “exploratory” subsidiary
Most TelCo’s are feeling the hurt these days – job layoffs, margins being cut, new players taking market share – however, one giant has managed to navigate the stormy TelCo seas quite successfully this past year. This week Orange announced the creation of a new subsidiary, Orange Horizons, who’s job will be to actively seek […]
French Surveillance Tech Firm accused of enabling former Gaddafi regime’s torture squad
This week a French appeals court gave the green light to five Libyans, tortured under the Gadhafi regime, to take legal action against Amesys, a subsidiary of French Tech Firm Bull. Represented by the Paris-based International Federation for Human Rights(FIDH), the plaintiffs are accusing Amesys of providing Libya’s former regime with a “communication monitoring system […]
Hollande threatens to push for the Google Tax if press issue not resolved by the end of the month
French President Francois Hollande announced Monday that Google and the French press have until the end of January to resolve their proprietary issues before Hollande will push for legislation requiring Google to pay press for the snippets of text that appear in Google News. “It is normal that those who make a profit from you […]