“UK dominance of EU VC slipping,” France picking up the slack, early & late stage
Ben Rooney of the WSJ published a great article yesterday on a study done by DFJ Espirit concerning Venture Capital in Europe. The entire article is worth a read – however, most is based off of the infographic below – but here is the tl;dr key figures version of the story. Europe has roughly 50% the […]
WineTech gets a boost as Balderton invests $10M in the Danish “Yelp for Wine” app Vivino
Balderton announced today a $10.3M Investment in Vivino, a Danish startup that launched the now #1 wine app on iOS, Android, and Blackberry. The app, which allows users to leave reviews of wines by scanning the wine bottle, now counts over 2 Million scans per month, up from 80,000 scans when they launched in April […]
With 170K users, Cinemur raises €2 Million for their mobile film discovery platform
Cinemur has announced today a €2 Million round of funding from private investors, which they will use to accelerate the growth of their mobile app, as well as develop their B2B offer. The iPhone app racked up 200K downloads and 170K registered users in just 5 months, an impressive growth for a French-language application, and […]
IBM to set up big presence in Lille, creating 750 new jobs
After announcing that they’ll be laying off 13% of their French workforce by the end of 2014, IBM will announce some positive news later today, finally giving the French government reason to cheer. According to initial reports in Le Figaro, IBM is set to announce that they will open a top-notch service center in Lille’s […]
Rentabiliweb announces payments deal with a slew of French e-commerce giants
French digital monetization leader Rentabiliweb announces various new deals with several big e-commerce names across it’s suite of payment, direct marketing, and telecoms solutions. The bulk of their new customers, which include Aquarelle, Betclic, and MODZ, have signed on for their Be2Bill payment solution. Be2Bill is a multicard bank payment solution which has acquired several […]
With 1M+ users, fashion discovery platform Rad raises €2.5M from Index Ventures
Fashion discovery platform Rad has announced a €2.5 million Series A round of funding led by Index Ventures, as well as The Kooples founding partner Nicolas Santi-Weil. The platform promises “cool products, every day,” and has grown to 200,000 users through viral and word-of-mouth growth. This round of funding will go into logistics & marketing efforts as […]
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 […]
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 […]
Rude VC: 3 broken arrows of growth capital in France
The other day during a stimulating conversation with five of French tech’s movers and shakers, the subject came up about the challenges facing high-potential tech firms in need of growth capital. Setting aside the Yahoo/DailyMotion debacle for a moment (which I fear will carry disastrous long-term consequences for cross-border m&a, one of the three ‘arrows’), […]