Rude VC: Pour une France Compétitive
Over the weekend I had the pleasure of perusing France Digitale’s whitepaper “Pour une France compétitive et créatrice d’emplois.” I say pleasure, because I really did enjoy reading the organization’s pragmatic proposal of four concrete measures to include in the upcoming Loi des Finances 2013. For those who are not familiar, France Digitale is a […]
French Newspaper "Liberation" may lose €700K after LVMH CEO Bashing
This is a reprint of the Rude Baguette’s Weekly Digest. You can receive the weekly digest & more by mail by subscribing on the right The talk this week in French tech has been about Liberation, a French newspaper that I can now confirm has a socialist skew. Last week’s cover page (featured right) featured LVMH […]
Ventech breathes new air with new €75 Million fund
Just last Friday, Frenchweb[FR] reported that Ventech had closed 3/4 of its €100m fund, (i.e €75 Million). The news comes as a sigh of relief to the startup community, who had been waiting for over a year to see new life pumped into the French VC firm founded in 2008. Its previous investments include app-enabled device […]
Retail VCs: pivot or perish ?
It’s been a hot, lazy summer in most of France (far superior to last year, weather-wise, thank goodness). But in at least one sector of France people struggled to completely relax: the private equity / venture capital firms whose principal sources of funds are tax-incentivized “retail” investors. Such retail fund vehicles are a fairly uniquely […]
McDonalds tests Paypal mobile payments in France
McDonald’s, lovingly referred to as McDo here in France, just started testing a new mobile payments system in 30 outlets across France (specifically in Paris, Lyon, Nice, Toulouse and Reims) where customers can use McDo’s new mobile app or website to order and pay via Paypal. Although it looks like there’s some initial scepticism about the level […]
Rude VC: Email habits, or lack there of
What a fanstastic two weeks. For the first time ever, Rude VC decided to go completely off the grid for two whole weeks this August. Nothing but fresh air, perfect weather, and intense triathlon training in the pursuit of physical exhaustion and mental rejuvenation. Awaiting me among other things upon my return to the office […]
€15 Million from EU for Civic Tech Startups
This article was cross-posted at the Center for Global Communication Studies, where Kat is also a regular contributor. If we accept the premise that the intersection of technology-fueled transparency, open innovation and civic engagement is increasingly central to making government work for everyone, perhaps it’s time for new models of governance. Governments need to provide services a […]
Online gambling is a €4B industry for France alone
Online gambling operators got taxed to the tune of 1.4 billion euros for France in 2011, meaning they generated revenues in the vicinity of 4 billion euros for that same year. Not bad for this little industry, considering most of the websites operating in France only got their licenses in 2010, though a few were […]
AppAnnie Appstore Economy report impact on France
Earlier this week, the Seattle conference Casual Connect welcomed AppAnnie, the AppStore analytics & intelligence service, as they spoke about the appstore economy. Primarily focusing on the iOS and Google Play, App Annie showed off their data about the two appstores, mainly focusing on revenue & downloads by country. While AppAnnie guarded most of its […]
[Breaking] Peugeot cuts 8K jobs in France – Not As Lean as They Claimed.
Peugeot announced this morning that they will be cutting 8 000 jobs in France, primarily in the closing of a factory in Aulnay, just outside of Paris. The story is being covered widely and being tied together with President Hollande’s “difficulties” as president. The company’s CEO, Philippe Varin commented on the “seriousness” of the cutbacks, stating […]