Connected car content specialist NAVX acquired by US-based OPIS
French startup NAVX, who provide real-time retail fuel pricing and parking data to auto manufacturers, PND manufacturers and mobile operators, have just been acquired by Oil Price Information Service (OPIS), a global provider of oil industry pricing. The value of the deal was not made public. Founded in 2006 by Florent Boutellier and Jean Cherbonnier, NAVX […]
Augure raises €15 million to launch in NYC, further expand in Europe
Marketing software startup Augure has announced that they’ve just closed a 15 million euros round with their previous investors, Serena Capital, Aumndi Private Equity Funds, Ventech, and OTC Agregator, with two new investors, Seventure and Bpifrance, joining the round. This brings the total amount of funds they’ve raised to €23 million, having closed an €8 million round in 2008. […]
Break out the violin: another EU top 5 ranking
Last week CBInsights published a report on aggregate VC deal volume in the top five European geographies over the past four years. I encourage you to experiment with a free trial of the service for the underlying data, but here’s the headline graphic: This chart triggered some predictable wailing and gnashing of teeth in France, […]
Alibaba coming to France in October of this year
Chinese companies continue to be drawn to France. During a meeting yesterday with French President Francois Hollande, Alibaba CEO Jack Ma confirmed that he would be opening an ‘Alibaba Embassy’ in France with the objective of helping French businesses more easily export their products to China and, obviously, sell on Alibaba’s mega e-commerce platform. To mark what […]
5 annoying habits of ineffective tech conference moderators
Does anyone else feel like we’re on tech conference overload in Europe these days? It feels to me like we’ve reached the saturation point. Of course, not all tech conferences are the same. What makes a great conference? Pardon the cliché, but I would have to say, ‘the people’. Specifically, the speakers/panelists, followed by the […]
Introducing the European FinTech RUDEscape
Wow, the appetite for FinTech in Europe is booming, with VC funding reaching dizzying heights. It’s not just Europe, by the way. A recent visit to Bangkok confirmed that even in the emerging startup ecosystem of Thailand, FinTech is hotter than a spicy som tam salad (more on that later). With the entire sector representing […]
Rentabiliweb strategy validated with positive 2014 results
In recent years, Rentabiliweb has shifted significantly the core of its strategy from B-to-C (meeting sites, online games, or SMS payments) to B-to-B (payments, direct marketing, etc). Or, more specifically as pointed out in Les Echos, evolving into a full-service fintech company. Launch of new products and services, such as the highly successful Be2Bill payment […]
Orange fights back competition to hit solid 2014 targets
Although Orange is still dealing with an increasingly telco environment, 2014 proved to be a year of return to stability for the group after years of price wars and cutthroat competition kicked-off by the entry of Free Mobile. After falling 0.1 points in 2013, their EBITDA fell in-line with their targets, coming in at 12.190 billion […]
Midem's premier startup competition Midemlab is back
This year, one of the top musical conferences in the world, Midem has made one big change. Namely that it will take place this year in June in Cannes rather than January as in previous years. However, this year’s event will continue to be one of the don’t miss events of the year for […]
We should pay attention to how LINE is turning Instagram into an ecommerce app in Thailand
On a recent exploratory visit to Bangkok, I witnessed first-hand a consumer shopping behavior that absolutely blew my mind and underscored how the West does not have a monopoly on business model innovation. Incidentally, my secret for glimpsing generalized consumer behaviors in a foreign country is to eschew the convenience of taxis or Uber in […]