Search results for: tax
Global Innovators Report underlines French Government’s R&D investment, UK & Germany still lacking.
Thomson Reuters released this week their annual Top 100 Global Innovators report – the website & the downloadable PDF – which measures the top 100 companies in terms of their R&D investment. The report measures innovation based on patents, measuring volume, success, reach & influence of a company’s patent porfolio – to be considered for the award, […]
The USA & France are both going through revolutions, inspired by each other.
One of the key signs, I believe, of a revolution – that is, a spurt of change in the culture, whether achieved peacefully or through violence – is when the misalignment between the will of a people and the actions of its representatives in government increases towards an intangible point of critical mass.We’ve seen this […]
Rude VC: Those silly fees
My earlier piece about the French government’s newly-announced PEA-PME initiative led to a broader discussion about transparency and investment performance. [By way of recap, I had written that I’m hopeful the PEA-PME could offer indirect benefits to small tech startups that trickle back by helping capitalize downstream companies that are larger and already listed, thus […]
Netatmo releases a connected thermostat, a European ‘Nest’ with French Design
French company Netatmo is going full force this year. After their debut at CES 2013 and the launch of their personal weather station, the company just launched a new connected Thermostat for the home. Built from a plexiglass block, the Thermostat was designed by Philippe Starck and strikes as a beautiful piece of hardware. The […]
French government launches €3 Billion late stage fund for mid-sized companies
The French government’s capital risk investment arm BPI France announced this week the creation of a 3 Billion euro fund, ETI 2020, which will invest between 300-500 Million euros per year between now and 2017 in Entreprise de Taille Intermediaire(ETI – “mid-sized companies”), defined in France as companies with more than 249 employees and less than […]
SNCF hitches a ride into the ridesharing vertical with purchase of marketplace 123enVoiture
Via its subsidiary Ecolutis, French train company SNCF has purchased acquired a 100% stake in 123enVoiture, a ride-sharing marketplace that boasts 400,000 members, LesEchos reported this week. The acquisition comes after SNCF had already invested a 20% stake in the site via its Venture arm Ecomobilité Ventures; however, now that the company is squarely under SNCF’s arm, SNCF […]
Rude VC: France’s new PEA-PME
For tech startups in France, the September rentrée from summer holidays often seems to hold regulatory and fiscal surprises, certainly from the current government administration. This year is no exception, although the rumors are promisingly less detrimental than last year’s bombshell, when the new fiscal budget announced a debilitating capital gains tax regime. The flagship […]
Twitter in hot water again in France – this time, for Homophobic Hashtags
The problem with giving into the requests of the government is that, well, you have to follow through. After an altercation with a few advocacy groups and the French government over some anti-Semitic trending hashtags earlier this year, Twitter promised to provide a streamlined access for users ( & the government) to signal inappropriate content. […]
Government-backed law to require 15-minute delay on smartphone ride services irks Parisians
In the past week, the French Government has come out in favor of a law that would require VTC (véhicule de tourisme avec chauffeur, namely, non Taxi chauffeurs) to have a minimum 15-minute delay between time of reservation and time of pick up. The announcement provoked a response from SnapCar co-founder Dave Ashton this week, “an […]
France is undergoing a pro-business revolution – don’t miss the signs.
When everyone around you tells you it’s a bad idea to do something, it’s often a bad idea; however, if your gut tells you to do it anyway, it might just be the best time. Looking at the dot-com bubble burst, we see a plethora of companies that were started in the years following – […]