Archive for June 2013
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 […]
After winning Startup World Paris, Grooblin launches its social events app for iOS
Event microblogging app and turn-key event management service Grooblin launched its app for iOS today. The application, which “lets you share and catch up with what’s happening at your favorite events around the world,” has received quite a bit of attention, after founder Wilhem Pujar participated and won Startup World Paris. I have seen quite a lot […]
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 […]
European train ticketing platform Capitaine Train raises €2.5M to fuel growth
European train ticketing platform Capitaine Train has raised €2.5M from Index Ventures and CMC-CIC Capital Privé in order to continue to bring a unified interface for buying the cheapest train tickets from A to B. The service, which launched last year, now sells tickets from six of Europe’s biggest train companies – SNCF, Eurostar, Thalys, […]
Planetveo raises 15 million round to fuel its growth in France and beyond
Online customized tourism operator Planetveo announced today that they’ve raised €15 million with Iris Capital and european investment company Gimv. Having raised €3.5 million with Alven in ’08 and ’11, this brings their total VC investment to-date to €18.5 million. Planetveo launched in 2007 via a series of customized tourism websites focused on specific destinations (e.g. […]
Rude VC: Part 2 of the Alternext liquidity conundrum
Last week I wrote a fairly critical piece about France’s IPO market for tech firms. Specifically, I claimed that the Alternext, which is the main market on which VC-backed tech firms can go public in France, does not represent an adequate avenue for sustained financing and liquidity potential for these firms. Rude maybe, but surprisingly […]
Orange’s boss Stéphane Richard to stay on as CEO for now
The last week hasn’t been the best one for Orange’ boss Stéphane Richard. The first shoe dropped early last week when it came to light that Richard was detained by the police for questioning in the never-ending Tapie affair. Then came news later in the week that Richard was officially put under investigation for fraud over […]
5 Awesome startups I saw at Futur En Seine
Last week Futur en Seine, a digital festival in Paris, kicked off its 10 day event, with both Fleur Pellerin and Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault making appearances. The event falls somewhere in between a SXSW for France and some sort of museum of modern innovation, with school children of all ages making field trips to come […]
e-virtuoses puts France on the map in the world of serious games
Last week I attended one of, perhaps, the best kept secrets in games conferences e-virtuoses 2013, which took place in the northern French town of Valenciennes. What really sets e-virtuoses apart is its focus, which centers on serious games. When most people think of video games, they immediately associate them with pure entertainment. However, in […]
Appsfire’s latest update adds Breaking News around hot app updates & announcements
App marketing and promotion company Appsfire released a new version of their popular iPhone app, adding a “Breaking News” feature to the app, which will provide a newsfeed of updates to popular apps. The service, which monitors the quality of apps, as well as updates, has fire hose access to the Apple App Store, and […]