Archive for July 2013
All aboard! European train eTicketer Capitaine Train now available in English
Capitaine Train, an online train ticket vendor which recently raised €2,5M from investors Index Ventures in order to continue its growth, announced today that its slick UX and aggregated ticket prices are now available in English (in addition to German & French). Launched last year with the intention of disrupting the gigantic train travel industry in […]
After selling the bulk of its stake in Activision, is SFR the next to go for Vivendi?
After selling 85% of their stake in Activision last week, Les Echos reported that Vivendi is studying the possibility of selling SFR, its largest telecoms operation. Given their debt challenges and shaky performance of late, they’re particularly looking at how to divest the French telco without disrupting their stock price or negatively affecting their (already […]
A not-so standard exchange between #Founder and #Journalist
I receive a lot of emails – not so much that I can’t get around to all of them, but enough to have a preferred method of receiving email pitches. A while back, a friend asked me to tell him the 5 best & 5 worst pitches I receive, and what I like to see. […]
Paris Accelerator TheFamily to open a CoWorking Castle in Normandy
We’ve spoken in the past of the excess of Accelerators, Incubators & Coworking spaces in Europe, but this might just take the cake. A new subdomain (castle.thefamily.co) on Paris Accelerator TheFamily‘s site puts an interesting twist on the idea of a CoWorking Space. While it’s more of a retreat for internet startups who need to […]
Scoop.it scoops up $2.6M in kerosene along with YouSendIt’s Andrew Federici as VP of Monetization
Curation platform Scoop.It announced a $2.6M round of funding from its existing investors – Partech International, Elaia Partners, IXO Private Equity, and Orkos Capital – in order to fuel acceleration. The company has picked up YouSendIt’s (recently renamed HighTail) former director of Marketing (I hope he wasn’t in charge of the name-changing) Andrew Federici as VP of […]
LiveMinutes raises $1.4M from US investors as it pushes into the crowded real-time collaboration space
LiveMinutes has raised $1.4M from Great Oaks Venture Capital & New World Ventures this week. First covered on Presse Citron, the real-time collaboration service, founded in France, has gone west in search of funding, and has succeeded. The fundraising announcement comes hand in hand with the release of a new version of their web platform, […]
35 hour work week fading as the average full-time work week in France nears 40 hours
After years of debates over the 35-hr work week which became law in 1998, it turns out that the infamous law is fading into obscurity. A survey which was conducted and recently published by the employment ministry’s research group Dares and covered by La Tribune proves that the “normal” French work week (i.e. outside of vacations, […]
The French Government’s (feasible) 8-step plan to turn Paris into an international startup hub
The French government has announced their intentions to build “Digital neighborhoods” (in French, Quartier Numeriques) in Paris as part of a plan to turn Paris into an international startup hub. The brief of the official report by France’s Minister of ‘fix the industrial sector and get us out of the economic depression’ Jean-Marc Ayrault, details eight concrete steps that the […]
Before you go on break, grab your ticket to the next Paris Founders Event, September 3rd!
Your bags are packed and you’re ready to disconnect for the next few weeks: before you do so, you may want to grab your ticket to the next Paris Founders Event. Our July edition saw nearly 100 founders & investors come out, and we’re looking to make a big splash in September. We’ve already got […]
After government trips to South Korea, Samsung to open new development center in France
It seems that Minister Pellerin’s two big trips to South Korea and efforts to improve trade relations between France and Seoul are starting to bear fruit. Samsung has announced that they’ll be opening a new digital content development center in France. The idea of locating the development center in France was reportedly first discussed between […]