Archive for January 2016
Is France ready to host its own Web Summit?
2016 is looking like it’s going to be a strong year for Startups in France. My Blablacar-Lyft merger theory might not pan out now that Lyft is in GM’s hands, but Deezer raised €100 Million, Day Use raised €15 Million, Botify raised €6 Million – a huge jump year over year from the less than €50 Million raised in January […]
Our Top 10 #ParisFounders alumni – fundraising, exits & success stories
This Thursday we get the pleasure to host the 9th edition of #ParisFounders, the premiere startup networking event in Paris which we first began organizing back in 2013 in a bar. The event has since grown to over 2500 attendees last year, including 1,000 packed into the Hotel de Ville last October for our NYC […]
FrenchTech: One step forward, three steps back
For entrepreneurs and investors in the French tech ecosystem (and even potentially for outsiders looking in), it has been a discouraging couple of weeks for us. While I still believe that 2016 will be the year of the European entrepreneur, I sincerely hope that politicians do not thwart France’s momentum in innovation when we’re just […]
Marie Quantier’s robot advisory tool gives us all access to Wall Street gains
If only Marie Quantier, the female pioneer in investment in 1907 who managed to go through the worst time of capitalism seeing her wealth prosper, knew her name is today associated to a 12 employee startup ! After launching on stage at Paris Founders in 2014 after three years of product development, the five cofounders continue applying […]
Aircall raises $2.75 Million led by Balderton Capital’s Bernard Liautaud
Aircall has raised $2.75 Million led by Balderton Capital for their self-service phone number management system for businesses, the company announced this week. Working with companies like Uber & Deliveroo, Aircall integrates with a wide range of business applications- Zendesk, Salesforce, Pipedrive, Slack – as the company seeks to make it increasingly easier for companies to scale […]
10 ridiculous humble brags recently spotted on Twitter
Many of these could pass for satire but I’m pretty certain their authors intended them in full seriousness. Great idea, very similar to what I advocated in my TED talk last year Flattered to be quoted alongside Peter Thiel in this TechCrunch article Could barely keep up with Chris McCormack in my first Ironman Still […]
Sigfox connects Antartica through newly created Foundation
Earlier today, Sigfox revealed the creation of its Foundation dedicated to the Tech For Good projects. As part of this new division, Sigfox unveils an initiative in Antartica, where it can track people or assets and later monitor global warming effects through a network of dozens of wireless sensors. The startup –who raised 115 M$ […]
Learning from French SaaS Founders
The following is guest post by Rodrigo Martinez, Early Stage Tech Investor at Point Nine Capital. At the early stage of a startup, the funding available usually doesn’t allow the hiring of senior talents. Therefore, investors are looking for founders who are smart and quick to learn all the stuff required to build a big business. […]
France converging its open data strategy with startup innovation
On Tuesday, January 12th, Secretary of State Axelle Lemaire invited several entrepreneurs to the Ministry of Economy and Finance in the frame of the #dataday to underline the economic measures of the « Projet de Loi pour une République numérique », as well as to exchange on which strategy to adopt to make the access on open […]
5 smart European VC predictions for 2016
Last year’s Predictions on the State of VC in Europe 2015 proved so popular that I decided to do it again. Here are some insightful predictions for 2016 from five of my more prophetic peers. Dmitry Chikhachev, Runa Capital, Russia I would predict 2 trends for VC in Europe in 2016: 1) a growing number […]