Liam Boogar

PK's Smartphone Swiss Army Knife charges, syncs & stores

Whether out of battery, out of disk space, or need to sync your phone, Paris-based PK has got a solution for you. The Paris-based startup, which is revisiting USB Keys with a French touch, has already put out a variety of USB key products, including the world’s smallest USB Key (K1), a Belt clip USB Key […]

Prynt's Polaroid Plugin Case for smartphone Propels past $500K on KickStarter

Prynt's Polaroid Plugin Case for smartphone Propels past $500K on KickStarter

Turn your boring old iPhone 6 into a retro 1980’s polaroid-esque camera? Yes, please! This is certainly the cry that the guys at Prynt are answering, with their Kickstarter campaign, launched last week, already well beyond its official campaign goal and up above $500,000 at the moment of publishing. Prynt, founded by Clement Perrot & David […]

Closing the gap between R and D, Bpifrance formally redefines Innovation

Closing the gap between R and D, Bpifrance formally redefines Innovation

This week Bpifrance, the French investment bank which is financed by the French government, announced that it would be changing its criteria for determining if potential investments are innovative. The new definition will see Innovation defined not only as hard technological innovation (think ‘patents’), but will incorporate 5 new criteria – product innovation, service & use, behavior & organization, marketing & […]

SimpleMail raises €1.3 Million to do email marketing smart

There are plenty of solutions to help companies send emails – my favorite for sending newsletters is Mailchimp, and we also use their sister product Mandrill for sending transactional emails (emails triggered by user actions, which differ from newsletter emails in that each email is customized and sent on a 1-to-1 basis). However, Kiwup, the startup […]

Partech announces first closing of its €300 Million Series B/C Fund

This week in Paris, French VC fund Partech Ventures announced it has closed €200 Million from investors including Carrefour, Renault, Ingenico, Bpifrance & others for a fund that is capped at €300 Million. The fund will be used to make investments in Mid-Stage startups – typically $12 – $50 Million investments. Partech’s been on fire since they raised their […]

Cityzen seeks to raise €100 Million on the back of smart shirt success at CES

Following a very successful showing at CES that saw them receive a coveted Innovation Award for the 2nd year in a row, Cityzen CEO Jean-Luc Errant says that initial plans to raise a €20 Million round have skyrocketed due to investor interest to what may be a €100 million round. According to Bloomberg, the startup, […]

Orange Digital Ventures promises €20 Million for early stage startups

Orange announced the launch of a new fund, Orange Digital Ventures, today, which has earmarked €20 Million for investments of €500K-€3 Million in digital startups. Run by Pierre Louette & Mari-Noëlle Jégo-Laveissière, the fund adds to Orange’s existing initiatives, which include the Orange Fab accelerator with Silicon Valley, Parisian, Polish & Asian offices, and their $500 Million joint-fund with […]

Ingenico's next generation POS terminals will accept Bitcoin thanks to Paymium

The world leader in payment termnials Ingenico announced today that its next generation POS terminals, the TELIUM TETRA, will accept Bitcoin thanks to a partnership with French Bitcoin startup Paymium, which operates one of Europe’s largest Bitcoin exchanges. The move will make Bitcoin acceptable by any brick & mortar merchant, which isn’t as crazy as […]

AXA Seed Factory invests $500K in Airfare Forecasting startup Flyr

Everybody knows that the airfare prices change all the time, but Flyr applies Data Science to make sure that you book your ticket at the lowest price possible. The 15-person San Francisco startup announced this week a $500,000 investment from AXA Seed Factory that will see a Paris office open in order to bring Flyr to Europe. Currently, […]

Shapr raises $3 Million to combine Path, Tinder & LinkedIn into the perfect networking app

Paris- and New York-based startup Shapr has raised $3 Million from investors including Blablacar co-founder Fred Mazzella, the company confirmed on Twitter this week. The startup, which aims to leverage the power of introductions, was co-founded by Ludovic Huraux, formerly of Attractive World, and by Zane Groshelle last year. The product, currently built on top of LinkedIn’s API (with all […]