Search results for: bpifrance
François Hollande meets with US VCs & the French Tech community. What’s next?
This week, 150 members of the French Tech ecosystem, ranging from Iliad CEO and startup investor Xavier Niel to 1001 Menus co-founder Xavier Zeitoun met at the Elysée Palace following France Digitale Day, where President François Hollande spoke of France’s commitment to LaFrenchTech. The speech, as a whole, fell flat. Mid-speech, Partech Ventures GM Philippe […]
What to think of Viadeo’s €200-300 Million IPO plans?
This week Viadeo announced in an interview with LeFigaro that they would be seeking to raise €200-300 million on the Euronext in a Paris IPO early next year. Viadeo, which competes with LinkedIn and Xing as a professional network, owes much of its success to France, where it first started as an online network for French […]
SIGFOX raises €15 Million Series B to Connect the World
Toulouse-based startup SIGFOX has raised a €15 Million Series B from IDInvest, BPIFrance, and historical investors (Elaia Partners, Intel Capital, Partech International, etc.), who had previously invested a total of €12 Million; bringing the total funding to €27 Million: Founded by Ludovic Le Moan, formerly co-founder of Goojet (since defunct and re-branded as Scoop.it) in […]
8 Startups selected for Silicon Valley accelerator Ubi I/O
After running their annual tech tour for 7 years, Ubifrance in partnership with BPIFrance announced that they would be evolving their tour into a 10-week Silicon Valley based accelerator program. The program is supported by both French and Silicon Valley mentors; various supporters including such big names as Yahoo, Logitech, IBM, Oracle, etc who the […]
The Cornerstones of the Hardware Revolution
Anyone who worked in technology before 2003 can tell you that it’s no coincidence that startups have exploded in the past 10 years – when servers costs when to zero, and open source software caught up to its proprietary counterpart, it didn’t matter how many people (a lot) were on the web, because scalability was […]
My take on the new LaFrenchTech label
Many people have already written and asked me my take on the new LaFrenchTech label, which launched last week. – “Is it just talk?” “Is this the beginning of a change?” – and, while I wrote a bit about how I feel about it in the announcement last week, I think it might be best to […]
“LaFrenchTech” to launch this week: the same bag of tricks or a real change in strategy?
This Thursday evening, ‘Startup Minister’ Fleur Pellerin will welcome members of the French tech community as she gives her voeux, a tradition in France akin to New Year’s Resolutions, during which she will talk about what she wishes for the French tech community in 2014. In addition to plaisanteries, Pellerin will officially announce La FrenchTech, an […]
Big data integration startup Talend closes $40 million round
One of the rising stars in the rapidly growing area of big data integration, Talend, has just closed on a big $40 million round, bringing the total amount of funds they’ve raised thus far to ~ $100 million. Having raised several previous rounds from various investors (including, Silver Lake Sumeru, IDInvest, Galileo, Balderton, etc), Bpifrance, […]
France continues to search for a ‘French Google,’ while candidates find no support
It’s hard to keep track of the number of initiatives that have been started or proposed in France in order to create a “French Google” – that is, a France-based internet company with equal influence as players like Facebook, Google, Microsoft or Amazon. I often feel that the French government’s entire investment strategy (via BPIFrance) […]
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 […]