Paris-originated VC Breega wasn’t enormously well-known in the VC world (it only closed its 1st fund in 2015) until, perhaps, it started attracting attention with its second €110 million Seed fund, just under a year go. It’s portfolio now includes a number of scale-ups including Moneybox, Cuvva, Co…
LocalGlobe becomes Phoenix Court Group, hits $500M first close for new funds, adds an Impact twist
Saul Klein is a busy man. As co-founder, with his father Robin, of LocalGlobe, one of the longest-running VCs in Europe, he has overseen a wide range of initiatives – among other things the pair are passionate investors and philanthropists in LocalGlobe’s HQ’d area of Somers Town, London &#82…
Google for Startups deploys $4M of grant funding to 40 Black-led startups across Europe
In an effort to kick-start a greater number of Black tech Founders in Europe, last year Google for Startups launched a $2m (£1.5m) grant fund to help tackle the quite obvious and stark racial inequality in the European tech industry. That fund ended up doubling to $4m (£3m) and now 40 Black-led tec…
Smiler comes up with a different kind of gig economy for event and venue photographers
Traditional venue photography providers like DEI Global, MagicMemories, Picsolve and Sharingbox are reliant on fixed equipment, permanent staffing costs, and on-site printed products. So Amsterdam, Netherlands-based Smiler came up with a different approach. Freelance photographers can simply use th…
France’s Alven VC launches 6th fund with a hard cap of €350M
With a heritage that goes back to the fabled times of 2000 A.D. (since when it has backed 160 European teams) Paris-based early stage fund Alven, has something of a reputation to keep up. After investing in unicorns such as Qonto, Dataiku, Algolia, Stripe and Ankorstore, it now has €2B in assets un…
Binance gets regulatory nod in France, paving the way for Europe push
Binance, the world’s largest crypto exchange by volume, has gained regulatory approval to provide digital asset services in France, the first European country where it has acquired such permission, the company said in a blog post on Thursday. The greenlight was granted by the country’s …
Enveil, a provider of encrypted, privacy-focused search and analytics tools, raises $25M
Collectively, as we mature as a digital society, many of us are getting more aware, and more wary, of how our profiles and information exist and are used (and misused) online. A similar theme has also been playing out in the enterprise world, where organizations have also grown their security and d…
China’s work automation startup Laiye raises $160M, acquires France’s Mindsay
Laiye, a Beijing-based company that provides a one-stop platform for automating office tasks, picked up $160M from a Series C funding round to expand globally.
Remove that ‘exit strategy’ slide from your pitch deck
A lot of pitch decks I review have a slide that really shouldn't be there: the exit strategy slide. As an early-stage startup, it's downright nonsensical, and it shouldn't be part of your deck at all.