We were a little concerned at the end of last year that one of Europe’s better VCs, Paul Jozefak (@pjozefak) had parted ways with his firm Neuhaus Partners in Hamburg, and that there was no news on his next move.
Now the word on the street appears to be that he’s working on something pretty interesting. I’ve heard through the grapevine that he’s told people about a new project called Liquid Labs. I reached out for comment but he politely declined.
I love it when a startup I’ve been covering for literally years suddenly finds itself in the spotlight, and for the right reasons. In this case, Skimlinks, originally from London but now with a growing US base, has been revealed as powering the affiliate links behind Pinterest, one of the hottest startups on the map right now. For some that appears to be a little bit of scandal, at least for Pinterest, though not for Skimlinks.
LLSocial uncovered the practice, whereby if a post on Pinterest happens to link to a commerce site with an affiliate program, Pinterest uses Skimlinks – a third party service – to modifiy the link to add their own affiliate tracking code. Anyone making a purchase from that click through sends affiliate revenue, via Skimlinks, back to Pinterest. Kerching, everyone benefits.
I have fallen into a habit of reading online with the help of Evernote Clearly, a browser extension that creates a layer on top of a web page, showing text in large font and neutral colors. No matter how small or large my monitor is, Clearly creates a peaceful environment, in which I can read without the distractions of flashing images, related links and even advertisement.
As TechCrunch TV reported recently, Clearly comes from Romania. Before it was acquired by Evernote last summer, Clearly was known as Readable, developed by Gabriel Coarna, a Bucharest-based Romanian without formal IT training.
The Netherlands-based BoosterMedia has raised €1.75 million in funding from previous backers Truffle Capital and Solid Ventures to boost its HTML5 mobile games distribution network and expand it internationally. By providing mobile gaming destinations to online media and gaming brands, BoosterMedia aims to reach gamers beyond the traditional
channels (such as the many app stores).
For many technology startups today, Silicon Valley remains the quintessential place to look towards for inspiration, trends and – for some – a place to set up shop at some point in their startup’s life cycle. That remains true of some European entrepreneurs as well. But with the Valley “mindset” of fast-paced innovation and the global Internet explosion, some eco-systems are looking to vie to become at least as significant. For a long time New York was the poor relation to the Valley in this respect, but with tech startups back in vogue the city is building its own community. As a European looking at the city with fresh eyes, I’ve ben rattling around New York this week, tagging along with a number of European entrepreneurs. ‘World to NYC‘ is a programme organised by the New York City Economic Development Corporation and, from the London side, put together by TheGlasshouse/TakeOut, the networks founded by the uber-connected, and now New York resident, Judith Clegg.
Moscow-based Heverest.ru, an online retailer of sportswear, leisure and travel goods, has scored $4.3 million in financing from an unnamed “large” Russian investment fund and previous backer eVenture Capital Partners, bringing its total raised to $6.7 million.
Exclusive - Internet publishing company Populis is expanding its network operations to South America with the acquisition of Cidade Internet, a popular Brazilian Web portal.
Financial terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.
As I mentioned the other day, the startup competition aspect of GeeknRolla and the Dublin Web Summit, have come together to create the London Web Summit on March 19th in The Brewery Venue, London.
I’ll be co-curating the Summit along with Paddy Cosgrave and chairing the start up competition, which you can apply to enter by clicking here.
The first speakers for the event are below. We’ll be announcing more shortly.
Fits.me, the Estonian “biorobotics virtual fitting room” startup for e-commerce clothing retailers and shoppers, has been around for a while. We first covered them in 2010 when they secured €1.3 million, taking their total cash to €2.6 million. They’ve now taken another €1.5 million, taking their funding to €4.1 million.
Fits.me lets customers “try on” clothing before buying from online clothes retailers. They can see how different sized bodies fit the the clothes on sale – like in real-world fitting rooms. One barrier to fashion e-commerce growth is ensuring that customers can accurately select their body size and shape. The Fits.me robotic body does it for them.
