alarm:clock

News & Updates - Friday, January 27, 2006

Meanwhile, Over In Europe

This week, our sister site a:c euro has posted on the following stories:

- Stockholm-based Edgeware, a developer of video servers for broadband networks, has raised $3M. The company plans to give MA-based Broadbus, which has raised 20x the capital and has several years head start, some Scandinavian competition.

- London's Airwide has raised $25M to roll-up smaller wireless technology startups. Europe is littered with small wireless startups and the challenge will be to convince entrepreneurs to take-on new aspirations.

- Austria's RFiT has raised $5M as a spin-off of Infineon with another twist on RFID. The company is funded by a couple of young, new European VC outfits - France's Truffle Ventures and Austira's PONTIS.

- The a:c euro chatted with Jukka Jokinen, Investment Director, Eqvitec Partners who led a Euro 2M investment in Iquos, which was founded by marketing Nokia refugees who believe that the world will demand more stylish bluetooth headsets than the the borg-wear ones being sold today.

- Game distributor Frogster debuts on the German market. The company's CEO previously ran CDV-Software-Entertainment, a games developer, that when it public in 200. At the time CDV was best known for a pornographic adventure game called Lula Wet Attack.

- Another 3D virtual world has been launched with help from venture funding. Taatu targets virtual world freaks in France and Germany and follows on the heals of the success of Second Life in the US and Haabo Hotel in Europe.

- Perhaps the most interesting Euro venture of the week is SkySails which raised Euro 8.5M from a shipping magnate. Hamburg's SkySails sells a towing kite filled with compressed air, as well as the accompanying software and hardware to optimize shipping routes with wind paths. The idea is that diesel-powered ships can use wind power to reduce the consumption of fossil fuels and save costs.

Sail-boats Beget Sail-super-tankers