alarm:clock

Euro Ventures - Thursday, October 26, 2006

This Week In Euro Tech Ventures

Investments
+ The UK's Mind Candy which makes alternate reality games, has raised $7M from new investor Accel Partners which joins existing investors Index Ventures and NewMedia Spark, less than a year since raising a $3M first round.

+ Manchester-based virtualization software start-up Virtensys has raised $12M.

+ Web-based messaging start-ups Nimbuzz, Miyowa, and now eBuddy are tapping Europe's VCs. The Netherlands-based eBuddy said today it raised €5M from Lowland Capital Partners.

+ Cleantech Europe adds €15M and new partners.

+ Study finds VCs are not really investing In good industries.

+ Pigsback.com, a consumer website that distributes coupons and discounts, raised €4m from Hotbed.

+ Tele2, an alternative telecoms operator active across Europe, has acquired 49% of Spring Mobil for €16M.

+ The latest numbers on VC investment from CalibreOne show that US VCs continue to invest 5x the amount of money that Euro VCs invested. However, return on investment in Europe is superior, as long as you don't count Google.

M&A
+ French VC-Backed Boonty Acquires China's Gamehub.

+ Parametric Technology, a US engineering software company, has acquired Hennef, Germany-based Itedo Software GmbH and its US subsidiary, a technical-drawing software company, for $17M.

IPO
+ Telecom Neuf Cegetel's shares took off after its $1.03 billion IPO. The company had recently bought AOL Europe.

+ Digital River competitor Asknet has an IPO is in the works for Asknet. The German online software distribution platform has revenues of $44M.

+ Euro VC-backed IPOs still outpacing US says VentureOne.

+ German online tire retailer Delticom Raises €30.6M in successful IPO.

Ja, Schneeketten - der Marken Maggi und Rud

Big Deals
+ France's Medialive to protect content In Japan mobile deal.

+ French startup Glow Entertainment, the company behind the Glowria brand, has quietly been establishing a foothold in the European video-on-demand market.

+ DocZone, a Dutch software company that wants to mitigate the costs of producing multi-lingual documentation with a hosted XML solution, is catching on.

+ Europe's VideoJug project, which launched in September is a video site that only contains "how to" videos. Its founders have deep pockets: Dan Thompson sold his computer games company Renegade to Time Warner and co-founded 365 Corporation and took it public, along with VideoJug co-founder David Tabizel, who also co-founded Durlacher, an English investment banking firm

+ BusinessWeek has published this year's fastest growing European company ranking. Gameloft is number 1, online t-shirt personalization startup, Spreadshirt, was number 5, while three solar energy companies Illiotec, Q-Cells and Conergy, made it into the top 40, along with Sophos, a security software firm.

+ alarm:clock Euro Quiz Winner! This week's quiz question: name the fund that recently hired one of the key people behind the ARM success story. Pond Venture Partners with Jamie Urquhart is the answer. The first to respond with the correct answer was Sam Snelson, a content manager at Library House, the technology company database publisher.

+ The Swiss national TV broadcaster is currently recruiting founders willing to take part in a reality TV show called, Startup to be broadcast next Spring in the German speaking region of the country.