alarm:clock

Euro Ventures - Friday, November 23, 2007

This Week in Euro Tech Ventures

Features
+ Here's some of what we heard and saw on Thursday at the European Tech Tour's Web & Communities Summit in Montreux, Switzerland where selected companies were able to make their pitches for free to a roomful of investors from all over Europe.

Investments
+ Zurich-based Spectraseis announced this week hat it has raised $ 32.5M from Warburg Pincus in a deal that sees the investor acquiring a "significant minority stake" in the geographical surveying technology company.

+ Irish wind energy power generating company Airtricity is in play with a €2B valuation

+ European investors are backing a seed round in Tokiva, a Chinese mobile communication platform company that provides services, such as discounted mobile calls.

+ Romania's Gecad Technologies, the company behind AXIGEN Mail Server software, has raised €2M for an 18% stake in the company.

+ Recently funded for expansion, Sweden's CINT has created a new kind of online platform that matches consumer panels with big name brands that want to survey consumers in key markets and regions abroad.

+ Scottish Equity Partners Invests in Skyscanner - a flight search engine.

a:c euro puzzler
+ Here is a list of Latin place names. What modern day cities do they refer to?
Revalia - Skyperesearchanddevelopementonia
Turicum - the city on whose outskirts the alarm:clock euro office is located
Lutetia - Sofinnovaville
Emona - a young Eastern European city with more than 50,000 students and some interesting Web startups (dragon visual clue above)
Holmia - the capital of a Nordic country that has seen US giants acquire three of its cutting edge startups in the past year or so (audio compression, web conferencing, and data visualization)

News & Analysis
+ French eCommerce firm Vente Privée proves unconventionally successful with a turnover of some €300M annually.