The mobile explosion has meant an exponential growth in data use – and punishing traffic to our cellular networks. In the eyes of VCs, that mobile misfortune spells opportunity. Read more »
Fresh off portfolio company Intucell’s $475 million exit, Bessemer Venture Partners’ Bob Goodman is on the hunt for new mobile infrastructure startups. At the wireless industry’s biggest event, Mobile World Congress, he’ll find plenty to choose from. Read more »
The push messaging specialist has now raised a total of $46.6 million, giving it the capital it needs to expand internationally and possibly continue its recent acquisition spree. Read more »
Every VC firm has its own way of evaluating potential investments. Remmy Oxley, an anonymous VC, says that Moneyball-style methods are the next step, and reveals his firm’s algorithm for screening candidates. Read more »
With investment souring on consumer-focused companies, 2013 will be more about the social enterprise, with a different set of companies driving innovation and perhaps a little disruption. Look for the likes of Salesforce.com, Jive Software, and other enterprise players to make headlines in the new year. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
According to the WSJ, Dish Network and Google have been in talks about launching an LTE network. Google would bring cash, while Dish would bring spectrum, but neither company has the infrastructure or expertise to run a mobile carrier. Maybe that’s why Google is interested. Read more »
What happens when infrastructure startups disappear? Innovation doesn’t stop, but the industry definitely loses a critical font of ideas that challenge the big vendor mentality and established standards. Services innovation is already outpacing network innovation — the problem is only going to get worse. Read more »
After leaving the accelerator world, Mikko Järvenpää decided to ask entrepreneurs what they really thought about their experiences inside the startup factories. After talking to more than 150 graduates he discovered that acceleration can work well, but programs don’t always provide the help startups really need. Read more »
A regulatory filing shows Dish invested in $396 million in an unnamed company. Analysts believe that company is Clearwire and that dish could be preparing to partner with the ailing WiMAX provider to build its new LTE network — that is if gets permission to build. Read more »
Mobile data gateway maker Stoke already has some impressive investors from the telecom world, Japan’s NTT DoCoMo and India’s Reliance Communications, but it’s adding a third. Samsung is making a $5 million strategic investment, betting that its LTE triage and security technology has a bright future. Read more »
A new competition is trying to tempt more startups to London with a £1m booty. But it turns out the “prize” is actually a cash-for-equity investment on terms that are yet to be decided — and from an individual whose identity is being kept secret. Read more »
After a long gestation period, crowd investment platform Seedrs has finally opened its doors — allowing British startups to use its platform to pitch for early stage funding. And so far things appear to be going well. Read more »
The Russian internet market has seen a lot of activity over the past year, but now there’s some data that proves exactly how much more is happening. And what do the stats say? That dealflow was up more than threefold between 2010 and 2011. Read more »
Swedish investment group Kinnevik has cut its ties with Groupon, selling up its remaining stake in the daily deals company for $81.5 million — a shareholding that was valued at almost $200 million when the company went public in November. Read more »
Sprint gave up its voting majority on the Clearwire board last year, but now it has given up its majority ownership in the 4G provider as well. By letting its stake fall below 50 percent, Sprint protects itself if Clearwire defaults on its debt. Read more »
With European startups regularly complaining about a lack of seed funding, crowd investment platform Seedrs hopes to link the people to the companies who need it — and today it is inviting the first startups to join its service. Read more »
Japanese e-commerce giant Rakuten wants to plug Pinterest in to purchasing, after leading a $100 million investment in the social pinboard curator. Read more at paidContent »
The team behind London-based photo app developer Lightbox are joining Facebook. But it’s a long way from Instagram’s billion-dollar deal: in fact, while the company’s employees are rejoicing, users and investors appear to have been left out in the cold. Read more »
With the financial outlook gloomy across Europe, there’s constant chatter about how hard it is not being Silicon Valley. But a growing number of people are challenging entrepreneurs to stop complaining and start building. Can they light a fire under the continent’s startups? Read more »
A year into its life, Passion Capital has established itself as one of London’s premier seed investors. Here’s what the trio behind the business have learned since making the change from entrepreneurs into serious investors. Read more »
Over the last few years, European venture capitalists have seen their biggest sources of investment change dramatically — and now governments provide more cash for the continent’s startups than anyone else. How’s that for a bailout? Read more »
UK-based Notion Capital has announced a new fund focused on European cloud and software-as-a-service startups. So what will happen to it? We found out where — and how — that money is likely to be spent. Read more »
French business networking site Viadeo has long played second fiddle to LinkedIn. But with a fresh round of funding in the bank, the company plans on becoming the world’s leading player thanks to growth in countries like China, Russia and Brazil. Read more »
VC firm Earlybird has raised a $100m fund that will be largely focused on Berlin — and partner Ciarán O’Leary says the German capital could become as important as Silicon Valley by playing to its single-minded strengths. Read more »
Russian investment group Digital Sky Technologies — a significant backer of Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and other Silicon Valley darlings — is raising a new $1 billion fund. So where will this tranche of money go? Read more »
BlackBerry Partners Fund, a mobile focused, platform-agnostic fund backed by RIM, Thompson Reuters and others, is now being followed up by a second $150 million fund aimed at doubling down on mobile. ATP Capital, which managed the BlackBerry Partners Fund, is also rebranding as Relay Ventures. Read more »
Orange and Publicis hit the headlines this week for underpinning a €300m venture fund targeting European startups. But in fact only a third of that money is actually fresh funding that will end up in the hands of continental businesses. Read more »
A prominent local VC has called for German venture capitalists to band together and create a seed platform, but others say the likes of Kickstarter and AngelList need to appear naturally and organically if they are to work Read more »
The decision to back a new $9 million round of fundraising for LA-based fashion website Nasty Gal shows exactly how deep Index Ventures — one of Europe’s most successful VCs — is invested in the market, and how big they’re betting online fashion will be. Read more »
The rising number of startup accelerators across Europe can leave budding entrepreneurs bamboozled. Step forward UK investment group NESTA, which is compiling a detailed list of the continent’s programs. Read more »
French startup Pearltrees just scored another $6 million to help scale up its social curation service that helps people save, sort and share what they find on the web. But with dozens of services in play, is this a bubble waiting to pop? Read more »
Jeff Clavier’s SoftTech VC has closed investment on its third fund at $55 million, making Fund III its biggest fund yet.
Clavier talked to GigaOM about why SoftTech decided to go so big, how the new cash will be invested, and the larger tech industry landscape. Read more »
Controversy in Northern Ireland after an investigative reporter uncovered the criminal background of a prominent new business investor — a revelation which has led to a series of critical questions about his activities and relationship with the region’s startups. Read more »
Wahooly has created a group of 25,000 influential testers and is now opening the doors to startups to apply to engage this group. Startups will create testing groups of 5,000 to 8,000 people, who will share in a pool of equity ranging from 4–6 percent. Read more »
Clearwire plans to issue new common stock worth $300 million, which would give it half the capital it needs for the first phase of its new LTE network. As for the other half, Clearwire is looking to primary owner and investor Sprint to chip in. Read more »
Some of Europe’s leading investors gathered in Italy last week to discuss the problems and opportunities faced by startups across the continent. But what did they actually think? And what does it mean? Read more »
CapLinked, an online platform that brings together companies and private investors, said it has eclipsed $10 billion in private deals listed on the platform since it launched a year ago. Now, it’s opening up the platform to professional investors with a new product called DealRocket. Read more »
One report says venture capital firms are investing more now than in recent years, but another says startups aren’t seeing enough money. So is the system healthy or sick? Perhaps it depends on where you think investors should be putting their cash — and why. Read more »
Plenty of web entrepreneurs share the same dream: build a great company and then cash in by selling it to Google, Facebook or another technology giant. But being successful is complicated affair, according to those who have seen those deals from the inside. Read more »
To take on more established accelerator programs, British startup bootcamp The Difference Engine has changed its identity and stumped up a tantalizing reward: more than $150,000 in funding for the 10 startups who make the cut. Can it spur on a new generation of European innovation? Read more »
