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Scoreloop, a Munich startup, announced today with a press release a free SDK that allows iPhone developers to build social features into their games.

Social gaming is the direction that online and mobile gaming is inevitably taking. Developers now have an easy way of implementing this strategy, while gaining other sources of income.

Scoreloop works in any game that results in a score. With each win, the gamer is awarded coins and points. Coins allow for playing new challenges. Points express skill and ranking. When gamers run out of coins, they repurchase them for more challenge play.

“Nothing is better at motivating gamers to play more than seeing someone out there with a better score.  And the only thing that comes close to that is the ability to brag about it on social media like Facebook,” said Scoreloop’s CEO, Marc Gumpinger.  “We’re bringing that level of play and functionality to the mobile device in your pocket now.”

I think this can be a nice way for small developers to implement social gaming technologies while not having to develop it. We all know that apart from the big hitters, making a living out of the AppStore is pretty hard, with this solution there are no extra costs as Scoreloop handles all server operations/costs and implementing typically takes less than one day and does not require dedicated skills.

In 2008, the German based venture capital company Target Partners invested in the company, but Gumpinger said that he might seek a further round of investing to finance the company development. While partnerships with some of the world’s largest game publishers/portals and independents will be announced in the coming months we will update you on their business model.

We wish Scoreloop the best of luck.

You can watch a 15 minutes introductory video here:

Facebook is considered to be one of the best places to work in the world, and that doesn’t come as a surprise: who wouldn’t want to work for a company that changes the way we live? Facebook has more than 200 million registered users, and you would work on a product that many (all) of your friends use daily.

If you must know, Facebook has many European offices and is hiring for different positions all around our lovely continent.

If you are based in London, Dublin, Paris, Stockholm or Milan there are open positions waiting for your application. You should definitely check out facebook’s careers page.

Here you can find a nice promo video:

The european internet startup scene has gathered in Amsterdam for this 3-days amazing conference.

Technology entrepreneurs, start-ups, innovators, venture capitalists, industry journalist, bloggers and simple geeks will attend keynotes and speeches given by internet celebrities such as Matt Mullenweg, Eric Meyer and Jeff Jarvis. Speakers include high level executives from Google, Yahoo! and Level 3 as well as entrepreneurs (SoundCloud, Imeem), venture capitalist and writers.

The agenda is really interesting. While today was the “unconference”, with Mobile DevCamp and “The Current Web”, tomorrow the real show begins.

The agenda includes a “Rising Sun Start-up Rally” that will surely have an important role in the event. The 19 companies that will have the chance to pitch to VCs and bloggers have been selected out of 200 with the help of twitter and a special voting system.

Take a look at their agenda, speakers and startup finalists.

We will be back with more posts regarding the event and hopefully with videos of the keynotes!

Berlin based SoundCloud, a professional music sharing service, raised €2.5 million in a round led by european VC Doughty Hanson Technology.

Founded in 2007 and now counting 100,000 registered users, SoundCloud is one of the most promising european startups. At the moment their business model is based on pro accounts, but we do not have any real income information.

We will update you once we know what their future plans are, having secured that amount of cash.

To learn more about the service you can read the official press release:

SoundCloud Raises €2.5m from Doughty Hanson Technology Ventures

SoundCloud, the internet audio platform which enables music professionals to send, receive and distribute music, today announced that it has received an investment of €2.5 million from Doughty Hanson Technology Ventures, a leading European venture capital investor, in its first institutional round of equity financing.

SoundCloud provides a simple and efficient platform for music professionals to privately exchange music, allowing for easy collaboration and communication prior to a public release.  With SoundCloud, musicians can easily send and receive studio-quality tracks without cluttering up their email inbox, needing to make use of generic file sending services or having any specialist technical expertise.

SoundCloud was founded in 2007 and raised seed financing from business angels including music producer Chris Zippel, internet entrepreneurs Christophe Maire, Peter Schüpbach, Tariq Krim and Felix Petersen and the founders of music production software company Ableton AG.  The Company launched its service in October 2008 and since then has attracted more than 100,000 registered users.

Stefan Tirtey, Partner at Doughty Hanson Technology Ventures who joins the Board of SoundCloud, commented: “SoundCloud has all the qualities we look for in a business: a solid product solving a real problem, a proven business model, and a capable and ambitious founder team. We believe that Soundcloud has the potential to revolutionize the production and distribution process for digital music and this funding will enable the company to build on its success to date.”
Alexander Ljung, Co-Founder and CEO of SoundCloud, added: “SoundCloud’s business proposition is based on bringing web innovation to the music industry and empowering those who create and promote music globally.  Doughty Hanson demonstrated early on a clear understanding both of our business proposition and of the music industry, and already has a strong track record in backing internet- companies.  This funding, combined with the strong operational and strategic experience they bring to the business, supports our ambitious expansion plans and positions us well for the next stage in the company’s development.”

Watch SoundCloud’s video tour:

Imbera Electronics, a finnish Integrated Module Board developer, announced that it has secured USD $15 million in series B funding from NorthZone Ventures, Index Ventures and Conor Venture Partners.

That’s a good news considering that everyone thought European VCs just stopped investing.
Generally interested in clean tech, electronics and telco companies this VCs have often invested in early stage companies, and have in their portfolio monsters such as Skype, MySQL and Lastminute. Not bad.

For more information about the company and the VCs you can read the official press release.

The great guys over at intruders.tv had the chance to interview Marc Roisin of Vinogusto at Plugg09.

Vinogusto launched in 2007, it is based in Brussels and provides guides for wine lovers. It is completely based on user content.