TheStartup.eu

We all know that the nordic scene is very active, and hopefully it will continue delivering great startups. 
I got an email from Asmo Halinen informing me that some finnish entrepreneurs created a new accelerator fund, Magnifier. The Helsinki based project will focus on innovative startups regarding mobile, social media and entertainment.

Having founded more than 30 companies, and having participated in more than 25 M&A these guys surely know what they are doing. There are ten partners and most of them were first generation 20 something when they first started their companies. Now they decided to help other young finnish and european entrepreneurs.

Y Combinator and SeedCamp surely come to mind when talking about these incubators and we’ll see what Magnifier will do to differentiate itself.
The model is simple: Magnifier provides the initial investment to the company, the partners work together with the founders through the early development stages for closing a larger investment round, they scale the business, they sell. Everybody is happy.

If you are based in Finland, the fund is launching right now and is welcoming the first proposals!

Here we are with the new Weekend Reading list!

• Fear is the mind killer

on Lessons Learned

• What you need when pitching for funding

on Grow VC

• Logical Innovation Wins MIT’s $100K: Ksplice, Global Cycle

on College Mogul

• 20+ lessons I (re) learned about marketing when starting an Internet business (Dennis Price)

on The Customer Collective

Bonus: An awesome video about entrepreneurship.

Feel free to share links in the comments.

Sorry for the lack of posts, I have been in Prague for some time and got back with a pretty huge fever. Posts will be back as usual, with some great news on the way.

This is actually not so new bu wasn’t covered that much by the european blogosphere, and due to its importante for european startups I would like to share it with you.

Atomico Ventures is looking to raise $266 millions within the end of the year. The fund is headed by Skye cofounders Niklas Zennström and Janus Friis, counts around 15 people and has already made some nice investments.

“We primarily invest in entrepreneurs working in consumer facing technology businesses in Europe” can be found on Atomico’s website. “We invest in early stage ideas but can be opportunistic when we find a compelling opportunity”

If you haven’t heard of this before, I suggest you read the complete story on peHUB

Here we are with the new Weekend Reading list!

• The Recession’s Effect on Entrepreneurship

on The Wall Street Journal

• 10 Things to Be Clear About Before You Start a Company
• Are You Really an Entrepreneur?

on ReadWriteStart

• Announcing Innovate!Europe’s Master Class finalists

on Innovate!Europe

• The Small Business Edge: Why solopreneurs and small businesses will weather the downturn

on IABC

Feel free to share links in the comments.

Capricorn Cleantech Fund and Gimv have co-led the first round of funding for NovoPolymers, a belgian clean tech startup, with €1.5 million each. The investment is geared towards the production and commercialisation of a transparent polymer for encapsulating photovoltaic cells.

Founded in 2008, NovoPolymers focuses on developing and producing innovative polymer films that are used for laminating breakable solar cells. This laminate protects the fragile solar cells against shocks, humidity and degradation by UV radiation. The potential clients of NovoPolymers are producers of solar panels who want to incorporate solar cells into durable applications. Currently, NovoPolymers has two marketable products that are being tested by several leading European producers of photovoltaic panels.

Headquartered in Aartselaar, Antwerp, the company expects to employ 15 peoples in two years.

“NovoPolymers could not be starting-up at a better moment,” said Paul Decraemer, head of the Capricorn Cleantech Investment Practice. “It is now the right time to create a technology and production platform that will be ready in time to cope with the next wave of growth in this sector, which is expected as of the end of 2010.”

“We have developed a first product family, NovoVellum, which appears to be resonating well with potential users,” said Johan Declerck, CEO of NovoPolymers. “Our novel way of formulating allows us to bring cost-effective films to the market, allowing module producers to reduce assembly times by 25 per cent.”

NovoPolymers is also developing solutions for emerging photovoltaic technologies such as concentrator and organic photovoltaics, alongside its product for encapsulating traditional crystalline silicon and thin film solar cells.

On May 22nd, the italian and european startup scene will gather in Rome for TechGarage. Hosted at LUISS university, the event is one of the most important startup happening in Italy.
The event is organized by DPixel, which operates one of the few early-stage venture capital funds present in Italy, and for this year with the help of Telecom Italia.

TechGarage features a
start
up
competition
featuring
10
hot
and new european start
ups. These 10 finalists will have the chance to pitch their ideas and business plans to VCs and business angels. 3 winners will receive an award and a package of services from DPixel: accounting, legal and advising services that will guide the company to its next stage and prepare it to get funded. Many venture capital funds will be present as well as entrepreneurs, CEOs, bloggers and the best of the italian internet and media community. Given its smaller “size” compared to major events like TheNextWeb, LeWeb or Next, there will surely be opportunities to create more relationships, making it a networking event not to miss.

TechGarage will bring visibility to european startups and many opportunities to young and promising entrepreneurs who will be able to meet some of the most importan seed and venture capital fund, business angels and other entrepreneurs. They will also have the opportunity to meet bloggers and journalists so to get media coverage for their ideas, as well as meeting programmers and all kind of geeks.

This is the program for the day:
- 8:30‐09:25am
Guest Registration
and and 
Breakfast
- 9:30am
Introduction by Pier Luigi Celli, CEO Università Luiss
- 9:30 – 9:45

Keynote
 ‐
 Luca 
Montezemolo, 
Ferrari, LUISS 
chairman
- 9:45 – 10:15am

Keynote
 – 
Franco
Bernabe’, 
CEO Telecom 
Italia
- 10:15‐11:15am

Start
 Up
 Pitches
- 11:15‐11:40am
Coffee Break
- 11:40‐12:40pm
Start 
Up
 Pitches
- 12:40‐1:10pm
Closing
 Keynote
 by 
Saeed
 Amidi, CEO And President Plug & Play Tech Center
- 1:10‐1:30pm
Awards
to
the 3 Winning
Start
Ups
- 1:30pm
Lunch
- 2:30pm
Working Capital Camp

In the afternoon Telecom Italia will host its Working Capital Camp. WorkingCapital is a nice new initiative focused on high tech and innovative companies. Telecom Italia helps entrepreneurs by funding their companies with services. It is refreshing to see such a big company take interest in early stage innovative startups.

theStartup.eu is an official media partner for the event, so expect (hopefully) live coverage, startup presentations and interviews.
If anyone is planning to attend the event, send me a quick email and we’ll meet up!