TheStartup.eu

Note: This is a post I wrote for Techcrunch Europe as soon as the news broke.

High-Tech Gründerfonds and DuMont Venture has joined existing investors Draper Investment Company and the Business Angel Peter Schüpbach in a new round of financing for Plista. The deal is rumored to be in the low seven figures.

Recently Plista also rolled out OnSite Recommendations, its B2B operations providing businesses with the ability to target their content, products and advertisement more efficiently. The major market will be represented by site operators in the fields of content and e-commerce.

The Berlin-based startup, which was founded just last year and employs 23 people, has scored some large publisher distribution deals such as the Kölner Stadt Anzeiger of DuMont publishing house and Pro.de, a download portal.

The company plans on developing new features for its network of partners, the first one being a marketplace dedicated to trade content and traffic.

Co-founder and CIO Andreas Richter says the focus next is is the expansion of the self-service portal, which – similar to Google AdSense® – allows publishers to generate and individually customize recommendations widgets to be integrated into their websites.

Note: This is a post I wrote for Techcrunch Europe as soon as the news broke.

Scoreloop has just announced it closed its second financing round, with a $2.8 million / €2 million cash injection from new investors Earlybird and existing investor Target Partners, which was the seed funder for the Munich-based company. The funds will be used to fuel the growth of the company and to establish (or solidify) its position, especially in the realm of the iPhone. Since launching its technology in May 2009, Scoreloop has over 500 registered game developers that have published more than 40 Scoreloop enabled games in the iPhone App Store.

So one month after the release of its community application Scoreloop finds a great validation for its product, while Earlybird gets in on one of the most interesting new business areas around.

Scoreloop offers an SDK for mobile game developers that instantly adds social gaming to their applications with features such as challenges and a points system. The company offers its technology for free to developers and monetizes on the points system. To understand better how it works and I suggest you sign up on their community and challenge me (Plus: they have one of the most amazing facebook connect apps I’ve seen).

“We are continuously receiving excellent feedback from game developers and publishers, as Scoreloop offers a unique set of tools for social features and monetization strategies. We are thrilled to be working with two of Europe’s premier VCs with Earlybird as an additional partner beside our existing investor Target Partners.” said Marc Gumpinger, CEO of Scoreloop.

Marc Gumpinger, Scoreloop’s CEO is understandably pleased. Since launching its technology in May 2009, Scoreloop has over 500 registered game developers that have published more than 40 Scoreloop enabled games in the Apple App Store today.

Roland Manger says this is a new market for its fund and Scoreloop fills a gap in their portfolio. Earlybird was looking to get into the new mobile market, without a particular interest in gaming technologies until they found Scoreloop. He points at their significant growth potential: “Scoreloop’s technology and the community platform solve many problems both developers and users are facing in the mobile app-world. Scoreloop will help developers make their games more attractive while improving monetization and users will be able to find games relevant to them much quicker.”

theStartup.eu supported by Startup School is honored to announce the first edition of the “Learn how to build a Startup” – LHBS 101 – course.

Do you have a great idea? Do you want to launch your own internet startups? Do you think you lack the skills or knowledge?
Then this is the perfect programme for you.

It will be a 5-week programme with 5 live online classes and tons of Material.
The classes are taught by the most influential and important people on the startup scene. (Stay tuned for Speakers’ announcement in a few weeks).
In a final exam & coaching session every participant must do an investor’s pitch in front of real investors and experienced entrepreneurs.
Everybody who completes the course successfully will receive the LHBS 101 certificate.

This is a unique chance to prepare yourself to build you own company. Learn from people who already tried and succeeded building companies.
Being a small class everyone will have the opportunity to ask questions and be mentored by the teacher.

As an extra bonus each of the applicants will receive an account on Startup School with access on many recordings and live sessions with entrepreneurs from around the world.

Here is the course list:

1. The First Steps (Business Plan)
2. Anatomy of a great product (Product Development)
3. How to make the perfect pitch (Presentation Skills)
4. How to get funded (VC and Angel Investing)
5. How to get customers (Business Development and Marketing)

We will be admitting 20 aspiring entrepreneurs for this class.
To apply for this course you need to send a cover letter, CV and a short description of your project.
If you get selected you will be kindly asked to pay a small compensation fee of 20$.



To apply, please submit your application to contact@thestartup.eu.

PROfoundersCapital, the new VC fund of Michael Birch and Brent Hoberman who launched at the europas in july, made its first investment.

TweetDeck will receive £1.2 Millions in funding. The money will be used to find revenue streams while completing their product. The company was founded by former computer developer Iain Dodsworth in summer of 2008 and it is now thought that around 10% to 15% of all tweets are sent via the application. The business, which now employs six people, received its first funding injection this year — for $184,000 from a group of investors, including Betaworks in the United States.

Sean Seton-Rogers, general partner of PROfounders, said to the times: “A lot of funds are focused on making sure that the companies they have already invested in survive, they are internally focused, but we are ready to build this legacy. We are open for business and looking for deals.”

Tupalo.com, an Austrian/American Social Yellow pages startup that recently was invested in by Austria’s largest Yellow Pages publisher Herold.at, today announced its launch in the Netherlands, after being active in the German-speaking Countries and the US.

The launch itself entails a fully translated Dutch Version of Tupalo.com and a Hyves Login option, which is Holland’s largest social net, via OAuth. The real importance of this announcment though is their deal with De Telefoongids BV, Netherland’s leading yellow and white pages Service.

Both Herold.at and De Telefoongids BV are in return part of European Directories, which is one of Europe’s largest Yellow Pages publishing houses. This is crucical when it comes to comparing Tupalo.com to other social review sites such as Yelp or Qype. Tupalo.com not only relies on user generated data but also collects professional content from well-established partners such as De Telefoongids BV.

Tupalo.com claims to have 5.000 active reviewers and they are going to “actively enter the dutch market, i.e. with features such as the popular Hyves Login”, says Michael Borras, Co-founder and -CEO of the company.