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High-Tech Gründerfonds, which looks like is in an investment spree, and BBAF Business Angels Fondsgesellschaft have invested €550,000 into car diagnostics software startup Autoaid

ScanSafe, a pioneer and market leader of SaaS Web security has been acquired by Cisco for $183 millions. TechCrunch was one of the first to post it.

Let’s have a closer look..

The company was founded by brothers Eldar and Roy Tuvey in 2004. These two former British investment bankers are set to share about $60m after selling their company. The London and San Mateo-based company raised about $43.5m in venture capital funding from groups such as Balderton Capital, Scale Venture Partners and Montagu Newhall Associates.

Balderton Capital, a London-based VC firm that was spun off Benchmark Capital and which first invested in the company at a very early stage and in other rounds, netted between $55 and $65 million from the sale of its stake. The return is unknown but most probably very impressive. Yahoo Finance believes “Balderton was the largest single shareholder with a 35 per cent stake and is set to see a return of 10 times on its initial investment, with a total return of about four times from its total investments in four rounds of funding.” The article has also other insights about the company’s growth.

In early 2008, Balderton earned $140 million by selling its 15.7% stake in the social networking website Bebo to AOL. That represented a ninefold return on its $15 million investment in May 2006.

That’s very good news for the european venture capital community, and can maybe give a better perspective to the recent Dow Jones Report shared on TechCrunch Europe.

“ScanSafe pioneered the market for SaaS Web security and continues as a leader in this rapidly growing market,” said ScanSafe CEO Eldar Tuvey.  “At a time when enterprises are increasingly focused on a flexible and mobile workplace, the need for hybrid-hosted Web security solutions is greater than ever.  By joining the Cisco team we will be able to offer even better and more flexible protection to our customers.”

German startup Yoochoose just closed its seed-round with High Tech Gruenderfonds and the Connected Life and Work Fund which is managed by T-Venture.

The Cologne-based company is a spin-off from Deutsche Telekom Laboratories and provides its customers with a high-end recommendation engine.

HTGF is a really impressive VC, they’re very active at the moment and are really pushing in this end-of-recession stage. The amount of the round was not disclosed, but we understand it will allow the company to improve their product in order to offer it to a diverse kind of customers such as e-commerce, media and publishing companies.

“It increasingly becomes a critical success factor for eCommerce companies to offer to its customers the right value at the right time. With a Recommender System as advanced as the YOOCHOOSE engine you know your customer and create a unique selling point,” says Oliver Fietz, Fund Manager T-Venture. “Besides the team we are convinced by the B2B-business model. This made our investment decision easy.”

The company was just founded last February by Dr. Alkemper as CEO and M. Friedmann as CTO.

“Personalized recommendations currently are among the hottest topics requested by customers. With Yoochoose we invest not only in a superior technology but also in highly professional team in this market.” says Holger Heinen, senior investment manager of High-Tech Gründerfonds.

This is a guest post by Marc Rosenfeld, a web entrepreneur  currently developing a web based platform for productive groups. Prior to that, Marc worked at Ericsson Brazil in the pre-sales department contributing to managed service proposals, and having knowledge sharing responsibilities.

Last Saturday I went to BizCamp Belgium and, as a newly self-appointed web entrepreneur, I could already tell: this was a perfect introduction to the web-sphere world.
There were around 20 sessions, in 3 different rooms, where a lot of useful information could be learned with more experienced entrepreneurs.

Ok, so let’s have a summary of some topics discussed:

Many discussions get around PR and promotion. As you can imagine, networking & word of mouth was the main trend here. But another one catch my attention: printed media. Yes, there are still a lot of people paying and reading their newspaper every morning, and  they are customers too. More surprising was the discovery that printed media can be cheaper than online advertising. One great tip that was shared is to ask questions in a “…by the way, would you like to..?.” style in order to engage users, and I must say, this works pretty well.

A second topic discussed was funding. This is what we should keep in mind:

• Seed capitalists don’t invest only in businesses, they invest in people. In the beginning “you”= “your business” so they need to make sure “you” will grow with your business. If you don’t have all the competences needed to run your business, go partner with someone who does. Places like BizCamp are a good way to start (most of the attendees were looking for partners there).
• Public grants exist and are very valuable to young businesses. In order to give you a grant, governments usually only want to make sure you will still be alive in two or three years, and they don’t ask high rates of return for their money. So, before VCs, get a look into public grants, maybe they’re less glamorous, but it’ll surely be cheaper.
• For all sort of funding, business & financial plans are needed. Give special attention to your break even point, knowing it will give investors precious information about their risk.
• (Maybe the most important point here) You should keep your capital needs to minimum. Investors want their money back, and getting capital is still expensive in all cases. The expression: “capital is like junk food: you know you shouldn’t, but it’s so good you can’t resist to ask more.” sums it up pretty well

Finally, there were some good discussions about breaking the rules. The main idea is that, if you are an entrepreneur, you already are an exception and you shouldn’t be afraid to look bigger than you are or even to lie, a little, if this will be good for your business. An example? Well, if you need to be an artist to receive a government grant, then you are an artist! But, note, this doesn’t mean you should cross the limits like void paying taxes. You should always run your business responsibly and obeying the laws.

Concluding, there were also a lot of good business tips shared and a great entrepreneurial vibe, but this, I can’t summaries in a blog’s article

This is a guest post by Andrea La Mesa, founder and CEO of PubliSoftWeb, an italian startup focused on developing social media presence for brands with their white-label My.So product. As I could not attend the event, he kindly offered to share the experience on theStartup.

Last weekend more than 100 web developers, web entrepreneur and other web enthusiasts gathered in London at PayPal offices to work on their ideas and launch a web app in 48 hours.

The weekend started on friday night, after a day-long conference where mentors and experts covered various subjects such as legal 101 for startups, digital PR, marketing and social media. (All the slides are online).

Soonafter everyone had a chance to pitch his own idea, in front of the other attendees. 35 people showed up and only 6 made it to the final round of voting.

Each of us had a chance to pick the idea he liked the most, and join the team.

You can find a video of each idea on TechFluff.tv.

The following 48 hours have been very challenging and inspiring. Each group found his balance, some natural leaders emerged, and tasks were split among the team members. Each of us had a chance to prove his value, sometimes in a field other than his core skills.

I was amazed to see that all of the six startups already had a prototype working by sunday at 4pm, with interesting business plans and marketing strategies.

For those who might be thinking that 48 hours are not enough to launch a business, here’s my point of view.

1) The experience of working with a team of strangers is professionally enriching, entertaining and enlightning.

2) I was actually amazed to see how much work can be achieved in a team, in just 48hrs. I will never allow myself to spend days and days thinking about the best way to do something;, after having seen so many results in just a few hours.

Whether or not these 6 startups will keep on developing their ideas is not what matters the most.

It’s the journey, not the destination.

• High-Tech Gründerfonds invests in C2Call

High-Tech Gründerfonds has invested in VoIP company C2Call GmbH, alongside two angel investors

• IBB backs MyBrands

IBB Beteiligungsgesellschaft, alongside Grey Corporate Investments and two business angels sourced through the European Founders Fund, have provided a first round of financing for online designer outlet MyBrands

• Tecnet leads €2m round for nxtControl

Tecnet Equity, the investment fund of the federal state of Lower Austria, has led a EUR 2m investment round for software company nxtControl GmbH, taking a 38% stake in the company

• CDC and CapDecisif pour €2.5m into Caiman

CDC Entreprises and CapDecisif have participated in an investment round for media support company Groupe Caiman, raising EUR 2.5m

• Fizzback raises £1.6m for its Series B round

London-based Fizzback raised £1.6M (€1.7M) in a second round of funding led by Nauta Capital and primary backer Advent Venture Partners