TheStartup.eu

Yuri Milner, the founder of DST (Digital SKy Technologies), one of the most interesting types of investors that recently came to the US, is now explaining why he invests in companies like Facebook, Zinga and Groupon at sky-high valuations.

“Why Facebook? It was the most fascinating company we had ever met.”

Milner’s saying he wants to invest in companies with significant traction and revenue, helping them delay a bit their IPO to focus better on their product prior to a public offering, that will then significantly change the company.

TechCrunch Disrupt after a great intro by Micheal Arrington, just kicked out in NYC. TCDisrupt might just be the most important tech conference ever, if you want to judge from the unbelievable list of speakers they managed to throw together. Micheal reminded us that disruption is constant, as we now stand in ex Merril Lynch offices… Enough said.
We are now in the third wave, says John Doerr, the most famous and successful venture capitalist ever.

The first wave was the personal computer, the second wave was the internet and now it’s all happening again. It’s a mix of social and mobile that’s revolutionizing the way we think about business and services.

All this are changes in consumer behavior,

“The most successful entrepreneurs were all 20-30yo dropouts of major universities as Standford and Harvard, had no social life whatsoever and were nerds. They had all amazing love affairs with the companies they were creating, they were in love with their products and wanted to change the world.”

“Great companies are limited by their ability to execute. Find great people.”

If you want to read the full conversation between Charlie Rose and John Doerr, you can find it on TechCrunch.

Huddle, the real time collaboration startup based in the Uk, just announced a major investment and the opening of a US office.

The funding was led by Matrix Partners, an investor in Apple, HubSpot and Gilt. Existing investors Eden Ventures and Huddle’s chairman Charles McGregor also participated in the round.

The London-based company is already profitable and will quadruple in size in the next few years, said Alastair Mitchell,

Huddle’s CEO. Mitchell will move to the US and the company will use the latest funding to continue building its US customer base, which includes Disney and Procter & Gamble.

Huge congratulations to the very friendly team at Huddle for keeping the eu scene interesting to foreign investors, I am sure they will have a very successful adventure.

Read more on their blog and Techcrunch.

The guys over at Arctic Startup just reported about a new €46.5m venture capital fund in the nordics and baltics (with a cool .vc domain). You can read their full post for more details.

• 
  Austrian venture capital house GCP gamma capital partners has sold online trading platform FatFoogoo to NASDAQ-listed e-commerce group Digital River. The exit values FatFoogoo at $10m and GCP has further agreed an earnout provision.
• 
  GrandCentrix GmbH, a Cologne, Germany-based start up which develops a “Smartphone Analytics” technology, has received an undisclosed investment from High-Tech Gründerfonds.The company develops and provides a Platform as a Service (PaaS) which allows suppliers of interactive mobile value added services to achieve a comprehensive consolidation of mobile user identities.
• 
  EnjoyVenture has led a second round of financing for amedo Smart Tracking Solutions GmbH.
• 
  I-Source has led a €3m first round of financing in Compario, an e-commerce company, along side XAnge Private Equity.
• 
  MMC Ventures has invested an undisclosed amount in mobile telecommunications software designer Creativity Software in return for a significant minority stake.
• 
  Belgian provider of payment solutions Clear2Pay has acquired Jware Technologies, an internationally operating software technology provider of eCommerce and mobile payment solutions.
• 
  Qualitas Private Equity has increased its stake in social networking site Tuenti Technologies to 30%.