TheStartup.eu

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.

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  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%.

TheStartup.eu has partnered with Innovate!2010 to bring you an exciting opportunity and we want to invite you to get involved.

On Monday, April 19^th, at 10am you are invited to participate in the Innovate!2010 Pitch Slam Milan being held at Assolombarda (via Chiaravalle 8 ) for free.

Innovate!2010 is a global competition to identify top technology, media and communications startups from around the world, based on the G/Score assessment methodology. It is designed for companies that have already been established and have a working alpha. Upon successful application, Innovate!100 semi-finalists are invited to participate in the local Pitch Slam to compete to become one of the Innovate!100 and benefit from a year’s worth of global visibility, validation from global investors and partners, and a share of awards valued over $1 million.

You can see what an Innovate! Pitch Slam is like by checking out the videos from prior Pitch Slams in Amsterdam, Dublin, Madrid, Zaragoza, London, Helsinki, Berlin, Barcelona and Tel Aviv (http://www.innovate100.com/blog). The companies confirmed to pitch in Milan include:

• BASE16
• Caja Fuerte Virtual
• Threeplicate
• GET Corporation
• LM
• Noesis:
• Pantea
• SentiMetrix

Local entrepreneurs, investors, journalists and technology executives are invited to attend to have breakfast, support their favorite startup and network for FREE, but register here (http://bit.ly/innovatestartupeu)  right away because spaces are limited.

Innovate! is a great program that will deliver up and coming start-ups global exposure for up to a year, validation from potential investors and partners, and potentially a share of over $1M in prizes, so we encourage you to get involved right away.

TechCrunch Europe, aside from covering perfectly what happens in the always hotter EU startup space, is also fostering the community like very few people and organizations ever did. One of the best ways to do so is by throwing the best Startup conferences (and parties).

On April 20, next week, most of the people involved in startups and VC in Europe will be at Geek’n'Rolla, a conference Techcrunch Europe is hosting in London. 15 startups will be launching their product in front of 18 judges, and some of the most influential european entrepreneurs will give keynotes.

Here is the keynotes line-up:

Mike Butcher, TechCrunch Europe
“How to Dive Bomb The European Tech Scene In 5 minutes Flat”

Tommy Ahlers, founder of ZYB which was acquired by Vodafone for €31.5m
“Exit: The How, When And Why Of Exiting Your Startup”

Jason Trost, Smarkets
“Nobody told me: practical startup advice”

Pete Smith, Songkick
“Hiring And Recruiting In Startups”

Nigel Eccles, Fanduel.com
“Customer Development for startups”

Katy Turner and Andy Chung, Eden Ventures
“How not to pitch a VC”

Ewan MacLeod, editor of Mobile Industry Review
“The disruptive opportunities for startups in mobile, and getting traction fast”

Nick Bell, Quick.TV
“How to manage PR when you’re a startup”

Lukasz Gadowski & Kolja Hebenstreit, Team Europe
“How to extend you startup to Germany”

Cedric Giorgi, Goojet
“Launching your service into the French Market”

Alicia Navarro, Co Founder, Skimlinks
“The trials of the US funding trail for European startups”

Morten Lund, Skype investor & serial entrepreneur
“Rebels With A Cause”

Mike Butcher says: “Not until GeeknRolla appeared last year have we seen such a comprehensive attempt to create a new business culture in London. A culture of open sharing of information about how people really do create the kinds of companies that become the next Google, Twitter or Facebook. Our speakers are ingrained in Europe’s technology startup culture, and are as good as any on the planet. In addition, the fact we are launching 15 new companies onto a public stage in one go shows how innovative the UK and the wider European technology scene is. We whittled down the entries from over 150 to this final 15 and I think the innovation will speak for itself on the day.”

Disclaimer: I write for TechCrunch Europe covering the italian startup scene.