Category: germany
Germany’s VC industry is ready to take off, but bureaucrats need to release the handbrake
Uwe Horstmann Contributor Uwe Horstmann is co-founder and partner of the Berlin-based venture capital firm Project A Ventures. The narrative suggests that Germany is lagging behind its European neighbors when it comes to building a globally competitive venture capital market. But I think that the next five years will be…
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Localyze raises $12M for a SaaS that supports cross-border hiring and relocation
Y-Combinator-backed Localyze has nabbed $12 million in Series A funding led by Blossom Capital for a SaaS that supports staff relocations and hiring across borders. Previous investor Frontline Ventures also participated,with a number of angel investors joining the round — including Andrew Robb (ex-Farfetch); Des Traynor, co-founder and CSO at…
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Dutch court will hear another Facebook privacy lawsuit
Privacy litigation that’s being brought against Facebook by two not-for-profits in the Netherlands can go ahead, an Amsterdam court has ruled. The case will be heard in October. Since 2019, the Amsterdam-based Data Privacy Foundation (DPS) has been seeking to bring a case against Facebook over its rampant collection of…
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Germany’s icon group VC bets $30M to back startups enabling traditional companies to pivot
Icon group is a new $30M VC fund being launched out of Germany’s iconmobile group, a WPP network agency. This means a reorganization of the company from a full-service innovation agency into also offering VC backing. iconmobile has garnered a reputation as an innovative technology, design, and sustainability agency, but…
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Apple’s App Store to face scrutiny in Germany as FCO opens ‘market power’ proceeding
Germany’s competition authority, the FCO, has completed its Big Tech GAFA ‘bingo’ card by opening a proceeding against Apple. As with similar investigations already opened this year — into Amazon, Facebook and Google — the proceeding will determine whether or not the iPhone maker meets the threshold of Germany’s updated…
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Perspectives on tackling Big Tech’s market power
The need for markets-focused competition watchdogs and consumer-centric privacy regulators to think outside their respective ‘legal silos’ and find creative ways to work together to tackle the challenge of big tech market power was the impetus for a couple of fascinating panel discussions organized by the Centre for Economic Policy…
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