Tag: Europe

Codota picks up $12M for an AI platform that auto-completes developers’ code

Thanks to smartphones and their downsized keyboards, autocomplete has become a nearly ubiquitous feature of how we write these days. To save us precious seconds composing and (at least in my fat-thumbed case) correcting words, our keyboards now prompt us with suggestions of what we’re trying to write to get…

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Germany ditches centralized approach to app for COVID-19 contacts tracing

Germany has U-turned on building a centralized COVID-19 contacts tracing app — and will instead adopt a decentralized architecture, Reuters reported Sunday, citing a joint statement by chancellery minister Helge Braun and health minister Jens Spahn. In Europe in recent weeks, a battle has raged between different groups backing centralized…

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17 French VC firms hold virtual office hours to give advice to startups

Several French VC firms want to remain available to support the tech ecosystem at large during the lockdown with virtual office hours. If you’re a startup and you’re currently struggling, chances are you’re having a lot of discussions with your investors. But if you’ve only raised from business angels who…

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Atomico recruits Sasha Astafyeva as consumer-focused partner, and ex-Googler Terese Hougaard as principal

More personnel moves at Atomico. The European VC firm, founded by Skype’s Niklas Zennström, has recruited Sasha Astafyeva as its new consumer-focused partner, and former-Googler Terese Hougaard as principal. Sasha Astafyeva (pictured left) previously spent three years as a principal at Felix Capital. In her new role as partner, she’ll…

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Shine adds invoice insurance to its freelancer bank account

French startup Shine is adding a new option today. If you think there’s a chance that a client is not going to pay your next invoice, you can insure that invoice to avoid any bad surprise. Shine is building a challenger bank for freelancers and small companies. It lets you…

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Finnish VC Icebreaker launches second fund to continue backing “pre-founders” and pre-seed startups

Icebreaker.vc, the Finnish venture capital firm that backs “pre-founders” and pre-seed to seed-stage startups, has launched a second fund, with a first close of €50 million. That’s already significantly larger than Icebreaker’s first fund (which closed at €20 million) and reflects the VC’s geographical expansion. In addition to Finland, where…

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