There are so many interesting stories out there and unfortunately we don’t have the time to cover all of them. With our section “Worth reading”, we provide you once in a while with some links to interesting articles by other publications:
Sweden’s iZettle, a square ‘clone’ and one of the more successful European payment startups so far, just landed a €5 million investment from Europe’s largest bank Banco Santander, as well as a deal to sell iZettle’s service and smartphone card reader to the bank’s UK customers. Check out the full story on GigaOm (Update – March 2023: The article seems to be not visible anymore, and we therefore deactivated the original link).
Excalibur, a Slovakian startup that turns your mobile phone into a universal authentication system has won the Telekom Innovation Contest, and with it up to €500K of Deutsche Telekom resources to develop the product (Update – March 2023: The startup seems to be no longer in business under this website, and we therefore deactivated the original link). Find out more about the contest and the winner Excalibur and visit SiliconAllee.com (Update – March 2023: The article seems to be not visible anymore, and we therefore deactivated the original link).
Rocket Internet-backed Lamoda, a fashion-focused e-commerce site in Russia, has announced that it has landed a $130 million round of funding from a range of regular Rocket Internet co-investors: Access Industries, Summit Partners and Tengelmann Group. Visit TNW to learn more.
Hoping to cash in on the rise of Facebook advertising is Stockholm-based Qwaya, which offers a cloud-based tool for SMEs to create, publish and measure the effectiveness of Facebook ad campaigns. The company recently closed $3 million in Series A funding from Zobito and the Swedish VC Industrifonden. Read more on TechCrunch.
The French social payments leader Leetchi has announced a big partnership with Amazon, adding Amazon gift cards to the list of potential gifts they offer. With 700k+ users on-board, having a well-known partner like Amazon will be a real advantage for them as they expand as planned across Europe. Find out more and visit the RudeBaguette (Update – March 2023: The article seems to be not visible anymore, and we therefore deactivated the original link).
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