Capitaine Train is the only booking site that distributes all of the offers of the two major railway companies in Europe: SNCF and Deutsche Bahn. In addition to that the startup also sells iDTGV, Eurostar, Thalys and Lyria tickets. Capitaine Train’s mission is to become the no. 1 marketplace for all major European rail operators.

Jean-Daniel Guyot, co-founder and CEO of Capitaine Train, said: “This investment will fuel our entry to new markets while assisting our growth in France. We’re thrilled to have such a strong group of investors supporting that mission.”

Martin Mignot, principal at Index Ventures, stated: “Capitaine Train has a unique position, seamlessly connecting European booking systems and making them available to customers in a beautifully simple and easy-to-use website. Capitaine Train continuously shows strong results in terms of growth, revenue and customers engagement.”

The Planetveo group was founded in 2007 and offers tailor-made long-haul holiday packages to Asia, Africa, the Pacific region and America. Thanks to an offering that combines genuine discovery and novel encounters with local cultures, the young company has grown very rapidly. It posted a turnover of more than €40 million in 2012, which represents an increase of 83% compared to the previous year, in one of the most profitable travel sectors. Planetveo today has a workforce of about 170 people.

Geoffroy de Becdeliévre, CEO of Planetveo, stated: “We are very pleased to welcome Gimv and Iris Capital as new investors. Their confidence in our company confirms the relevance of our strategy and business model. We have had extensive discussions with the management of Gimv and Iris, and fully agree on the company’s vision, the market and the strategy in order to become the leading provider of personalised online holiday packages.”

Erik de la Rivière, Partner at Iris Capital, said: “In just a few years time, Planetveo has become a major player in the highly attractive market segment of tailor-made holiday packages. We share the management’s vision and ambitions, which entail continuing the strategy of rapid growth and increasing market share to become a leading player in the sector. We are especially pleased to have the opportunity to participate and help in this exciting new growth phase.”

“Carpooling.com is thrilled to see the fast growth of its mobile users. Today 28% of traffic on carpooling.com comes from mobile devices – up 15 points in the last 6 months” stated Markus Barnikel, CEO of carpooling.com. He continued: “The shift to mobile is natural in the world of transportation. People want spontaneous access to convenient mobility solutions; Smartphones give them 24/7 access to ridesharing, which is a flexible, low-cost and fun way to travel.”

The new Android and iPhone apps of Carpooling.com include new payment features, which enable drivers to better manage their accounts and offer different payment options to passengers, including cash payment. The apps were just released in Germany as “mitfahrgelegenheit.de” and will be available in other countries soon. Beside easy booking, the another advantage of carpooling mobile apps is the ability for people to communicate with each other when they arrange a ride.

UsabilityTools.com was founded in 2009 and offers tools for tracking and analysis of user behaviour on websites. Currently the platform offers 10 different tools designed for diverse remote usability tests. The products of UsabilityTools are especifically designed for owners of e-commerce websites, people involved in conversion improvement and professional user experience specialists.

Stryking’s framework offers a shop-in-shop solution that gives developers and publishers of free-to-play games the opportunity to sell real products in their ingame shops that are attractive to their particular target group. This creates additional incentives for non-paying users to become paying users, thus allowing for additional revenues. For brands, a new interactive media channel opens up that generates high-quality contacts and more fans through intelligently integrated sponsoring and brand activities into the gameplay. Especially the publishers of games with realistic settings such as racing, sports, simulation, and management are going to have the opportunity to create a significant 2nd revenue channel and valuable support for the acquisition of new users by integrating brands directly.

Evan Williams (Co-Founder of Twitter / Blogger): He gave “The Power of One” by Bryce Courtenay a 5 star rating on goodreads and stated: “I read this book when I was young, hungry, and impressionable. I found it quite inspiring. Not sure how it would strike me today, but giving it five stars, based on the impact it had on me at the time.” Another book he gave 5 stars is The Halo Effect. Williams said “If you read business books, you should read this business book. You’ll read all others with a more skeptical (and intelligent) eye.”

Lars Hinrichs (Founder of Xing): On his publicly available Facebook profile he mentioned the books The Tipping Point and Blink, both books by Malcolm Gladwell, as two of his favorites. The Tipping Point, which is about the behavior of crowds, even inspired him to start Xing. For Blink, Malcolm Gladwell explores the extraordinarily perceptive and deceptive power of the sub-conscious mind. Gladwell’s major claim is that decisions made very quickly can be every bit as good as a decision made cautiously and deliberately.