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 of other publications:
ThirdPresence, a cloud-based mobile video platform, just announced it has raised $800K in seed funding, in a round led by Jussi Heinila, a co-founder of Accelerando. Fellow angel investors include Matti Suokko (former Microsoft executive) and Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo (former Nokia CEO). Find out more about the Helsinki-based startup on ArcticStartup (Update – February 2023: Arctic Startup seems to be no longer in business under this website and we therefore deactivated the link).
Insight Venture Partners has just invested in the Berlin-based startup DaWanda (Update – February 2023: DaWanda seems to be now redirecting to Etsy and we therefore deactivated the original link). The US venture capitalist purchased over 35% of the shares. DaWanda, which is a marketplace for unique and handmade items, was founded in 2006. Insight Venture Partners paid previous shareholders several million euros for their DaWanda shares. Read more about it (in German) on Deutsch-Startups.de.
The Anglo-Swedish music streaming startup Spotify is aiming for a turnover near $1 billion this year, founder and CEO Daniel Ek has told Swedish media. In an interview Mr. Ek said the company’s turnover may reach $888 million this year. Spotify’s sales grew 160% last year, while its net loss almost doubled. For further info visit WSJ TechEurope.
The French online supermarket Houra.fr aims to generate €100 million in 2013 by selling food over the internet. Houra.fr is a subsidiary of the Belgian Cora group, and has about 90,000 regular customers. Up to 70% of Houra’s sales are made within the Paris region, with the average order size being about €220. Read more about it (in German) on ExcitingCommerce.
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