2007 23
Pierre Chappaz Raises 4 Million Euros For Wikio
Published by MartinVarsavsky.net in Investments with No Comments
Pierre Chappaz just sent me the press release that appears below with the good news that Wikio raised 4 million euros. As an investor in the first round, when Wikio was nothing more than a concept, I am happy to see that Wikio has grown to be the most popular European blog and media search engine in only a year.
This round follows the Series A round that came less than a year after my investment in Netvibes, the very successful internet start up page now used by around 10 million people founded by my good friend Tariq Krim, but now also co managed by Pierre Chappaz. Interestingly Pierre Chappaz is also the founder of Kelkoo, sold to Yahoo a few years ago. Pierre is one of the few people in Europe with a keen eye for what´s up and coming on the internet. First in e commerce with Kelkoo and now in content and information management with Netvibes and Wikio. Congratulations Pierre Chappaz and the whole Wikio team!
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2006 12
My Activity as an Angel Investor
Published by MartinVarsavsky.net in Other Projects with No Comments
Here are the companies that I have invested over the last 2 years as an angel investor. Wikio, Plazes, Netvibes, Technorati, Vpod and last week, Moneytrackin, started as a project by two FON employees.
Why do I make these investments? Mostly because the entrepreneurs who run them are friends who I trust, because I believe in the markets or needs they address and because of reasonable valuations.
2006 24
VPOD Investment
Published by MartinVarsavsky.net in General with No Comments
I invested in vpod.tv. I asked Rodrigo Sepulveda, one of the two entrepreneurs behind vpod.tv, to send me a company description and this is what he sent me:
vpod.tv is an easy online video publishing and syndication platform for the web and mobile devices aiming at the global consumer market, enabling massive new user-generated content and personal customizable TV-channels. It brings a real convergence between fixed and mobile devices such as computer screens, TVs, mobile phones, and portable media players.
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