Starting today you will see big changes at Library House. The most obvious is our new visual identity, same name but with a fresh, modern image.
And that is only the first impression of what amounts to a major overhaul of our products, services and our interaction with you. Over the coming weeks and months you will see the roll out of the fundamental changes we are making to our business, our website and the way we communicate in general. Our objective in these changes is to make the products and services Library House delivers more relevant and accessible, our data more usable and our insight, well, more insightful. This is all part of our drive to be THE essential source of intelligence on tomorrow’s companies.
What does this mean for what was formerly known as PCI Weekly? This is now part of a new suite of services under the VentureCast banner. The weekly newsletter is evolving from a static written word and headline service to a dynamic interactive service including the first Library House blog. The newsletter remains weekly, for now, but you can visit our blog daily to get the latest comment.
Fast-forwarding to the coming weeks, we will be introducing more news features under the VentureCast banner, so watch this space. Join in the debate and let us know what you think; your feedback is an important element in enabling Library House to better meet your needs.
For those who subscribe to other Library House services you will see that we have relabeled our suite of products:
If you are not a subscriber to other services in our portfolio, please visit our new website (www.libraryhouse.net) and take a tour or contact us to discuss your business needs.
Finally, we have also significantly increased our events programme. In the first half of 2007 alone, look out for Meet the Spinouts (March 8), CleanTech (April 17), MediaTech (May 17) and Essential Europe (June 21). Check out these and other events in VentureConnect.
The Week's Deals
Thirty-five companies across Europe gained financial backing this week, fifteen were of undisclosed value. The deals raised a total of €52.9m, which is €2.6m on average.
Wikio, the maker of personalised web information pages, has raised €5.3m funding from
Lightspeed Venture Partners and
Gemini Israel Funds. Wikio, launched in France last June, currently operates sites in the United States, France, Germany, Italy and Spain. The funding will be used for international expansion, with the launch of the Wikio UK site planned for the second quarter of 2007, followed by additional European and American sites. Although the company has a number of competitors such as Digg, that offer similar features, Wikio’s investors believe it is addressing the need for localised European content.
Iwedia, the France-based provider of software for connected audiovisual digital devices, has raised a third round of funding of €4m from
iXCore,
THALES Corporate Ventures,
I-Source Gestion and
CDC Enterprises. Iwedia develops embedded software for consumer digital terminals, with the aim of reducing manufacturers' and operators' time-to-market.
Shiny Media, The UK-based blog network, has raised €3.5m from
Bright Station Ventures in exchange for 50 per cent of the company. Shiny Media says it attracts almost three million readers each month to its 22 sites, and employs more than thirty bloggers.
Elsewhere:
Sentrigo, the Israel-based provider of products designed to protect databases from hostile hacking, has received a first round of funding from
Benchmark Capital;
Sulfurcell Solartechnik, the Germany-based developer of low cost photovoltaic technology, has raised further funding from
Credit Suisse Group,
Engelbert Giesen,
IBB Beteiligungsgesellschaft,
Ventegis Capital and
Vattenfall Europe Venture; and
Tagattitude, the France-based mobile marketing company, has raised an undisclosed sum from private and institutional investors.
See below for more deal news.
Did we miss anything? If you think we have missed a deal or know of a deal that is about to close then send us your
deal news.
The Week's Exits
BioLineRx, the Israel-based drug development company, is set to raise about €39m ($50m) in a flotation on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange (TASE), the largest IPO ever by a biomedical company on TASE. The offering will be made at a company valuation of about €46m ($60m) before money. BioLineRx advances projects from early stage discovery and lead generation to advanced clinical trials, regulatory approval, and marketing.
SBE Inc the Nasdaq-listed provider of IP-based storage networking products, and
Neonode, the venture-backed Swedish mobile handset developer, have announced plans to merge. The combined company, which is expected to continue to trade on the Nasdaq-market, will be headquartered in Stockholm, Sweden, where Neonode’s corporate headquarters and research and development activities are located.
Elsewhere,
Union Snack, the UK-based pretzel maker, has been acquired for an undisclosed sum by
Intersnack.
People Moves
Inatec Solutions, the Germany-based e-commerce payment service provider, has appointed Mike Hansch as chief executive, replacing Helge Kiessler. Inatec develops and markets powercash21, a multi-functional payment hosting service that integrates various payment methods and risk management modules through a single interface.
Michael Flanagan has been appointed the new chief technology officer at UK-based
Arieso. An expert in network optimisation, Dr Flanagan spent the last 12 years at Lucent Technologies’ Bell Labs in New Jersey, where he worked on many aspects of wireless communications systems, ranging from channel element design to network design and optimisation. Arieso is a mobile telecommunications technology software developer providing network simulation, design, planning and optimisation products to cellular networks.
Most Accessed Companies
Zubka, the UK-based online recruitment website that provides a way for users to monetize their contact network, has attracted a lot of attention this week. The site works by allowing people to refer their past colleagues, friends and other contacts for jobs. Zukbka charges hirers up to a third less than traditional recruitment agencies, and then passes 80 per cent of the recruitment fee on to the referrer. In addition, as an enticement for users to introduce their contacts to Zubka, five per cent of the fee is passed back to the user who first introduced the successful referrer to the network. Zubka was founded last year and is backed by
Benchmark Capital.
EndoArt, the Switzerland-based medical technology company specialising in telemetrically-controlled implants that provide flow control through the organs or vessels of the body, has also received a lot of attention recently. The company’s lead product is a remotely adjustable gastric band for treating severe obesity, a condition that the company estimates affects 5m people in Europe and more than 10m in the US. EndoArt’s investors include
Sofinnova Partners,
Genevest,
EMBL Ventures,
Renaissance PME and
Venture Incubator Partners.
Other companies generating interest recently include
European Fuel Cell,
Cambridge Broadband, and
Frontier Silicon.
There are now 9,529 companies in the database and 7,031 investors, comprising 3,498 institutional, 2,926 corporate, 469 individual and 138 other. Of the database's 31,907 contacts, there are 18,250 executive, 7,164 CEOs, 2,440 chair, 1,402 non-executive and 2,651 other.
