Kima Ventures’ Jeremie Berrebi says no journalists wrote true Sparrow story

As just about everyone probably knows by now, Google announced its first France-based acquisition on Friday: Sparrow. I say “announced” because according to a few sources, Google has previously acquired France-based companies but chosen not to communicate. Anyhow, regardless of what the situation is, the Sparrow team is packing their bags and heading to Mountain View to join the Gmail team in what looks more like a talent-acquisition (another rare occurrence for France).

The day Google acquired in France (Oh wait, that’s today).

Rumors had been turning around the French tech scene for quite a while that French startup Sparrow (which also happens to be my favorite email client of all time) had been in acquisition discussions. And there were rumors that several tech heavyweights had approached the company, which still hasn’t celebrated its 2nd birthday (yes, à la Instagram). But France still got a pleasant surprise when the news broke today that it was Google that would be acquiring the company.

France-made Gadgets. Yes, there’s more than the minitel.

On June 30th, France officially lay its infamous minitel network to rest. The box connected French households before the arrival of the Internet is said to have inspired Apple’s Steve Jobs – which shouldn’t be a shock to anyone who knows the country’s history of inventiveness and affinity for beautiful design. Now, as the rest of the world drools over gadgets, including BERG Cloud’s Tiny Printer, Pebble Technology’s E-Paper watch or Google glasses (thoughts?), you may be wondering what gadgets are left on the French menu. Well, here are a few noteworthy French gadget companies to keep an eye on.

Zipcar Founder: “France is leading innovation in transportation”

Last week, as many of you know, I hosted the first of a 3-part conference series on innovation called Les Matinales. We had some incredible speakers, from companies like Airbnb, Uber, Stardoll, Le Petit Ballon, Eyeka, Skimm! and more. And we’ve got 2 more editions lined up for September! Since the event was ever-so-slightly outside of Paris (Ivry-sur-Seine), many people tuned in via live stream to watch. But for anyone who didn’t manage to attend virtually, here’s a quick round up of what happened…

Does France need a Startup Visa?

On June 9th, the Economist published an article on how the US government needs to issue more visas to foreign entrepreneurs. The article went on to cite a few examples of countries that are far more welcoming to foreign innovators, including the UK, Chile, Canada, New Zealand and Singapore. Naturally, the US – a country known practically as a country of immigrants – has many foreigners to thank for much of its success stories. But how about France?

Gilles Babinet: France’s new Digital Champion

In a post I published earlier this week I mentioned that I had the chance to interview my new-found digital heroine, Martha Lane Fox, at LeWeb last week. In addition to co-founding Lastminute.com in 1998 with Brent Hoberman, Martha sits on the board of mydeco.com, Marks & Spencer, Channel 4 and launched Karaoke startup Lucky […]

Paris Tech Event – Want to be a Speaker?

So the last few weeks have been insanely packed in terms of events. Europe’s entrepreneurs have been busy running around to all kinds of events in places like Poland, Portugal, the UK, France, Ireland and more. Here’s a quick rundown on some of the recent events I attended and spoke at, and the next ones to come – including speaking opportunities for entrepreneurs.

French Startup Scales Up is Groupon for bootstrappers

Every now and then, European entrepreneurs love to complain about how investors. The typical complaint goes something like this: European VCs are risk-averse, there’s no money on this side of the Atlantic and no European equivalent of Sand Hill Road. But every now and then, entrepreneurs love to innovate their way out of this potential problem.

France’s Twitter Problem

Yesterday as I was scrolling through my newsfeed on Facebook, a rather intriguing status update caught my eye: Twitter lessons by Valérie Trierweiler. Shortly thereafter, I discovered that France’s first lady had done a little Twitter damage by openly supporting Olivier Falorni in the upcoming legislative elections – who is up against the French president’s ex (whom he openly supports), Ségolène Royal.

Entrepreneurs, if you could change one thing about France what would it be?

Earlier this week, something amazing happened in London. Startup Caravan hosted a French startup competition – in London. Yes, London. 10 French startups were picked to hop across the English Channel and pitch for the London tech community. While there are numerous international and pan-European startup competitions that allow startups from wherever to pitch, this was one of the first times a clear effort was made to introduce some of France’s top tech startups to the UK startup crowd.