Conference on venture capital : 40 start-ups are applying

Looking for 4 up to 150 million francs for immediate take-off! On December 4th and 5th in Sophia, 40 projects and among them, 12 from the French Riviera, expecting to meet 200 capital venturers and business angels.

There’s no need to say that the context isn’t one of the best! The American Nasdaq, the figure of the Net economy has fallen of 35% in value compared to the levels of the beginning of the year. And even worse : last week was lethal for technologies. The 4th conference of venture capital, held on Monday 4th and Tuesday 5th at the Agora of France Telecom, in Sophia Antipolis is opening in a very bad context. Nevertheless, if the technological sector is in bad condition since the beginning of the year, investors keep on being interested in reliable projects, with good prospects.The most promising start-ups of the French RivieraTo mention a few examples of the French Riviera, Opt(e)way , Right Vision, Etexx, Wimba.com and a few others have found financial plans up to their future developments. The conference of Sophia will reveal the new atmosphere.Forty European start-ups, selected according to the reliability of their project (156 projects registered, and 47 coming from the Alpes-Maritimes) will face the fearsome eye of capital venturers and business angels (two hundred are expected for the two days). The list will be available on the website ivcs.org.Among these young groups, (most of them didn’t exist when the previous conference took place), there is twelve companies from the French Riviera and many from Sophia Antipolis. Buying –partners, (market place for general purchases of companies) is looking for 6 million euros (about 40 million francs). Cassiopay, Internet platform of social management is officially coming out for 25 million francs, Castify Networks(networks optimisation for audiovisual diffusion), the new star of the CICA in Sophia is looking for another investment up to 6 million dollars (45 million francs).Quescom: a business of 150 million francsEtexx, the textile market place was already present at the previous conference. Thus, it raised 7 million euros (46 MF) last March, for its first investment offer. It registered again at the conference for 162 million francs. It was the biggest amount requested. But meanwhile, this start-up from Nice, set up at the Arenas, has embarked into another request up to 20 million euros for Christmas, (140 million francs). Then, it only comes in Sophia for another request of 25 million francs.Among the best start-ups present at the conference, Kyrn laboratories(pharmaceutical product against burns) with a business of 20 million francs. M.Pixel, another company within the CICA, (diffusion format of pictures on mobiles) had already gathered 6 million francs and is now requesting 30 million francs. Quescomhad the most important request of this conference with 20 million dollars (150 million francs). The smallest request was made by a start-up on the French Riviera, Semiosigns, with 4 million francs.And among the “local” ones : Vistaprint, subsidiary of an American start-up in distant printing (12 million dollars), WWWhoosh, Web accelerator (also 12 million dollars), CTP(8 million francs), Europe Technologies(10 million dollars). So many companies, business plans in support, will have the occasion to meet investors and to find the means for an immediate take-off.