Philippe Botteri, a judge in the start-up competition at Le Web, an annual Paris-based Internet conference that attracts a global audience, has worked in the technology industry for the past 15 years, most of it based in Silicon Valley. Since joining Accel Partners in London in 2011 Botteri’s focus has primarily been on the Internet, cloud computing and software-as-a-service (SaaS).Read more

Refined, adjusted, adapted, copied…all words that have been used to describe what entrepreneur Oskar Hartmann borrowed did with a variety of western online retailing websites when he createdRead more

Errol Damelin, founder and chief executive of short-term online lender Wonga, is the popular choice for Europe’s Entrepreneur of the Year. He won the top prize from the European Tech Tour Association at a recent gala awards ceremony in London and was named e-commerce and technology entrepreneur of 2011 by Ernst & Young.Read more

Showroomprive.com, a four-year-old private online sales company that competes with France's Vente-privee.com, managed to attract 3 million members and 75 million euros in revenue without any outside help. But to meet its goal of becoming a pan-European player the Paris-based company needed "smart money", connections to a venture capital firm that understands how to scale and the ins and outs of on-line businesses with a social component.Read more

British fabless chip company Icera's story  contains important lessons for companies wishing to become global giants. Europe has deep strengths in hard core technology. And now it has a new generation of managers that have already been through the experience once of building companies in Europe and have no need to cash out early. It has investors ready to step up and fund great entrepreneurs with great technologies. But it is a long haul for Europe's billion dollar babies and all the more so for capital-intensive semiconductor businesses.Read more

In an anticipated deal Electronic Arts announced November 9 that it will buy Playfish, a London-based company that produces games for friends to play together over social and mobile platforms such as Facebook, MySpace, Bebo, Google, iPhone and Android. Playfish, a two-year-old company backed by Accel Partners and Index Ventures, is disrupting the traditional video game marketplace by offering game experiences that allow people to play with their real life friends via social networks.Read more