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

Obopay is a mobile payment service that allows users to get, send and spend money. It works on all handset models and currently powers the mobile payment systems of MasterCard MoneySend in the U.S. and Nokia Money globally. Obopay sees its biggest opportunity in the developing world, where some 2.5 billion adults have no access to banking but a growing number have mobile phones. It is one of 26 companies named a 2010 Technology Pioneer by the World Economic Forum.Read more