'europe' Tag
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Introducing the European FinTech RUDEscape
February 24, 2015Wow, the appetite for FinTech in Europe is booming, with VC funding reaching dizzying heights. It’s not just Europe, by the way. A recent visit to Bangkok confirmed that even in the emerging startup ecosystem of Thailand, FinTech is hotter than a spicy som tam salad (more on that later). With the entire sector representing […]
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State of the (European) Union in VC
February 3, 2015A couple years back I argued that the state of the union for VC in Europe was bleak. In particular, I was referring to the tax-advantaged retail fund sector — most prolific in France but not unheard of in some other European countries like in the form of the UK’s VCT vehicles. Today in contrast, […]
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The billion dollar startup club
November 25, 2014The Wall Street Journal and Dow Jones VentureSource recently started publishing a list of companies that are valued at $1 billion or more by venture-capital firms. Here it is in graphical format (credit to J.Peng). The qualification criteria for the club are: privately held companies that have at least VC firm in the capital and […]
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Why Asian startups should prioritize Europe
November 17, 2014In my travels for work I’ve had the honor to meet hundreds of inspiring entrepreneurs from all over the world. Setting aside China, and in a gross over-simplification, domestic markets in East Asia could be characterized as either i) mature or ii) emerging (Japan, South Korea, Singapore, Taiwan, in the former; the rest of Southeast […]
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11/11: Remembering our veterans and remembering the genesis of the EU project
November 11, 2014Today is a holiday: 11/11. Europe celebrates it as Armistice Day, commemorating the end of World War I (the war to end all wars), of which the fighting stopped on the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month of 1918). The Commonwealth nations observe 11/11 as Remembrance Day in honor of the […]
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What I think about when I think about mobile gaming
October 21, 2014When people inquire about my investment strategy, I explain that I try to structure my investment thinking around themes or theses. Readers of this blog will recognize that one of my favorite investment themes over the past few years has centered on the value chain of mobile gaming. Often, I visualize aspects of a theme […]
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Japan’s renewed appetite for Europe?
November 6, 2012The Rude VC disappeared to Japan last week for a combination of business meetings and some spiritual recalibration. I return refreshed and pumped up. Pumped up because the country that the West likes to deride as the one of the “lost decade” is demonstrating a renewed appetite for expansion abroad, especially in the tech sector. […]