Paris, France-based Iminent raised a €2.4 million second round of financing this month from I-Source Gestion and previous investor 360º Capital Partners. They’ve raised a total of €5.4 million to date - their first round was closed a year ago.
The company offers a Windows-only download that enhances the instant messaging experience with extravagant emoticons and video features.
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There must be nothing else good in France.
“There must be nothing else good in France.”
There’s Mangrove and Jooce which I interviewed for a few months ago. Those aren’t French people though working there. They flew everybody in from the US to Paris to do the startup.
I wondered ever since. Why would you fly Americans in to France to do a startup? Why not just do it in America where they’re from? At any rate, I’m happy that didn’t work out at the last minute because now I get to do something a million times better with my friends.
What a waste of money. MSFT Office Communicator 2007 is bad ass tho! Lets you connect to your office now using SSL port 443 so you can pretend to be in the office… even when you’re at home or paying golf on your PPC WM device
No, not possible on an iPhone.
This for definite then Mike…?
(ok, it was a bad joke - but someone had to say it…)
Chris, even before I read your post, I wanted to comment that these financing rounds always seem very high. What does a company like this spend 5mil Euros on? That’s A LOT of money.
BREAKING NEWS…
OMG!
Look at this
http://www.freezepage.com/1208119153FMPKCSPTDY
This is a first - soon Techcrunch will be number one (look at how close)
Are gadgets slightly falling out of favor and losing their ‘Wow’ power ?!
But back on the matter at hand:;
Those emoticons are really swell on Iminent; can’t wait to get started downloading
Don’t you just love their domain name - how on earth did they acquire it?!
Ah the French!
To prove that the French can do anything in the internet space as good as the english speaking can:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=uB3rgmqHis0
@7
It seems very high. I can only say what I found out by working for German startups, Cali startups, and of course my interview with the Mangrove startup.
They spend very little, and keep the rest in a warchest. I can’t really say more.
Most of the startups my old company worked for and the startups I know are where a VC guides people who have little experience trying to get them to reach a milestone in order to reach the next level of funding.
When they reach X milestone it “unlocks” Y amount of investment.
It’s very wild west like. There is very little business plan or strict govt compliance as far as what you would expect.
As somebody who works for them, I can’t really tell all on this blog in a comment, but suffice it to say that 5M may translate into 10% of that in actual cash flow. My old company would get about 1% of that 10%, so I closed it because I’m done bottom feeding.
Sorry for that kind of ad:
Imagine you would read this article in an old fashioned newspaper. what would you do, to bookmark this article?
[Edna] has got the solution!
call 0043780233000135
don´t be afraid. this call will cost you not a cent, because edna won´t answer the call. you will just hear a busy tone.
then log in at addnr.com and see your “called” items to find your offline bookmarked artikle;)
isn´t that cool!?
Not only is just s Windows download, it’s a MS Messenger plugin only
Great to see that VC funding has grown way beyond US boundaries.
Why would you fly Americans in to France to do a startup?
Because America is a wasteland of urban sprawl and France is beautiful. It’s possible to live in France - feel energized - be inspired.
Ever drive down 101 in the Valley? It’ll make you want to kill yourself.
http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/121
p.s. this is the _last_ time i’m going to ask for this. until the next time i ask for this. i want screencasts - especially for stuff like this that requires downloads, etc. hello DemoGirl? Bueller? and i want a real screencast done by an outside source - the companies should still do the demos themselves, but i want some of that ‘blogonist integrity’.
Ahh..France.the country of origin for the word ‘entrepreneur’ yet makes it hard as hell to succeed as one and easy as hell to sit in a cafe all day while people watching and collecting govt handouts..
Hello, ALL. Look out for Apple taking over the IM scene soon!
Interesting response, Chris. All seems fine and dandy making it to the next round of financing. But if at the end of the day you haven’t built a real business with that money, your liquidity event is never going to come! Seems bizarre.
The Emoticons have to pop out of the screen and give a good BJ at this rate.
I know there are other “good things” in France but €5.4M for a novelty IM client is a little ridiculous.
18 I agree 100%
I already knew just by the title, in the comments there would be some anti-french comments.
Ok we get it france sucks. Aren’t you guys tired of it.
I think this comes from the jealousy of the french excellent life style. Because you only life purpose is to build your 401k to on day retire and have a nice life style like the french have their entire life.
5.4 million is such a waste of money french are stupid instead we should spend 42 millions to print a paper to explain to the dumbass american how they are going to receive tax return.
We should not listen to the stupid french, we had to go to vietnam , we had to go to Irak it was the smartest thing to do.
Anyway i mean this start up sucks but if you guys go out of the US you might understand that msn messenger is big outside of the us. Maybe this startup didn’t find the stupiest group of guys on the world and hustle 5.4 million from them.
come people be smart, be american.
WOAH, I think the point was it is odd to import people to France from the US (that seemed like the intent to me)
I think you all are a bit sensitive (and eager to jump to conclusions). The post was NOT anti- French!
Disclosure:I didnt read all the comments (they are going down hill), so I cant claim to know about them.
I think yahoo IM offer similar features to enhance user experience.
Interviewed their CEO, Francis Cohen to ask what they’re gonna do with the money. They might go to Asia, which of course, makes perfect sense.
http://thenextweb.org/2008/04/.....expansion/
Hopefully they’ll innovate with that money.
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