Cabforce Announces Seed Investment, Adds Gregg Brockway (Hotwire, Tripit) As Investor
Cabforce continues with the good news about their cab-booking service, after recently launching and integrating into Estonian Air's web booking. The Helsinki-based company announces today that Gregg Brockway, the past co-founder of Hotwire and Tripit has joined in on their seed round. The size of the round, which includes Vera Ventures and KoppiCatch accelerator, with further backing from Tekes, was not revealed, but described as substantial.
"We have just announced that our service will cover the top 40 European cities by the end of 2012, and we are proud to reveal who is backing us in our mission. We chose Gregg as an investor for obvious reasons: he is one of the most respected names in the online travel industry and he’s experience raises the company to a new level", says Tommi Holmgren, Co-founder and CEO of Cabforce.com.
Estonian Inner Circle and Sportlyzer Close Seed Rounds
Estonian sports software startup Sportlyzer and social network startup Inner Circle have closed seed rounds. The common investor in both is Estonian Development Fund. Sportlyzer also received private angel backing from Rein Lemberpuu, ex-CEO of online gambling value added service provider Playtech Estonia, and Inner Circle's investors included in addition Estonian private-sector firms Regio and Live Nature Eesti.
Jyri Engeström Joins Xiha Life's Board While Xiha Closes A $1m Seed Round
The Jaiku co-founder Jyri Engeström, who recently left Google (see our previous story here), has joined Xiha Life's board. Both Jaiku founders, Engeström and Petteri Koponen have switched into the dark side, namely after founding several companies of their own, they have now moved into investing in new startups.
Engeström has started to do angel investing in a chosen few companies, while Koponen co-founded Lifeline Ventures, one of the Finnish Vigo accelerators (see more on the Vigos here)
This might not seem like a big deal, but it is. Finland has been suffering from a deficit of investors that believe in and understand the consumer Internet. Just recently we wrote about the state of the Finnish venture capital and the picture was quite clear: We need more entrepreneurs that have succeeded in the consumer internet to share their experience, inspire(!) and invest in the young guns who want to reach for the stars, but don't have much more than a boat load of energy to start with. Jyri, along with Petteri, are clearly on the right path.
