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11:55 am

Quandoo Closes $25M Growth #Financing Round To Take On OpenTable

#GNN - #OpenTable is the main real-time reservation platform for restaurants, but it’s an old incumbent and there is plenty of opportunity out there. New startup Quandoo wants to address this area and today it’s close its Series $25m growth financing round lead by Piton Capital and affiliates.

It will use this cash to extend its market Germany, Austria and Italy across Europe as well as launching in APAC and Latin America.

As well as these lead investors, the two VCs that lead the A and B round, Holtzbrinck Ventures and DN Capital – alongside early investors the Sixt family and Texas Atlantic Capital – all participated.

The numbers speak for themselves. In the year and a half since launch, Quandoo says it has garnered a network of 3,000+ partner restaurants spanning 8 countries and served 1.5 million diners.

Philipp Magin, CEO and Founder of Quandoo says there is a big opportunity because in the UK and Germany adoption of cloud booking platforms is at a low-level while most of the other markets have a lot of greenfield opportunity as it shifts online.

“In most countries there are some smaller service providers but in almost all cases they do not provide restaurants with an actual management system that reflects the restaurants’ inventories in real-time, and thus have significant shortcomings on the consumer side,” he says.

The attraction is that it does not rely on fees from converting the restaurants own website traffic into reservations, in the way that OpenTable charges for reservations from the restaurants website.

“Quandoo Premium” is a cloud-based reservation management system that runs on Android based tablets which is intuitive to use for staff and also manages the inventory and reservations.

Magin and cofounder Ronny Lange were part of the team that founded CityDeal, which was acquired by Groupon in 2010.

6:19 pm

Joy, fireworks in Berlin after World Cup thriller

(GNN) - BERLIN: Germany erupted in ecstasy Sunday, with fans dancing the night away, the World Cup final win against Argentina that handed the country its historic fourth title.

Fireworks exploded across Berlin as supporters cheering the 1-0 victory thronged the streets and honking cars snaked their way through crowds, with black, red and gold German flags flapping in the wind.

More than 200,000 fans jumped for joy in the heart of the capital, singing "Oh, it´s beautiful!" and chanting "Super Deutschland".

The city closed the so-called Fan Mile to traffic behind the Brandenburg Gate, the symbol of national unity, to make way for revellers cheering on the German side in its showdown against Argentina.

"This victory is hugely important -- it´s my first!" said Carsten Glaser, 20. He said that while the Germans were a "team", "Argentina only had (Lionel) Messi."

Many fans saw the victory as having a deeper historical resonance, coming a long 24 years after West Germany beat Argentina in 1990 just months before the country overcame its Cold War division.

"This victory is important for reunified Germany," Thorsten Kinscher, a 34-year-old employee in the shipping industry, said. "It shows we are really in this together," behind a team of players from the former west and the ex-communist east.

Crowds surpassed the 200,000 maximum capacity on the Fan Mile hours before the match, an event spokeswoman said.

Braving intermittent showers, vendors did a booming trade in currywurst, a local speciality of sausage smothered in spicy ketchup, and plastic cups of beer.

Millions more huddled in front of screens at beer gardens, bars, sports clubs and sitting rooms across the country to watch the match from Rio de Janeiro´s legendary Maracana stadium.

Normally a rare sight due to the country´s dark history, German flags fluttered from street lamps and supporters´ shoulders, worn like superhero capes.

Revellers young and old, male and female donned mohawk wigs, bunny ears and cowboy hats in the national colours, as well as Hawaiian-style plastic flowers in black-red-gold.

Anett Voelker, 42, said it had been a long 24-year wait for a fourth star for the German jerseys.

"It´s been a super championship for reunited Germany -- a feeling of even greater unity," she said.

At half-time with the match tied at 0-0 after a nerve-jangling series of near-misses for each side, some fans started to lose their swagger.

"The Germans aren´t playing well -- Argentina is better," said 18-year-old Tom Ulmann, tiny German flags painted on his cheeks.

"If it continues like this we´re going to lose."

Germany had led Brazil 5-0 at the same point in the semi-final match last Tuesday, which they went on to win by a jaw-dropping 7-1.But a desperately awaited goal in overtime by Mario Goetze revived spirits and the final whistle sealed the celebration.

"I am so surprised and relieved," said Frank Wegner, a 45-year-old from Brandenburg state outside Berlin. (GNN)(AFP)(AIP)

12:15 pm

U.S., Iran say disputes remain in nuclear talks as deadline looms

(GNN) - U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said on Sunday major differences persist between Iran and six world powers negotiating on Tehran's nuclear program, with a week to go before a deadline for a deal.

The United States, Britain, France, Germany, Russia and China want Iran to reduce its nuclear fuel-making capacity to deny it any means of quickly producing atom bombs. In exchange, international sanctions that have crippled the large OPEC member's oil-dependent economy would gradually be lifted.

Iran says it is enriching uranium for peaceful energy purposes only and wants the sanctions removed swiftly. But a history of hiding sensitive nuclear work from U.N. inspectors raised international suspicions and the risk of a new Middle East war if diplomacy fails to yield a long-term settlement.

"Obviously we have some very significant gaps still, so we need to see if we can make some progress," Kerry said ahead of meetings with foreign ministers who flew into the Austrian capital at the weekend to breathe new life into the talks.

Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi delivered a similar message. He was quoted by Iran's Arabic language al-Alam television as saying that "disputes over all major and important issues still remain. We have not been able to narrow the gaps on major issues and it is not clear whether we can do it."

Kerry arrived in Vienna in the early hours after clinching a deal in Kabul with Afghanistan's presidential candidates to end the country's election crisis.

"It is vital to make certain that Iran is not going to develop a nuclear weapon and that their program is peaceful and that's what we're here to try and achieve and I hope we can make some progress," Kerry said in Vienna.

German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier told reporters that Germany and the other members of the six-power group have tried to persuade Iran of the urgency of a deal.

"This may be the last chance for a long time to peacefully resolve the dispute over Iran’s nuclear program," he told reporters. "It's now up to Iran to decide whether it wants cooperation with the international community or to remain in isolation. ... The ball is in Iran's court."

British Foreign Secretary William Hague said it was crucial for Tehran "to be more realistic about what is necessary" to reach a nuclear deal, adding that no breakthroughs had been achieved and there was "no major change in the state of play in these negotiations as of this moment".

Kerry also met Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, though no readout was immediately available. On Saturday, a senior U.S. official said Iran was sticking to "unworkable and inadequate" positions.

NEITHER PESSIMISTIC NOR OPTIMISTIC

Another of Kerry's meetings on Sunday was with Germany's Steinmeier, who raised new accusations of U.S. spying on Berlin.

Steinmeier told reporters that in the meeting with Kerry he called for "reviving this (U.S.-German) relationship, on a foundation of trust and mutual respect." Kerry referred to the United States and Germany as "great friends."

Germany asked the CIA station chief in Berlin last week to leave the country following fresh charges of U.S. spying on Berlin. Kerry and Steinmeier were expected to hold a joint news conference later on Sunday.

Kerry, Steinmeier and their British and French counterparts also discussed the escalation of hostilities between Israel and Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip.

Araqchi said that he was "not pessimistic but also not very optimistic" about the chances for an agreement with the sextet ahead of the self-imposed deadline of July 20. "No proposal has been accepted yet. We have not reached any agreement over the enrichment (program of Iran) and its capacity."

He added that if the talks collapsed, Iran would resume higher-level enrichment that it suspended on Jan. 20 when a preliminary accord the sides struck two months before took effect. Iran won limited relief from sanctions in return.

The Nov. 24 deal included a provision for lengthening talks on a permanent agreement by up to six months if all sides agree. Araqchi said "there is a possibility of extending the talks for a few days or a few weeks if progress is made."

A senior U.S. official said on Saturday that an extension would be difficult to consider without first seeing "significant progress on key issues".

French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius also raised the possibility of extending the talks.

"If we can reach a deal by July 20, bravo, if it's serious," he told reporters. "If we can't, there are two possibilities. One, we either extend ... or we will have to say that unfortunately there is no prospect for a deal."

Failure to seal a deal would mean the limited sanctions relief currently in place for Iran would end and Tehran could expect tougher sanctions, above all from the United States.

Iran says it is refining uranium to low levels of fissile purity to fuel a planned network of nuclear power stations. It earlier described its higher-level - or 20 percent purity - enrichment as material to fuel a medical research reactor. High-enriched uranium - or 90 percent - is for nuclear weapons.

The Russian and Chinese foreign minister were not in Vienna on Sunday due to a meeting in Brazil of the BRICS developing countries. Moscow and Beijing sent senior diplomats to Vienna instead.

(Reuters)(AIP)(Additional reporting by Parisa Hafezi, Fredrik Dahl and Louis Charbonneau; Writing by Louis Charbonneau; Editing by Rosalind Russell and Kevin Liffey)

8:29 am

Germany's green energy boom is leaving a 'trail of blood' on coal companies

Since the beginning, the commercial growth of renewable energy has been a laborious, often painful matter of government pushes, tax incentives and campaigning for greater awareness. In Germany, however, the energy market is on the cusp of evolving to the next step: An era in which the sun and the wind replace fossil fuels through the sheer, unstoppable force of the market.

The country is currently experiencing a glut of energy, thanks to the recent openings of new coal power stations (which were commissioned back when electricity was in short supply) as well as record levels of renewable generation -- especially solar. On sunny and windy days, the excess of electricity (which on average stands at 117 percent of peak demand) gets so big that energy prices are pushed downwards and traditional power stations are forced to cut down their running hours. A decade ago, fossil companies enjoyed a 15 percent margin on their sales, but today they make just five percent. An energy trader has informed Bloomberg that he believes that the latest coal stations to come online will make "much less money than originally thought" and "won't cover their costs."

Regulation is still at the heart of Germany's predicament, because green generators have preferential access to the grid on days when there's an overload. In other words, they're allowed to run and run, while coal-fired stations have to switch themselves off in response to the excess. However, the consequence -- which we're already seeing -- is to sap investors' interest in financing the coal industry. In turn, this means that when the country's older coal stations reach their end of life over the next decade, there's a much greater chance that they'll be replaced by green sources. Renewable energy's contribution to the grid is on target to rise to 45 percent by 2025, while coal companies are left with what one chief financial officer described as a "trail of blood" on their balance sheets. In the US, meanwhile, the birth of solar on an industrial scale is only just getting started. (BY SHARIF SAKR / SOURCE: Bloomberg)