– iRex: Dutch electronic reader manufacturer iRex Technologies has secured a EUR 6 million investment. The round was led by Main Capital Partners and joined by existing shareholders ABN AMRO Capital as well as company management. It will be used for R&D and product development. Philips spin-off iRex has a number of content suppliers for its iLiad device, including China’s Yantai Daily newspaper group. Last week, French business paper Les Echos started publishing to the iLiad and iRex says national Dutch papers and several “international” titles are due to trial the device.
– WidgetLabs: WidgetLabs, a Cologne, Germany, based developer of web and desktop widget components, has attracted seed funding from iSteps Ventures. Started just last month by young entrepreneur Ayham Gorani, the outfit has recently made a Facebook application (Shouter), a guestbook widget and makes such things using Flash and Javascript and for Vista, Google (NSDQ: GOOG) and Yahoo (NSDQ: YHOO) platforms. (Release, via Blognation).