StartupNorth

Category: News

  • Cognovision acquired by Intel

    UPDATE: We are hearing that the acquisition price tag is closer to $30m and possibly even higher. 


    Another great exit for the Toronto startup community and some great news in advance of CIX in a few weeks. Toronto based Cognovision has reportedly been acquired by intel. According to DailyDOOH, which covers the digital out of home market, the pricetag was $17m.

    Cognovision was the winner of the CIX pitch competition last year.

    I have to admit that when I first heard the Cognovision pitch, it felt holodeck cool. It also seemed “too good to be true” — Turns out I was wrong and the company shot to ~$1m in revenue pretty quickly. Using a camera on top of a digital display, Cognovision could give you some rough estimates that covered:

    • Actual Impressions – The number of people who look at your displays
    • Length of Impressions – How long people look for
    • Potential Audience Size – The number of people who walk by
    • Dwell Time – How long people stay near your displays
    • Anonymous Demographics – Demographics of your audience (gender and age bracket)

    Congrats to Shahzad, Haroon an the entire team.

  • John Ruffolo joins OMERS to manage new Venture Capital arm

    Some great news for Ontario, and the national startup community, today. We are hearing from multiple sources that John Ruffolo will be joining OMERS as Senior Vice President of Knowledge Investing. He will start in the position on January 3rd 2011.

    This position, which is focused on managing direct Venture Capital investments, has been the subject of speculation since OMERS announced that they planned to take a similar direct investment model with Venture Capital as they have with Private Equity deals, which has been a successful model for them so far. Pension and other labour sponsored funds like OMERS have historically taken Limited Partner positions in third-party funds (the VC funds you know and love already) and this hands-on approach is unique in Canada.

    John Ruffolo was previously a Managing Partner at Deloitte’s Toronto office and he conducted the survey of Canadian VC GPs that we wrote about earlier.

    John’s reputation is positive and his knowledge of both the past and current startup and Venture Capital environment in Canada is unique. It is great to see things moving ahead in the development of a new capital source for startups in Canada.

  • Rogers out to woo mobile devs with Catalyst APIs

    This a.m. in Toronto, the folks at everyone’s favourite big red carrier, invited a collection of local developers and partners to give a sneak preview of their new carrier services API called Catalyst.

    At first swoopy-rosy-red blush, Rogers’ Catalyst looks almost oddly familiar to that old software branding of a certain other Markham-based technology heavyweight. Functionality wise however, Catalyst has a lot more in common with the similar multi-carrier initiative called OneAPI (also supported by Rogers btw). The difference with Catalyst is that it signals a split with OneAPI to give dev’s access to supposedly deeper/better but also proprietary integration with Rogers network. for now, these are services like messaging, location and billing. For developers, richer but proprietary api is either good or bad news, depending on your appetite for carrier-specific app development. Rogers and Fido may be Canada’s biggest mobile operator. However, tying your app to their network is obviously no way to reach every Canadian, let alone the world market.

    Those caveats aside, there is good stuff in this API. First up, everything is build on web and “SOAP and restful standards” promising to abstract away historically crufty telco interfaces, dedicated lines and slow/expensive integration certification.

    Functionality wise in this release we get:

    • Messaging: Web-based SMS origination, SMS delivery confirmation, and “instant” shortcode provisioning
    • Location: Server calls at various levels of accuracy vs speed that allows your cloud to geo-locate and track any handset on the network. A scary thought, but the service also comes with built-in opt-in and privacy controls.
    • Billing: the ability to bill up to $100/month to Rogers bills for apps or content. The revenue split is 30% Rogers, 70% developer, no need for CWTA shortcode to start using billing
    • More stuff, apparently coming soon

    So what does it mean for entrepreneurs and tinkerers? Sure you won’t yet take over the whole world with Rogers-only API integration. However I see a few great use cases: as fast/cheap proof of concept sandbox before you invest in scaling your app with many carrier integrations, for enterprise app development, for academic or mobile research projects. Now if only Rogers would also provide subsidized (or at least more flexible) hardware, sim cards and data plans with their developer programs they’d have a real winner. Where are our api’s for Canada’s aspiring hardware hackers I’d like to know? Where are our api’s for helping us do real commerce over mobile not just virtual goods? I may just be biased, maybe we’ll get there in time.

    The big picture here is we are seeing carriers trying to claw their way back into digital content value chain. It remains to be seen how well a single carrier can compete on alerts, location and content billing which, let’s face it, all smartphone platforms nowadays support some pretty decent version of natively. But notionally that’s fine. More choice and competition is good for developers. I’d like to see more big companies opening their kimono’s and offering up interesting APIs. Once they’re in the wild, have at the Rogers Catalyst APIs and let me know what you think.

    Rogers Catalyst Beta is not publicly available just yet, but should be launching in beta form within a week or so at rogerscatalyst.com

  • FedDev steps up with $190MM for S. Ontario

    Photo by anitakhart http://www.flickr.com/photos/anitakhart/2737188217/in/photostream/
    Photo by anitakhart

    The Federal Economic Development Agency for Southern Ontario announced a new Investing in Business Innovation program. The program offers matching for early-stage venture funding. This is a $190MM running from 2010-2014.

    There are provisions for startups and angel networks. Since we’re StartupNorth, let’s try to deal with the startup side first.

    • Startups who receive a termsheet from a qualified angel investor (as defined by the Ontario Securities Commission) or venture capital firm (registered with the Canadian Venture Capital association) are eligible to apply for up $1MM in loan from the federal government.
    • Restrictions:
      • Start-up businesses will be eligible for repayable contributions up to $1 million for no more than one third (33? percent) of total eligible and supported project costs.
      • An angel and/or venture capital investor(s) must be committed to provide at least two thirds (66? percent) of the cash contribution toward eligible and supported project costs.
      • In-kind contributions related to mentoring, networking, and other business skills cannot be considered as part of the angel or venture capital investor’s cash contribution.
      • A maximum of one project per eligible start-up SME can be funded under the initiative.
      • Direct eligible costs for start-up businesses may include:
        • Labour, capital and operating expenditures;
        • Materials and supplies;
        • Consulting and/or professional fees (limited to market rate); and,
        • Minor and non-capital acquisitions (e.g., software).
      • All project activities must be completed by March 31, 2014;

    Basically there is federal government matching loans up to $1MM for startups that are raising angel or venture funding in Southern Ontario. This is a fantastic start.

    It’s great for startups in Southern Ontario, it’s curious that the program is only available in Southern Ontario. Why not all of Canada? How are the repayment terms set? Is this a zero percent interest loan from the Federal Government? Does the term sheet have to be equity investment? Is convertible debt eligible? How do startups “demonstrate they are using business mentoring, counseling, or related services”?

  • David Crow is moving on from Microsoft

    John Oxley outed the news tonight. David Crow, one of the partners in crime here at Startupnorth, will be off the payroll at Microsoft as of the 24th of September.

    David has spent the last 4 years going to bat for startups inside Microsoft. Anyone who has asked for his help knows just how relentless he has been in making sure that the best entrepreneurs got the support they needed.

    I’m happy to see David moving on. Not because of anything to do with Microsoft, but I just think 4 years is long enough for anyone to stay at a corporate gig. It’s time for David to get back in the game and to kill it.

    Having worked with Dave to organize dozens of events and to write this blog, I can tell you that he is rare in his focus and his ability to obsess with details while still keeping this big picture in perspective (and to remind the rest of us about why we are doing what we are doing).

    He’s not talking about what’s next yet, but I know it’s going to be great.

  • Toronto community mourns passing of angel investor

    Paul Maasland from CBC
    Paul Maasland source: CBC & OPP

    Local angel investor Paul Maasland was murdered, his body was found north of Toronto at a public boat launch. We extend our deepest condolences to Mr. Maasland’s family. And our sincerest concerns go out to his friends and colleagues at Maple Leaf Angels and his investments (according to Mr. Maasland’s LinkedIn profile) including:

    The conversations with his investees shed some light on Mr. Maasland as an investor. From one of the portfolio companies CEOs:

    “I’d just say he was very generous with his time and resources and provided great input into how we ran [company removed]. He always was positive and excited about the initiatives were were doing.”

    These comments were repeated throughout Mr. Maasland’s portfolio. He was a knowledgeable, generous investor that provided useful guidance and support for his companies.

    This is an unexpected situation for anyone including many startups. It opens questions for startups about succession planning for Board Directors, questions around the Shareholders Agreement and the shares of a deceased investor. Hopefully most Boards are experienced in succession planning. As the shareholders change over time with new investment, replacing board members is a fairly straightforward and common practice (albeit usually under very different circumstances). Regarding what happens to a deceased investors shares this is decided between the deceased’s estate and the shareholders agreement. If an estate needs or chooses to liquidate the investment, many shareholders agreements have a clause that allows the company or other shareholders to purchase the investment at Fair Market Value. There are tax and legal considerations, so this should not be considered tax or legal advice, please consult a professional.

    It’s unfortunate for our small close knit community to suffer such a sudden, tragic loss. We are deeply saddened to hear about the loss of a member of our community.

  • John Philip Green joins CommunityLend

    Big news in the Toronto startup community today. John Philip Green, one of the founders of LearnHub.com, has joined CommunityLend.com as CTO. We have covered CommunityLend in the past as they have worked around regulatory hurdles to become the first provider of peer-to-peer financing in Canada. They have raised over $2.5 million to date.

    John has helped to advise CommunityLend from the very beginning, so this seems like a natural fit. I am a bit disappointed that he won’t be working on a new startup of his own, but it is great to see him end up at such a high-potential Toronto startup.

    Savvica, which John founded with his wife Malgosia, has been growing quickly and is back primarily by  Shantanu Prakash, the founder of Educomp Solutions. John and Malgosia have developed significant operations in India, with over 60 employees there at present, and a headquarters in Toronto. Savvica and its sister sites have evolved significantly in the last few years and now includes Learnhub,  JumboTests, Nuvvo, Studyplaces and EduIgnite.

    CommunityLend, who announced John’s joining today, is the only provider of peer-to-peer financing in Canada.

  • NextMontreal.com launches – "news and opinion on technology and startups"

    NextMontreal.com is going live today. It is the result of a push by Ben Yoskovitz to create a new source of information for the Montreal community after MontrealTechWatch went dormant over a year ago.

    Why now?
    When first thinking about this project, Ben wrote:

    When the site was active it provided a great deal of exposure to Montreal, and helped build a stronger community. There’s a lot going on in Montreal for tech startups and entrepreneurs, but without adequate reporting, too much of it doesn’t get the attention deserved.

    At that time, MontrealTechWatch had been more or less dead for over a year and the tech community was very quickly gathering momentum again.

    What about MontrealTechWatch?
    In the time since Ben began working on NextMontreal.com, Heri started blogging regularly on MontrealTechWatch again. I advocated for the community to restart MontrealTechWatch, so I was glad to see that. The existence of two community sites in Montreal will cause some confusion, but I think it is fine. Both sites compliment eachother, have very different operating models, and will most likely each find specific audiences within the Montreal tech and startup community.

    The role of community sites
    There is a broader discussion that we need to have about the role of community blogs in Canada’s tech hubs. We need blogs which aggregate people, ideas and events in order to showcase the activity in places like Montreal, Toronto, Vancouver, Edmonton, Calgary, Quebec City and Atlantic Canada. There are cool things happening in all of these places, you just have to scratch the surface to see what is going on.

    Running a community site is hard though, and it takes dedication. NextMontreal will be testing a new model, which will hopefully bring scale to this concept and a broader set of voices to the community.

    No matter what, Montreal should count itself lucky to have so many people who are so passionate about making the startup community in the city thrive. Most do it for little or no direct reward, and those are exactly the people you want behind the wheel.

  • Beyond the Rack raises $12million

    MontrealStartup is reporting that their portfolio company, Beyond the Rack, has secured a new round of financing with BDC Venture Capital and Highland Capital Partners.

    I have been watching Beyond the Rack since Montreal Startup’s initial investment, but I had no idea they were getting so much traction. The company is just under two years old and is led by Yona Shtern, who was an employee at My Virtual Model, one of the bubble-era startups that swept through Montreal. More recently Yona was the Chief Marketing Officer at Ice.com.

    The Montreal Startup team recently secured the first commitments for Founder Fuel, which will be a larger sister-fund to Montreal Startup. Their early stage investment in Beyond the Rack will hopefully make it easier to secure the remaining commitments for the new fund, and this puts the team squarely in the top-tier of early and seed stage investors in Canada along with Extreme Ventures and Scott Pelton at Growthworks.

    This also represents one of the most significant follow-on rounds for a Canadian micro-fund. The fact that BDC Venture Capital was able to participate and keep some of that action in-country is nice.

  • Russia learning from Silicon Valley

    While everyone in Quebec and Ontario were doing the shake-rattle-and-roll, the Silicon Valley establishment was playing host to Russia’s  President Medvedev.

    Apparently having your economy rely solely on exporting oil and mafia dons isn’yt considered sound economic policy so Medvedev got his buddy Ivan Danko to show him around the at likes of Twitter and Cisco.

    In case you’ve been living in Siberia and haven’t heard, Russia wants to build its own Silicon Valley from scratch in a town outside of Moscow. So we guess Medvedev was asking around for the “how to” manual.

    This reminded us of a brief discussion we had over at the C100 website a few weeks back. You can check out the comments over there, but we’ve also reposted here to continue to spur a bit of debate…

    Does Canada need its own Silicon Valley?

    Tuesday, June 1, 2010 at 03:37AM

    OK, I’m going to pull the pin and lob a rhetorical grenade to get a discussion going…

    Have you head of Skolkovo, Russia? No? Apparently it is somewhere near Moscow and is the future home of Russia’s Silicon Valley. What? You don’t believe it? Well some US investors sure do, to the tune of $250 million. And this isn’t the only government backed innovation center that is being built from the ground up. There may be a Silicon Valley being built up in Russia but the Dubai has its sites firmly set to be the 21stSilicon Oasis. Century’s

    Both these locations have or are attracting talented engineers. Both of these locations have or are attracting massive amounts of capital.

    And they aren’t the only two countries that are trying to build their own flavor of Silicon Valley. There are probably a dozen similar projects in a dozen countries around the world. But one country that isn’t embarking on its own Silicon Valley master plan is Canada.

    If a US PE can come up with  250 million reasons why Russia will successfully build the next hub of innovation, surely Canada, with its improving investment climate and its refreshing lack of mafia domination could convince investors to put some green in the Great White North.

    Is Canada missing the boat? Does it need to create a chilly Silicon Valley somewhere near Alert in order to compete in the global high-tech market?

    Discuss…..