StartupNorth

  • New $150 million Blackberry Fund, based in Canada

    VentureBeat decided to jump the gun this weekend and post some news that has been floating around lately about a new Blackberry fund. They deleted the post from their blog, but it was still available in Google Reader and in other places and TechCrunch got to it late on Saturday.

    The new fund is being managed by RBC Ventures, who just last week closed an investment in Toronto-Based Blackberry application Viigo, and JLA Ventures. RIM, maker of the Blackberry, is a limited partner in this fund, but is not involved in the day-to-day investment decisions.

    The rumor mill has been churning away on this one for months here in Toronto. Originally the numbers we were hearing were $100 million, but as the weeks went by, people started to hint that things had heated up and there were partners involved up to $150 million. That number, $150M, turned out to be true.

    Companies funded by the Blackberry Partners Fund do not have to be producing Blackberry applications yet. The press release says that the fund is “Agnostic to both stage and balance sheet, the BlackBerry Partners Fund will not restrict the development of mobile applications and services to any single mobile platform or any specific industry segment.”, which is all true, but only companies who have a Blackberry Application in their roadmap will be funded.

    The fund will be will be announced at WES in Orlando tomorrow morning.

    It is interesting to note that RBC Ventures recently funded another Balsillie company, Igloo Software with $4M. Jim Balsillie, the CEO of RIM, is on the Board of Directors of Igloo Software, who closed their financing last week.

    In talking to Rick Segal, one of the partners at JLA Ventures, about this new fund he put it very plainly: The test will be in 6 months when we look at how many deals have actually gotten done.

    Will this be another Java Fund? I certainly hope not, espcially for Canadian companies who have a chance to connect with some known VCs and tap in to a strong fund with great connections to the maker of the most popular Web, Email and Voice device out there.

  • $4,000,000 for IGLOO

    IGLOO Software, an enterprise social software company based in Waterloo, has raised $4M from RBC Venture Partners. Kevin Talbot, Managing Director of RBC Venture Partners, has joined IGLOO’s board, which is chaired by Jim Balsillie, Co-CEO of Research In Motion.

    The Kitchener, On based company has spring out of development of IGLOO.org.

    “Founded in 2003, IGLOO’s social networking platform helps hundreds of organizations globally reduce email burden, remove distances across branch
    offices and inspire teams with new productivity and collaboration tools. The platform was initially developed to support an online international network of researchers, practitioners and educators working on global issues.”

    Igloo Software on StartupIndex

  • viigo.com – A new round of funding and a cool new app

    Viigo has announced a new round of funding today. They had previously raised a total of $6.4M and this round, at $1.5M now puts them at a total of $7.9M in angel and VC investment.

    The $1.5M, which will go towards developing their latest project, codenamed Tango and which will be launched at WES next week, comes from RBC Venture Partners.

    I hear a lot of great reviews of Viigo from Blackberry users.

    Viigo on StartupIndex.

  • Idée, who we have covered a few times, is slowly going public with their skunkworks project, called TinEye.

    TinEye is a major undertaking, and it is going to bring Idée out of the shadows of the Enterprise product space and right in to your livingroom with a tool that is the equivalent of a Google for images. In fact, I bet Google wishes they had an image search as great as TinEye. I have had a chance to play with it over the last few months and it is hard to describe just how awesome this image search is.

    TineEye, which allows anyone to search the internet for images the are similar to an original image, is a consumer-focused site that offers many of the core image matching capabilities of Idée’s enterprise product PixID, but does not offer the enterprise-level monitoring capabilities.

    In talking about TinEye, Idee has been very explicit in saying “TinEye literally does for images what Google does for text.” That can be hard to believe right until you actually use the tool. The speed and accuracy of TinEye can only be described at uncanny. It is totally refreshing to play with a tool and a technology that is exciting and inspiring to use. In the last few weeks I have played with some competing tools, and none can match TinEye. Idée’s CEO Leila Boujnane, who spoke at the latest StartupCamp here in Toronto, has said that they will begin looking for about $10-million to $12-million in capital funding for a small stake in the company.

    To celebrate the upcoming launch of TinEye, and to spread the word on how great this tool is, we are giving away 20 beta invitations to TinEye.com. To get one, all you have to do is leave a comment below and make sure you fill in your email address. I will send invitations to the first 20 people to leave a comment.

    Idée on StartupIndex.ca

  • CIX – Our chance to create something great?

    I think a lot of people considered CIX, held in Toronto last week, to be a simple extension of the defunct Canadian Venture Forum. The Canadian Venture Forum, which was dealt a fatal blow last year with the death of the Toronto Venture Group, did look very similar in a lot of ways. A slew of companies were all hawking their wares and pitching for financing from Canada’s Venture Capitalists, and while there were at least 20 startups there vying for attention, actual VCs seemed to be hard to come by regularly.

    The CIX is not perfect. The concept of pitching a room full of VCs for money has some serious flaws, not the least of which is the fact that the majority of the VCs who attended CIX in the morning did not stick around to see the pitches in the afternoon. Add on top of that the likelihood of this conference giving birth to a successful deal directly from the pitches, and you are in for a lot of disappointed attendees.

    It is my hope that CIX will look a lot different next year. Normally that would be too much to ask, but in the last few months I have gotten to know Robert Montgomery, the invisible hand behind the CIX conference, and he gives me hope.

    In order to remain relevant, the CIX organizers need to now connect with the community and find out what was relevant, and what wasn’t. The two communities that the CIX touches, Startup Entreprenurs and Angels/VCs, will have different needs, and the trick will be to address both.

    I do not believe that what the two groups need is either pitch sessions with 10 back-to-back pitches, nor does either community want a series of panels that offer little real value. What we need are connections, rapidfire demos and a venue for the best and most aggressive Startups AND VCs to stand out.

    The way I see it, Robert and his staff have a lot of work ahead of them, but they aren’t the only ones. If Robert will step up and listen, we have to be ready to pitch in and do our part.

    In the next few days I will post a few of my experiences at CIX. Some were very positive and some were a lot less encouraging.

    What would you change? Is this a hopeless beauty contest? Should we boycott CIX next year, or should we embrace it?

  • Weekend Reading – May 3, 2008

    Add some startups, deals, and investors to StartupIndex this rainy weekend.

    Inky the Octopz accepts ‘Best of Show’ award at CIX.

    The iPhone is coming to Canada.

    Oz Communications raises $10M in venture debt from Wellington Financial.

    The community out west continues to rally, DemoCamp Edmonton is scheduled for May 20

    And in case you missed CIX, here is a recap:

  • Refresh Analytics – Analytics and Demographics for Facebook developers

    My love for Facebook Applications is no secret.

    There is, however, a shining light in the world of Facebook Applications and that is the smart folks who build custom Facebook applications for other people. The business model is sound: Get paid up front to build a great application and you don’t have to worry about the business model or any of the other nasty stuff that comes along with being stuck inside Facebook.

    Refresh Analytics is being launched today and it on the smart side of the Facebook platform. They provide analytics and reporting tools to the owners of Facebook applications. The tool, which is free for applications with less than 1000 users, provides tracking across 13 demographic and 6 interest categories such as geography, gender, age, martial status, music, books and more. All demographic information is collected in aggregate to protect user privacy and respect the Facebook platform terms of service.

    Products like this have the potential to be very successful inside of a platform like Facebook. As more and more application developers struggle to make their applications successful, they are going to have to turn to rich data about their user base in order to build compelling and relevant features.

    More successful Facebook applications will also want access to better analytics so that they can do a better job of selling ads within their applications, or so that they do a better job of targeting their users with specific messages.

    The guys at Refresh have also partnered with Joyent to mitigate any sort of scaling issues. Joyent provides flexible hosting that can grow and reduce capacity as needed. Hopefully they’ll need it!

    Refresh Analytics on StartupIndex

  • SmartHippo – Chowhound for Mortgages

    SmartHippo, based in Montreal, has had quite an exciting week. In addition to launching a new version of the site, a US mortgage search engine and comparison community, at Finovate San Fransisco, George Favvas SmartHippo’s CEO has managed to bring together a fantastic advisory board. Board members include Lori Collins, former Senior Vice President and General Manager for LendingTree Exchange; Bill Rice, CEO of Kaleidico; and Toronto’s very own John Philip Green, Founder and CTO of LearnHub.

    SmartHippo is an interesting startup launching a product into a market in turmoil. Interest rates are all over the map, housing prices are deflating, and homeowners are nervous. While there is possibly going to be less action in the mortgage business while the market finds it’s bearings, it may be just the time to bring together a community to ferret out the best mortgage rates.

    LowerMyBills.com was acquired by Experian in 2005 for more than $330M. Bankrate.com has a market cap of $986M. And LendingTree.com is being spun off by IAC. Mortgage origination pays. SmartHippo’s main challenge now is building a community. He is on the right track by “not letting the business model get in the way of business.”

    “LendingTree and LowerMyBills are pure lead generation plays that match the consumer with the banks that pay the most for the lead (not the ones with the best rates). Bankrate lets banks advertise ‘bait and switch’ rates.” While like its competitors SmartHippo makes money with mortgage application origination, their approach is much more transparent: finding and rating mortgage rates and banks is driven in large part by user reports. Transparency works. It is probably only a matter of time before SmartHippo has to deal with a stampede of smart borrowers.

    Check out SmartHippo’s StartupIndex profile.

  • startupindex.ca – Free our data, free the community

    Tonight at StartupCamp Toronto we are launching Startupindex.ca, an open, community-managed and free startup tracking database for the Canadian startup community. This is Version 1, and we will be putting a lot of work in to it in the next few weeks and months.

    When we began tracking startups here on Startupnorth, there was no other decent source of publicly accessible coverage of startup activity in Canada. In the last year we have tracked over 100 startups, investments and events related to the startup community. While this blog has kept us up to date on a lot of what is going on, we are still only covering a small fraction of what is really going on.

    Why are we doing this?

    Most of us have a pretty good idea of what is going on in our own city. We get to hear about new startups, rumors of the latest deals are always flying around and we have some idea of who the best entrepreneurs are, but the truth is you don’t have to travel very far until things become less obvious. From Vancouver to Victoria, Toronto to Waterloo, Ottawa to Montreal, Halifax to Moncton, we can make a very short trip but still not know who’s who and what’s new.

    By tracking startup activity nationally we can start to build more awareness of which startups are worth watching, we can also quickly find out which Investors are doing deals and which ones are less active. The “Wheat from the Chaff” as they say.

    This is also an opportunity to find out the truth about the Canadian Startup community. Is it dead or alive? We can either put grand claims to rest, or we can light a fire under them.

    A lot of startup activity and almost all of the funding activity in Canada is actively tracked. These databases are closed off from the public and charge access fees nearing $10,000 (that is seed funding for some companies!). They also offer no value back to the very community that needs this data the most. Startups and Investors, who are the basis of the data being captured, either have to pay the subscription fee or live without the data.

    We believe that this data should be free and that it is a liability if startups and Investors do not have a clear and concise place to access this information. We are betting that our open, accessible and equal approach will bring more value to more people, and that is something we think is worth doing.

    So please, head over to startupindex.ca and make sure your startup has a profile. We will be adding new features, such as ratings, email subscriptions and commenting in the short term, and we want your help in building this as it grows.

  • Founders & Funders Toronto – June 4, 2008

    Jevon MacDonald and I are please to announce the second Toronto Founders & Funders dinner on June 4, 2008.

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    What: Founders & Funders Toronto
    Founders & Funders is a private, invite only social event. Founders and Funders is dedicated: to helping Canadian entrepreneurs to meet each other; meet potential funders: angel, VC or other money sources; to have fun; and see how we can help each other create the NEXT BIG successful company.
    When: Wednesday, June 4, 2008 5:30 PM to 10:00 PM

    The inaugural Toronto event sold out. And we’re expecting this event to reach capacity very quickly.

    We are limited to 100 seats. The fee for the dinner is $100 which will include drinks and dinner.  This is a private networking event and we are selecting the audience to ensure a quality group of attendees. And to provide the best chance to network together.

    How do I get an Invite?

    If you would like to attend the dinner, please fill out the following form and let us know who you are.

    We will be contacting those invited with details on the registration and attendance details for the dinner in the coming weeks.

    Special Guest  – Dan’l LewinDan'l Lewin

    We’re incredibly lucky to have Dan’l Lewin scheduled to be in attendance (Dan’l is the Corporate Vice-President, Strategic and Emerging Business Development for Microsoft). Check out GigaOM’s interview with Dan’l where he talks candidly about his role in Microsoft and how Microsoft works with other emerging technology companies.

    Dan’l Lewin is corporate vice president of Strategic and Emerging Business Development, responsible for managing worldwide strategic business relationships with venture capitalists and emerging venture-capital-backed businesses, as well as managing the business relationship with leading global industry partners such as SUN, Adobe, Intuit and BEA to ensure their applications interoperate with and run well on the Microsoft platform – for the benefit of the companies’ common customers. Lewin is based at Microsoft’s Mountain View, Calif. campus.

    A 25-year Silicon Valley veteran, Lewin was most recently CEO of Aurigin Systems Inc., an enterprise software company focused on intellectual property asset management. He also spent 18 years as an executive, leading sales and marketing divisions for companies including Apple Computer Corp., NeXT Inc. and GO Corporation. In addition, Lewin has served as a consultant for emerging companies, venture capital firms and corporate joint ventures.

    Lewin holds an A.B. in politics from Princeton University.

    Sponsors

    We’re working with a number of great organizations to sponsor the event.

    If you would like to sponsor this event or other Founders & Funders events across Canada please feel free to contact David Crow or Jevon MacDonald.