By KRYSTLE CHOW
Published in the Ottawa Business Journal newspaper and website.
July 23, 2007 (July 25 on OttawaBusinessJournal.com)

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While the Ottawa Centre for Research and Innovation (OCRI)’s second-quarter venture capital report released last week showed that local investment rebounded from a sluggish first quarter that saw a single disclosed financing deal, the investment community says there is still a funding gap.Ottawa’s startups may have to tighten their belts a little further or look outside of the venture capital community for funding, as venture capitalists (VCs) continue to look for safer investments with faster payouts.

“The VC community is having trouble raising money, and they are not at the pace they were years ago,” says Robert Ford of law firm Gowlings, who notes that the latest quarter’s performance is somewhat expected.

“VC funds, by their very nature, have a short life, and they have to get some return on their investment at the wind-up of their partnerships. But we’re not seeing a lot of big mergers and acquisitions and initial public offerings here, so new money is being invested in good safe returns such as oil and gas, China and India, instead of in ventures.”

There’s definitely less money in the marketplace, Mr. Ford says, and even good companies with interesting technology are getting funded on a smaller scale in Ottawa.

“It’s always a tough environment, especially for new ventures like ourselves, but it’s even more competitive right now with lots of great companies out there competing for a smaller and smaller amount of money,” says Kenton White, chief technology officer of new media company Distil Interactive, which bagged Continue reading →

By KRYSTLE CHOW
Published in the Ottawa Business Journal newspaper and website.
June 25, 2007 (June 27 on OttawaBusinessJournal.com)

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Brian Mahony of Espial says the IPTV market could help wireline companies gain customers back from cable companies.
Photo by DARREN BROWN for the Ottawa Business Journal

Today’s consumer faces a dizzying array of telephone, television and Internet options – known as the “triple play” – with cable companies falling over each other to offer the cheapest bundles with the most features.

But telecommunications companies have been falling behind in the race to win customers ever since cable firms discovered a way to offer voice as well as their more traditional television and Internet services.

Although some telcos have ventured into the satellite market to try and take back some of the market from their cable competitors, analysts say the technology is often not as versatile and interactive as what is being offered by the cable companies.

Enter Internet protocol television (IPTV) and with it Espial Group Inc., an Ottawa company which makes software that offers telcos a way to provide cost-effective, interactive television through existing DSL lines.

“Remember the old days when we only had five television channels with maybe a few more if you had bunny ears? Well, we’re now in an environment with hundreds of channels (with cable and satellite television), and then you have our technology which enables a YouTube-like environment with millions of channels,” says Espial’s vice-president of marketing Brian Mahony. “The technology could also make it possible for you to chat on your instant messenger while watching Canadian Idol.” Continue reading →

By KRYSTLE CHOW
Published in the Ottawa Business Journal newspaper and website.
June 25, 2007 (June 27 on OttawaBusinessJournal.com)

Click here to view this article on OttawaBusinessJournal.com.

Jeff Bennett (left) and Joe Bevk of ServiceVantage say Ottawa software companies sometimes have a short-sighted view when it comes to learning from their colleagues.
Photo by DARREN BROWN for the Ottawa Business Journal

Ottawa’s software industry is like any other thing in its infancy: it just hasn’t learned to share with others yet.

At least, that’s what some industry insiders are suggesting.

Joe Bevk and Jeff Bennett, partners at software business consulting firm ServiceVantage Corporation, say local companies tend to be so focused on their specific applications that they may ignore any chances to work with other companies who might share similar client bases, even if they don’t do quite the same thing.

Take, for example, on-demand response management solutions maker Kinaxis Inc., manufacturing monitoring systems company Sciemetric Instruments Inc. and aviation maintenance software firm Mxi Technologies, Mr. Bennett says.

On the surface, the three companies may have nothing in common, but dig a little deeper and you’ll find that Kinaxis may want to sell to Ford – which works with Sciemetric – Sciemetric might want to deal with Mxi’s customer Boeing, while Mxi might be interested in selling to Honeywell, which works with Kinaxis.

“If the CEOs of these three companies were to meet and roll out the Rolodex, there’s no doubt Continue reading →

By KRYSTLE CHOW
Published in the Ottawa Business Journal newspaper and website.
June 11, 2007

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BTI Photonics CEO Lance Laking.
Photo by DARREN BROWN for the Ottawa Business Journal

Fibre-optics technology isn’t just for the telecom industry anymore, and Ottawa’s photonics companies are capitalizing on that fact with innovative new products for telecom and beyond.

Six-year-old BTI Photonics is one such company. It caters to the boom of high-bandwidth sites like video uploading phenomenon YouTube with its system-level photonics product that dramatically increases the capacity of networks “at the edge.” These networks are used by small business parks and suburbs, and are smaller than the core infrastructures for central offices provided by companies such as Nortel and Cisco.

“With the onslaught of video-streaming on the Internet, sites like Joost and Google are increasing their requirements for video capacity and there are huge demands on bandwidth and service providers’ infrastructure,” says BTI’s chief executive officer Lance Laking. “It’s a challenge for cable and telephone companies to deliver this bandwidth competitively.”

Mr. Laking says the video-streaming trend has changed all requirements for infrastructure, with what is currently available for networks at the edge unable to accommodate the huge bandwidth needed.

However, BTI’s product is able to fit on top of existing systems to increase capacity, thereby saving the huge cost of having to build an entirely new infrastructure.

“Photonics has advanced and is now optimized for lower-cost applications,” adds Mr. Laking.

Meanwhile OZ Optics, which started out in 1985 as a sensors business but focused on telecom during the boom in the ’90s, has returned to its first love. It is developing a photonics-based sensor which helps detect information such as structural strain, temperature and damage, on a distributed basis. Continue reading →

By KRYSTLE CHOW
Published in the Ottawa Business Journal.
May 28, 2007

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RAMTelecom CEO Ralph Misener.
Photo by DARREN BROWN for the Ottawa Business Journal

Satellite services company RAMTelecom Inc. has ended takeover negotiations with Texas-based SkyPort Global Communications Inc., with SkyPort walking away from the deal just a few weeks after appointing a new CEO.

Ottawa-based RAMTelecom last week announced that it has a reached a mutual agreement with SkyPort to “terminate the proposed acquisition of RAMTelecom to SkyPort and, alternatively, strengthen their alliance moving forward.”

“We recognize the common synergies between the two companies and strengthening the existing business-to-business relationship will help us expand our satellite-based business communications services,” said RAMTelecom chief executive Ralph Misener in a statement.

Mr. Misener added that the company has started Continue reading →

By KRYSTLE CHOW
Published in the Ottawa Business Journal newspaper and website.
May 14, 2007 (May 16 on OttawaBusinessJournal.com)

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It’s no secret that the wireless consumer market is heating up. One needs only to look around to see how Bluetooth headsets for mobile phones have become the accessory for gadget junkies and the average urbanite alike.

Now Kleer Semiconductor – a California-based startup with its roots and research and development firmly planted on Ottawa soil – is looking to break into the market with its high-fidelity wireless headphone technology, although it faces a tough fight against the industry leaders.

Kleer’s product is a chip that allows headphone manufacturers to make wireless headsets which produce crisp, CD-quality audio, use less battery life and are less bulky than other headsets.

The company says its product uses 10 times less power than Continue reading →

By KRYSTLE CHOW
Published in the Ottawa Business Journal newspaper and website.
April 30, 2007

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Tarquin Group CEO Don Gibbs.
Photo by DARREN BROWN for the Ottawa Business Journal

Don Gibbs, chief executive officer of Tarquin Group, says the industrial technology company picked its name because Tarquin – one of the last kings of Rome – was a builder, and the company is looking to follow in his footsteps by building value bit by bit.

Tarquin Group, which began its life as capital pool company Growthgen Equity Inc., recently began making its mark on the local manufacturing technology scene when it bought two Ottawa companies and announced plans to raise about $5 million through a private placement.

The company bought laser applications technology startup Process Photonics in March, then turned its attentions to food inspection systems maker DIPIX Technologies Inc. earlier this month.

“Process Photonics epitomized the type of company we were looking for, having sold a $400,000 laser drilling machine despite competing against $3-billion companies,” says Mr. Gibbs. “And DIPIX is a market leader … with a customer base that reads like Continue reading →

By KRYSTLE CHOW
Published in the Ottawa Business Journal newspaper and website.
April 23, 2007 (April 25 on OttawaBusinessJournal.com)

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Amika Mobile CEO Suhayya Abu-Hakima.
Photo by DARREN BROWN for the Ottawa Business Journal

Entrepreneur Suhayya Abu-Hakima successfully raised more than US$4 million in angel financing with her first startup, and is currently aiming to raise $1 million to $2 million with her second company.

She says she took her e-mail risk management server products company AmikaNow! Corp. to Bay Street venture capitalists in 2000. Finding the terms unsuitable for her company, she turned to angel investors for financing and managed to raise about US$4 million, as well as another $575,000 in federal government financing.

“In 2002, we were aggressively pursued by venture capitalists in Boston because compliance was hot at the time, but we were asked to relocate and I said no,” Ms. Abu-Hakima adds.

She has since moved on to start her second company, Amika Mobile, following the successful sale of AmikaNow!’s compliance business to Entrust in 2004.

However, Ms. Abu-Hakima is one of a rare breed of women entrepreneurs who are willing and able to apply for equity financing of any kind, be it angel financing, venture capital, or equity invested by the business owners themselves.

A recent study co-authored by University of Ottawa professors Barbara Orser and Allan Riding shows that Continue reading →