Former Telefilm executive on prowl for web investments for venture capital fund

Former Telefilm Canada executive Brian Katz says his new position at Toronto-based Infopreneur Inc will put him in charge of a significant new capital pool earmarked for in-house and external new media projects. Katz says the Toronto-based firm is finalizing the details of a new venture fund that could invest up to $500,000 each in five or seven projects per year. For larger projects, Infopreneur would seek financial help from outside sources. Infopreneur has already incubated two web properties, ChillyBeach.com and ITWorldCanada.com, and has designs on launching several more. Its focus will be lifestyle properties that lend themselves to information-based programming and electronic transactions. Katz hopes the new sites will be attractive partner propositions for niche players including the extensive slate of new digital television hopefuls (CNM, April 20/00). ChillyBeach, a South Park-style animated series in development as a TV project, has already attracted accolades, and Katz says ITWorldCanada.com is the "dominant IT portal in Canada producing both content and transactions." Founded in 1997, Infopreneur produces both original and fee-for-service content for building web and ecom sites as well as CDs. Earlier this year it created a venture arm, and hired Katz as its VP of business development and executive producer of content. Katz says adding an investment division is crucial as the company moves forward developing more original content, either by funding others or creating the material in-house. "The landscape of the industry is such that to have ownership of your own brand name, you either have to bring money, brand or talent to the table with partners," he explains. "(The VC arm) is basically just to maintain an equity base in the properties you want to develop rather than give up ownership to some other party." Rather than give up ownership of a project to CTV or CBC, he says, "we want to maintain some of the revenue streams, so we're going to pony up some of our money." The company has an extensive background in telecommunications technologies owing to its management's experience with such companies as Nortel Networks Corp and Newbridge Networks Corp. Katz, who joined the company March 6, brings experience in picking new media winners. He was previously in charge of a $30-million Telefilm fund for similar digital content, and has a previous background in the film, TV and multimedia industries. He says picking the right project for funding can be a gamble. "It's always a bit of a crap shoot knowing what the audience will connect to. But you can generally see what's already working out there in the industry in terms of branding and saying ‘we can do this on the Internet,' and leveraging print or TV properties to the Internet." Infopreneur's new venture arm will also focus on promoting new content, something non-traditional players have relied on heavily to transform themselves into digital players. "What I think we're seeing in industry in general is a lot of companies becoming media players," Katz told Canadian NEW MEDIA. "Look at Labatt, with their beer.com. Anybody with a website can now broadcast, to the extent that they have money to market and promote- The one with the largest bark usually gets somewhat of a bite and if their quality is any good, they'll maintain their audience." Infopreneur has invested so far in two web-based companies, but Katz expects digital TV projects will likely be allocated a fair share of its new venture dollars. "It's going to be a reality that web sites will be competing with interactive television stations," he says. "To the extent that we can create content that will be of use to them and their audience, then we'll succeed."

Former Telefilm executive on prowl for web investments for venture capital fund

News | 05/18/2000 4:00 am EDT

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