Ventrada poised for first revenue and additional financing by mid year

The prospect of earning its first revenue this year coupled with the addition of one of Ottawa’s most noted entrepreneurs has given Ventrada Systems Inc a good shot at landing another round of financing by June. Currently CEO at BitFlash, Antoine Paquin joins the emerging wireless company’s advisory board along side other experienced technology, marketing and industry people (see box). He is the former head of Skystone Systems, which was sold to Cisco Systems for $89 million in 1997, and Philsar Semiconductor, which was acquired by Conexant last year. Paquin’s presence on Ventrada’s advisory committee will help bring credibility to the company’s technology and business plan. He will also be able to provide some valuable insight on two levels, says Ventrada VP marketing Adrian Salamunovic. "One as an entrepreneur who has successfully grown two companies and also as an advisor in the wireless space. We (will be) able to leverage his knowledge and understanding of where the markets are moving." The Ottawa-based company recently released the first version of its file access and sharing software, Ventrada Remote, at the Cellular Telecommunications and Internet Associations’ annual conference in Las Vegas. The technology enables corporate users to access and manipulate various types of attachments on WAP-enabled phones, PDAs and other wireless devices. It also easily and securely connects to multiple PCs, servers or anywhere information may be stored for various types of devices. But more importantly, says Salamunovic, the user can access, open and manipulate attachments. The advisory board, as a whole, will play a key role in helping the company develop marketing strategies and identify partnership opportunities as Ventrada continues its early stage growth. The company was founded last year by Salamunovic and Eliot Burdett and has so far relied on angel financing to get started. Technology fills gap Since its launch only a few years ago, mobile email has become an accepted tool for many companies, whether it be via mobile phones or PDAs, such as the Research in Motion BlackBerry. The main drawback, however, has been that users are unable to access and manipulate data found in attachments. It’s a market that’s still relatively untapped. Market research firms estimate the value of the data access middleware market to grow from today’s value of about $650 million to $1.2 billion by 2004. Salamunovic is bullish about his company’s potential to tap into this demand. Describing files, documents and other attachments as "essentially the currency of business", he notes that while several companies are working on email solutions, "very few are solving the attachment problem." Using Ventrada’s technology, BlackBerry or WAP-enabled phone users will be able to access various types of content found in attachments. It also aggregates the view of all the locations where the user has stored information. "We’re like Internet Explorer on steroids in that sense," says Salamunovic. "We let you access all that data and then (you’re) able to remotely move and control that data, send email or fax that data." That data can be anything from a simple Microsoft Word attachment, he notes, to a highly complicated AutoCAD file. Now that the company has released its product commercially, it will be searching out wireless service providers and wireless carriers interested in offering this type of application to its corporate subscribers.

Ventrada poised for first revenue and additional financing by mid year

News | 04/03/2001 4:00 am EDT

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