Q-News

April 2011

Google Strikes Again

Posted in Mike's Commentary

March financing results trended positively with a total of $122 million reported raised by nine technology companies and, given that four transactions did not disclose amounts raised, we see the month as representing a nice uptick. 

Of recent note is the Google acquisition of PushLife for a rumored $25 million.  Congratulations goes out to Raymond Reddy, the founder and CEO of PushLife and both Robin Axon and Duncan Hill at Mantella Ventures Partners.  For those who are counting that makes four acquisitions that Google has made in Canada during the past 12 months: BumpTop, Zetawire, SocialDeck and PushLife.  Compare those numbers to Microsoft’s Canadian acquisition initiatives, which if memory serves me right was last exhibited with the acquisition of Opalis Software in December 2009.  If my numbers are correct, since the beginning of April 2010 Google has announced 30 acquisitions comprised of 17 US companies, 4 Canadian companies, 4 UK companies, 2 Israeli companies and one each from Germany, Ireland and Greece.  Furthermore, all four of the Canadian companies are focused on mobile initiatives, which certainly confirms a growing view that Waterloo and Toronto are becoming firmly entrenched as leaders in global mobile software and application development.

Interesting deal of the month certainly goes to Canadian e-tailor Indochino who completed a $4 million round led by Madrona Venture Group out of Seattle.  Indochino is a Vancouver-based company that promises to deliver stylish, affordable, made-to-measure suits to clients anywhere in the world in under two weeks.  The company received an original seed round from Canadian investor Boris Wertz of W Media Ventures and a second round from Burda Digital Ventures, which also contributed to this most recent round.  Since its founding in 2007, the Company claims to have served 17,000 customers and, while most are in North America, Indochino states that it has customers in 60 countries.  According to the CEO, Indochino has passed the seven-figure revenue mark and has positive cash flow.

We would also like to congratulate the 2011 winners of TieQuest.  This year the winning company was Rna Diagnostics followed by second place winner NIMTech.  Rna Diagnostics’ first product, RNA Disruption Assay, is a novel test that measures RNA structural dysfunction in cancer cells. RNA can determine whether a particular chemotherapy is working effectively in the patient early in treatment, thereby guiding clinical decision making.  NIMTech is an award-winning Canadian cleantech company that has developed a proprietary ultrasonic measurement technology that provides a new level of non-invasive, real-time product analysis that the Company claims will revolutionize industrial manufacturing. The Company states that its SonicGauge™ System can non-invasively see through a pipeline or container and track the “chemical fingerprint” of substances and changes to their chemical composition. 

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