This year's crop of Ottawa firms looking for funding include a mobile gaming firm, a semiconductor company and a biodiesel technology producer.
This year's Banff Venture Forum comes as local venture capital funding sits at its lowest level in more than a decade. Only $31 million has been invested locally this year, down from $229 million in 2006, according to numbers compiled by Thomson Reuters VC Reporter and cited by OCRI.
That's a drop of more than 86 per cent over a time period when national numbers only fell 45 per cent.
Comparatively, Toronto and Montreal have seen decreases of only $11 million and $17 million, respectively, during the same time period.
"Getting financing to take your company to a larger scale is a challenge in today's environment," said Jack Hunt, CEO of Netcelerate Corp., one of the companies attending the forum.
"It's a challenge particularly in Canada, I think less so in the United States."
Netcelerate is hoping to find one or two investors to provide a total investment of $5 million for its next financing round, expected to be in the next 18 to 24 months.
"It gives us the chance to, in a really efficient way, get in front of venture capitalists and other investors from all over North America, instead of going on the road and trying to knock on their door," said Mr. Hunt.
He said expecting to walk away from the forum with cash in hand would be naive, but that he hopes to establish relationships with venture capitalists.
The Banff Forum is one of the largest venture capital events in Canada, with 47 IT, life sciences and clean-tech companies from Canada and the U.S. making presentations.
Michelle Scarborough, managing director of OCRI's Regional Innovation Centre, says investors look at whether a management team can execute an idea and commercialize it, the scope and size of the company's market, competitors and customers, as well as the company's competitive advantage and projected sales.
Ms. Scarborough said investors at the Banff Forum range from early-stage VCs and angel investors that are interested in startupslooking for seed funding, to late-stage venture capital firms with interest in established companies looking for equity-related growth capital.
While startups can still tap into a local pool of angel investors, later-stage companies are forced to go outside the nation's capital, she says.
"Companies that are in the growth stage, that are looking for larger amounts of money, are still going south of the border for that capital and access to people," Ms. Scarborough said, noting that large venture capital firms do not generally have a presence in Ottawa.
Ottawa's advantage is in its innovative entrepreneurs that are developing marketable ideas, she said.
"If (entrepreneurs) continue to stay the course, they will get financed appropriately, and they will be able to make a stand in their market."
Local lineup
Eight of the 47 companies presenting at the Banff Venture Forum are from the National Capital Region. The presentations will be divided into three different industry streams: information technology, life sciences and energy.
The companies are:
Avivagen Animal Health Inc.: Producer of natural products for animals, which have been clinically tested and are used as an alternative to traditional treatments.
BioDiesel Reactor (BDR) Technologies Inc.: Commercializing a proprietary membrane reactor system that produces high-quality biodiesel at a lower cost.
CogniVue Corp.: Fabless semiconductor company specializing in the development of system-on-chip products. The company develops cameras used in vehicles to detect collisions.
CubeWerx Inc.: Develops, markets and sells web services and spatial warehousing software products.
GlitchSoft Corp.: Publisher of games for iOS devices, with plans to expand to the Android platform. It has also developed a virtual marketplace where consumers are able to purchase content elements for its games.
Martello Technologies: Markets a service solution product called MarWatch, which monitors and identifies network problems. The product helps limit the downtime for voice-over-Internet protocol phone systems and maximizes the quality of each call.
Netcelerate Corp.: Provides business phone systems, voice and data services, mobile solutions and business communications using cloud-based infrastructure.
Teldio Corp.: Markets two-way radio solutions to enterprise customers in the utility, education, manufacturing and hospitality industries.
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