Since the start of the Canada’s Top 10™ Competition, winners from across ICT, Life Science and Cleantech have raised more than $600 Million in investment to really take their companies to the next level and become global players. Have a look at some past winners like Bel Air Networks, I Love Rewards, Variation Bioscience, Bioniche, and Paradigm Technologies or Menova Energy and you’ll know what I mean. These companies all had similar traits that made them catch the eye of investors, strategic partners, and customers – the Competition, its partners and sponsors, and its jury members including angels, venture capital and private equity investors from around the world, was just the catalyst to help get them in front of the right people at the right time.

What do winners receive for this prestigious honour of being named a winner? I’ve already mentioned that winners are chosen by investors that may have a direct interest in digging deeper into the companies they chose. Even more important than that however are the targeted road shows and events that winners will have a chance to participate in. In addition to a one day dedicated coaching session with partners and sponsors to get them ready to raise capital, other events where we will showcase the Canada’s Top 10™ winners of 2010 will include the Banff Venture Forum, the National Angel Capital Organization Summit, and a host of targeted investment and partnering events in Silicon Valley, Boston, New York, Washington and locations in Europe. All for winners and alumni of the Canada’s Top 10™.

So what are we looking for in this year’s competition? First of all, applicants need to be raising funds in the next 12 months of $1M or more and must fall in to the broad categories of ICT, Life Sciences and Clean Technology. Technologies should be validated and there should be a defined market opportunity and path to market. A sales plan and a strong management team round out the high level categories. Keep in mind that an independent jury of investors makes the final decision based on their collective agreement on investing in an applicant. Think syndication in its simplest form with investors at least agreeing on the best investments.

I am looking forward to the road ahead and to seeing all of the applicants over the next two months. The competition is open now and will remain open until August 20, 2010. Winners will be announced in early September. You can find more information at www.topcanadiancompanies.com .

See you on the road.

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In the budget, the government removed the Section 116 tax barrier, a barrier that has prevented Canadian emerging technology companies from obtaining international investment dollars to be truly globally competitive. A summary of Section 116, courtesy of Deloitte (www.deloitte.ca) , is as follows:

Withholding and Section 116 certificate process — The overwhelming majority of foreign VCs are not subject to Canadian tax when they sell an investment, but face a delay of many months to work through the Section 116 tax clearance process until funds can freely flow to them. Many foreign VCs are structured such that each of the investors in the VC — sometimes hundreds or even thousands — is subject to this clearance process as if they held the investment directly. This delay results in lower returns and frequently causes direct financial loss to investors. Canadians who invest in the United States, the United Kingdom and other major global markets do not face such taxes or delays from red tape.

Requirement to file Canadian tax returns by foreigners who don’t owe taxes creates hundreds of pages of unnecessary paperwork — Canada imposed tax filing requirements in circumstances where no taxes were payable by these investors. When a foreign VC sells an investment, each investor of the foreign VC has to file a Canadian tax return even if they don’t owe any taxes. This results in literally hundreds of pages of documents that are required for signature and processing for a single sale. This tax return filing issue also applies to certain Canadian public companies.

What does this mean for emerging technology companies raising funds from foreign investors from the US and abroad? It means those companies with high potential will be able to more easily attract foreign investors. It means that more foreign capital can come into Canada to invest in some of our leading knowledge based enterprises when large amounts of capital are still lacking. It also means that Canada can remain and grow competitively in the global marketplace, showing the world that we are innovators most innovative people and companies in the world.

If you would like more information on Section 116 and the federal budget, there are a plethora of resources including the Government of Canada website. Many of OCRI’s members and partners also have commentary and position papers including the CVCA (www.cvca.ca), BIOTECanada (www.biotech.ca) , CATA Alliance (www.cata.ca) to name just a few. Watch for upcoming professional development sessions from the Investment and Commercialization Group at OCRI (www.ocri.ca/investment ) to further educate CEO’s of emerging technology companies in Ottawa about the impact of this change on raising capital.

©2010 ocriblogs.com. All Rights Reserved.

IPeak is a great Ottawa example of a company that started with a good technical idea and a desire to learn how to turn that idea into a successful enterprise.  Not only did Matt Williams, founder of IPeak, help develop the company’s core technology but Matt was very open to learning from others who had built companies before.  He was able to gather the best people around him early on to move the business forward.

IPeak was a two-man operation when OCRI’s Investment and Commercialization team began working with them three years ago. When they graduated from the OCRI Business Accelerator they had expanded to seven employees, had secured their first sale, and raised over $1M in angel financing. They also were selected as a winner of the Canada’s Top 10 Competition which gave them exposure to a broad range of investors in Canada and the U.S. at an early stage.

Pulling together the right team has been one of Matt’s key strengths as a founder. He was not afraid to let go of the reigns as CEO and focus on his strengths on the technology side of the business as CTO. Couple that with his passion for the IPeak product and validation from key markets that his company met a market need and he was able to attract a high caliber CEO in Martin Horne to help grow the company to the next stage.

IPeak is just one example of how founders in our portfolio are working to build success in their own verticles and businesses through working with our team. It is an approach we think will result in the growth of more leaders like Matt and more growing, competitive companies like IPeak.

That’s the type of development that OCRI is working towards for Ottawa companies and entrepreneurs.

©2010 ocriblogs.com. All Rights Reserved.