Red Herring chose eight of the 100 winners to profile in longer form:
· ASKing a Lot: ASK, the French company that cornered the European smart card market, is expanding its business.
· Cloud Cover: Playing a big guy’s game, The Cloud casts a small shadow on a large wireless niche.
· Strong Medicine: Cancer researcher Diatos is a good sign for Europe’s biotech industry.
· Assured Destruction: When hackers launch a new virus, Kaspersky Lab retaliates with everything it’s got.
· The IKEA of Databases: MySQL has some heavy-duty competition in its quest to sell database software that’s cheap, fasts, and easy to assemble.
· Out of the Public Eye: ReNeuron looks to capitalize on its innovative stem cell research, but it has plenty of hurdles to cross first.
· Tao’s Turn: The British multimedia software company is ready to storm the market.
· Charging Ahead: VoluBill helps wireless carriers get every penny they deserve.
The other 92 are featured below.
12snapADDRESS Lazarett St. 4Munich, Germany D-80636
Lazarett St.,
PHONE 2/2-573-2620
FOUNDED 1999
CEO Michael Birkel
EMPLOYEES 60
FUNDING €49.5 million, 3 rounds
KEY INVESTORS Viventures, Apax, Argo Global, Nokia Ventures
The strangest thing about mobile marketing is that it hasn’t been more successful. Europeans do more with their mobile phones than anybody else, but mobile advertising has yet to really take off. When and if it does, 12snap is well positioned to take advantage of the industry. The German company delivers personalized messages, video content, and video games directly to mobile phones for clients like MTV, McDonalds, and Coca-Cola. 12snap has several awards from Cannes Lions, the so-called “Oscars of advertising,” for creative ad campaigns waged on the tiny screens of mobile phones. Still, 12snap is competing with companies like Scotland’s Mobiqa for what remains a small piece of global advertising budgets.
ScotlandAlchimer
ADDRESS 15 Rue du Buisson Aux FraisesZ.I. de la BondeMassy, France F-91300
PHONE 33/16-975-4343
FOUNDED 2001
CEO Christophe Bureau
EMPLOYEES 28
FUNDING €15.8 million, 2 rounds
KEY INVESTORS AGF Private Equity, Rothschild
Spun off of France’s Center for Atomic Energy, Alchimer specializes in sticking tiny coatings on products via the process of electro-grafting—which uses electrolysis to bond two surfaces—and in designing and commercializing chemical formulations. The company’s electro-grafting technology can be used to make integrated circuits and to coat medical implants with compounds. If used in a stent, these nano-coatings can be tuned to release drugs at different rates; on copper interconnects between transistors, the coatings can help ensure that Moore’s Law continues. Although the applications are broad and the markets large, Alchimer still has a long way to go before it meets its expected market share.
Altobridge
ADDRESS Kerry Technology Park, Tralee, Co. Kerry, Ireland
Kerry, IrelandPHONE 353/66-71-90210
FOUNDED 2002
CEO Mike Fitzgerald
EMPLOYEES 19
FUNDING €2.3 million, 2 rounds
KEY INVESTORS Shannon Development, Irish government, founders, and staff
Altobridge has combined wireless and satellite communications to create a new type of telephone technology. Its AM Gateway Platform allows callers to use their cellular phones while on aircraft, rendering obsolete those expensive in-flight telephones. Stationary users may benefit too, as the platform can also service customers in remote rural areas where cellular coverage doesn’t exist or isn’t practical, as well as those on maritime vessels. Its major customers include Honeywell, Norway’s Telenor, and aviation communications company Arinc, all of which are developing systems for in-flight calls. Other markets unrelated to air travel are more lucrative, however. If Altobridge can overcome the soaring labor costs and shortage of skilled workers that plague other small Irish tech companies, it may find a profitable market for its technology.
Honeywell, NorwayApoxis
ADDRESS 18-20 Av.de SévelinLausanne, Switzerland 1004
1004
PHONE 41/21-620-6080
FOUNDED 1999
CEO Jean-Pierre Rosat
EMPLOYEES 38
FUNDING €23 million, 2 rounds
KEY INVESTORS HealthCap, Banexi Ventures, Novo Nordisk
Apoxis takes it name from the biological term apoptosis—when cells commit suicide because their mechanics have broken past the point of fixing. Apoptosis should happen when the genes controlling cell division go awry, but doesn’t in cancer cells. Apoxis’ technology induces apoptosis of cancer cells, and therefore has potential in eventually treating many types of tumors. Apoxis is also researching a rare genetic disease called hypohidrotic ectodermal dysplasia (HED), a genetic disorder characterized by a lack of sweat cells. Apoxis received the Swiss Technology Award in 2004 and has a partnership with the University of Lausanne. However, the company is still in the very early stages, with no products yet in clinical development—and in biotech, that means high risk.
University of LausanneBitBand Technologies
ADDRESS 45 Hamelacha St.P.O. Box 8411Netanya, Israel 42504
45 Hamelacha St.P.O. Box 8411Netanya, IsraelPHONE 972/9-863-7170
FOUNDED 1999
CEO Ervin Leibovici
EMPLOYEES 50
FUNDING €13.7 million, 2 rounds
KEY INVESTORS Sequoia Capital, Apax Partners, Ascend Technology Ventures
Telcos aren’t content with just voice and data—they want to add video to their list of consumer offerings to win the so-called triple play. BitBand Technologies thinks it can help by delivering video storage and streaming through IP networks. The Israeli company was one of the first to get into IPTV, but it faces serious competition. Perhaps the most worrisome competitor is Microsoft, which has unclear designs on the space, but possesses a mighty marketing machine. BitBand Technologies boasts that it is designed specifically for IPTV, and can be meshed into many different types of networks without major infrastructure overhauls. That may not be enough—history shows that superior technology is no match for Microsoft.
BridgeCo
ADDRESS Ringstrasse 14 Dubendorf, Switzerland 8600
,
PHONE 41/44-802-3315
FOUNDED 1999
CEO Angelo Ugge
EMPLOYEES 65
FUNDING €30 million, 3 rounds
KEY INVESTORS Benchmark Capital, Fidelity Ventures, Earlybird, Cipeo Partners, Intel Capital
It’s clear that the digital home of the future will be networked, and BridgeCo has staked a claim as one of many companies that will provide the infrastructure to make it happen. BridgeCo makes chips that allow all kinds of products, from DVD players to musical instruments, to communicate with or without wires. The company also sells entertainment network adapters (ENAs), which run software on those chips. BridgeCo’s publicized customers include global audio product companies Denon and M-Audio, and small business/home networking provider SMC. The company also claims several as-yet-unpublicized major customers and has technology and strategy deals with Microsoft, Apple, and Broadcom. While BridgeCo offers a complete system, it faces a challenge from digital signal processor (DSP) hardware offerings from Texas Instruments and Freescale Semiconductor.
BuildOnline
ADDRESS 40 Holborn Viaduct London, United KingdomEC1N 2PB
PHONE 44/20-7836-2883
FOUNDED 1999
CEO Mark Suster
EMPLOYEES 92
FUNDING €36 million, 3 rounds
KEY INVESTORS Global Retail Partners, Goldman Sachs, Bank of America Equity Partners
AmericaBuildOnline’s document management and collaboration systems allow teams from different departments, companies, or countries to manage corporate knowledge. The company says its Internet-based solution beats competing products by eliminating the need to purchase hardware, software, and implementation tools. The platform is faster to deploy, costs less, and reduces errors in the complex supply chains of customers like the London Underground subway system, and large construction companies like Denmark’s Hochtief and Sweden’s Skanska. The company also sells to other industries, including transportation, utilities, health care, and defense. But BuildOnline has to fight off competition from established players like Documentum, which is now owned by storage giant EMC, FileNet, and OpenText, all of which want
CableMatrix Technologies
ADDRESS 11 Hartum St., HarHotzvimScienceParkP.O. Box 45207
HarHotzvimSciencePark 45207
Jerusalem, Israel 91450
PHONE 972/2-540-0980
FOUNDED 2003
CEO Laurence N. Rubin
EMPLOYEES 29
FUNDING N/A
KEY INVESTORS Veritas Venture Partners, Walden Israel Venture Capital, EnerTech Capital, and Intel Capital
IsraelCableMatrix’ technology promises to turn broadband pipes into intelligent networks that can guarantee a range of desired results, including bandwidth allocation for multimedia applications. The company is betting that its open interface, rather than proprietary connections, will lure operators that want to boost the quality of service (QoS) they provide to subscribers. The timing is right, as video streaming, online gaming, and other online applications that require rich media are getting increasingly widespread. But CableMatrix will likely need more funding
Cambridge Broadband
ADDRESS Selwyn House, CambridgeBusinessPark, Cowley Rd.Cambridge, United KingdomCB4 OWZ
Cowley Rd.Cambridge, United KingdomCB4 OWZPHONE 44/12-2370-3000
FOUNDED January 2000
CEO Peter Wharton
EMPLOYEES 65
FUNDING €35 million, 3 rounds
KEY INVESTORS Gilde, Amadeus, TVM, Pino Venture, Yasuda, Latin Rim, Accel Partners
Cambridge Broadband builds wireless equipment for network operators that the company says enables better speed, capacity, and longer range than competing products. Its product, VectaStar, has attracted customers in the European Union, Asia, Australia, and Africa. When Cambridge Broadband makes its way into the United States, it will have to battle the likes of Cisco for market share. The company could be an acquisition target for partners Cisco or Ericsson. Co-founder and CEO Peter Wharton has been involved with growing and selling startups in the past. Cambridge Broadband, in fact, was a spin-off from the sale of Adaptive Broadband, where Mr. Wharton was vice president, to California Microwaves.
AustraliaUnited StatesCeloxica
ADDRESS 66 Milton Park, Abingdon Oxfordshire, United KingdomOX14 4RX
Abingdon Oxfordshire, United KingdomOX14 4RXPHONE 44/12-3586-3656
FOUNDED 1996
CEO Phil Bishop
EMPLOYEES 60
FUNDING €50 million, 3 rounds
KEY INVESTORS Quester, Cazenove Private Equity, Advent Ventures, Intel Capital, Wind River, Xilinx, Creative
, Xilinx, Creative
Celoxica provides its customers with the tools, IP, and services necessary to create semiconductor devices, which are then used to design electronic products. The company says its technology allows clients to market new products faster than with competing platforms. Customers such as Toshiba Semiconductors, Lockheed Martin, and Canon use Celoxica’s C-language program, which is based on research begun at OxfordUniversity. The company hopes to begin gearing up for an IPO in the near future, but it will have to prove it can turn a profit before trying to debut on the stock market. Celoxica also faces tough competition from established companies such as Mentor Graphics, Synopsis and Cadence.
OxfordUniversityCIRPACK
ADDRESS 5-7 Rue Salomon de RothschildSuresnes Cedex, France 92156
,
PHONE 33/141-44-3760
FOUNDED 1999
CEO Jean-Pierre Dumolard
EMPLOYEES 55
FUNDING €4 million, 1 round
KEY INVESTORS Iris Capital, SIPAREX, Endeavour
VoIP services are set to generate roughly $4 billion in operator revenue by 2007, and service providers are rapidly replacing the public telephone network with IP. That’s CIRPACK’s sweet spot, and the company sells its voice-switching platform to telecom operators, enabling clients to deliver advanced phone services. The company has managed to partner with IBM Global Services to sell to customers across Europe, and maintains service provider clients like France’s Free Telecom and the Czech Republic’s Czech On Line. This year CIRPACK is looking to expand into developing countries, joining large migration projects from big telecom companies. With so many companies looking to capitalize off the VoIP exchange, though, the company will face increasing competition as rivals race to the bottom to offer the lowest price.
France CMR Fuel Cells
ADDRESS Harston Mill
Harston, Cambridge
CambridgeUnited Kingdom CB2 5GG
PHONE 44/12-2387-5295
FOUNDED 2003
CEO John Halfpenny
EMPLOYEES 7
FUNDING Approximately €1 million, 1 round
KEY INVESTORS Conduit Ventures, Carbon Trust Investments, Generics Group
CMR Fuel Cells claims its technology hurdles two major barriers keeping fuel cells from portable devices—size and price. Its technology helps fuel and air mix more efficiently, creating the same energy as current technologies, at sizes 10 times smaller and at prices five times cheaper, says the company. Goals for the next year include completing a prototype, building partnerships, and making the first sale. But CMR’s goals of winning 10 percent of the market by 2008, and 40 percent by 2011, may be unrealistic. Besides the competition—which includes heavyweights Toshiba, NEC, Casio Computer, Smart Fuel Cell, and Neah Power—CMR will also face industry-wide challenges such as a lack of standards, a lack of manufacturing, distribution, and fuel-supply infrastructures, and regulatory obstacles.
CNSystems Medizintechnik
ADDRESS Reininghausstrasse 13Graz, Austria 8020
,
PHONE 43/31-672-3456
FOUNDED 1998
CEO Jürgen Fortin
EMPLOYEES 35
FUNDING Approximately €1.6 million, 1 round
KEY INVESTORS Gamma Capital Partners
Given that heart ailments are top killers in developed countries like the United States, a heart monitor that can spit out a comprehensive reading would help doctors quickly diagnose problems, treat patients, and reduce overall health care costs. CNSystems Medizintechnik’s technology does just that. It can measure blood pressure, brain activity, and cardiovascular health without using invasive methods, and without the need for multiple machines. CNSystems makes its own monitors and plans to sell components of its technology to other medical equipment companies this year. The company has more than 250 customers, mostly hospitals, and has turned a profit for more than a year. It now must find success in the U.S., the world’s largest market for medical equipment.
U.S.Connect One
ADDRESS 2 Hanagar St.Kfar Saba, Israel 44425
2 Hanagar St.Kfar Saba, IsraelPHONE 972/9-766-0456
FOUNDED 1995
CEO Amir Friedman
EMPLOYEES 15
FUNDING €5.5 million, 2 rounds
KEY INVESTORS Inspire Fund, Exsol Systems, Brait Management
Connect One is a fabless semiconductor company whose chips and machine-to-machine solutions connect low-cost, non-PC devices to Internet Protocol (IP)-based networks. The company says its iChip network controller chip eliminates the time, cost, and complexity of adding IP-connectivity to its customers’ industrial, commercial, and medical products. The iChip works with a variety of processors and operating systems, and Connect One boasts that its chips currently operate in hundreds of thousands of non-PC devices across the globe. The company also sells iChip-based system solutions like an Internet modem and a cellular adapter. The company has clients like point-of-sale terminal maker VeriFone and Japanese fax manufacturer OkiData, but will have to win over a slew of high-volume clients to gain market share.
CoreMedia
ADDRESS Ludwig-Erhard-Strasse 18Hamburg, Germany 20459PHONE 49/40-3255-870
FOUNDED 1996
CEO Soren Stamer
EMPLOYEES 120
FUNDING €10 million, 2 rounds
KEY INVESTORS T-Venture (Deutsche Telekom), Soren Stamer, Joachim W. Schmidt, Florian Matthes, Andreas Gawecki
CoreMedia’s digital rights management (DRM) technology creates, delivers, and controls digital content for mobile services. The software enables users to legally share music on their mobile phone by sending it to a friend, but not without making them pay for it. This helps telecom providers offer secure content distribution channels for all of their 3G content, from creation to delivery to the end user. The company’s DRM standard is used across 200 phone models and carriers like Vodafone and Deutsche Telekom. As owners of digital content become more paranoid about who gets their content and whether or not they’re paying for it, CoreMedia stands to benefit, but will have to compete against tough players, including Vignette and Lockstream.
Cramer
ADDRESS 3 Sheldon SquareLondon, United KingdomW2 6HY
3 Sheldon SquareLondon, United KingdomW2 6HYPHONE 44/20-7266-8400
FOUNDED 1996
CEO Jon Craton
EMPLOYEES 270
FUNDING €37.7 million, 2 rounds
KEY INVESTORS Kennet Capital, Broadview Capital Partners, founders
Cramer helps telecom service providers reduce costs and stay on top of sudden changes in market demand. Its new software application automates and coordinates all the processes involved in maintaining and changing networks. BellCanada, the largest telecom carrier in Canada, used Cramer’s software as the core platform to support its network change to an all-IP network, and Europe’s KPN, which serves both the fixed-line and mobile markets, is currently working with Cramer to establish standard, automated processes within KPN. The telecom software maker also has strong partnerships with Hewlett-Packard, IBM, Accenture, and SAP. But Cramer has yet to find a permanent CEO—co-founder Jon Craton left in 2001 and returned on an interim basis last October—and admits it must improve staff training.
CRF
ADDRESS Mannerheimintie 6 Helsinki, Finland 00100
,
PHONE 358/201-700-70
FOUNDED 2000
CEO Pamela McNamara
EMPLOYEES 100
FUNDING €18 million, 3 rounds
KEY INVESTORS 3i Group, Nordic Venture Partners, Stratos Ventures
CRF can help pharmaceutical companies get medicine to market sooner. Its TrialMax technology is the first integrated eDiary toolkit for wireless data-gathering in global clinical trials. Through a handheld device, patients can send in their results while researchers guide them through the trial. This allows for faster studies and, ultimately, quicker market launches for new drugs. TrialMax’ software, built on the Palm platform and open-source architecture, also improves data storage for future use, not to mention safety for patients. CRF claims 13 top pharma firms as its customers, as well as a global base of 86,000 patients in 55 countries using 45 languages. However, the medical community is notorious for its fear of record-keeping technology, and CRF may have trouble overcoming this entrenched mindset.
Cyclacel
ADDRESS James Lindsay Place, Dundee TechnopoleDundee, United KingdomDD1 5JJ
TechnopoleDundee, United KingdomDD1 5JJPHONE 44/13-8220-6062
FOUNDED 1996
CEO Spiro Rombotis
EMPLOYEES N/A
FUNDING €77 million+
KEY INVESTORS Northern Venture Managers, Scottish Equity Partners, Temasek Holdings, SG Asset Management
Integrating various scientific fields, including cell cycle biology and RNAi functional genomics, university spin-off Cyclacel has spearheaded the use of cell cycle inhibitors. These small-molecule inhibitors stop uncontrolled cell division in cancer and other serious diseases. The company’s drugs that are closest to market are in Phase II clinical trials—with still a ways to go in the regulatory process. Cyclacel’s therapeutics in the cyclin dependent kinase (CDK) class target the molecular Achilles heel of cancer cells and are part of an enzyme that was the subject of the 2001 Nobel Prize in Medicine. Its corporate alliances with AstraZeneca, GlaxoSmithKline, and others put the company in a good position to sell Cyclacel products once they are ready for market.
CypakADDRESS Funckens Gränd 1Stockholm, Sweden 103 18
,
PHONE 46/8-545-008-35
FOUNDED 1999
CEO Lennart Hane
EMPLOYEES 14
FUNDING €7 million, 3 rounds
KEY INVESTORS IT Provider Funds, Industrifonden
Radio frequency identification (RFID) tracking is starting to catch on. With the recent installation of cargo tracking capabilities in places like Busan, Korea, the world’s third-largest port, and in Hong Kong’s airport, all that’s needed now are cheap and secure RFID tags. Cypak has positioned itself to provide just that. The company prints tags with conductive ink, rather than copper wiring, making the tags more versatile and inexpensive. Security is also part of the package; Cypak stores identification data in an encrypted file within the tag itself, which can reduce tampering. Cypak’s success depends on the successful adoption of RFID and, despite a push by retail giant Wal-Mart, the technology may be over-hyped right now. Gartner estimates that by 2007, 50 percent of RFID projects started in 2004 will fail.
BusanHong KongD-PharmADDRESSKiryatWeizmannSciencePark, Bldg. 7P.O. Box 2313
Rehovot, Israel 76123PHONE 972/8-938-5100
FOUNDED 1993
CEO Alexander Kozak
EMPLOYEES 21
FUNDING €42.4 million, 4 rounds
KEY INVESTORS Clal Biotechnology Industries, Care Capital, Gemini, Advent, Apax Partners, Denali Ventures, Vertex Management Funds
DenaliGearing up to treat disorders and diseases including cancer, Alzheimer’s, stroke, and epilepsy, D-Pharm has patented three drug-discovery platforms, creating a sizable collection of lipid-based drug candidates. The company expects to start pulling in profits by 2007 from partners that will obtain licenses to sell its therapies. D-Pharm wants to keep its focus on development and drug discovery; with its drug pipeline filled to the brim, that’s a smart strategy. But don’t race to the pharmacy just yet—the company doesn’t expect to sell its first product until around 2010, aiming for the U.S., European, and Japanese markets. And D-Pharm has a lot more to prove to the Food and Drug Administration and other regulatory bodies before its drugs are approved.
U.S.Emexus GroupADDRESS PJ Oudweg 11 Almere, The Netherlands 1314CH
NetherlandsPHONE 31/3654-839-20
FOUNDED 2000
CEO Louis Kinsbergen
EMPLOYEES 25
FUNDING N/A
KEY INVESTORS Net Ventures, The Netherland
After five years of developing services to create a “mobile bridge” connecting content owners and end users, Emexus says its technology touches over one billion subscribers worldwide. The company offers value-add mobile services like mobile marketing and mobile entertainment to customers like T-Mobile, Philips, and Vodaphone. Emexus also works with large media companies but cites first mover advantage as a reason to keep those relationships under wraps. Emexus’ technology offers its clients a web interface to access its services, while its working relationships with SMS aggregators enable its clients to achieve a high net revenue per message. The company started with one investment round and says it has averaged 100 percent growth annually since its launch. But as the industry begins to heat up, Emexus will face increased competition from strong players like Germany’s Convisual, Ireland’s XIAM, and Austria’s UCP Morgen.
ConvisualAustriaEnd2End
ADDRESS Digtervejen 11Aalborg SV, Denmark DK-9200
DenmarkPHONE 45/72-227-222
FOUNDED 2000
CEO Soren Ravn
EMPLOYEES 70
FUNDING €70 million, 4 rounds
KEY INVESTORS Draper Fisher Jurvetson ePlanet Ventures, ABS Ventures, Hewlett-Packard, Cisco, TMC Partners
As the mobile data and content services market heats up, End2End has managed to survive increased industry consolidation. The company’s strong business model offers mobile operators a turnkey system to support data services, and has attracted big-name clients like Nokia, Vodaphone, Microsoft, Sony, and Orange. Its technology features a service delivery infrastructure that was designed in collaboration with Hewlett-Packard. Since the delivery of mobile data services is increasingly moving to an outsourced model, End2End’s position as an early third-party player with strong partnerships will give it a key advantage. Though a few competitors like Ericsson and Verisign could use their big bank accounts to push their own platforms, an acquisition by a major player could offer End2End an attractive exit.
OrangeEnOcean
ADDRESS Kolpingring 18aOberhaching, Germany D-82041
,
PHONE 49/89-67-34-689-0
FOUNDED 2001
CEO Markus Brehler
EMPLOYEES 23
FUNDING €17.2 million, 3 rounds
KEY INVESTORS Wellington Partners, enjoyventure Management, Siemens Venture Capital, Baytech Venture Capital, SAM Private Equity, 3i
EnOcean sells wireless sensor modules able to scrape together tiny amounts of energy from their surroundings. The energy can come from tiny temperature changes, an office’s fluorescent lights, or even the pressure of someone flicking a switch. That energy is then used to send radio signals containing information collected by the sensor. No batteries translates into lower maintenance costs for users. The company has patents in the United States and Germany, and so far, roughly 50,000 of its modules have been installed. However, its big opportunity could come as U.S. regulators push automakers to include tire pressure sensors in all new cars, a potentially huge market. EnOcean’s chief competition will come from companies like Ember and Millennial Net, which offer low-cost, low-power mesh networking gear that also complies with the ZigBee standard.
United StatesU.S.ESBATech
ADDRESS Wagistrasse 21Zurich-Schlieren, Switzerland CH-8952
SwitzerlandPHONE 41/1-733-4900
FOUNDED 1998
CEO Dominik Escher
EMPLOYEES 30
FUNDING €15 million, 3 round
KEY INVESTORS Novartis Venture Fund, BioMedinvest/HBM BioVentures, Banca della Svizzera Italiana, Credit Suisse, VI Partners
ESBATech, a spin-off of the University of Zurich in Switzerland, hopes to profit from the fast-growing population of the elderly. The company is developing treatments for arthritis, brain tumors, Alzheimer’s, and uveitis, which causes eye inflammation that could lead to blindness. Utilizing fragments of antibodies—the proteins that fight bacteria in the body—ESBATech’s therapies promise to work faster and cause fewer side effects, because the treatments would be administered locally. The company aims to start human trials of its anti-inflammatory therapies for arthritis and uveitis next year. Time is money in the drug development business, and ESBATech must secure more funding and stay on development schedule if it hopes to capture market share from some formidable competitors, including Pfizer and Abbott.
UniversitySwitzerlandEsmertec
ADDRESS Lagerstrasse 14 Dübendorf-Zurich, Switzerland 8600
PHONE 41/1-823-89-00
FOUNDED 1999
CEO Alain Blancquart
EMPLOYEES 210
FUNDING €40 million, 3 rounds
KEY INVESTORS Partners Group, Earlybird Venture Capital, Sofinnova Partners, BV Group Private Equity Berne, Quilvest Group, Rothschild Gestion, Invision, Credit Lyonnais Private Equity
Esmertec provides software for mobile phones, PDAs, and embedded devices. Its Java platform, Jbed, works with speedy code compilers to squeeze out maximum computing performance from devices with limited resources, such as cell phones, set-top boxes, interactive TV, and fixed-line phones. Big-name customers include Panasonic, LG Electronics, and Siemens. In February, Esmertec acquired Chinese embedded software maker CoreTek Systems, part of its goal of to further Asian expansion. The company’s partnerships range from silicon vendors like Texas Instruments to reference design houses like Agere to mobile phone operators. Esmertec expects to break even and perhaps become profitable in 2005, but with stiff competition from Japan’s Aplix, China’s iaSolution, and IBM, it won’t be easy.
Aplix, ChinaExanet
ADDRESS 9 Hamennofim St.,Herzelia, Israel 46769
9 Hamennofim St.,Herzelia, IsraelPHONE 1-886-471-1928
FOUNDED 2000
CEO Rami Schwartz
EMPLOYEES 65
FUNDING €24.5 million, 2 rounds
KEY INVESTORS Intel Capital, Evergreen, LTG Development Capital, Microdent, ITX International Equity, Hitachi-CSK
Exanet markets its software-based data storage systems to several different markets, including the publishing industry, where the company has signed on major players like the New York Times and Newsweek. “The storage industry is going from big boxes to distributed storage,” says Giora Yaron, chairman of Exanet, which has its research and development offices located in Herzelia, Israel. He says the company’s clustered system connects storage nodes that customers can later build upon or scale down. Former Veritas vice president Rami Schwartz was named CEO in January, replacing serial entrepreneur Mr. Yaron. Storage has historically been a volatile space for startups, and Exanet will need to continue to build its customer base, vendor relationships, and other partnerships to stay viable.
Herzelia, IsraelExent Technologies
ADDRESS 10 Granit St., P.O. Box 2645Petach Tikva, Israel 49125
10 Granit St., P.O. Box 2645Petach Tikva, IsraelPHONE 972/3-924-3828
FOUNDED 1992
CEO Zvi Levgoren
EMPLOYEES 85
FUNDING N/A
KEY INVESTORS New Enterprise Associates, Comcast Interactive Capital, Concord Ventures
ConcordKids love them, parents hate them, and slackers never got over them. Video games are here to stay, and Exent Technologies provides global, digital distribution of games-on-demand for broadband service providers, Internet portals, game publishers, Internet cafés, brand owners, and retailers. Exent also helps providers generate additional revenue with value-added, bundled, or free services. Its content portfolio includes more than 2,500 licensed titles, and a list of key customers is equally impressive, with names like Deutsche Telekom, France Telecom, Atari, Yahoo, and Comcast Cable. Exent leads the market in video game digital distribution, though it still must fight some publishers’ perception that games-on-demand cannibalizes retail sales.
Deutsche Telekom, FranceEZChip Technologies
ADDRESS 1 Hatamar St.Yokneam, Israel 20692
1 Hatamar St.Yokneam, IsraelPHONE 972/4-959-6666
FOUNDED 1999
CEO Eli Fruchter
EMPLOYEES 80
FUNDING €39 million, 3 rounds
KEY INVESTORS Goldman Sachs, JK&B Capital, LanOptics, Nokia Venture Partners, Star Ventures
The business of building networking equipment for high-speed data transmission will continue to grow, and EZChip Technologies wants a piece of the market. The fabless chip company sells 10-GB network processors for switches, routers, and gateways in telecom and enterprise equipment. EZChip says it can integrate several key functions onto one chip, unlike competing products. The company has more than 40 customers, including China’s Huawei-3Com and ZTE, and Israel’s ECI Telecom. It also markets itself by partnering with chip companies like Broadcom that offer related products for network building. EZChip hasn’t made it to profitability, but the company saw its revenue leap from $1.8 million in 2003 to $4.7 million in 2004. To stay competitive, EZChip needs to offer new 10-GB products and expand into the lower-speed network processor market.
IsraelFlash Networks
ADDRESS 7 Sapir Rd.Herzelia, Israel 46733
7 Sapir Rd.Herzelia, IsraelPHONE 972/9-958-0666
FOUNDED 1996
CEO Zvi Peled
EMPLOYEES 90
FUNDING €27 million, 4 rounds
KEY INVESTORS Evergreen Venture Capital, Giza Venture Capital, Concord Venture Capital, T-Venture, Bell Mobility Investments, The Challenge Fund
GizaBellMore than ever, consumers are turning their cell phones into all-purpose communications devices and using them to send photos, browse the web, and watch pre-recorded performances. Flash Networks has the technology to make a handsome profit in this growing market. The company offers three software platforms and networking hardware that help cell phone operators improve the speed, security, and reliability of data transmissions over 2G and 3G networks. More than 40 cell phone operators worldwide, including T-Mobile and Vodafone, use Flash Networks’ products, which allow cell phone users to stay connected to the network when they experience momentary service interruption. With more consumers using handsets to send and receive data, the company now needs to prove that it can turn a profit.
FlexLight Networks
ADDRESS 5103 Creekside CourtParker, Texas, United States 75094-3032
United StatesPHONE 1-214-550-8949
FOUNDED 2000
CEO Michael Camp
EMPLOYEES 70
FUNDING $27 million, 3 rounds
KEY INVESTORS Vesbridge Partners, Accel Partners, Applied Materials Ventures, Coral Ventures, Concord Ventures
ConcordFlexLight Networks’ specialty is helping bring fiber to a home or business near you. Its engineers helped hammer out a standard for optical networking, known as the ITU-T G.984, with the International Telecommunications Union. That gives the company a head start on a standard that promises to blast voice, video, and data into the local loops faster and more cost-effectively than ever. FlexLight’s gear has been deployed by China Netcom Group and Mediacom Communications, a 1.6-million subscriber cable company headquartered in Middletown, New York. British Telecom is also testing FlexLight’s equipment. While FlexLight is headquartered in Texas, the company was founded in Israel and sixty of the company’s 70 employees remain there. To be sure, FlexLight faces stiff competition; startup Optical Solutions sells similar gear for wiring neighborhoods.
Middletown, New YorkIsraelFollowap
ADDRESS 288 Bath Rd.Slough, United KingdomSL1 4DX
288 Bath Rd.Slough, United KingdomSL1 4DXPHONE 44/0-800-032-0275
FOUNDED 2000
CEO Dotan Volach
EMPLOYEES 110
FUNDING N/A
KEY INVESTORS Carmel Ventures, Siemens Venture Capital, Star Ventures, Koor Corporate Venture Capital, Israel Corporation
CarmelIn the age of convergence, what will emerge as the killer mobile app to follow on the success of SMS? Followap is betting on mobile instant messaging (IM). Followap’s iFollow IM and Presence Server allow carriers to deploy a range of services, from IM to chat to push-to-talk over cellular. Because Followap supports all three leading Presence and IM standards, users can message people on their buddy lists whether they’re on 2G, 3G, fixed-line networks, or the Internet. And enterprise clients can access their corporate IM environments from their handsets. Besides selling to top-tier operators across Europe, Followap is also partnering with network infrastructure vendors like Hewlett-Packard and Lucent to embed its server in core networks. But Followap will have to move fast to secure market share in the advanced mobile markets of East Asia, where to date it has no real footprint.
EuropeEast AsiaFractal:Edge
ADDRESS 131-151 Great Titchfield St.London, United KingdomW1W 5BB
131-151 Great Titchfield St.London, United KingdomW1W 5BBPHONE 44/207-663-3980
FOUNDED 1999
CEO Richard Laughton
EMPLOYEES 9
FUNDING €4 million, 5 rounds
KEY INVESTORS Mamima, J.C. Mendel, Celtic House.
Fractal:Edge’s data management software is based on the concept of fractals—non-regular geometric shapes most well-known for their dazzling visual displays when rendered on computer screens. Fractal:Edge’s software allows users to display large volumes of data on a computer screen, and overlay several visual cues on the same page, emphasizing patterns within large data influxes. The company has lined up several big-name clients, including Citigroup, Standard & Poors, and Deutsche Bank, which uses its software to provide traders with risk and trading options. Partnerships with Bloomberg and Microsoft should help it gain exposure in the market, but success will depend on Fractal:Edge’s ability to innovate against several other similar technologies, including those marketed by competitors Panopticon and Inxight.
Fresh Point Holdings
ADDRESS Rue Fritz-Courvoisier 40La Chaux-de-fonds, Switzerland CH-2300
PHONE 41/32-967-9529
FOUNDED 2003
CEO Yoav Levy
EMPLOYEES 7
FUNDING €415,000, 1 round
KEY INVESTORS 10 private individuals, mostly ex-CEOs
Fresh Point Holdings employs two chemistry professors as joint CTOs, which is appropriate for a company that has developed its brand of Time-Temperature Indicators (TTIs)—a summary of the time and temperature history of sensitive products like food, drugs, and vaccines. The packaging technology employs organic crystals charged by ultraviolet (UV) light that can be applied on packages as labels or print. For now, Fresh Point is mainly targeting food producers and retailers. The industry already has a wide range of technologies to accomplish the same end result, but Fresh Point’s use of UV light for activation reduces cost. The company has a distribution deal in place with a large chemical company and expects sales to begin this year. The field is relatively crowded, however, and Fresh Point will have to differentiate itself from large players like 3M, Texas Instruments, and Checkpoint Systems.
Frontier Silicon
ADDRESS Gleneagles, The Belfry, Colonial WayWatford, Hertfordshire, United KingdomWD24 4WH
Colonial WayPHONE 44/19-2347-4200
FOUNDED 2001
CEO Anthony Sethill
EMPLOYEES 60
FUNDING €40 million, 3 rounds
KEY INVESTORS Apax Partners, ACT Venture Capital, BlueRun Ventures, Alta Berkeley, Digital One, Imagination Technologies, Quilvest
Frontier Silicon provides semiconductor solutions for mobile digital television and radio. The company says its solutions are smaller and consume less power than competitors’ products, and enable rapid implementation of digital radio and TV products. Frontier Silicon is targeting a range of markets, including consumer electronics, automotive entertainment, and PDA and mobile phone manufacturers. Its current customers include big names like Phillips, JVC, and Hitachi. However, Frontier doesn’t have a significant presence in the United States, and if it makes a move across the Atlantic, it will face fierce competition from industry giants like Texas Instruments and Panasonic.
HitachiAtlanticFuture Forests
ADDRESS 20 Flaxman TerraceLondon, United KingdomWC1H 9AT
PHONE 44/87-0199-9988
FOUNDED 1997
CEO Jonathan Shopley
EMPLOYEES 20
FUNDING Approximately €4.3 million, 2 rounds
KEY INVESTORS Zouk Ventures, Triodos Venture Capital Fund
Future Forests hopes to take advantage of Europe’s strengthening pollution regulations and newly launched, mandatory greenhouse gas emissions trading market. Corporations polluting beyond their limit must pay for credits, and Future Forests’ service helps control costs. The company calculates customers’ emissions, advises them on carbon-dioxide-emission reduction and management, and helps them compensate for emissions they can’t cut. Future Forests also sells “dedicate-a-tree” packages for special occasions, solar mobile-phone chargers, and environmental-marketing services. Customers include Honda, Avis, Virgin Megastores, T-Mobile, and Barclays. Future Forests became profitable in the first quarter, growing its business 33 percent over the same quarter in 2004. Success will depend on the company’s ability to grow its customer base in critical and competitive sectors like fuel, aviation, and automotive.
EuropeHolografika
ADDRESS Ady Endre ut 3/a, H-1192 Budapest, Hungary
PHONE 36/1-281-9114
FOUNDED 1994
CEO Tibor Balogh
EMPLOYEES 15
FUNDING €1.6 million, 1 round
KEY INVESTOR Videoton Holding
A 3D display that doesn’t require viewers to wear goggles, sit in one place, or take Dramamine? If you want this science non-fiction in your living room, be prepared to shell out at least €34,000—that’s the going price for the 26-inch HoloVizio, Holografika’s centerpiece product. Ten years after the company’s formation, and 15 years after CEO Tibor Balogh started developing holographs professionally, Holografika entered the ultra-high-end television market in 2004. Current customers are limited to Italian medical groups and undisclosed French, British, and Japanese entities. At such small volumes, production costs are high, so Mr. Balogh’s challenge will be to decrease costs so he can increase sales—or vice versa.
Hotsip
ADDRESS Barnhusgatan 16Stockholm, Sweden SE-111 23
,
PHONE 46/8-454-0500
FOUNDED 1999
CEO Kenneth Gustafsson
EMPLOYEES 50
FUNDING €20 million, 3 rounds
KEY INVESTORS 3i, Argnor, Ledstiernan, Bell Net Corporation, Go CapitalNV
CapitalNVWith a list of customers that includes Nokia, Ericsson, Hewlett-Packard, and European telecoms TeliaSonera, Telenor, wx3, and Tussa, application developer Hotsip is making a name for itself in VoIP. Its application server provides telephony, messaging, and conferencing applications for the Internet and 3G mobile networks. Hotsip says its technology allows several applications to run on the same platform, reducing system-integration costs by more than 50 percent. The company is not yet profitable, however, and has revenues of less than €5 million. Other vendors abound, and large VoIP vendors like Cisco, Avaya, Nortel, and Siemens may not allow small guys to gain footing in their market.
Hybrid Graphics
ADDRESS Eteläinen Makasiinikatu 4Helsinki, Finland 00100
,
PHONE 358/9-686-6380
FOUNDED 1994
CEO Mikael Honkavaara
EMPLOYEES 30
FUNDING Approximately €2.5 million, 2 rounds
KEY INVESTORS Investor Growth Capital, Nexit Ventures
After developing its graphics software for a decade, Hybrid Graphics is ready to ride the growing demand for games, navigation graphics, and visual content on mobile phones and other embedded devices. Jon Peddie Research says nearly 300 million multimedia phones were shipped last year, and predicts more than 700 million will be shipped in 2008. Hybrid is profitable, and says its customers, which include Nokia, Philips, Ericsson, Aplix, Esmertec, and Texas Instruments, control more than 50 percent of the mobile phone market. Hybrid also sells to game developers, and expects to soon announce a deal with an automotive manufacturer. Hybrid claims its competition is mainly in-house software, but companies such as Imagination Technologies, ALT Software, and Renesas Technology also sell embedded graphics software, and Hybrid can expect more competition as the 3G market grows.
Icera
ADDRESS 2520 The Quadrant
Aztec West, Bristol
BristolUnited Kingdom BS32 4AQ
PHONE 44/14-5428-4800
FOUNDED 2002
CEO Stan Boland
EMPLOYEES 75
FUNDING Approximately €33 million, 2 rounds
KEY INVESTORS Accel Partners, Atlas Venture, Benchmark Capital
Icera, a fabless chip company, is pioneering wireless platforms for the next generation of mobile terminals. Icera’s new chip and modem technology, to be launched in 2005, is designed to simultaneously support different generations of mobile standards, including the European GSM standard, EDGE, which allows for the evolution from GSM to higher speed services, 3G wideband CDMA technology, and HSDPA, an emerging wireless service which promises to allow dramatically faster speeds for data communications. Its goal is to build a European-based global fabless chip with staying power, rather than sell out to cash-rich competitors in other regions. But building a $1-billion-plus tech company from scratch in Europe is a daunting task; Icera must overcome financing, tax issues, labor laws and other regulations that plague startups on the Continent, and its lack of a Nasdaq-type exchange.
EuropeImmatics Biotechnologies
ADDRESS Paul-Ehrlich-St. 15Tuebingen, Germany 72076
,
PHONE 49/7071-565125-0
FOUNDED 2000
COO Neils Emmerich
EMPLOYEES 30
FUNDING €8.3 million, 1 round
KEY INVESTORS 3i, Wellington Partners, Merifin Capital, EMBL Venture Capital Partners.
WellingtonImmatics Biotechnologies boasts that it can find small proteins associated with cancer cells 100 times faster than its competitors. Because it picked the first medical compound that does not require toxicology testing in animal models in Germany (because of its similarity to other proteins that have already passed muster), Immatics has managed to streamline the process of clinical development to save on R&D costs. The company was founded by Thomas Widmann, previously the CEO of Actelion, arguably Europe’s most successful biotech. With its top drug candidate for renal cell carcinoma, a form of kidney cancer, in Phase II trials, the University of Tübingen spin-off has a good chance of making it. But several other companies already have drugs in phase II or III of development for the disease, and Immatics may have to hedge its bets to stay alive.
GermanyUniversity of TübingenInclarity
ADDRESS Olympic Office Centre, 8 Fulton Rd., Wembley, United KingdomHA9 0NU
8 Fulton Rd., Wembley, United KingdomHA9 0NUPHONE 44/0-845-698-0800
FOUNDED 1991
CEO Ahal Besorai
EMPLOYEES 80
FUNDING N/A
KEY INVESTORS Aktiva Holdings, individuals
Inclarity provides private-label VoIP solutions to channel partners and resellers, including telecom operators, ISPs, and system integrators. This approach allows Inclarity’s customers to offer their own branded VoIP services with very little lead time and no substantial risk; Inclarity handles maintenance and offers an integrated billing system, also branded to the customer’s requirements. The company’s R&D team is based in Israel, where VoIP has gained substantial traction due largely to strong innovation in that market. In addition to its core business, Inclarity also offers a global Internet roaming solution that allows users to dial up from anywhere in the world using a local access number; provides wholesale VoIP termination minutes; offers numbering solutions for toll-free, local, national, and premium rate phone numbers; and sells IP telephony cards.
IsraelIN-FUSIO
ADDRESS Le Millénium 12, Quai de Queyries Bordeaux Cedex, France 33072
Cedex, France 33072
PHONE 33/557-773-800
FOUNDED 1998
CEO Gilles Raymond, Giles Corbett
EMPLOYEES 260
FUNDING €45.9 million, 6 rounds
KEY INVESTORS Banexi Ventures, Innoven Partenaires, Openwave, ParTech International, VPSA (Viventures)
Worldwide mobile gaming revenues should reach $4 billion in 2005, according to Boston-based telecom consulting firm Adventis. In this uber-competitive emerging market, France’s IN-FUSIO—which offers platform-agnostic mobile games to operators, manufacturers, and portals—boasts 9 million paid interactions per month and 15 million registered players. Revenues in 2004 were a respectable €16.2 million. The company’s customers include Vodafone, Organce, Telefonica Moviles, ChinaMobile, O2, and TIM. Recently, IN-FUSIO struck out into the U.S. frontier, making deals with Verizon, AT&T Wireless (now Cingular), and Sprint. But after six rounds of funding, IN-FUSIO should be thinking about an exit strategy—especially after competitor Jamdat’s successful IPO in September 2004.
FranceChinaU.S.Intense
ADDRESS 4 StanleyBlvd.HamiltonInternationalTechnologyParkBlantyre, Glasgow, United KingdomG72 0BN
Blvd.InternationalParkGlasgow, United KingdomG72 0BNPHONE 44/169-882-7000
FOUNDED 2000
CEO David Lockwood
EMPLOYEES 90
FUNDING €44 million, 3 rounds
KEY INVESTORS 3i Group PLC, Cazenove New Europe Limited, ACT Venture Capital Limited, FNI Venture Capital, TTP Ventures, Alice Ventures, European Venture Partners
AliceIntense makes cost-efficient lasers that can be precisely directed at a controlled energy level, which could prove important in high-end publishing and, eventually, a wide range of other markets. The company has developed a way to package multiple laser beams compactly and efficiently, which could offer page-wide printing for the first time and improve the speed and reliability of high-quality publishing. The company has been awarded six patents for its technology and may be able to apply its fundamental science to high-powered lasers for industrial and defense purposes. But Intense will have to work hard in the coming months to secure printing contracts before it can really take off into other markets.
I-Play
ADDRESS Greencourt House 1C, Francis St.London, United KingdomSW1P 1DH
Francis St.London, United KingdomSW1P 1DHPHONE 44/207-901-1760
FOUNDED 1998
CEO Brian Greasley
EMPLOYEES 120
FUNDING €43 million, 3 rounds
KEY INVESTORS Apax Partners, Argo Global Capital
I-Play (formerly Digital Bridges) creates and distributes mobiles games to a potential user base of 170 million worldwide. Subscribers to carriers such as Vodafone, Sprint, Verizon, and T-Mobile can download titles like The Fast and the Furious, FIFA 2005, and Tiger Woods 2005 for a one-time charge, which is shared by I-Play and the carrier. I-Play has partnered with top-notch video game and entertainment companies like Electronic Arts, Vivendi Universal Games, and NBC Universal Studios. The company’s customer base is equally divided between Europe and the United States, and it’s currently trying to penetrate the Asian market. Even though I-Play has the backing of premium brands, it’s competing in a crowded space and will have to differentiate itself from important players like Jamdat, Gameloft, and In-Fusio.
United StatesJaluna
ADDRESS 6 Ave. Gustave EiffelMontigny-le-Bretonneux, France 78180
FrancePHONE 33/01-3944-7400
FOUNDED 2002
CEO Michael Glen
EMPLOYEES 30
FUNDING €10 million, 1 round
KEY INVESTORS Atlas Venture, Index Venture, Cisco Systems
Flexibility is a key advantage in the fast-paced embedded devices sector, and Jaluna helps supply that with its Jaluna OSware platform. The company’s operating software allows mobile phones and other embedded devices to run multiple operating systems on the same processor, thus integrating open-source operating systems like Linux with existing systems and applications. Jaluna has less than €5 million in annual revenue, but expects to break even in July 2006. It already has big-name customers, including Nokia, Alcatel, Lucent Technologies, Fujitsu, and Canon. The company, which was started by founders of Chorus Systems, which Sun Microsystems bought in 1997, claims to have no turnover, and an employee average of 15 years of experience. But it faces a crowd of embedded-platform competitors, including Microsoft, QNX Software Systems, Sysgo, Lynux Works, and Quadros Systems.
Jutel OyADDRESS Teknologiantie 11Oulu, Finland FIN-90570
,
PHONE 33/88-551-4801
FOUNDED 1984
CEO Matti Aaltonen
EMPLOYEES 60
FUNDING N/A
KEY INVESTORS 3i, Polar Elektro
Jutel Oy’s software aims to make FM radio-enabled cell phones more compelling and more profitable. In March, Jutel launched its Visual Radio Tool with partners Nokia, Hewlett-Packard, and several radio stations worldwide. The tool allows radio stations to easily—and in some cases, automatically—create visual content to match broadcasts. Jutel’s RadioMan software allows users to simultaneously listen to the radio and get matching visual interactive content, such as song and artist information, background data about news and sports broadcasts, and, of course, related shopping opportunities. But given the growing popularity of commercial-free satellite radio, and other mobile music devices (read: iPod), it remains to be seen whether or not consumers want to use their cell phones to listen to music.
KalidoADDRESS 1 The Strand
London, United Kingdon WC2N 5AB
PHONE 44/20-7484-2200
FOUNDED 1995
CEO Bob Potter
EMPLOYEES 90
FUNDING €28 million, 2 rounds
KEY INVESTORS Atlas Venture, Benchmark Capital, Matrix Partners
Kalido, which incubated under Shell until 2003, makes data warehouse software for storing and managing business-reference data, particularly in the energy, financial services, and consumer packaged goods markets. Customers include Shell, Unilever, BP, Philips, Owens Corning, and Intelsat. Kalido, which expects to become profitable in September, currently does business in 100 countries, and wants to double its customers this year. Kalido recorded revenues of $10.5 million in 2004, up from $9.5 million in 2003, and it aims to make $20 million in 2005. But it faces competition from big companies like Oracle and SAP, as well as smaller companies like Razza Solutions, which was bought by Hyperion Solutions in January. Two of Kalido’s partners, Ascential Software (currently being acquired by IBM) and Business Objects, also could be considered competition.
Kayote Networks
ADDRESSJerusalemTechnologyParkBox 21Manahat, Jerusalem, Israel 96951
PHONE 972/2-649-9700
FOUNDED 2003
CEO Baruch Sterman
EMPLOYEES 25
FUNDING €850,000, 1 round
KEY INVESTORS Individuals
With penetration of VoIP nearing 50 percent in Israel, it’s no surprise that the country is turning out some of the leading companies in the field. Kayote Networks has developed a suite of software-based technologies that perform all of the same functions of Session Border Control (SBC) hardware and then some—providing cost-effective, hosted bridging service between carriers that resolves interoperability problems and improves scalability. Kayote is now expanding beyond the Middle East: the company recently inked a deal with Canadian telecom company Yak Communications, and has set aggressive growth targets. But with half of its revenues coming from the very competitive VoIP termination minutes business, Kayote will have to move quickly to establish partnerships and strategic relationships with key carriers to grow its main business.
Middle EastKXEN
ADDRESS 25 Quai GallieniSuresnes, France 92150
FrancePHONE 33/1-41-44-88-44
FOUNDED 1998
CEO Roger Haddad
EMPLOYEES 52
FUNDING €14 million, 2 rounds
KEY INVESTORS Sofinnova, Innovacom, Motorola Ventures, XAnge
KXEN produces business analytic software to help executives make better decisions. The company’s models are based on statistical learning theory, which it says gives it an edge over traditional statistical models, because accuracy and data reliability do not decrease as the number of variables increases. The company is profitable, and boasts clients such as Barclays Bank, JP Morgan, France Telecom, and Sears. But it’s still up against IBM and business intelligence behemoth SAS Institute. KXEN has experience under its belt; CEO Roger Haddad has already led one successful startup, Metrologie International, a computer and software company that went public in 1985. The firm has customers in nine countries and plans to expand to Japan later this year.
Leiki
ADDRESS Pohj. Makasiinikatu 7A4
7A4
Helsinki, Finland 00130
PHONE 358/20-155-6055
FOUNDED 2000
CEO Petrus Pennanen
Petrus Pennanen
EMPLOYEES 16
FUNDING €1.015 million+, 2+ rounds
KEY INVESTORS Pasubio, individuals
Leiki’s software attempts to understand behavior patterns of consumers and customize mobile applications accordingly. The company’s targeting technology helps web portals, content providers, and handset manufacturers deliver more compelling content and applications in a more user-friendly way. Leiki has signed on Nokia, Hewlett-Packard, and China Mobile in its bid to dip into the €12-billion mobile entertainment industry. Despite slim revenue numbers, Leiki is profitable. If the trend toward personalization on cell phones follows that of the Internet, its revenue figures are likely to grow. But Leiki, although it’s been around for five years, has yet to penetrate the lucrative U.S. market.
U.S.LTU Technologies
ADDRESS 57 Rue Pierre Charron Paris, France 75008
PierreFrancePHONE 33/15-343-0168
FOUNDED 1999
CEO Chahab Nastar
EMPLOYEES 22
FUNDING €6 million, 2 rounds
KEY INVESTORS Galileo Partners, Mars Capital
LTU Technologies targets companies and organizations that have huge quantities of data in the form of images and video. LTU makes tools that help them search, monitor, and classify the visual data. Its customer list includes the United States FBI, U.S. Customs, and the French Patent & Trademark Office. The company wants to expand across Europe, the U.S., Asia, and Australia. To do that, LTU will have to boost its revenue, even though it is turning a profit. But because of global terrorism fears and a subsequent increase in surveillance activities, governments need a way to deal with the video data created.
U.S. Media Lario
ADDRESS Localita' Pascolo Bosisio Parini, Italy 23842
,
PHONE 39/031-867-111
FOUNDED 1997
CEO Giovanni Nocerino
EMPLOYEES 33
FUNDING €12 million, 1 round
KEY INVESTORS Intel Capital, TLcom Capital Partners, Draper Fisher Jurvetson ePlanet Ventures, Vision Capital, Polytechnos, Quan Ventures
Around 2009, the semiconductor industry is expected to upgrade to the next generation of tools to etch tiny features (70 nanometers and smaller) onto silicon wafers: extreme ultraviolet lithography. Media Lario leads this field, developing optical systems by electroforming, or depositing metal ions on a negative master and then separating its positive copy. The company’s reflective optical components are already being incorporated into the high-end aerospace sector. Its manufacturing process is automated, relatively cheap, and scalable. But Media Lario’s biggest asset is the backing of Intel, which has facilitated partnerships with lithography vendors worldwide. All assets aside, it’s hard to turn a profit when your main market has yet to exist.
Mellanox Technologies
ADDRESS Hermon Bldg. Yokneam, Israel 20692
IsraelPHONE 972/4-909-7200
FOUNDED 1999
CEO Eyal Waldman
EMPLOYEES 130
FUNDING €68 million, 3 rounds
KEY INVESTORS US Venture Partners, Seqouia Capital, Bessemer Venture Partners, Walden VC, Jerusalem Global
USJerusalemAs long as the network has existed, enterprises have demanded more bandwidth. Mellanox Technologies provides InfiniBand, a young, open-source technology that allows interconnections between servers, storage, and communications peripherals. InfiniBand has matured in the past few years out of its high-performance niche to compete on price and performance with standard GigE, and Mellanox has grown along with it, doubling its revenue each of the last two years. Proprietary interconnect solutions such as Myrinet and Quadrics don’t seem to have the standardization strength of InfiniBand, which is now supported by major vendors like IBM, Hewlett-Packard, and Dell. To become a profitable company, Mellanox and its prominent partners must convince mainstream enterprise CIOs to buy in, and strengthen the software developer community so more code is written around the standard.
mental images
ADDRESS Fasanenstrasse 81, Berlin, Germany D 10623
,
PHONE 49/30-315-99-70
FOUNDED 1986
CEO Rolf Herken
EMPLOYEES 55
FUNDING €5 million, 1 round
KEY INVESTORS Rolf Herken, Guenter Ansorge, ViewPoint Ventures
mental images provides high-end image rendering and advanced 3D-modeling technology for computer-aided design (CAD), digital content creation, and other industries that require sophisticated image creation. Using the company’s latest product, the RealityServer, thousands of users can simultaneously access and manipulate 3D content from any Internet-connected computing device, big or small. The company will launch the commercial version of RealityServer later this year. Some high-profile customers already use its products, including DreamWorks Animation, Industrial Light and Magic, and video game developer Electronic Arts. However, with competition like Pixar’s RenderMan, mental images will have to continue to innovate to stay in the game.
Meridea Financial Software
ADDRESS 21 Valimotie Helsinki, Finland 00380
00380
PHONE 35/8-10-303-100
FOUNDED 2001
CEO Jukka Riivari
EMPLOYEES 67
FUNDING €58 million, 2 rounds
KEY INVESTORS Nokia, Accenture, Sampo, 3i, Nordic Venture Partners, Management
Meridea Financial Software’s products help financial institutions and mobile service operators create more opportunities for customers to help themselves, rather than tying up expensive human resources answering routine and repetitive questions. The software, which can be installed on mobile devices or any kind of computer, allows financial institutions to outfit its customers with self-help handhelds that let them to do everything from obtain information to modify an agreement. The product can be customized for different types of clients, and gives the bank or mobile operator opportunities to promote or sell new services. But the barrier to entry into this market is relatively low, and if Meridea is successful it could be quickly inundated with competitors.
MessageLabs
ADDRESS 1270 Lansdowne Court, Gloucester Business ParkGloucester, United KingdomGL3 4AB
1270 Lansdowne Court, GloucesterPHONE 44/80-0917-7733
FOUNDED 1999
CEO Ben White
EMPLOYEES 355
FUNDING N/A
KEY INVESTORS N/A
Founded by two brothers, Ben and Jos White, MessageLabs makes money by protecting organizations from spam, viruses, phishing attacks, and corporate hacking. It lists a diverse group of customers, including the Bank of New York, Condé Nast Publications, Toshiba of America, and the Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group. The company owns several patents on its predictive technology, and has partnered with industry leaders like Symantec to get its offerings onto the market. A growing number of security threats have created a huge market for email security products, and MessageLabs will have to set itself apart from the competition, or it could become one of hundreds of small fish in a large pond of copy-cat offerings.
Mobileye
ADDRESS Brantwijk 41Amstelveen, The Netherlands 1181
1181
PHONE 31/62-540-1370
FOUNDED 1999
CEO Ziv Aviram
EMPLOYEES 90
FUNDING €65 million, 4 rounds
KEY INVESTORS First International Bank of Israel, The Colmobil Group, Delek Motors, Motorola Ventures, Lev Leviev, Leon Rekanati.
Mobileye’s machine vision technology won’t drive your car—yet—but it will help you drive safely. The company’s driver assistance systems detect other cars, lane lines, and pedestrians, and alert motorists to help them steer clear. Last year, the company expanded beyond proprietary driver assistance systems, introducing the EyeQ system-on-a-chip platform, optimized to process these applications. Major European, U.S., and Japanese automakers have inked deals to put Mobileye’s applications and hardware into their vehicles, but the manufacturers’ lumbering pace of technological change means the systems won’t actually appear in many cars for a few years. To succeed in their goal of profitability by the end of this year, the company will have to fend off alternative radar- and lidar-based technologies, as well as competing stereo-based vision systems.
U.S.Multimap.com
ADDRESS 150 Holborn London, United KingdomEC1N 2NS
Holborn London, United KingdomEC1N 2NSPHONE 44/20-7430-5454
FOUNDED 1995
CEO Jeffrey Kelisky
EMPLOYEES 52
FUNDING €3.3 million, 2 rounds
KEY INVESTORS Sean Phelan, founder and chairman, Audrey Mandela, director and company secretary, Telewest, Infotech Enterprises
Mapping service Multimap.com is a household name in the United Kingdom. The company says that it has generated about 140 million page views each month this year. Given that its client list includes companies as far-reaching as Ford, Vodafone, and retailing giant Tesco, that doesn’t seem far-fetched. Multimap.com has two components: a free service for the masses that provides street maps and driving directions, and another service that caters to business web sites. The latter, a more customized service, generates about 60 percent of the firm’s revenue, which is in the range of €6 million to €10 million. Multimap.com has been profitable since 2002, but hasn’t started to bring in the big bucks. It could in the future, if it expands geographically, which the company hopes to do this year across Australia and New Zealand, the European Union, and North America.
AustraliaNorth AmericaNexagent
ADDRESSThamesTower, 37-45 Station Rd.Reading, United Kingdom, RG1 1LX
PHONE 44/118-933-7100
FOUNDED 2000
CEO Royce Murphy
EMPLOYEES 50
FUNDING €37 million, 3 rounds
KEY INVESTORS Apax Partners, Benchmark Capital, Atlas Venture
Nexagent wants to tackle what it sees as a lack of a global, managed Internet Protocol (IP) service. The company’s product helps computers communicate between themselves securely through virtual private networks (VPNs), an encrypted channel within the Internet. Nexagent says its technology makes it easier for its clients to regulate secure network communications from remote locations. The company has boasted Cisco Systems as a partner since the company’s founding, and counts Global Telco among its customers. Nexagent CFO Steve Bennetts served as Amazon.com’s CFO for the Europe, Middle East, and Africa (EMEA) region from startup to $300 million in revenue. It will be a while before Nexagent posts those kinds of figures; Gartner recently predicted the network outsourcing market to reach $77 billion in 2008, but Nexagent’s niche constitutes just 5 percent of that.
Middle EastOperax
ADDRESS Tegeluddsv. 92 Stockholm, Sweden SE-115 28
,
PHONE 46/8-410-239-00
FOUNDED 2000
CEO Anders Lindén
EMPLOYEES 45
FUNDING €12.2 million, 5 rounds
KEY INVESTORS Nordic Venture Partners, Innovacom, Emano
Operax offers telecom operators and carriers a system for controlling bandwidth and quality of service with triple play—voice, video, and data. Through open application programming interfaces (APIs) built on existing infrastructures, Operax Bandwidth Manager has the potential to work with any service platform, technology, or vendor. A partnership with Marconi, an OEM agreement with Ericsson, and trials with Korea Telecom and France Telecom bode well for Operax, but the young company needs a stronger partner base to succeed. With Ericsson and Nokia alumni among its leaders, Operax’ forays into the mobile space seem especially viable. Expansion into the United States and China this year should be key tests. However, the underlying need for optimizing networks should increasingly be alleviated by existing players, like router vendors themselves.
ChinaOptos
ADDRESS Queensferry House, Carnegie Business Campus
Dunfermline, Fife, Scotland, United Kingdom, KY11 8GR
ScotlandPHONE 44/1383-843300
FOUNDED: 1992
CEO Stephane Sallmard
EMPLOYEES 175
FUNDING €50 million, 10+ rounds
KEY INVESTORS Amadeus Capital Partners, Archangel Informal Investments, Vertical Asset Management
ArchangelAfter Douglas Anderson’s five-year-old son went blind in one eye because a retinal problem that was detected too late, Mr. Anderson, then an industrial engineer, set out to devise a better and easier way to examine retinas. He founded Optos and, with the help of fellow engineers, developed the Optomap Retinal Exam. The company claims its Optomap offers eye doctors a low-cost way to examine and instantly produce a digital image of a patient’s retina, without the need for dilation. Optos has obtained approval by the U.S. FDA and Europe’s CE mark for its equipment, but to achieve profitability, it will have to succeed in penetrating the North American market, where it has yet to make much headway.
EuropeORMvision
ADDRESS Antwerpsesteenweg 19 Lochristi, Belgium 9080
,
PHONE 32/9-326-7820
FOUNDED 2001
CEO Phil Church
EMPLOYEES 20
FUNDING €5 million, 2 rounds
KEY INVESTORS Big Bang Ventures, GIMV
ORMvision chose the ultimate sexy startup challenge: creating a new market. Its product, ORMcenter, is a collaborative business process management system for European telcos. By building on intimate knowledge of that one business and one region, and adapting to any format or interface, ORMcenter reportedly delivers efficiency gains of 62 percent. But defining a new market has a necessary corollary: adoption barriers. That’s why ORMvision is a few years away from winning enough customers to turn a profit. But the startup reports that its pipeline has many active prospects, including Vodafone, Telefonica, and Telenor. In coming months, ORMvision will focus on additional verticals—health care and utilities—and a Series C round to ramp up rollout.
OrSense
ADDRESS 2 Bergman St.Rehovot, Israel 76100
2 Bergman St.Rehovot, IsraelPHONE 97/28-946-5142
FOUNDED 1996
CEO Lior D. Ma’ayan
EMPLOYEES 26
FUNDING €15 million, 5 rounds
KEY INVESTORS Star Venture Group, Israel Health Care Ventures, Spartiax Development
IsraelThe overarching theme in the medical device field is toward less-invasive procedures. OrSense is doing this by developing products to make blood measurements without puncturing the skin. The technology works by temporarily stopping blood flow in the finger and projecting infrared radiation at blood cells. OrSense claims this approach overcomes one of the inherent problems of non-invasive blood measurement technologies: finding the relevant reading amongst lots of background noise. OrSense plans to sell to hospitals, home-care workers, and clinics worldwide but has yet to see revenues. The market for such technology is large, but medical devices suffer greater risk of nonadoption than drugs.
Orthogon Systems
ADDRESSLinhayBusinessPark, Eastern Rd.Ashburton, Devon, United Kingdom TQ37UP
PHONE 44/13-6465-5500
FOUNDED 2000
CEO Phil Bolt
EMPLOYEES 42
FUNDING €35 million, 4 rounds
KEY INVESTORS Atlas Venture, The Carlyle Group, Motorola Ventures
Orthogon Systems specializes in high-bandwidth wireless communications over long distances, or when the line of sight between two points is interrupted by buildings or hills. The company claims that its technology stands apart from the crowd because the wireless signal fades far less than with competitors’ technology, and customers get between twice and 20 times the bandwidth for the cost. Orthogon has big-name investors behind it and a licensing agreement with industry giant Motorola. Heavyweight customers include several agencies of the U.S. government, DubaiMunicipality (the capital city of the United Arab Emirates), and wireless ISP company TowerStream. The company’s revenues are growing fast, but it still lacks profits.
DubaiUnited Arab Emiratesotb Group
ADDRESS Luchthavenweg 10
Eindhoven, The Netherlands 5657 EB
PHONE 31/4025-81-580
FOUNDED 1994
CEO Ron Kok
EMPLOYEES 125
FUNDING N/A
KEY INVESTORS EastGate
When Ron Kok’s superiors at Philips decided to spend hundreds of millions of dollars to build a clean room to manufacture compact discs, they balked at his criticism and wouldn’t listen to his proposed alternative. So the Dutch inventor quit and founded otb, which has since proved that an inline machine—used to automate production lines in factories—could eliminate the need for clean rooms and slice CD production costs by nearly 18 times. Since then, otb has built inline machines that change the economics of making everything from DVDs to solar energy cells. Customers include Warner Music, Johnson & Johnson, Shell Oil company’s renewables division, and Philips. Now, he is out to do the same for producing OLEDS—which are startingto replace LCDs for handheld device screens. otb may have succeeded in shaving manufacturing costs for other products, but established industry players are skeptical it can do the same for OLEDs.
Plastic Logic
ADDRESS 34 Cambridge Science Park, Milton Rd.Cambridge, United KingdomCB4 0FX
Milton Rd.Cambridge, United KingdomCB4 0FXPHONE 44/12-2370-6000
FOUNDED 2000
CEO Stuart Evans
EMPLOYEES 40
FUNDING Approximately €19.7 million, 2 rounds
KEY INVESTORS Amadeus, PolyTechnos, Dow Venture Capital, Banc of America Equity Partners, Siemens Venture Capital, Nanotech Partners, Yasuda Enterprise Development
Circuits and plastic seem like an odd couple in the world of microchips, where silicon reigns. But Plastic Logic’s technology, based on 20 years of innovative research at CambridgeUniversity’s famed Cavendish Laboratory, has opened the door to this marriage. The company has developed a process for printing electricity-conducting polymers, known as polymer light emitting diodes (PLEDs), onto plastic substrates using ink-jet technology. The combination enables flexible screens that can be rolled up like a poster. DisplaySearch, a flat-panel research firm, estimates the market for electronic signs is $1 billion to $2 billion annually. But to get a piece of this market, Plastic Logic will have to beat out Philips spin-off Polymer Vision and Xerox PARC spin-off Gyricon, both of which have similar technology.
CambridgeUniversityPsytechnics
ADDRESS Fraser House, 23 Museum St,Ipswich, Suffolk, United KingdomIP1 1HN
23 Museum StSuffolk, United KingdomIP1 1HNPHONE 44/0-147-326-1800
FOUNDED 2000
CEO John Winchester
EMPLOYEES 43
FUNDING €20 million, 3 rounds
KEY INVESTORS 3i Group, GIMV, NIF Ventures
In the old days of circuit systems, finding a problem in a telecom network was a cinch. But in the age of dynamically configured IP systems, troubleshooting becomes more complicated. Psytechnics’ software offers telcos a look at their networks from the customer’s perspective. The company is competing for a piece of an estimated $5-billion test and measurement market against companies such as Telchemy in the United States. For Psytechnics, the challenge lies in convincing customers that its software, which is based on hundreds of thousands of subjective quality tests, works as well as the old-fashioned measurement tools telcos have relied on for decades.
United StatesPulsic
ADDRESS Prince William House, Colston St.Bristol, United KingdomBS1 5AE
Colston St.Bristol, United KingdomBS1 5AEPHONE 44/117-906-9494
FOUNDED 2002
CEO Ken Roberts
EMPLOYEES 18
FUNDING €5.3 million, 1 round
KEY INVESTORS Prime Technology Ventures, Index Ventures, William Ho, Ken Roberts
Pulsic develops software for analog, mixed signal, and memory chip designs. Since its inception in 2002, Pulsic has subsisted on revenues from Seiko Instruments, which licenses the small company’s electronics design automation (EDA) tool set. Pulsic has won other customers such as Micron Technology, Hynix Semiconductor, and Toshiba by offering increased automation to help engineers complete complex projects more quickly—but it’s hard to differentiate one EDA offering from another these days. The startup has been called a likely M&A target because of the acquisitive history of EDA market leaders Cadence Design Systems and Synopsys. The $4-billion worldwide EDA market is fairly secure, as the semiconductor industry is always under pressure to spend on R&D.
Safend
ADDRESS 6 Hanechoshet St.Tel Aviv, Israel 69710
IsraelPHONE 972/3-644-2662
FOUNDED 2003
CEO Gil Sever
EMPLOYEES 20
FUNDING €1.875 million, 1 round
KEY INVESTORS Walden Israel III, Intel Capital
IsraelCorporate networks consist of two main components: servers and desktops. While most security companies have focused on walling off the servers and the networks that connect them, Safend has developed software that remotely manages desktop computers. Desktops have become more powerful and capable of storing more critical data, and Safend’s technology ensures nobody makes unauthorized connections through Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, FireWire connections, Serial ports, or PC cards. Combine that with threats from Wi-Fi intrusion and data theft via USB, and you get a compelling market. But to take advantage, Safend will have to compete with SecureWave, based in Luxembourg, which has already gained a lot of ground in the United States.
United StatesSANRAD
ADDRESS 32 Habarzel St.Tel-Aviv, Israel 69710
32 Habarzel St.Tel-Aviv, IsraelPHONE 972/3-767-4800
FOUNDED 2000
CEO Shaul Gal-Oz
EMPLOYEES 70
FUNDING €13 million, 1 round
KEY INVESTORS Yehuda Zisapel, Zohar Zisapel, Sequoia Capital
SANRAD says its technology offers the only open Internet Protocol Storage Area Network (IP-SAN) product to date. SANRAD’s gear allows customers to access their data using the familiar protocols that power the Internet and protects against all kinds of failure and data loss. SANRAD has an impressive roster of key customers, including Boeing, CNET, and the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) of China. SANRAD claims 50,000 more companies in the United States alone could use its storage system. But the company faces competition from Intransa, which last December introduced a system billed as an alternative to SANRAD’s technology.
United StatesSaw You
ADDRESS 2 Clifton St.Glasgow, United Kingdom G3 71a
2 Clifton St.Glasgow, United KingdomPHONE 44/141-333-1600
FOUNDED 2000
CEO Mike Kinsella
EMPLOYEES 12
FUNDING €4.8 million, 2 rounds
KEY INVESTORS Interactive Telecom Solutions, Benchmark
After the personalized ring tone craze, it’s avatars, or virtual representations of users, that are the hot new buzzword in Europe and Asia. Saw You is going after the mobile personalization and social networking markets with its product, called a wee mee. These online personas can be downloaded across mobile phones, instant messaging, and email programs. Saw You is pushing the fact that as its 3.5 million users see themselves in wee mee form, they’re automatically providing companies with valuable information about their physical traits and social habits. MSN, Motorola, and Friends Reunited are some of its key customers. Saw You hopes to grow its audience to 20 million within the next year—an ambitious goal, given that most people above their teens still don't know what avatars are. The market is limited, and avatars could turn into another passing fad.
ScanSafe
ADDRESS 198 High HolbornLondon, United KingdomWC1V 7BD
HolbornLondon, United KingdomWC1V 7BDPHONE 44/207-959-0630
FOUNDED 1999
CEO Eldar Tuvey
EMPLOYEES 24
FUNDING €11 million, 2 rounds
KEY INVESTORS Benchmark Capital, MessageLabs Group
Hackers have long used man-in-the-middle attacks to intercept and interfere with communications before rerouting them to their intended destination. ScanSafe has taken the idea behind the attack and applied it to network security. The company intercepts HTTP traffic between the corporate network and the Internet, scanning it for viruses, spyware, and usage violations. Best of all, there’s no software to install; ScanSafe manages all web traffic at the Internet level instead of within the network. Managed security is gaining traction as enterprises have an increasingly tough time keeping up with digital threats. But ScanSafe has to crack into a market dominated by Symantec on the antivirus side, and SurfControl on the content filtering side.
Shazam Entertainment
ADDRESS 375 High St.Kensington, London, United KingdomW14 8QH
375 High St.London, United KingdomW14 8QHPHONE 44/207-471-3440
FOUNDED 2000
CEO Andrew Fisher
EMPLOYEES 42
FUNDING €17.59 million, 3 rounds
KEY INVESTORS IDG Ventures Europe, Simon Murdoch, Brent Townsend, DN Capital
EuropeWith a quick dial from your mobile phone, Shazam Entertainment’s music recognition technology can identify any song being played on the radio, in a night club, or anywhere else. Founder Avery Wang’s patent-protected technology takes a piece of music and extracts a signature, compares it