Company Overview

Venture Management Services provides business advisory and research services to information technology ('IT') companies, venture capital firms and public sector organizations. With a strong understanding of many IT fields and extensive contacts within both the IT and venture capital industry sectors in Canada, the United States, and around the world, Venture Management Services is well positioned to provide support to groups interested in expanding their business activities domestically and internationally.

Corporate Partnering and Company Identification Services

For organizations seeking strategic partners, marketing alliances, investment candidates or acquisition targets within the Canadian IT industry, Venture Management Services can assist with:

• company and partner identification;
• initial screening and preliminary information gathering;
• company profile preparation; and
• presentations, due diligence and partnering discussion

support.

Venture Management Services has often provided support to venture capital, public sector and IT-related companies with their efforts to identify companies that meet agreed upon criteria. We maintain a large database (currently 5000 records) of Canadian IT firms and invest considerable effort to stay current with the emerging company and 'new technologies' portions of the market. Our Canadian IT Financing Forum events ( www. financingforum. com ) as well as our www. CanadaIT. com Web site have proven to be very effective tools in helping to ensure that we are up-to-date with IT developments in Canada.

For companies seeking to identify Canadian IT prospects, Venture Management Services can provide support on a fixed cost (project), retainer (continuous support), or in some cases success fee basis.

Company Identification clients have included: CANARIE (Canada's advanced networks research organization), European Software Publishing, Industry Canada, Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada, Investment Partnerships Canada and Telsoft Ventures as well as other investment firms.

Management Advisory Services

Venture Management Services works with client IT companies to develop and implement business expansion plans. Assistance can also be provided with the development of partnering strategies and international marketing and investment activities. Emphasis is placed at all times on short term actions that can lead to long term success. Projects are typically undertaken with a view to building long term relationships that involve equity participation. Services can include:

• helping to prepare operational and financing plans;
• marketing planning, including strategic planning;
• corporate partnering; and
• counselling senior management on growth.

On selected projects, assistance can be provided with raising capital from domestic or foreign sources. Over the past ten years, Venture Management Services has undertaken many projects which have provided the opportunity to meet with a large number of corporate and venture capital investors throughout the world. This work has led to a detailed understanding of each of these firms' investment preferences and investment portfolios. For appropriate companies seeking direct corporate investment or international venture capital participation, Venture Management Services can provide a variety of support services including:

• business plan review/preparation;
• introductions to investors;
• support during negotiations/discussions; and
• investment structuring advice.

Advisory Services clients have included: Micromedia Limited, Espial Group, Trapeze Software, Design Vision, Rival Networks GmbH, Hoffmann + associates inc. and InterNetivity.

Other Activities

In association with Macdonald & Associates Limited of Toronto, Venture Management Services organizes the Canadian IT Financing Forum ( www. financingforum. com ), an investment forum held each year in Toronto (May) and Vancouver (November) featuring presentations by leading Canadian technology companies seeking venture capital. Past events have been extremely well received and attended by venture capitalists from Canada, the United States, Taiwan, Japan and Europe. The most recent Toronto Forum drew more than 120 venture capital and corporate investors. A Western version of the Forum was successfully launched in Vancouver in 1997 and attracted more than 250 attendees last November.

In May 1996, Venture Management Services launched www. CanadaIT. com, an Internet Web site designed to serve as an international gateway to the Canadian information technology industry. CanadaIT draws on Venture Management Services many years of work helping Canadian companies find partners in global markets. The highly-automated site consists of an indexed Company Directory of approximately 1000 detailed company profiles and Web links, an online Deals and News press release service, a Job Board with more than 1300 jobs posted, the CanadaIT InfoBase venture capital and IT link resource centre, and the Upcoming Events calendar of trade show and conference listings. CanadaIT has attracted a strong following and more than 200 sites around the world have linked to the site.

Publications

• Technology Investment Bulletin - Venture Management Services

co-produces (with Macdonald & Associates Limited) this quarterly newsletter featuring articles on venture capital in Canada and emerging growth companies, distributed to several hundred, leading international corporate, institutional and venture capital investors by Foreign Affairs and International Trade.

• Financing Software Company Development - commissioned by

Industry Canada in 1996, Venture Management Services prepared this guide to financing the development of software companies. This publication is being distributed by Industry Canada and can be viewed at Industry Canada's Strategis site.

• Canada in Cyberspace Web site - in March 1996, Venture

Management Services created this site, designed to promote Canadian Internet product suppliers, for Industry Canada. A similar, but updated Web site, the Canadian Internet Product Showcase was developed for Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada in February 1997 and was hosted at CanadaIT. com. In both cases Venture Management Services identified the companies and prepared profiles on each for these sites.

• Canadian Information Highway Technology Showcase - in 1995,

Venture Management Services was asked by CANARIE, to develop this publication featuring profiles of Canadian broadband and Internet-related manufacturers. Venture Management Services sourced the companies and then prepared profiles for this publication.

• Changes in the Software Industry and the Role for Industry

Canada a report prepared for Industry Canada which included a review of trends in the Canadian software industry, their implications for Federal government programs and services, and recommendations for changes.

• International Business Information Network a review for

Industry Canada examining the potential for the Internet to be used to deliver government trade support services, including a draft design for the since-launched Web site located at Strategis.

• Marketing Software in Europe - In 1994, Venture Management

Services was commissioned by Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada to prepare this report which included country profiles and information concerning local distributors, resellers and trade events. A similar report, Marketing Software in Italy was published later in the same year. Venture Management Services has also provided support to IT companies seeking to move into the Mexican market. In 1995, Venture Management Services produced the report, Information Technology in Mexico: Observations from Comdex Mexico '95, since published by Industry Canada.

Company Information

Additional Details

Legal Name: CanadaIT Ventures Inc.

Contacts

Services

• Management Consulting Services
• Online Job Board

  CanadaIT. com offers IT and Internet career postings for each region of Canada.

• Venture Capital Company
• Web Portal

  CanadaIT. com is an Internet-based gateway to news, company profiles, events and other information relating to the Canadian information technology (IT) and Internet industries.

NAICS Categories

• 523910 Miscellaneous Intermediation

Additional Information