By Yoke Har Lee
The latest company dedicated to taking Kiwi innovation to the world, no-8.capital, hopes to have investors looking at its first e-telecoms project within three months.
"We are actively working on two deals now which are reasonably far ahead in terms of their progress," Philip Carden, managing analyst for the company said.
"But I would be surprised if we did more than one deal per year."
He said because of the scope of what the company intended to do, it could only work on one or two project in any one year.
E-telecom technologies are defined as the delivery of telecommunication services by internet-based network infrastructures and applications.
Examples of this are in unified messaging, internet telephony and third generation wireless. Increasingly these three developments will come together, breaking down the boundaries between the traditional internet and telecommunication services.
The company is not a venture capital company but one seeking to help identify companies with hot technology in e-telecoms link find finance for development and build them further.
"In the US, there is a lot of what is called bored capital, capital not really doing anything exciting. The next question is where to go to in search of the next hot technological areas."
New Zealand and Australia could be the next hot spots, he said.
"Part of what is interesting about New Zealand is there are a lot of very creative local companies who often find it difficult to fund their development," Mr Carden said.
Mr Carden, a New Zealander aware of the fix-anything mystique of number eight wire, added that no-8.capital will draw on the breadth of its telecommunications and internet expertise to test these developments and develop them further. Its connections with global capital in the US will also serve as a source of funding for start-up companies.
Although the formal structure of the company has yet to be decided, no-8.capital has an advisory board that is made of up people with pedigree.
As a former consultant, Mr Carden has provided strategic business advice to blue chips such as Lucent, GTE, IBM and JP Morgan.
Prior to this, he was with Renaissance Worldwide, a consultancy company with some 6000 companies under its wing.
The other advisers are: Steven Weller, chief telecom analyst for Alliance Capital, a company with $US300 billion under its management; John Morency, vice president of Renaissance Worldwide, who is described as a recognised network expert; and David Jefferds, vice president at US investment bank Lehman Brothers' Institutional Client Group.
Mr Carden is keen to see the development of New Zealand's technology industries, which he sees as essential to the country's well-being.
"A huge part of what motivates me is to see the potential impact that New Zealand can make to compete in this area [of e-telecoms]."
no-8.capital hopes to fix up a deal in next three months
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