2007 Finalist and 2008 competitor Razor Technology has gained the attention of not only clients, but of the market strategy firm and NVBC presenter Rocket Builders, making their 2008 “Emerging Rockets” list. Their FireTonic platform offers a unique distribution method for mobile content such as ringtones, wallpaper, games, video, songs, and applications. Distributing content to a phone over the internet or through a cellular provider can be expensive, slow, and cumbersome. FireTonic provides kiosks that transfer content to phones via Bluetooth for free or fee, bypassing high mobile data rates. Their target clients are stores, coffee shops, restaurants, theatres, conventions, and street promotions.

Razor’s direct distribution model has attracted big name clients such as Nintendo, Microsoft, and Dairy Queen, in addition to Vancouver game companies like Playful Entertainment, Nerd Corps, and Hothead Games. The platform saw use at this year’s Vancouver International Game Summit and Vancouver International Digital Festival. Razor claims that the amount of content they distributed during these two events would have cost over $40,000 in mobile data charges.

Watch Razor’s CEO Ray Walia give his pitch on Fundfindr:
 

It’s three founders were fresh out of the University of Victoria when they entered the 2007 New Ventures BC competition, but such was no limitation for Mike Tan, Jonathan Kerr and Adam Palmblad of TeamPages. Beating out over 80 competitors, TeamPages snatched the Enbridge second place prize of $38,000. In the less than a year since their win, they’ve built on that momentum.

TeamPages provides online community sites for coaches, parents, and players that serve as a central point for team communication and scheduling. Last November, they completed a Series A round of financing, and last month, they moved to Vancouver into new office space and brought on three new employees. Today, they launched a significant upgrade to the site, improving the interface, adding customization options, and simplifying the sign-up process. A premium version of the service is planned for the near future.

AirZone, of Kelowna, was a finalist in the first New Ventures competition in 2001. While they didn’t win that year, they’re still around and doing well. AirZone manufacturers tents with pneumatic inflatable poles. This makes them easier to set up, in “less than 12 seconds” with an air compressor, bike pump, or CO2 cartridge. They’re also very durable and suitable for extreme weather where traditional tents would fail.

After competing in New Ventures BC, AirZone received good coverage from the likes of Popular Science, Wired, and Western Living magazines, to name a few. They have also expanded the technology to other uses, included a Golfnet practice tent, and other construction and entertainment tents. They have also established a UK office.

Everyone loathes spam email, and while the quantity of it continues to increase over the years, it has become less of a problem due to continued innovation by companies like MailChannels, based out of downtown Vancouver. A New Ventures BC competitor in 2004, MailChannels has quickly become a world leader in email spam filtering. Their software is designed for enterprise level customers: ISPs, large companies, governments and educational institutions.

Selling anti-spam software to large enterprise customers can be tricky, since the open source Apache SpamAssassin software is free, effective, and widely used. Rather than compete directly, MailChannels’ Traffic Control software works with SpamAssassin to provide an extra layer of filtering. When receiving email from a questionable source, the software deliberately stalls the connection; legitimate mail servers will be patient and wait to finish sending, but spam bots will usually give up and move on. This technique alone blocks 90% of spammers.

Company CEO Ken Simpson says MailChannels is in its second profitable year with annual growth of 500 percent. This level of success has allowed them to give back to the community. They recently donated infrastructure to support the SpamAssassin project, and the Traffic Control software is free for non-commercial users that receive less than 10,000 connections per day.

Over the coming week, we’re going to look back on some previous New Ventures BC competitors and see where they are at now.

While the once frequently prophesied dream of the paperless office still isn’t a complete reality, the majority of new business information exists in the digital realm. While digital documents can be infinitely copied, the lifespan of digital storage media is often shorter than that of analog media. Despite technological advances, the need for proper archiving remains, and is often required by law.

Datawitness, a fourth round finalist in 2004 based out of Richmond, provides a robust data retention solution for small to large business, education, and governments. In addition to archiving documents in their secure data center, Datawitness also transfers those documents to microfilm, creating an analog copy suitable for long-term storage. Documents are digitally fingerprinted to guard against tampering. On top of this platform, they provide a “Mailwitness” service that tracks delivery and receipt of sensitive email, along with archiving.

The service has been approved for use by the governments of British Columbia and Ontario. In 2006, they won an “Investor’s Choice” award at the 20th Angel Forum in Vancouver. In 2007, Datawitness received “Eligible Business Corporation” status, allowing investors to receive a tax credit under the New Media Venture Capital program. Also in 2007, Datawitness launched an API, allowing third party developers to plug in to their service.

Datawitness’ innovative technology, competitive pricing, and attention to legal requirements has rewarded them with pleased customers and stable growth. As more of the world’s data is converted to digital form, and data retention standards become more strict, demand for Datawitness’ services will increase into the foreseeable future.