SIPquest, an Ottawa-based startup that is selling software exclusively licensed from Columbia University, walked away from the eighth annual Ottawa Venture Capital Fair with a best of show award.

SIPquest is targeting telecom/datacom equipment vendors and handset/PDA vendors with its telephony software. The company has the exclusive commercialisation rights to technologies emerging from Columbia's Real-time Laboratory, which is led by the co-author of SIP, professor Henning Schulzrinne.

The company started in 2002, employs 22 people and is looking for US$11 from venture capitalists. The money will be used to develop its sales channel.

VC Fair wraps up

Friday was the final day of the venture capital fair, an event that attracted 17 American investors. OCRI's Stephen Daze says this is the most U.S. investors that have attended the show in recent memory.

Long-time technology observers, such as Denzil Doyle of Capital Alliance Ventures, commented the quality of the presenting companies and sense of optimism were higher than recent years.

In a wrap-up speech to attendees, former deputy prime minister and industry minister John Manley, who recently joined law firm McCarthy Tetrault, delivered a boosterish speech about Ottawa. Mr. Manley reviewed his personal involvement in encouraging the high-tech sector to flourish in the national capital region, including the former Liberal government's innovation agenda and its commitment to post-secondary research and development.

In his speech, Mr. Manley challenged the City of Ottawa to remain committed to OCRI, an economic development agency that was hit with city funding cuts in 2004.

Mr. Manley, who has recently joined the board of directors of Nortel, said the company is still an important technology engine for both Ottawa and Canada. At the 2003 venture capital fair, he noted that 17 of 20 managers from presenting companies had worked for Nortel.