Article

Canadian company invents a new way to search the Net
Obtains $13-million in financing from venture capital giant

David Akin
National Post

TORONTO, ON - JANUARY 16, 2001 - A young Toronto software company is set to release a new Internet search technology that could radically change the way information is stored and used.

OpenCola Ltd. of Toronto will unveil the product, called Smart Folders, at a conference next month in San Francisco.

"The way it works is simple," said Grad Conn, OpenCola's chief executive. "Create a folder on your desktop. Drag a file into that folder. The folder automatically fills up with other files that are similar. If you take something out of the folder, it doesn't find stuff like that anymore. You can create as many folders as you want by setting them up yourself or by adopting them from other users."

Although its use is simple to describe, the technology that accomplishes this task is tremendously sophisticated and could play a critical role in helping digital content creators -- as varied as music multi-nationals such as Universal Music, independent digital filmmakers such as AtomFilms of Seattle or computer game developers -- find new audiences and maintain relationships with that audience.

It is that potential that has attracted the keen interest of some top-tier venture capital firms in Canada and the United States.

Today, OpenCola will announce it has received US$13-million in venture capital financing, most of it from Battery Ventures of Wellesley, Mass., one of only a handful of companies in the world that manages more than US$1-billion of venture capital.

"OpenCola has developed the most elegant software architecture I've seen in my 20 years in computing," said John Abraham, a partner with Battery.

OpenCola's product is part of a new class of Internet software called peer to peer or, in typical Internet-speak, P2P applications.

Peer to- peer computing is a hot new sector that took flight after the rise of Napster, the music file- swapping service. With peer to peer computing, files are not stored at a central location.

Instead, each computer on a network -- be it a large mainframe computer or a small handheld computer -- identifies itself to the rest of the network and presents an inventory of information on that computing device that can be accessed by others.

OpenCola's Smart Folders will allow users to share music, video, games, databases and text files.

The newest senior executive at OpenCola -- the Cola in its name stands for collaborative object lookup architecture -- is David Lawee who was, until last fall, a partner with Mosaic Venture Partners Inc. of Toronto, one of Canada's top-tier venture capital firms.

In what is seen as a vote of confidence in OpenCola's technology, Mr. Lawee quit his career as a venture capitalist to work full time for the company as its chief financial officer and chief strategist.

Mosaic Venture Partners is also an investor in OpenCola. It put US$2-million into OpenCola last spring and is investing an additional US$4-million today. Torstar Corp., the publisher, is putting up US$1-million.

The investment OpenCola receives today will be used to expand its sales and marketing force and add new engineers for product development.

Smart Folders will be available to users free of charge. OpenCola expects to earn revenue from the sale of its Smart Folder server software.

For more information, or to schedule an interview please contact:

Jennifer Brooks
Specialist, Media Relations
Cyberplex Inc.
416-260-4472
jennifer.brooks@cyberplex.com

Leslie Hunter
Manager, Public Relations
Cyberplex Inc.
416-260-4286
leslie.hunter@cyberplex.com