Having struck a partnership with York Bridge Enterprises of Toronto, Halifax-based Novawise Inc. is mapping a path that it hopes will lead to booking annual revenues of $4million by the end of next year.
Novawise, headed by
With its patent-pending product close to a launch, the company on Sept. 18 announced a marketing agreement with York Bridge Enterprises, under which the Toronto business development company would market Novawise software, especially in Japan.
York Bridge Enterprises and its sister company York Bridge Capital, a $25 million convertible debt venture fund, opened shop in March and have been working on seven deals, three of which are in Nova Scotia. The group is working with Novawise, signed a $500,000 deal to back a pneumatic motor project at Dalhousie University, and is working on another project in Halifax, said Ken Richards of York Bridge Enterprises.
What drew York Bridge to Novawise was the simplicity and functionality of its software. MacKinnon spent a career in the pharma industry, and Macdonald is a veteran software designer whose career has taken him to postings in London, New York, Toronto, Silicon Valley and Louisville, including designing products for the financial industries.
The key to their business proposition is they both understand the requirements facing industries with stringent regulatory rules. CRM products for the pharma industry are used by field reps to record and file data after sales calls with doctors. But if they write a report they could inadvertently include confidential information on patients that violates privacy codes. The solution might have been to have a drop-down menu on the reporting device, but that would result in a report so vague as to be useless.
Macdonald came up with a solution that prevents the reporting procedure from revealing private information but still allows an accurate report of what a doctor said. What’s more, it allows the manager receiving the data to alter the request for data, so the company is always receiving and analysing the data it needs.
“The problem had to do with a lack of flexibility in changing the system itself,” said Macdonald. “The core aspect of our system is the simplicity. It brings the ability to change the data request in response to a change in market conditions.”
In addition to targeting customers in the pharma industry, Novawise is also targeting clients in the aquaculture and oil and gas industries.
Novawise was recently granted a $500,000 loan from the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency to develop and market its software. MacKinnon said the company aims to raise funds in the coming months, but declined to provide details.
