I first met John Stokes a few years ago when he landed on to the Canadian startup scene and started talking about his new fund Montreal Start-up. In March 2008 they raised a small initial fund which they quickly deployed in to some nice deals in Montreal including Status.net and Whatsnexx.

John and the team, which includes Austin Hill, announced today that they will be taking commitments from the Quebec Government (through Investissement Quebec) at $50 milion, Solidarity Fund QFL, which is investing $33 million, and by FIER Partners, which plans to invest $17 million.

The fund still needs to raise over $8million directly from LPs, which Investissement Quebec seems to think will be a snap and done in 4 months, but I am not so sure. I hope I am proven wrong.

In case any potential LPs are reading this right now, here is my advice: Do this one. Do it because this team is going to do more than just pass the time humming over deals — you will get hustle, an aggressive attitude and a group that understands that Canada needs more hustle and less of the same old.

John and the team are connected and tuned in to the community. Early stage entrepreneurs trust this team and they are the kind of guys who can get your money in to some great opportunities.

Congrats and good luck.

SmartHippo has named the former LendingTeam GM, Lori Collins, CEO. And they are expanding their European footprint through an exclusive license and partnership with Finacialred in Spain. This is definite traction and a step further down the growth path for George and the team in Montreal. A world-class CEO, a expansion into the European marketplace that allows a local entity to do the sales and marketing allowing the team to continue to work on the software platform. Super cool. 

“As General Manager of the LendingTree Exchange, Collins was responsible for sales, relationship management, and product management for the LendingTree lender network. She was part of the executive team which increased revenues from $7 million to $476 million over seven years.”

So what is SmartHippo?

“SmartHippo.com uses the power of community to help consumers find the best mortgage rates and save money. SmartHippo allows any individual to post information and feedback on the rate they received, and to compare rates with other members of the community with similar profiles. Members of SmartHippo can see real rates reported by real consumers, and sort through banks based on feedback posted by other members of the community. “

SmartHippo is an open, transparent marketplace where consumers help each other find the best financial products. Basically all of the those hidden gotchas, the little things that are often hidden in the fine print, that you only discover after a difficult situation. It’s about providing a platform that consumers can ask questions, share reviews, compare rates and experiences to make make informed financial decisions. SmartHippo is the underlying software platform that allows these conversations to take place.

Huge day for SmartHippo. And there is an opportunity for local startups (well local to Montreal) to hear from a Valley veteran running a hot Canadian startup. Lori Collins will be delivering the closing keynote at StartupCamp Montreal on October 15. If you are in the Montreal area, the event takes place at the Society for Arts and Technology, 1195 Saint-Laurent boulevard, Montreal [map] from 6pm to 11pm. Make sure you take the opportunity to participate and meet George, Lori and the team.

Backbone Magazine announced their “PICK 20 round of Canada’s leading Web 2.0 pioneers” that includes 4 companies form our list of web startups to watch, it’s a great list of Canadian technology companies and startups.

The List

1. FreshBooks, Toronto
2. Myca Health, Quebec City
3. CoveritLive, Toronto
4. Viigo, Toronto
5. Radian6, Fredericton
6. Filemobile, Toronto
7. BoardSuite, Toronto
8. NowPublic, Vancouver
9. Tungle, Montreal
10. HootSuite, Vancouver
11. ThoughtFarmer, Vancouver
12. AfterCAD Online, Vancouver
13. TeamPages, Vancouver
14. The Manufacturing Innovation Network, Kitchener
15. Well.ca, Guelph
16. Clarity Accounting, Vancouver
17. Voices.com, London
18. Taglocity, Vancouver
19. PollStream, Toronto
20. Pixton, Vancouver

The majority of the startups on the PICK20 list are in Vancouver (8) and Toronto (5). It’s a great list of Canadian startups.

Defensio.com, who we first wrote about in November 2007, are announcing today that they have been acquired by Websense. The Montreal based company also presented at StartupCamp Toronto in December 2007.

This acquisition, the size of which is undisclosed but I am assured it is “significant”, send a few signals to the startup community. The biggest one is that things are still happening even in this “nuclear winter” as some are calling it, and more importantly: Good products and businesses are still worth something.

When Defensio launched, I took some flak for endorsing them. A lot of people said that “akismet does that”, and it was true, Akismet did do a lot of the same things. In using the service it was noticibly better. I am planning on going back to them.

Carl also assures me that the Defensio anti-spam service for comments on non-commercial blogs will remain free under their new parent company.

Websense remains committed to the Defensio developer community and plans to support and enhance the platform for personal users, as well as for commercial use.  The company also plans to continue to offer the comment spam filter at no charge for personal use, while offering a new six month commercial trial at no cost. “The combination of Defensio and Websense is a coup for Web 2.0 developers looking for strong anti-spam and security capabilities,” said Carl Mercier, who founded Defensio and has joined Websense as director of software development. “Imagine if Web 2.0 developers could access an API so their applications could determine if user-generated content is malicious or unwanted – without having to embed anything in their applications or products. We see strong potential to partner with social networking platforms, enterprises and hosting providers to enable advanced  Web 2.0 security with the Defensio solution.”

When I profiled defensio in 2007 I said that while they might take a run at Akismet’s main business (blog comments), their real opportunity is to find new markets for these collaborative anti-spam tools. That is just what they have done and it is where Websense sees the future of the tool. Websense offers a suite of security and content related tools and Defensio looks like a perfect fit.

If Defensio can provide a higher level of integration support and a better protection product, then they will be able to win some customers over from Akismet, but it is absolutely going to be a hard-fought battle, with everyone trying to row the boat a little harder in order to win.

The real opportunity for Defensio however is to raid the markets that Akismet has left untouched. Where Akismet has proven the technology, and opened an initial market which Defensio can sell to, they are also leaving peripheral markets completely alone. – 2007

The team at Defensio deserve credit for a win and a good start to 2009 for the Montreal community and Canada in general.

There are rumors of more great announcements to come, pehaps 2009 won’t be so bad afterall?

I learned through GigaOM this morning that Montreal-based Identi.ca has taken a round of funding from Montreal Startup. I was, and remain, a big supporter of Identi.ca and first covered it back in July, 2008.

It appears that Montreal Startup is the sole funder in this round so I will assume that GigaOM is right and the amount of funding is probably in the $200,000 to $400,000 range.

This is exciting news for the Canadian startup community, but just after hearing it this morning I came across this announcement from Google. In November 2007, Google acquired Jaiku, a “lifestreaming” service that resembles Twitter and which preceeded services such as Friendfeed which largely copy its functionality, and it was founded even before Twitter.

Google is announcing today that they are going open-source and will be making Jaiku freely available. On top of that, you will be able to easily deploy it to the Google App Engine.

I am not sure of the exact impact of Jaiku going open-source, but it no doubt has some impact on Identi.ca’s plans. I am confident that Evan and Montreal Startup will take this development in to account, and I certainly believe that there is more than enough room for a few open source applications to thrive.

There are a few geekmas parties going on this December, and they are selling out quickly. Both have been organized by members of the community, and look like they will be a blast.

Montreal has CelebrateCamp on December 18th.

Come out an celebrate 2008 with the Montreal Technology Community. We have many things to celebrate as a community. A successfull year of Barcamps, StartupCamps, Democamps, Podcamps and a number of other community events flourished this year. We’ve seen more startups launched, more investing activity and a number of our local friends have personal & professional success created in 2008.

and in Toronto there is #hohoto, which came together on Twitter in a matter of days. It is taking place at The Mod Club – Monday, December 15, 2008, 7pm. There will be DJs, cheap drinks and all the proceeds are going towards the Daily Bread food bank.

Update:

Halifax is having a Geekmas event on December 17th raising money for Feed Nova Scotia!

Which other cities will get on board and start raising money for charity?

Montreal Start Up announced today the closing of an additional $2,000,000 for its venture fund from the Solidarity Fund QFL, bringing total assets under management to $5,000,000. The Solidarity Fund QFL joins Investissement Québec, la Conférence Régional des Élus, and 20 of Montreal’s most successful entrepreneurs and investors who partnered with Montreal Start Up to address the need for more early stage capital and mentoring.

“We have met with hundreds of entrepreneurs since our launch and the quality and creativity of the ideas we are seeing is constantly improving. We were having to turn down good deals because of the limited amounts of capital available to us. The support of Solidarity Fund QFL will allow us to support more of Montreal’s best startup companies.” John Stokes, Montreal Start Up

Also revealed were Montreal Start Up’s four latest investments: Mobilize Central, KeenKong, The Book Oven, and Oneeko all of which are based in Montreal. These investments are in addition to its previously announced investments in Standout Jobs and Akoha.

This is all fantastic news from Montreal, easily one of the most vibrant startup communities in Canada.

I will be speaking at the Canadian Venture Capital Association’s upcoming professional development day on October 15th. I will be on a panel with Rob Lane, from Overlay.TV and Maggie Fox from Social Media Group.

Our session description is

�Going global” is no longer an option for many companies. It is a necessity. This session will examine issues and strategies in building international networks that will lead to business opportunities and enhanced returns. Learn how to link into international networks of customers, partners, acquirers and investors to better position your companies for global success. The role that social technologies can play in fostering these global networks will also be discussed.

Other sessions include “THE BIG PICTURE � KEY STRATEGIES FOR CREATING ESSENTIAL INTERNATIONAL NETWORKS” with Jennifer Brooy,Vice President, EDC Equity and Rajiv Pancholy, Chairman and CEO, TenXC Wireless as well as “RELATIONSHIPS WITH GLOBAL SYNDICATE PARTNERS AND ACQUIRERS � THE VIEW FROM HOME AND ABROAD”

It looks like a good day and if it is typical of CVCA events, the biggest value will be in having a chance to hang out with some of the other attendees who tend to be other startups (the smart ones go to CVCA events when they can afford them) and funders.

The half-day event is $299 for non-CVCA members if you attend in-person in Toronto, and $70 if you watch it from one of the simulcast locations in Vancouver, Calgary, Winnipeg, Ottawa, Montreal, Quebec City, Fredricton or Halifax.

Montreal based Akoha, who are going on stage tomorrow at the TechCrunch50. We have previously profiled their angel round�and I have been watching their progress closely.�

We can’t say much about what Akoha is, but what I can do is give you all an exclusive invitation to get a free starter kit. These kits, which will only be available until tomorrow, will be mailed out to you right away.�

Head over here to the Akoha store (powered by Shopify.com) and sign up for the starter kit, and remember to tune in to to Akoha’s presentation tomorrow.

I also came across a vote for who will be the most promising startup presenting at TechCrunch50. You can vote for Akoha, as they are neck and neck for 1st place. �

YourTeleDoctor�is a Montreal based startup that wants to transform how we think about a visit to the doctor.

I have no doubt,�absolutely�zero, about the role that telemedicine will play in healthcare delivery in the future. You can search for data from Gartner, Forrester or anyone, they all predict that TeleMedicine is going to be a big deal.�

YourTeleDoctor is trying to be one of the first providers to come to market with a consumer-ready system to allow for video-based visits to a doctor. Quebec is a good example of a province/state with a huge rural population and a government that needs to stretch every dollar in health care delivery.

If Mehdi can be the one to bring a new level of efficiency to governments, HMOs and clinics, then there is a lot of money to be made.�The flip side, however, is that this is medicine. Medicine, for all the research and great thinking that goes in to it, changes very little. It is incredibly�bureaucratic, even in the private sector, and care-delivery, the component that startups like YourTeleDoctor will attempt to shake up, sees even fewer changes than other parts of the sector.

It seems likely that the first market for a tool like this would be private clinics who are relatively autonomous and well heeled. Just a few great case studies and a decent sales team might be all you need to start breaking in to an early market.
�