by Charles Cote
La Presse, Thursday, July 13th, 2000.
We hear a lot of talk about globalization, particularly the globalization of capital, but it seems that venture capitalists have never held an event as international as the Capital 2000 Summit that ends today in Montreal. The summit has attracted 800 representatives from Europe, the Americas and Asia.
The project organizers, members of the small circle of Quebec venture capitalists, did not miss the opportunity to tout the successes and highlight the particular features of Quebec-style capitalism.
"Why hold a summit in Montreal? We made the decision one evening, while enjoying a good bottle of wine: if there had never been an international venture capital summit, then we would organize one ourselves as a Y2K project," explains Raymond Bachand, President of the Quebec Federation of Labour's Solidarity Fund and honourary chairman of the Summit.
Bachand went on to explain that, while "disconcerting that some," the $3.8 billion Fund, is a product of Quebec unionism which has transformed 400,000 worker-shareholders into capitalists. "One paradox doesn't wait for the other," notes Bachand.
Jean-Claude Scraire, chairman of the board and CEO of the $100 billion Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec, also gave a speech at the summit. To the participants, the relatively brief part of the speech that was given in French seemed rather lengthy.
According to Scraire, it is important to bring together the international venture capital community. This was further driven home by an announcement made earlier in the day regarding the creation of a fund managed by the Caisse in South Korea (see above).
There have been US conferences in the past, but we wanted to organize a global meeting to put people from places with high venture capital development potential into contact with each other, places such as Asia and Europe," explained Scraire to La Presse.
Based on the conference participants, it's hard to say whether this really was a global meeting. Although North America and Europe seemed well represented, there were few Asian participants.
Asia is where high technology, a favourite of venture capitalists, is thriving. The continent is recovering from the economic crisis that struck it two years ago. So much so that according to a popular saying, IC, which stands for integrated circuit may now very well mean "Indian and Chinese," reports Ta-Lin Hsu, chairman and CEO of Hong Kong-based H&Q Asia Pacific Ltd.
"Asians will play a larger role in high technology," says Hsu. "India is really the rising star. It still remains to be seen whether China will turn out to be a giant. This will largely depend on the freedom allowed to venture capital."
IBM yesterday announced a $5 million investment in a start-up business fund managed by Ontario-based J. L. Albright Venture Partners. The investment is part of IBM's overall strategy to bring Big Blue closer to small companies.
"We're not developing venture capital expertise, we prefer to get involved with funds," explained Stéphane Boisvert, Canadian director of IBM's Net Generation Business Unit. "Lots of companies come to IBM with business plans."
Companies referred by IBM or chosen directly by J. L. Albright can take advantage of special programs for purchasing or leasing IBM equipment. They may also be chosen to develop products under license to IBM. They also gain access to Big Blue's marketing network.
Furthermore, J. L. Albright, which concentrates its operations in the Toronto-Waterloo-Ottawa triangle, will profit from IBM's technical expertise for assessing business plans.
IBM is looking for partners elsewhere, including Quebec. According to Boisvert, discussions have already begun with Montreal-based GTI Capital.
The initiative is part of a US$200 million plan launched by IBM last year.
