Inscape Software, a SaaS HR provider, has secured yesterday Sept 3rd a $7 million funding. The deal was lead by Solidarity Fund QFL, a labor-sponsored investment fund. 

Previous investors in the startup, namely Rho Canada Ventures, and Garage Technology ventures Canada also participated in the round. 

Inscape Software was formerly known as HR Alloy, and provides a platform for corporations and HR consulting firms a web-based,  on-demand tool that allows them to recruit and manage candidates, and also follow employee performance and career. They supposedly use “science-based algorithms” to help managers come up with best decisions for their employees.

It’s noteworthy to mention that another Montreal startup, Standoutjobs, funded by iNovia Capital, also provides a HR tool for recruitement. This validates in a way the market opportunity for human resources software, but one cannot help to think that there should be battle (and blood) in upcoming months between the 2 startups, or perhaps a strategic partnership. Maybe a few HR specialists can comment on this post and shed some comparison between the 2 offerings.

Felipe Coimbra, an entrepreneur moving from Boulder, Colorado, is launching monthly NewTech meetups in Montreal.

There are already NewTech events in Silicon Valley, Boulder, and also San Francisco, and they appear to me as a light version of startupcamps. There’s a website here with videos of the presentations if you want to get a sense of the NewTech meetups.

To begin the series, Felipe is inviting tech entrepreneurs for a drink tomorrow evening, at Brutopia, Crescent street, from 7pm.

I’ve had exchanges with Christian Aubry, as we were wondering how come a guy who was not yet based in Montreal would launch these kind of events. At the same time, it seemed he was was planning to do exactly what other people and companies were already doing in Montreal (see here). I’ve thought about this though, diversity is a good thing, and anything that can grow and enrich the Montreal Tech community is also a good thing. Felipe will bring his own vision of technology events; and he also has this unkillable enthusiasm you find in entrepreneurs — I will be the last one to discourage such people. I’ll wait then to see what Felipe has in the works.

I went to an event last thursday on bvd St-Laurent, expecting a democamp-style presentation, instead discovering that the Akoha team did in fact organized a party. If I didn’t meet technology people, I would have thought this was the launch of a movie or a party thrown by a pop star. Austin Hill invited rock singer David Usher, cameras and video cameras were there, drinks and fancy snacks were provided, all in an upscale and trendy bar.

Add that to the pre-screening of attendees and a frieNDA, and also the fact that nobody really knew what the hell these guys were doing, and we have all the ingredients for buzz and excitement.

When the entrance closed, Austin Hill presented to the audience Akoha, telling the project’s story, how he met the co-founders, a bit of personal story, lots of illustrations, a rant about meaningless video games, and then presented the product …

… which I can’t tell you about, since it’s so secret .. I am not sure what books he read, or what previous experiences he had to think about this, or which PR agent guided him on this strategy; but this was very efficient since it drove most conversations I overheard at the party …

… I can tell you though that the concept is very new. Here’s a quote from their (public) blog for those who weren’t there:

Play it forward with us
Playing with others is so much more fun than playing by yourself. The social nature of play and the connectivity of the Internet creates a new platform for social fun. By combining the power of play and the social nature of communities, we dream of new types of play that can both enlighten and uplift players to view the world in novel ways.

Akoha is scheduled to launch worldwide and publicly next month. Until then, it’s playtested by the Montreal Tech community :-) and Akoha’s friends, with access only to those who went to the private event.

All in all, a great start for the Akoha team; congrats to every one of them for reaching this milestone.

PS: if you have any picture of the event, leave a comment; i’d love to include a few of them

The third edition of StartupCampMontreal has been announced for 27th November, as always brought to you by the enthusiastic team from Embrase.

The recipe is the same as the previous ones: get 5 startups to present each their business to a crowd of 300+ of entrepreneurs, executives as well as consultants and investors. A group of “startup experts” also get to ask questions to the team of entrepreneurs presenting. There’s a definitive focus here on business & business models, with entrepreneurs telling me that it gets them prepared to pitch VCs and present in conferences. I also know that a couple of presenting companies got ulterior funding, so it’s definitively an opportunity for entrepreneurs.

Announced keynote speakers are Patrick Lor, who ran previously iStockPhoto.com, and Austin Hill, who is going to present his startup Akoha. A new feature for this event is also a moderated panel composed of successfully funded startups, an idea put forward by Ben Yoskovitz.

You can get tickets at eventbrite, and if you have a business to present, you can edit the wiki directly.

Ryma Technology solutions has closed a $7 million series B funding round, with iNovia Capital as lead investor, along with Novacap, another Montreal VC firm.

Ryma Tech provides product management software, allowing companies to manage a product’s lifecycle, and most importantly give product managers an edge, by anticipating market needs, and improving innovation within the entreprise. Their software is used by various media and software companies.

I wish I could told you more, but one, it seems to be a desktop software, and two, entreprise software is something I have yet to fully grasp. Nevertheless, congrats to Ryma, iNovia Capital and Novacap!

Akoha, one of the most secret technology startups in town, seems to be finally ready for launch, with a private event coming up next week.

The project, whose development started more than 1 year and a half ago, plays in the social gaming space, with strong incentives for users to interact with others. Here’s a video interview of Austin Hill for those who want to know more about Akoha.

Apart from the few pages on the website though, the Akoha team never released screenshots nor did they demo’ed the project. Here’s then a chance for you to get a preview of Akoha, and also meet the team. It’s planned Thursday, August 28, at Opus Hotel, from 5pm. Details from Austin Hill here:

What is Akoha? We can’t tell you yet. The details are hush-hush, shrouded in mystery and wrapped in enigma. But if you like what you see and you’re feeling adventurous, we’ll give you a mystery starter kit that lets you join the fun immediately.

Our friend, Canadian musician David Usher, will be at the event to play a few songs from his upcoming album. We look forward to having you join us for drinks, great music and a mystery gift.

Time: Thursday, August 28, 4:45pm
Place: Opus Hotel, 10 Sherbrooke Ouest, Montréal, Québec, H2X 4C9
RSVP by August 26 to info@akoha.org

This event is not open to the media except by invitation. Because this is a sneak preview, we’ll ask you to sign a FrieN.D.A. (friendly non-disclosure agreement) to keep the information about our project confidential until Akoha launches.

You can RSVP via Facebook, on Upcoming.org, or by email. This is a private event with limited space, so you must RSVP to info@akoha.org by Tuesday August 26th in order to attend.

Syntenic has launched a brand-new website, which explains their full array of services. Previously, Syntenic just provided a blank homepage and an interface for their clients.

The new Syntenic website focuses on 3 services: optimization of the network used by the web application, the design of a customized web hosting environment for the web application, and business consulting for the application’s lifecycle.

I’ve had once a long conversation with Ian Rae, president of Syntenic, and he presented Syntenic as a customized web hosting company, for companies and expanding web startups which would want to go beyond managed hosting the like of Rackspace.

It’s great to see such an expertise in Montreal. I know their team works closely with web startups and entrepreneurs. They’ve been to Blitzweekend, and they are also part of the BitCurrent network. Do have a close look at Syntenic then, for those of you who are running or launching web apps.

Following the series of “was-too-busy-to-even-think-blog-it-here”, UNYK.com has launched recently public profiles for its 9 million users.

As you all know, UNYK is an online address book that solves the problem of outdated friends’ contact details. When one of your contact changes his/her phone number for instance, UNYK will then update your address book automatically, on your desktop software. This was 3 years ago. The webification of software has since then hit the technology world, with users moving their address book to the web or just plainly using shifting products such as Facebook to manage their contacts.

To stay current, or should I say, stay hip, UNYK has then launched public profiles, available to unregistered users, with a salt of search engine optimization and social networking. UNYK also announced the new feature as a way for users to control their digital identity: link your identity to this public profile, and it’ll be the one appearing on Google, instead of random results from third-party websites.

I might be wrong; but I see incredible opportunity with UNYK, with its claimed 9 million users. They could turn overnight into a hot destination. What I’d do is just forget the desktop software product; and instead leverage the user base to launch a new product. I’m thinking about new ways of Digital identity; there are of course lots of other new opportunities. And you? What would/should UNYK do?

CultureCafe has launched in public beta late last week as a new social hub for cultural communities.

Ariadne Decker, of German origin, is the entrepreneur behind the new website. She now lives in Montreal and organises a german meetup group in Montreal. This, along with her experience in the media business, made her envision a website that would gather different cultural communities around events, businesses and organisations geared towards them. As mentionned earlier, it’s also a social media website, which means all the content are submitted and contributed by users. CultureCafe also has a strong social networking aspect to it, allowing you to view most active users, plus your friends’ activities and announcements.

While CultureCafe can manage different ethnical communities and cities (Colombia is coming for instance), it currently has a heavy focus on the german community in Montreal; and lists german concerts and music shows, different local groups, local places and businesses where you can find german food etc. It’s interesting to notice that while the website was designed for established communities, it’s also very useful for newly arrived germans in Montreal who would want a list of avalaible resources.

To my knowledge, a destination like CultureCafe doesn’t exist yet, although one could always join ad-hoc groups created in Facebook. But I certainly see a use for a specialized website like CultureCafe, one that was designed from the start to help, gather, and foster cultural communities. There is a catch though: to compete against Facebook and other dominant social networking websites, they’d need to deliver best-of-the breed features and product, do it as quickly as possible, while investing themselves on the community gardening.

Note: Roberto Rocha also has a write-up of CultureCafe

Austin Hill has a few poeticpassionnate words to woo a potential community manager at upcoming social gaming startup akoha.org

When you walk past, crying babies begin to burble. You call people and they hear a smile over the phone. Your emails cause people to forget their troubles. When friends ask for help, you’re always willing to lighten their load and brighten their day. You make the sun shine and the grass green and the birds sing …

… We’re looking for a Community Gardener who will help us grow and nurture a community of players, fans, and supporters of our game

Funny.