INVESTMENT
ChangingWorlds gets IEP3.5 million
13-12-2000
by Aoidin Scully
Hi-tech pioneer ChangingWorlds has secured first round funding of IEP3.5 million in an investment round led by Trinity Venture Capital.
The company, which develops advanced intelligent personalisation technologies for mobile, wireless and digital TV Internet applications, is now valued at EUR20 million (IEP15.5m).
Etablished as a campus company in 1999 by UCD computer scientists Paul Cotter and Barry Smyth, ChangingWorlds said it would use the funding to drive further research and development and the marketing of its technologies.
The company's ClixSmart personalisation technology powers intelligent information services that are capable of responding to the learned preferences of individual users. This allows people to have greater personal control of the media and services they choose to interact with, as well as reducing the potential for information overload.
"The technology is very generic and we can apply it to almost any situation which lends itself to personalisation," claimed Luke Conroy, ChangingWorld's Chief Executive, who claims he sees three tiers of application. "One would be navigation throughout web and WAP sites. Next would be content specific areas like TV and cinema listings, gigs, restaurants, news, and so on. The third tier would be building up a whole picture of people's preferences, and then making business decisions related to individual users."
At the moment, Conroy added, ChangingWorlds is very focused on providing new technology to the wireless and digital TV sectors. "There's a need for WAP phones and PDAs to have improved navigation and content delivery for users," he commented. "And since a TV screen is generally of a lower resolution than a PC, digital TV users need better tools and technology."
ChangingWorlds scooped the top technology accolade for innovation at the Irish Software Association annual awards in November, and current customers include Eircell's e-merge and the Ireland.com and Unison portals. The company also hopes to further expand its showcase portal, PTV.ie, which features TV listings for Ireland and the UK.
This first seven-week investment round was advised by Merrion Corporate Finance and incorporates private clients of the Merrion Capital Group. Karl Schutte of Trinity Venture Capital will join board of directors.
Describing ChangingWorlds as 'highly innovative', Schutte commented, "The company's products have a range of practical applications for new media operators and are already attracting significant interest among prospective customers. The research and development carried out to date and the management experience available are such that there is a very strong platform from which to grow and develop the business".
The company intends to recruit additional staff at all levels and has set aside in excess of 20 per cent of its equity for employees.
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