NICTA empowers start-up company Cohesive Data with advanced mobile device software
NICTA has entered into a technology transfer agreement to provide its advanced optimisation and search software to Cohesive Data, a start-up company established specifically to develop and commercialise products based on the core NICTA technology. Cohesive Data has been founded by entrepreneurs/investors Tim Sullivan, Todd Viegut and Peter Vroom. They are joined in the venture by Dr Raymond Wong, who led the NICTA project team that developed the software.
The core NICTA technology, which focuses on the efficient delivery of dynamic information to small mobile devices, keeps data as up-to-date as the last network connection. This means users can view websites and access email and other information on their mobile devices, even when out of network range.
Products containing the NICTA IP will be marketed initially to US mobile carriers to help them provide more seamless information delivery to their customers. "We are very excited to take the NICTA technology to the US and world markets," said Tim Sullivan, Executive Chairman of Cohesive Data. "We feel this is a great fit within the carriers’ needs for delivering large volumes of information to an ever-growing mobile market."
The four-person NICTA technical team, headed by Dr Wong, will join Cohesive and will be based at the Australian Technology Park in Sydney. "We are
really looking forward to bringing this technology to market," said Dr Wong. "NICTA has provided a wonderful development environment for us over the last few years and now we are thrilled to be moving forward as part of Cohesive. I am excited to be working with Tim, Todd, and Peter, who have all been down the technology commercialisation road before and have helped shape our path to market in the months it has taken to get the spin-out off the ground."Cohesive has been boosted by early seed funding from NICTA. In exchange for providing software and IP, NICTA has taken an equity position in Cohesive as part of a structured licensing arrangement.
Dr David Skellern, Chief Executive Officer of NICTA, congratulated the team: "Raymond has done a fantastic job as a NICTA researcher and project leader over the years. I am sure his tenacity, intelligence and passion for research will translate brilliantly to his new role as Chief Technology Officer at Cohesive. His achievement demonstrates what NICTA is all about – carrying out breakthrough research and taking it to market to solve real-world problems."
Dr Wong is also an Associate Professor at the University of New South Wales, who has been contributed to NICTA while leading the team. The NICTA technology was refined through a number of trials and won the CeBIT.AU Early Innovators Award in 2007. Since its foundation in 2002, NICTA has spun out four companies: Audinate, 7-ip, Monitoring Division and Open Kernel Labs.
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Phone: +61 2 9376 2098 or +61 2 488 229 687
Email: dorothy.kennedy@nicta.com.au
