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January 25, 2006
Iqua= Bluetooth headsets + Former Nokians + Non-Borg designs
If you’re tired of looking like a Borg when sporting a mobilephone headset, then the colorful and small ones from Iqua will be of interest. At least that is what Eqvitec, a major Scandinavian private equity firm, which just invested Euro 2 mln in the startup's first financing round is hoping.
Iqua Ltd was founded in 2004 by a team of marketing managers that left their comfy cubicles at mobilephone manufacturer Nokia to start the company. It was the management team’s experience that attracted the capital. That and the fact that Bluetooth chipsets are becoming standard in cellphones. The theory goes is that it will create “vast market” opportunity for companies selling wireless headset, handsfree phones, and other accessories.
“They’ve got some new concepts and innovative designs that we think will be popular,” Jukka Jokinen, Investment Director, Eqvitec Partners told the a:c euro.
Its Bluetooth-enabled accessories have a Scandinavian design vibe going for them.
It looks like Nokia may have dropped the ball on growing its accessory business as co-founder and CEO, Juha Reima, was the vice president of accessories at Nokia Mobile Phones and worked there since 1988. Another founder, Jouko Häyrynen, Iqua director of business development, also worked at Nokia for two decades before leaving to act as a business angel and startup consultant and then found Iqua.
The two have managed to fill the startup's key management positions by recruiting from their former employer.
But Iqua enters a competitive market. Its products will compete against those from the major brandname phone-makers, as well as Plantronics and Jabra, another young company that is part of the Danish-based technology group, GN Great Nordic. It will be hard to keep ahead of deep pocketed competitors.
Having said that, often the teams that spin out of these European electronics giants create companies that exploit some good ideas that were languishing in the larger organization, and they appreciate in value rather quickly.
For example, this week Spirent acquired five year old SwissQual for $70 mln this week, whose founding team left Swiss telco equipment manufacturer Ascom to bootstrap the company to profitability.
And there was Microcell, an original development manufacturer created by a large team of ex-Nokians, which was acquired by Flextronics for USD200 mln (it paid $80 mln in cash and assumed $120 mln in debt with the purchase).
We are sure these deals did not go un-noticed by Iqua’s investors.
Iqua is trying to sell smart badge gear to companies for office workers. It is a combo-device that include ID badge, headphone, and wireless access to several phones. It can handle 40 hours of talk time.
Read- Iqua raises first round (Eqvitec)
Posted on January 25, 2006 01:19 PM | Posted to Peripherals | Venture Capital | Wireless | Permalink
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