Stemming Energy Loss in Brazil: The Awesense Soft-Landing Story
By stress on Sep 26, 2012 / Categories: Blog, Soft Landing
Making the right connections can be electric. Just ask Mischa Steiner-Jovic, CEO of Awesense Wireless.
An estimated $25 billion is lost yearly in North America due to bad connections and power theft. This is a major environmental and business problem, and Steiner-Jovic has the solution.
His innovative wireless technology enables companies to find bad connections up to five times faster than traditional technologies, and without any power disruption. While currently only servicing Canada, Steiner-Jovic knows many countries could benefit from more electricity.
Housed in the Wavefront Accelerator Centre in Vancouver, Awesense’s research of international markets led them to connect with Export Development Canada (EDC) for help. By chance, just days before, the Canadian Digital Media Network (CDMN) had concluded introductory meetings with EDC where the various initiatives of the CDMN had been introduced. EDC told Awesense about the CDMN’s Soft-Landing Program, which offers qualified startups and SMEs exposure to international economies-of-interest. In Awesense’s case, that meant Brazil, where access to electricity is critical to the country’s fast-growing economy.
The program provides up to three months of residency in partnered facilities equipped to support companies’ growth, and up to $4,000 CDN for transportation and hotel costs.
Steiner-Jovic, who was quickly accepted into the program, found the application process easy for a busy entrepreneur.
“The process of the program from introduction to being accepted was completely seamless. In fact, it was so simple, that I had to ask twice to make sure I wasn’t mistaken that Awesense was accepted,” he said.
“The team from CDMN was truly great to work with. They answered questions quickly, and were very understanding of the needs of a developing company.”
Soft-Landing funding allowed the Awesense team to set up quickly in Campinas, Brazil for one week.
The program was crucial to enabling the team to afford to travel and have time to explore the Brazilian market.
“With the funding we were able to go without stress, and didn’t have to ask partners to fund the trip,” Steiner-Jovic said.
By maintaining autonomy over their work, the Awesense team was able to preserve negotiating power while in Brazil, and show their willingness to make international partnerships work.
Now back in Canada, Steiner-Jovic is thankful for the experience and looking forward to a bright future in Brazil. Promising partnerships are in development, and the saved money thanks to the Soft-Landing Program funding is enabling further product development earlier than the team had planned.
To learn more about the Soft-Landing Program and how to qualify, contact Lisa Cashmore, Soft-Landing Program Manager for CDMN, at 519-804-2980 Ext. 1075, or at lisa.cashmore@cdmn.ca.