Firm does marketing, sales and legal for IP vendors

Cook and Logan said the company was founded on the idea that there is a lot of good and useful IP being developed today but that many of those developing it don't have the marketing, sales and legal experience to get that IP to customers. At the same time, Cook and Logan believe that chip design companies don't have the time and resources to shop for IP. Voyageur hopes to address those issues.

"There hasn't been a proactive sales and marketing channel to re ally enable and proliferate the IP industry to date," said Logan. "So we thought a pure demand creation model, with people in all the local markets across the Americas focused solely on IP, would bring additional revenues overall. Looking at some of the barriers to entry for IP vendors today, we feel there are a number of areas where we can bridge those gaps and at the same time make it easier for customers to adopt IP."

Voyageur was founded in September with $1 million in angel funding. Thus far, the company has five employees in Toronto, Montreal and Ottawa, but over the next month it plans to add six sales engineers to its staff and open offices in Boston; Austin, Texas; and Silicon Valley in California.

Logan said the company does not charge IP vendors for Voyageur sales and marketing services but will take a commission when they successfully negotiate IP. "We operate on a variable cost model," said Logan. "We receive a commission for the sales of the cores. There is no cost to the vendor unless the customer decides to buy something."

The company is negotiating with nine IP vendors and aims to represent 12 to 20 next year. "We plan to represent the large and medium-size vendors across the Americas on a commission basis," said Cook, who said the company will also represent small companies with compelling technologies.

"We want to limit overlap so we are being very deliberate about the suppliers we want to work with," said Cook. He said that the company wants to ensure that it is selling a quality product and will lean on the side of representing companies that have silicon-proven IP and good track records.

Voyageur also hopes to streamline the negotiation and legal issues that often stall IP licensing deals. The company's staff includes an IP attorney.

"We have a standard contract today, and we would like to offer a way for larger system OEMs to be able to license IP from three or four manufacturers under a single license," said Logan. "It lowers the overall co st of the licensing process. It will make it easier for a large system company, because they can add just us in instead of adding a dozen IP vendors."

A more detailed list of the company's services can be found at www.voyageurtech.com.