Anyone out there need a Family Locator? Could be useful on those trips to the mega-mall, when Little Johnny/Grandma/Great Aunt Aida goes AWOL. Well, you're in luck, because a Family Locator (which tracks down the location of your chosen relative's mobile phone) is just one of the myriad applications provided by France-based Intersec .
This purveyor of value-added services (VAS) applications has spent the last eight or so years building up an impressive roster of clients for its offerings, which range from churn-reducing software (Loyalty Solutions) to a message delivery engine, via scary-sounding (but legal!) citizen-monitoring systems.
Not surprisingly, the client list to date has a Gallic tinge, with France Télécom - Orange (NYSE: FTE) and SFR both putting in an appearance. Orange deployed Intersec's Multi-Channel Marketing Suite, an application for the management of marketing campaigns, in order to better communicate with -- and retain -- its most demanding, high-ARPU subscribers.
But Intersec's wares have found favor further afield, in Russia, for Mobile TeleSystems OJSC (MTS) (NYSE: MBT); Morocco, for Maroc Telecom ; and Madagascar, where Telma is a customer. And now the company is looking for business in North America, having just opened an office in Ontario, Canada.
Quite what any of this means for the company's financial health, though, is unknown: Details of Intersec's sales and profit margins remain secret. The company has had external backing, though, as it raised €4 million (US$4.9 million) from Innovacom (France Telecom's investment arm) and CM-CIC Capital Innovation in May 2011.
Earlier this year Intersec received recognition of its success when it made the Red Herring Top 100 Europe, an awards scheme that identifies startups that have been particularly innovative, according to the judges. Previous winners include Facebook , Twitter Inc. , Google (Nasdaq: GOOG), Yahoo Inc. (Nasdaq: YHOO), Skype Ltd. , Salesforce.com Inc. , YouTube Inc. and eBay Inc. (Nasdaq: EBAY). In terms of company to keep, that little grouping doesn't sound too shabby.
Also impressive is the CEO's eclectic choice of favorite movies, a mix of the high-octane Bourne films, a classic political paranoia thriller and a Laurence Olivier oddity. Magnifique!
Table 1: Intersec Cheat Sheet
| Company name: |
Intersec |
| Location (headquarters): |
Courbevoie, France (also offices in UK, Mexico, Russia, and Canada) |
| Founded: |
2004 |
| Key executives: |
Yann Chevalier (CEO & co-founder), Jean-Marc Coic (CTO), Aurelien Lajoie (VP R&D), Gary Buchwald (CCO) |
| Headcount: |
70 |
| Company focus: |
"Intersec is a leading provider of value-added services solutions with innovation as a key attribute. Intersec’s offering help MNOs go beyond the technological challenges of their business expansion through loyalty, messaging, LBS and alerting solutions." |
| Funding: |
Undisclosed |
| Revenues: |
Undisclosed |
| Profitability (operating or net income): |
Undisclosed |
| Headline customers/key accounts: |
Orange Group, Maroc Telecom, Nokia Siemens Networks, SFR, MTS |
| Main competitors: |
Comverse, Acision, TeleCommunication Systems (TCS) |
| Company motto: |
Don’t settle for less |
| CEO's favorite movies: |
The Entertainer, The Bourne Trilogy, Three Days of the Condor |
— Paul Rainford, Assistant Editor, Europe, Light Reading
