The Mole sniffs out gold from dross

TOM PULLAR-STRECKER

  16 February 2004

Wellington entrepreneurs Liz Swanston and Ted Thomas reckon they are on to a winner with software that's designed to make it easier for computer users to get a quick grasp of the content of documents dragged up by search engines.

The pair have a successful track record commercialising Kiwi software overseas, having set up financial software firm Priority Solutions in the 1980s – a company which they later sold for $US1.5 million to US-listed firm Phoenix Solutions in 1997.

Their latest venture, Hyperbolex, is trying to commercialise technology created by Otago University post-graduate Roy Anderson. He has used mathematics and linguistics to develop "the Mole".

Picture:
JEFF McEWAN

It is a software tool that can be used to automatically create abstracts of documents and  to help users analyse and drill down into the content of "unstructured data" such as Word and PDF files after they are dragged up by Internet search engines and document management systems.

Mr Thomas says the goal is to help users find out more about what information a document may contain, before they go to the trouble of opening it and browsing through its content.

The Mole has so far been sold to 12 customers, including law firm Rainey Collins and the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Authority (EECA), as well as to two organisations in Australia.

Rainey Collins is using the Mole to help lawyers find relevant information in legal documents relating to Treaty of Waitangi claims while the Immigration Appeals Authority is using it to create abstracts of its deliberations for publication on its website.

Mr Thomas says other possible uses include "sniffing" the content of e-mails and attachments to see, for example, if messages being sent out by staff include key words or phrases which might indicate confidential information is being leaked.

The Mole is also being bundled with software created by a security intelligence software firm in New Zealand.

Ms Swanston says the Mole can be integrated within Internet portals to help visitors to an information site track down relevant content within it. As well as being potential customers in their own right, portals can help Hyperbolex market the technology by giving visitors to their sites a taste of what the technology is capable of, she says.

"We see this as a technology that could be on everybody's desktop."

Revenues to date are in the tens of thousands of dollars.

Ms Swanston and Mr Thomas – who own 35 per cent of Hyperbolex – will seek to raise venture capital in Britain later this year to expand the company.

Hyperbolex has appointed British investment group Imprimatur Capital to drum up interest and has also appointed a business partner in the US, This Quarter, which is establishing a resale network in the country.

If the company is successful in raising funding, Hyperbolex could be structured so its research and development is run out of New Zealand with sales and marketing based in the US and funding coming out of Britain, she says.

Mr Thomas says raising venture capital in New Zealand isn't the best option.

This is because British investors have a better understanding of the technology and its market potential and because Kiwi venture capitalists tend to underestimate the amount of funding needed to commercialise software offshore.

About Hyperbolex

Hyperbolex develops and licenses content intelligence technologies The Mole used in the discovery of information from unstructured data sources. The Mole uses a powerful (international patent pending) content analysis technology to provide abstracts of information based on a user's area of interest. The Mole's unique ability to unlock the value within unstructured data and automate processes around this information differentiates it from its competitors.

You can find out more information about Hyperbolex and The Mole by contacting us at www.themolesite.com or email .