(March 17 – 16:00 ET) – An Internet incubator has just filed a preliminary prospectus that reveals that many financial industry veterans are finding new homes in the online business.
The NRG Group Inc. is an Internet incubator, a venture capitalist through subsidiary NRG Ventures, an Internet production company through NRG Solutions. The firm was formed through the amalgamation on March 10 of 2FundEcom Inc., the NRG Group Inc. and KidsNRG Inc. The firm was started by a brother and sister, Matthew and Vicki Saunders. Saunders’ husband Richard Ford heads KidsNRG, and John Rae-Grant holds the title .com midwife.
Joining those four on the board are Aubrey Baillie, recently retired deputy chair and chief operating officer of Nesbitt Burns Inc. and founder of 2FundEcom; Robert McLeish, also recently retired as vice-chair and director of Merrill Lynch Canada Inc. and a co-founder of 2FundEcom; Peter Wallace, former president of both Midland Walwyn Capital Inc. and the Wealth Management division at Canada Trust Financial Services Inc.; noted securities lawyer Tom Allen, senior partner at Ogilvy Renault; and lawyer David Thring from Lang Michener.
The firm partly reunites Wallace with former partner Dennis Dewan. Dewan is chief executive of StreetViews Inc., which is 30% owned by NRG, a website slated for launch in mid-2000. The firm intends to aggregate investment research from assorted investment dealers along with offering other investment tools, much like U.S.-based sites such as Multex.com and briefing.com. StreetViews expects to make money from advertising subscription fees and proprietary data mining. On January 12, it closed its second round of private financing and bought the popular fundlibrary.com site with the proceeds.
Apart from Streetviews, NRG has seven other equity investments in Internet firms. No details on the size of its offering are yet available. The underwriting syndicate includes Charles Schwab Canada, Co., TD Securities Inc., Research Capital Corp., Griffiths McBurney & Partners, BMO Nesbitt Burns Inc., CIBC World Markets Inc., Dundee Securities Corp. and BayStreetDirect Inc.
-IE Staff