An~gel: an affluent individual who provides capital for a business start-up.  Unlike venture capitalists, angels typically invest their own money.  Often they get together in what they call Angel Venture Forums.  The Sophia Business Angels are one of Europe's most influential display of angels at work.

So where am I going with this?  Well, just 10 days ago, the Sophia Venture Academy voted a Calgary firm the "Most Investable Company" on offer.  Genesis Technical Systems Corp. took the prize for its Internet technology.  Something they call "DSL Rings" enables telephone companies to re-use copper wires to bring high-speed broadband service to rural and remote areas at a much reduced cost.

This is very good news, indeed.  Coincidentally, the Senate tabled its Digital Canada.ca report on virtually the same day that Genesis won its award.  It called for a massive investment in rural and remote Internet access.  Now we have a home-grown answer to their call, and a surprisingly inexpensive one.  What could be better?

UPDATE June 30, 2010:  Finland has made broadband Internet access a human right.  H/t @ryhicks for pointing us to this article which reports that every Finnish telecom "will be obliged to provide all residents with broadband lines that can run at a minimum 1Mbps speed"  as of July 1^st.  How's that for raising the bar?

Well, cool. 

Would like to hear more about these interesting Canadian ideas beyond the work of RIM.  Yes, they've done a good job, but let's not put all our eggs in one basket (Nortel anyone?)  Surely there are many great Canadian ideas and companies out there we should be promoting and celebrating.  Happy to hear of another one!