Milestone Creates Incubations and Ventures Unit In Silicon Valley

  • Sep 04, 2012

Milestone Systems, the open platform company for IP video management software (VMS), will heighten its focus on development by starting up a new international business unit, Incubation and Ventures, with locations in Silicon Valley, California, and at the Danish headquarters. The goal is to develop new products and services with high potential for market superiority and differentiation, to achieve additional growth by cultivating new Milestone ventures.

To steer the new initiatives, Milestone has hired an experienced strategist, Lars Nordenlund Friis, as vice president for incubation and ventures.

"The Incubation and Ventures business unit will work with groundbreaking innovations that can extend Milestone’s leadership in the industry and accelerate our growth. The team will work with a portfolio process that covers new business areas where we see high potential and integrate these into our main business as they mature. This requires taking a broad view across new technologies and business segments that will continue to build the Milestone vision to enable business optimization through open platform IP video surveillance," says Lars Thinggaard, CEO & president, Milestone Systems.

The term "Incubation" relates to organic product innovations that can be developed and taken to commercial success, and "Ventures" signals the intention to build a portfolio of stand-alone businesses, joint partnership ventures or potential mergers and acquisitions, with or without external funding.

"Milestone has always had a strong focus on long-term growth and that is why we have been successful the past 14 years. We will now be investing in exciting new initiatives," says John Blem, Chief Product Officer and co-founder of Milestone Systems. "We have brought in an experienced person to run the Incubation and Ventures unit with knowledge of international business development and global expansions; I believe that Lars Nordenlund Friis is exactly the right man to help Milestone continue as the world’s leading provider of IP video management software."

Lars Nordenlund Friis has an MBA from Henley in London. He has been Head of Strategy in Northern Europe for PwC, a partner at PA Consulting, and spent six years at Microsoft in Seattle leading their global ISV (Independent Software Vendor) business, as well as being responsible for global business development at Columbus IT and other technology companies.

The Milestone Incubation and Ventures business unit will identify new opportunities in the markets, build up strategic partnerships and take in the most lucrative potential initiatives with the intention to integrate with the core business of the company.

"We are already looking at undiscovered markets and innovative technologies that can increase Milestone’s growth across software and hardware, as well as exploring the potential of cloud services. We will also look at possible acquisitions of exciting products or new business areas for expansion," says Lars Nordenlund Friis, Vice President for Incubation and Ventures.

The Milestone Incubation and Ventures unit will also involve strategic collaborations on interesting projects with business and financial partners. A new office location in Silicon Valley will ensure access to the world’s high technology innovation center with its networks and resources drawing on the IT industry’s front-runners.

"Milestone is in a league of its own for global open platform IP video software: I look forward to driving a portfolio of exciting new opportunities and maturing them to scale worldwide. I plan to contribute up to 25 percent of Milestone’s growth in the long run," concludes Nordenlund Friis.

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