Miko Matsumura leaves BizTone for new start-up

KUALA LUMPUR--Former Java chief evangelist Miko Matsumura has left rent-an-app pioneer BizTone.com Inc for a new start-up.

BizTone.com chief executive Darryl Carlton confirmed in an email yesterday that Matsumura vacated his position as vice president of strategy in February. "Miko is still a shareholder in BizTone and an advisor on technical matters, however, he left our full-time employ to follow the Silicon Valley dream -- his own start-up," said Carlton.

Matsumura's new dotcom vehicle is called Kalepa.com and beyond a Web address registered Saturday little is known about it. Carlton said the new company is unrelated to BizTone.com.

Carlton added that BizTone.com has also closed its San Jose, California office and consolidated all US activities at its expanded Denver facility. The company continues to maintain offices in Malaysia, Singapore and Australia.

"The Silicon Valley was our first and most logical step into the US, but we found that it is unreasonably expensive to run a business there and almost impossible to attract and retain staff. This has been a very valuable experience for us and we have learned a lot," said Australian national Carlton, who started the pure Java developer in Malaysia in 1996.

BizTone.com snared Matsumura in December 1998 after his three-year successful stint with Sun Microsystems travelling the world to push the Java platform. At the time, Matsumura cited that in BizTone.com's financial application BusinessTone he had found the 'killer app' he had been looking for. BizTone.com is pioneering the use of Enterprise Resource Planning software as a transaction-based service over the Internet.

Matsumura's throwing his hat in the Malaysian start-up significantly raised the company's international profile. He was also instrumental in its incorporation as an US company from the former Datek Sdn Bhd.

As head of US operations, Matsumura oversaw market development, strategic planning, equity financing, and investor and press relations. He also helped close a US$2.5 million lead investor for a recent US$5.5 million venture capital round, and was readying the company for an initial public offering on the Nasdaq.

At 31, Matsumura characterizes the growing crop of dotcom entrepreneurs in Silicon Valley. Young, restless, cerebral and passionate about technology, Matsumura holds a masters degree in neuroscience from Yale University and a degree in psychology from University of Michigan. He also holds a first degree black belt in Shotokan karate. While in Sun, he displayed his gung-ho personality by bungee-jumping off a bridge suited up as Java's mascot Duke.

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