It’s no secret that our Managing Director, Geoff McQueen has just returned from three weeks overseas. But while you might think be thinking ‘wow, that lucky guy taking time off just after Christmas holidays’, that’s not exactly the case. Geoff’s been in the heart of the world’s innovative technology scene, working hard to secure funding from some of Silicon Valley’s top investors.

California? Investors? What the heck is going on? Well, here’s the scoop.

The funding is for Omnidrive, a service that gives people the ability to store all their files online, making them available from anywhere. Additionally, Omnidrive has advanced features built in to share and publish files, as well as enabling people to instantly subscribe to content, even large video and audio content like Podcasts.

A result of a partnership* between Internetrix and Solutionstap (headed by Nik Culbrilovic) formed in early 2005, Omnidrive is one of the few Aussie start-ups to cause such excitement in the Valley in recent times.

Geoff and Nik’s trip was set to be a scoping and meeting mission, and as it turns out, went even better than expected. When they arrived in the U.S. interest in Omnidrive exploded, with hundreds of references and mentions by influential bloggers.

With a hectic schedule of meetings geared to an initial round of funding, Geoff and Nik spoke with some of the biggest names in the technology game — including top-tier venture capitalist firms, well-known Angel investors, influential members of the blogging community, and even finding time for a sushi dinner with the founder of Netscape.

With so much happening, Nik is staying in ‘The Valley’ for the time being to iron out some further details. Geoff is back in Australia and will be heading to the US for regular visits throughout the coming year as the project takes off—the next trip slated in just a few weeks time.

Omnidrive research began mid 2004, while full development started in January 2005. Working towards a public beta in March, Omnidrive is being eagerly anticipated already has 25,000 beta users signed up to use the platform to backup, share and publish their files to the web, straight from their desktops.

For more information about Omnidrive or to sign up for the beta yourself, visit www.omnidrive.com or if you’d like to know more details, read Nik’s personal blog at www.nik.com.au.

*Update April 2006 - Omnidrive Inc is now an independent corporation, and has no relationship or affiliation with Internetrix.