the best place to headquarter an Internet-based business.

John Hele, chief executive officer and president, said that after extensive consultation, he decided that Bermuda had the ideal infrastructure to cope with the demands of a new company such as his.

And the good name and reputation of Bermuda help to attract venture capitalists who look upon the Island's new businesses with favour.

Mr. Hele said: "The consultants said that Bermuda was number one. It has a stable government, it is a place you can attract venture capital to, it has a great infrastructure and it has an educated work force.

"They said if I had wanted to employ a lot of people, then Dublin would be the choice. This was the place. I met with Government officials and we had our business plan approved.'' Last week The Royal Gazette revealed that the year-old Bermuda technology company -- the first company in the world to provide a fully automated system for insurance companies to process applications -- closed its first deal with Royal Sun Alliance Life Insurance Co. in Canada.

The insurance company now plans to outsource its front-end application and underwriting services using Worldinsure, making the service available to more than 5,000 independent agents across Canada.

And Mr. Hele said the new company is working on deals for its business-to-business platforms for medically underwritten insurance such as life insurance products with insurer right across North America.

"We have been asked by several other countries, but first we want to get North America. We then hope to move to Europe and Asia in 2002/2003,'' added Mr. Hele.

He said that running a business with Bermuda as its global headquarters had been fairly easy.

"I think running things out of Bermuda helped in a couple of ways. First is that I have never had any question or concerns about raising the capital into Bermuda, whereas I think if it had been based in other countries, then I think questions would have come up. If I went to somebody in the street in North America and said Bermuda, they may say tax haven, but not in the venture capital world. Venture capital firms are putting large amounts of capital into Bermuda-based businesses. Having a well-established base is very important to a business.

"The second key is in regard to the support we have been able to get with services -- such as technical support, legal advice, accounting, etc. From the beginning we have been able to be up and running without employing a lot of people at the start. We had no problem with out Internet connection and it is amazing how fast it gets and it is a very good service.'' The company currently has a team of four working from its Church Street offices, but Mr. Hele hopes to get this figure up to eight or ten.

He said any move from their office in the former Cable and Wireless building would depend on how the business does and the availability of office space in Hamilton.

He added that website hosting and the technology surrounding websites was a field that would continue to expand and Bermudians could take advantage of it in the workplace.

"There is a great deal of potential here for Bermuda and its people in and around this business.'' Bermuda the best for Worldinsure The Bermuda-based company claims it is the first company in the world to develop a special software package, which will be sold to insurance companies.

Worldinsure claims the product will save time for customers who normally have to fill out reams of paperwork, which can take up to 12 weeks, to get life insurance. Brokers then have to wade through the documents and then track them as they pass through the back office.

Now one electronic form can be filled out on a computer either by a customer or a customer with a broker, and this same document will then be processed through a computer. It is not available directly to the public but is designed for insurance companies and distributors.

Currently trying to register on-line life insurance companies is a limited process because detailed and validated medical information is needed to calculate policies.

The documents generated by the programme will include medical information, which will be plugged in and the programme will calculate the risk and help work out the cost of insurance.

The programme has the capacity to do what is called automated underwriting i.e. calculating the cost of insurance.

The company, which has funding of $31 million, has been operating for over a year and has been in full swing for six months looking for businesses to take on its products.

It has offices in Hamilton, the US and Canada and a staff worldwide of 50. It hopes to increase this number to 100 by the end of the year.

The investors in the start-up are XDL Intervest Capital Corporation, Dorset Partners, CIBC Capital Partners, Princeton Holdings, Sun Life Financial, New Millennium Internet Ventures Fund Inc, BMO Nesbitt Burns Equity Partners Inc, Bayshore Capital and eLab Technology Ventures Inc.