Ottawa startup TenXc Wireless Inc. has become the first company in Ontario to benefit from a new business development program launched by the provincial government.

The company, founded in December 2001 by former federal research scientist John Litva and entrepreneur Raj Narula, has received $100,000. The cash will be used to market TenXc's wireless network antenna technology.

The loan came from the Accelerator Investment Program offered by Communications and Information Technology Ontario, or CITO, an initiative partially funded by the Ontario Ministry of Enterprise, Opportunity and Innovation.

The accelerator program seeks out startups that it considers to be strong business prospects and tries to attract other early seed investors by being the first to put up money.

CITO plans to invest $1 million through the program over the next 18 months in 10 Ontario companies. Investments will range in size from $75,000 to $150,000. The investments are in the form of loans that can be converted at a later date into common shares held by CITO.

"We're very excited to be one of the first Ontario start-ups selected by CITO to be a recipient of this new innovative business accelerator program," Narula, CEO and VP of business development, said in a statement. "TenXc Wireless is pleased to be working with the professional team at CITO, who have assisted us with both collaborative research and business introductions."

TenXc's technology is meant to allow mobile wireless operators to boost voice capacity and data transmission speeds over their networks without having to add more cell sites or build new transmission towers.

The name TenXc is meant to signify that the company's technology will be able to boost existing network capacity by a factor of 10.

The loan isn't TenXc's first seed funding. It received $750,000 from Venture Coaches in March 2002.

The company has about a dozen staff.