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The Angel Forum is calling for company applications to present and exhibit to pre-screened private equity investors at the 27th Angel Forum on May 18th in Vancouver.

“The Angel Forum was one of the more valuable events we’ve been part of this year. It gave us direct access to active investors and the opportunity to have real and honest discussions with them about our business.” Natalie Sisson Co-Founder, FundRazr – a 2009 New Ventures BC Competitor

At the 26th Angel Forum on November 24th of last year, 32 selected companies were selected from 60+ applicants and nearly 90 investors registered from Seattle, Bellingham, Calgary, Edmonton, Regina, Winnipeg, Kelowna, Victoria and Vancouver.

Final deadline to register is April 30th.

LifeSciences British Columbia announced the recipients of the 2010 LifeSciences British Columbia Awards today and a 2009 New Ventures BC competitor was amongst the winners.

Lungpacer Medical picked up the New Ventures BC 3rd Place prize last year and founder Dr. Andy Hoffer was honoured with the Innovation & Achievement Award by LifeSciences BC earlier today.

These awards are presented annually by LifeSciences British Columbia to recognize individuals and organizations that have made outstanding contributions to the development of British Columbia’s life sciences industry across all sub-sectors, from biopharmaceuticals and medical devices to bioproducts and bioenergy – sectors which are critical to the economic future of the province and country.

Congrats to Dr. Hoffer who will receive his award at a gala ceremony on Wednesday, April 14th in front of an audience of approximately 600 biopharmaceutical, medical device, bioproducts, bioenergy and greater life sciences community and public policy leaders at the Vancouver Convention Centre.

Lungpacer Medical Inc. was founded in May 2009 and is Hoffer’s third SFU spin-off company.

GreenAngel Energy Corporation announced today that they have entered into a Memorandum of Understanding with 2009 NVBC Top 10 Finalist Rapid Electric Vehicles Inc. (REV) to raise up to $5 Million in several tranches during 2010.

Under the terms of the MOU, GreenAngel will raise capital for REV using a special purpose Venture Capital Corporation as defined under the B.C. Small Business Venture Capital Act, namely REV Technologies (VCC) Inc. B.C. investors can receive a 30% refundable tax credit and also hold their shares within an RRSP or TFSA account for further tax deductions.

According to GreenAngel CEO Michael Volker, using a VCC to offer shares will allow REV to attract a much broader base of investors rather than limiting itself to angel investors as it has in the past (REV CEO Jay Giraud presented last week at the Canadian Financing Forum). In additon, the use of the 30% Provincial Tax credits and the Federal RRSP deduction will give investors substantial leverage and reduce their at-risk capital outlay.

REV will be hosting a number of investor presentations over the coming weeks, just in time for the 2009 RRSP contribution deadline.

REV will use the proceeds to continue the development and commercialization of its MDS technology – modular drive and energy storage systems – that transform a wide variety of automotive platforms into zero-emission, 100% electric vehicles. Its initial market thrust is the electrification of SUV and half-ton pickup trucks typically used in commercial fleet operations.

The  2010 Canadian Financing Forum took place today at the Hyatt Regency in downtown Vancouver and four previous New Ventures BC Competitors were chosen to present the Venture Capitalist audience.

• Aquavive Technologies – 2009 Top 30 Company
• Rapid Electric Vehicles Inc. (REV) – 2009 Top 10 Finalist
• Etalim – 2nd place in 2009
• Genologics Life Sciences Software – 2nd Place in 2003

The Forum wrapped up tonight with a reception to announce the Forum Favorites and Best Early Stage award winners. Iain Black, Minister of Small Business, Technology and Economic Development, was in attendance and presented the Best Early Stage Cleantech award to Burnaby’s Etalim.

Etalim’s new solar-power technology inexpensively converts the sun’s heat into emission-free electricity. This new technology uniquely combines thermodynamics, high-amplitude acoustics, mechanical resonance and material science to generate electricity not only from the sun, but from any heat source. An Etalim power plant can capture the sunlight falling on an area of land the size of a football field to power 500 homes without creating any CO2 emissions.

Etalim was founded and incorporated in March 2006. Former Creo CEO Amos Michelson is Etalim’s Chairman and experienced tech entrepreneur Ron Klopfer was named CEO in June 2009.

Vancouver’s Rocket Builders announced their eighth annual Ready to Rocket 25 list yesterday naming 25 privately held BC companies that are “best positioned to capitalize on the 2010 technology sector trends that will lead them to faster growth than their peers”. The annual Ready to Rocket 25 list aims to predict the companies that will likely experience significant revenue growth, venture capital investment or acquisition by a major player in the coming year.

19 of the companies on the 2010 list are repeat Ready to Rocket recipients with 6 new companies being tagged as “Ready to Rocket” for the first time. Two former New Ventures BC Competitors made the list. 2003 2nd Place Finisher  Genologics Life Sciences Software was named to the Ready to Rocket list for the second time and 2008 2nd Place Finisher Pulse Energy, Inc (formerly Small Energy Group) was named for the first time.

In addition to the Ready to Rocket 25, Rocket Builders also announced its 2010 lists of “Emerging Rockets” which includes a number of New Ventures BC past competitors:

• LightIntegra Technology Inc. – 1st place in 2009
• Etalim – 2nd place in 2009
• Rapid Electric Vehicles Inc. (REV) – 2009 Top 10 Finalist
• Veridae – 2009 Top 10 Finalist
• Vineyard Networks – 2009 Top 10 Finalist
• Saltworks Technology – 2008 Winner
• Clarity Accounting – 2008 Competitor

The Canadian Financing Forum is next week in Vancouver and the final list of presenting companies is now online.

Among the line-up of presenters that are pitching to the Venture Capital audience are a number of former NVBC competitors including 2003 2nd place winner Genologics Life Sciences Software and 2009 Top 10 finalist Rapid Electric Vehicles.

In addition to these companies, ten startups have been selected to participate in the Bootup Demo Days session during the Financing Forum and 2009 Top 10 finalist Mobify is one of them. As part of Bootup Demo Days. Mobify will give a 10 minute investment presentation in front of angel and early stage investors during the afternoon breakout session and then again at a special event at the Plug and Play Tech Centre in Silicon Valley on February 3rd.

Congrats to Kelowna’s Vineyard Networks which was named this morning to Network World’s 10 Start-ups to Watch in 2010 list. Vineyard Networks for a Top 10 Finalist in the 2009 New Ventures BC Competition.

Vineyard Networks was named to Network World’s Top 10 IT Management Startups to Watch in December and was the only Network Monitoring and Management solution named to the new 2010 watch list today.

Vineyard Networks was also recognized as a finalist for the Most Promising Emerging Technology Award last January at the 2009 Okanagan Science & Technology Council’s (OSTEC) Silicon Vineyard Innovation Awards. The following is a profile video of the three finalists in the award category.

2009 New Ventures BC Competitor ConnectionPoint Systems had quite the Fall in 2009. Although they didn’t make the Top 10 in September, they launched their FundRazr Facebook app in the TechCrunch 50 Demo Pit in September and then were showcased at the PayPal Innovate X 2009 Conference in November.

Now, just in time for the New Year they have just released their open beta version of FundRazr.com. Check out FundRazr is you need to collect fees, run campaigns, sell tickets, manage finances, and issue receipts and more.

The FundRazr team has some new features lined up for 2010 and they promise to continue pushing the envelope in developing innovative social commerce solutions.

BC Angel Investor of the Year Mike Volker has launched a new “angel fund” called GreenAngel Energy Corp. that is now trading on the TSX Venture Exchange under the stock symbol GAE.  The Company will focus on commercializing clean energy technologies and is starting off with equity positions in six ventures including former 2009 New Ventures BC Top 10 Finalist Rapid Electric Vehicles (REV).

According to Volker, the principals of these portfolio companies are also advisors and shareholders in GreenAngel, which is ultimately their “secret sauce”.

The GreenAngel Energy Board of Directors is made up of four seasoned professional entrepreneurs who have strong connections to New Ventures BC – President and CEO Volker, CFO Bruce A. Schmidt, and Directors Robert de Wit and Alan Werenko. Volker and de Wit are Directors of New Ventures BC and Werenko has been a jury member sinec 2006.

In September, 2009 Top 10 Finalist Vineyard Networks was profiled on Network World in an article titled Start-up offers net management Fisher-Price style.

Well, they’re at it again this month and have been named a Top 10 IT Management Startup to Watch by the same publication. Here is what Network World had to say:

Company: Vineyard Networks

Founded: May 2009

Headquarters: Kelowna, British Columbia

Focus: NetCore on Demand is offered via subscription and delivered as a SaaS application, in part. The offering includes an application-aware probe called NetView, which is installed on the customer site. Vineyard configures the NetView hardware probe to monitor the environment and then deliver to customers an interface called NetCore via a secure SSL connection. NetCore on Demand monitors WAN and LAN connections, Layer 7 service information, application traffic and Cisco’s NetFlow data.

Why it’s worth watching: Vineyard Networks is taking advantage of the trend for management vendors to package their products as SaaS as well as easy-to-deploy hardware devices. This hybrid approach will help IT managers use more sophisticated technology to monitor their environment, without having to be responsible for the care and feeding of complex management applications, industry watchers say.

“SaaS with management software has to take this hybrid approach in which the main functionality and user interface is on the vendor side, with several hooks into the environment on the customer premise,” says Glenn O’Donnell, a senior analyst with Forrester Research. “IT management customers have been telling vendors ‘simplify this, make the purchase process and economic impact simpler’ and vendors have responded with virtual appliances or SaaS offerings, which are ways for the vendors to do all the integration and hide the complexity of the technology so customers don’t have to worry about it.”

Vineyard, in particular, offers an interesting value proposition, EMA’s Frey says.

“Network-based performance management using Cisco NetFlow data but also delivered in a remote hosted model can work really well,” he adds. “There has never been a need for less network management, but now vendors like Vineyard are trying to help companies use these advanced technologies in a more efficient way and lower the learning curve so they can see the value sooner.”

How company got its start: The founders wanted to create what many before them have also attempted: easy, inexpensive network monitoring and management technology for IT managers that couldn’t devote money, time and energy to complex software that promised to help them better run their networks.

How company got its name: Named after an aspect of its local landscape in Canada: wine vineyards.

CEO: Jason Richards previously worked in operations and sales at Packeteer and prior to that, he held a senior position in engineering with Workfire Technologies, a British Columbia start-up that focused on Internet acceleration technologies.

Funding: Through a combination of angel investors, government research assistance grants, and the Southern Interior Development Initiative Trust (SIDIT). Currently Vineyard has raised more than $1.6 million in operating capital.

Who’s using the product: Customers include Pushor Mitchell, ECC and ASCI.