2009 Top 10 Finalists Acquired for $28 Million

In 2009, Vineyard Networks CEO Jason Richards was operating his five-employee company out of his basement in Kelowna. His product, a next-generation deep packet inspection engine for analyzing and identifying traffic flowing across the Internet, was still in development.

He joined the BCIC-New Ventures competition for the networking, exposure and prize money. Today the Top 10 finalist announced that it has entered into a definitive agreement to be acquired by Procera Networks for $28 Million. Read more

Where Are They Now? LightIntegra

New medical test-instrument shows promise -February 2012 Update

LightIntegra, the 2009 BCIC-NVB first-prize winner, has raised more than $3 million from angel financiers to advance its medical test-instrument prototype.

LightIntegra’s product, ThromboLUX, is a quick and simple diagnostic test for determining blood-platelet quality and function, making it easy to screen blood platelets prior to giving blood transfusions to patients. Traditional testing methods are unreliable, time-consuming, expensive and not routinely used. Poor-quality platelets result in ineffective blood transfusions, which affect outcomes for cancer, heart surgery and other patients.

LightIntegra is aiming to save lives by making its platelet-quality testing a regular practice in blood banks and hospitals around the world.

Since winning the BCIC-NVB competition, LightIntegra has hired its first five full-time employees. Read more

Where are they now? Vineyard Networks

Vineyard Networks a Winner – January 2012 Update

Vineyard Networks Canada, a 2009 BCIC-New Ventures competition Top 10 finalist, is now reaping international kudos for its network intelligence and deep-packet inspection technologies.

In December 2011, Vineyard Networks was the only Canadian company to receive a Red Herring Global 100 award, which recognizes the year’s most promising private ventures from North America, Europe and Asia. Previous winners have included Google, Skype and YouTube.

The Global 100 list has become a mark of distinction for identifying promising companies and entrepreneurs. Companies were evaluated on criteria including financial performance, technological innovation, management quality, strategy, and market penetration. Read more

Where are they now? REV Technologies Inc.

Supercharging the economics of electric vehicles – December 2011 Update

Since completing the 2009 NVBC competition as one of 10 finalists, REV Technologies Inc. has moved from an unheated shack with a leaking roof to a heated and custom-renovated 8,000-square-foot office in Vancouver.

REV entered the competition with four unpaid employees and a new product — REV Pack — an electric drive system for transforming gas-guzzling fleet vehicles into electric zero-emission vehicles.

Since then, the company has grown to 16 employees and moved on to develop a server-based network and software system that it hopes will ultimately manage the stored energy of millions of electric vehicles (EV). Read more

Where are they now? Lungpacer Medical Inc. Readies for Human Clinical Trials

Lungpacer Medical Inc., the SFU spin-off company that took third prize in the 2009 New Ventures BC competition, is gearing up for first-in-human feasibility trials of its therapeutic technology.

Lungpacer addresses significant issues associated with critically ill patients at risk of becoming dependent on mechanical ventilation. The technology includes proprietary intravenous electrodes that rhythmically activate the diaphragm muscle. This activation, or pacing, prevents the muscle from rapidly atrophying and speeds up the patient’s weaning from the ventilator.

Founder and SFU professor Andy Hoffer says that the Lungpacer^TM therapy will improve patients’ recovery times, reduce their stay in intensive care, and improve their health outcomes. It will also significantly lower hospitalization costs.

“If we save even one day of a U.S. patient’s time in the intensive care unit, that’s a $6,500 saving to their health care system,” he says, “and Lungpacer could help 400,000 U.S. patients/year who have difficulties weaning.”

As well, he adds, “Faster weaning from ventilators will give more patients access to these scarce devices, particularly during major emergencies such as flu pandemics.”

Since participating in the NVBC competition, Lungpacer has raised $245,000 in private financing from family and friends and $285,000 in contributions from the National Research Council’s Industrial Research Assistance Program. As well, the prototype development received a Phase IIB $348,000 grant from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council.

“We’ve proven 21-day safety and stability of Lungpacer prototype devices and we’re preparing for first clinical trials in patients in 2012,” says Hoffer.

Lungpacer Medical Inc. is presently seeking $1.75 million in seed financing for this next step.

In July, Lungpacer, which has five employees and several consultants, announced David Christie as its new president and chief operating officer. Christie has 23 years of experience as an executive leader in medical device companies and has introduced many new products to market.

Lungpacer’s other awards include the 2009 Emerging Technology Award from the BC Innovation Council and the 2010 LifeSciences BC Innovation and Achievement Award.

2009 Top 10 Finalist Veridae Systems acquired

Beaverton’s Tektronix announced today the acquisition of Vancouver’s Veridae Systems – a Top 10 Finalist in the 2009 New Ventures BC Competition. The details of the transaction were not disclosed.

One of the most serious challenges facing Integrated Circuit (IC) developers is reducing the time required to verify, validate, and debug ICs. Veridae builds next generation tools based on breakthrough, proprietary technology to solve these problems, and strives to be the undisputed leader in silicon system debug tools.

Incorporated in September 2009, Veridae Systems was established to build upon the knowledge from six years of research at the University of British Columbia.

Veridae’s mentor during the competition was Jim Derbyshire he is now their CEO. From today’s press release:

Tektronix has made a long-term commitment to grow an embedded capture business unit in Vancouver, BC.  “We’re excited to be part of the Tektronix team and to establish a business unit for the company in Vancouver,” said Jim Derbyshire, Veridae chief executive officer and mentor in residence at Simon Fraser University.  “This allows us to maintain our close ties to the local research community, which were instrumental in the founding of Veridae.”

Congrats to Derbyshire and the team at Veridae.