For New Ventures BC 2009 Top 10 finalists Vineyard Networks, 2011 sure has started off right. The Kelowna-based company has been receiving plenty of praise from various corners for their growth potential in 2011 and the quality of their services.

Just four days into the year, Vineyard was honoured by Network World, making their 10 Startups to Watch list for their product, NetCore On Demand. As Network World explains:

Software-as-a-service network management tool makes it easy to troubleshoot problems and monitor network usage performance, even for customers who lack a networking background.

Later in January, Vineyard made the Rocket Builders’ 2011 Ready to Rocket ICT List, reflecting “companies that are best positioned to capitalize on the 2011 technology sector trends that will lead them to faster growth than their peers.” 2011 was Vineyard’s first year on the list.

Their latest accolades came from Info Security Products Guide; Vineyard won the Network Management category at Info Security’s 7th Annual Global Product Excellence Awards. The Excellence Awards honour “excellence in all areas of information security.”

New Ventures BC 2009 Finalist Etalim received some great coverage last week in MIT’s Technology Review.

In an article titled An Engine that Harnesses Sound Waves, Tyler Hamilton tells the story of the Vancouver startup that has developed a new type of engine that could generate electricity with the efficiency of a fuel cell, but which costs only about as much as an internal combustion engine.

Etalim, based in Vancouver, Canada, says its engine, roughly the size of a basketball, could improve the economics of electricity production for the cogeneration of power and heat in homes, and as a way to harness the heat produced at concentrating solar collectors. The company has created a prototype, but has yet to achieve the kind of efficiencies—in excess of 40 percent—that its computer models indicate are within reach.

The device shares some principles of a Stirling engine, in which an external heat source is used to expand a fixed amount of working gas (usually helium), which then contracts when it is pushed into a cooler space. This expansion-contraction cycle repeats itself, turning heat into mechanical work by driving a piston.

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

Speaking of Etalim, they picked up the Best Early Stage Cleantech award at last year’s Canadian Financing Forum. The 2011 version of the event takes place this Thursday at the Fairmont Hotel Vancouver.

Earlier today Rocket Builders released its ninth annual Ready to Rocket list of Information and Communications Technology (ICT) companies that are best positioned to capitalize on the 2011 technology sector trends that will lead them to faster growth than their peers.

The annual Ready to Rocket ICT list provides accurate predictions of companies that will likely experience significant growth, venture capital investment or acquisition by a major player in the coming year.  The Ready to Rocket ICT list is the only predictive list of its kind in North America.

Among the 25 companies selected for the 2011 list are two former New Ventures BC competitors – Vancouver’s Mobify and Kelowna’s Vineyard Networks. Both companies were 2009 Top 10 Finalists.

Announcements of 2011 Ready to Rocket lists for CleanTech and Life Sciences will be made on February 12th and February 27th, respectively, and nominations are currently being accepted online. Look for a number of other New Ventures BC competitors to be named to those lists as well.

New Ventures BC 2009 Top 10 Finalist Rapid Electric Vehicles (REV) announced yesterday that they have delivered the first of four revolutionary all-electric APVs to the US Army Tank Automotive Research Center (TARDEC) in Hawaii this week in partnership with Honeywell Aerospace. At the Wheeler Air Force Base the vehicles will be part of TARDEC’s micro-grid demonstration making use of REV’s unique bi-directional charging capabilities.

APV stands for Ancillary Power Vehicle, all electric high performance fleet vehicles that are more than just zero emission trucks. APV’s include REV’s proprietary energy storage and powertrain system that allow vehicle operators to invert its stored electricity and power industrial equipment, buildings and homes, in effect a mobile energy transport system.

REV’s CEO Jay Giraud explains, “REV’s APVs lie at the intersection of the automotive and energy industries. Our APV technology is eliminating transportation emissions, networking large amounts of power and storage and making it highly accessible anywhere. APVs will change the definition of the car and bring accessible power and storage right into densely populated areas, where consumption is high and reliability is needed most.”

REV’s technology signifies a shift towards a more reliable grid system as more APVs hit the road. The US Military and Honeywell Aerospace is just one example of this shift. REV’s launch partners include more than 25 APVs for the City of Santa Monica, the City of Surrey, City of Welland, Burlington Hydro and a major undisclosed power utility. More REV APVs will be rolling of the assembly line throughout the new year.

REV has additional launch partners in the construction, utility, military and municipal segments with expected orders of more than 200 APVs in 2011. Following these launch orders REV is preparing to scale production beyond 15,000 vehicles through 2014.

Earlier this week, 2009 Top 10 Finalist Veridae Systems announced its exit from stealth mode with the release of version 1.0 of the Clarus Post-Silicon Validation Suite.

“Veridae is very excited to make our formal entry into the EDA market,” said Jim Derbyshire, CEO of Veridae Systems. “We have developed a disruptive technology that fills a significant gap in available EDA tools. Customer evaluations have demonstrated the ability of our technology to substantially reduce the time required to get complex ICs to production, and engineers are keen to realize this tremendous advantage in capturing market opportunities.”

Incorporated in September 2009, Veridae Systems Inc. was established to build upon the knowledge from six years of research at the University of British Columbia. The company is privately funded and engaged with leading companies around the globe.

The 28th Angel Forum was yesterday in Vancouver and they announced their Investor Choice Awards (as chosen by the attending investors) during the wrap-up cocktail party last night.

Among the winners were two past New Ventures BC competitors.

The Best Presentation award went to Vancouver’s Rapid Electric Vehicles who placed in the Top 10 in 2009 and 2008 Top 10 finisher Dark Matter Labs of Victoria was named the Company Most Likely to be Acquired.

Congrats to all the winners and to Bob Chaworth-Musters on another great forum.

Kelowna’s Vineyard Networks announced today that Info Security Products Guide – the industry’s leading information security research and advisory guide – has named their Network Reporting Center a winner of the 2010 Tomorrow’s Technology Today Award.

Vineyard Networks was a Top 10 Finalist in the 2009 New Ventures BC Competition.

The prestigious award recognizes security vendors with advanced, ground-breaking technologies and solutions that are helping set the bar higher for others in all areas of information security.

Network Reporting Center was selected based on technologies that are making the most positive impact on security in today’s highly sophisticated and blended attacks environment.

Vineyard Networks was named to Network World’s Top 10 IT Management Startups to Watch list for 2010 earlier this year as well.

Vancouver’s Rapid Electric Vehicles Inc. (REV) signed a non-binding Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the Toronto Atmospheric Fund (TAF) last week to create a new company focused on enabling the widespread adoption of electric vehicles.

High prices have been a barrier to the rollout of electric vehicles, especially within public and private fleets. While many believe prices will decline with advances in new technology and economies of scale, both are stunted by the classic ‘chicken and egg’ problem. High upfront prices for lithium battery packs – the system that stores vast amounts of electricity for the car and replaces conventional fuel – are likely holding back many fleet owners and operators.

Signaling a major advance for the electric vehicle industry, TAF has agreed to finance a subsidiary company with REV that will drive a fleet-focused strategy that takes the high capital cost of the battery out of the equation for electric vehicle buyers.

The soon-to-be named new company will own the battery pack and rent them on five and ten-year terms, bringing the price of the electric vehicle as low as par with the conventional alternative. This enables fleets to shift the focus of their current capital budgets away from conventional trucks and safely invest in electrical vehicles, batteries not included.

Using proprietary wireless technology developed by REV, the new company will be able to monitor its battery assets remotely, ensuring their useful life is managed and optimized and goes beyond the duration of the rental term. With REV’s combined technology and business model in place, government-owned electric vehicles can be used to store and return energy to the electricity grid without worry to long-term battery performance and life, thereby improving power reliability to homes and buildings, and reducing the chance of power failures.

Rapid Electric Vehicles was a Top 10 Finalist in 2009.

The US Army will soon have a New Ventures BC competitor to thank for part of its fleet.

Vancouver’s Rapid Electric Vehicles has started production of four converted electric bi-directional charging Ancillary Power vehicles that will form part of the US Army Tank Automotive Research Development Engineering Centre Micro-Grid Project at Wheeler Air Base in Hawaii. These are light duty fleet vehicles that use power management, mobile communication technologies and proprietary propulsion developed by Rapid Electric Vehicles. They are each propelled by a 125kW permanent magnet AC motor and deliver 300lb-ft of torque.

An order has been made for three Rapid Electric Vehicles 300ACX and one Rapid Electric Vehicle 300AZX. The vehicles are based on the Ford Escape and the Ford F-150 platforms respectively.

Rapid Electric Vehicles was a Top 1o Finalist in 2009.

2009 Top 30 Competitor Bet Smart Media has released WiseStats.com to the public after spending a month in private beta. WiseStats is an application that provides sports statistics, pick tracking, real-time odds monitoring, and bankroll management tools.

According to Christiansen Capital Advisors, online sports betting is expected to generate revenues of $6.4 Billion in 2010. Victoria-based Bet Smart Media believes these revenues largely represent losses from the average bettor and that WiseStats will reduce losses by applying sound fundamentals to picking strategy.

“Having access to the right statistics and timely information is key to developing an actual edge when making sports picks or bets”, says Bet Smart Media President & Co-founder, Jesse Learmonth. “Sportsbooks and professional handicappers have access to mountains of data that help them win far more than the average bettor. We wanted to create WiseStats.com to give everybody access to the same statistics in an insightful, easy-to-use format to help people reduce the number of losing picks they make.”

Whether users are making picks for fun or putting money on them, WiseStats.com allows them to conduct pregame statistical analysis, view real-time odds across 15 of the top odds markets, and track their picks to create reports and gain insights against a series of standard performance metrics.

WiseStats.com is currently focused on NFL, MLB, NBA, NHL and NCAA Menʼs Football and Basketball. During this public beta period, accounts are free and allow users to track unlimited picks across these leagues.