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.

SST Wireless took second prize in the 2004 New Ventures BC competition for a tire-pressure monitoring system for passenger cars.

Since then, the company has gone on to design and manufacture advanced tire-pressure monitoring systems for large industrial fleets such as mining haul trucks and transit and commercial vehicles. Company president Graham Schnare says his system’s  durability and precise measurement capabilities have proven a good fit for this market segment.

“We can design specialized applications that generate significant financial benefits for the user,” he says, noting that the systems now also deliver data directly into central customer-fleet management systems.

According to Kal Tire Ltd., SST’s joint venture partner since 2007, an SST system at a single mine can produce between $5-10 million in annual savings.

“Systems for much larger transit fleets can provide more extensive benefits,” says Schnare.  “What’s more, SST transit systems can reduce greenhouse gases by about two tons per vehicle per year, enough to make a significant environmental difference even in a city the size of New York, with its 3,000- bus fleet.”

In addition to its customers in North America, SST has developed clients in Sweden, Chile and Australia.

SST is based in Vernon BC, and also has an engineering facility in Delta BC.

Schnare anticipates that sales will double in 2010 and redouble in 2011.  SST shares are currently closely held by a small group of private investors, but the company tentatively plans an IPO in 2011 if market conditions permit.

Singular Software Catches Eye of Video Editors

Singular Software finished in the top 10 in the 2008 NVBC competition and then began selling its digital video-editing product to video editors. Called PluralEyes, it’s a plug-in for existing video-editing programs. It overcomes the difficulty of synchronizing multi-camera shots and audio clips of the same event, turning these arduous and time-consuming edits into a quick task.

The company has since launched three more similar products, including DualEyes, which won a Mario award for ‘most promising technology’ from TV Technology magazine in April 2010. PluralEyes also won the DV Magazine ’Best of Show’ award and was placed in the EventDV ‘Winners Circle’ for the NAB Show 2010.

Founder and CEO Bruce Sharpe says sales have grown rapidly since he began selling the first product online in May 2009. He has since hired six employees and expects to add more this year.

The company remains self-financed and is already profitable. “Everyone who uses the product loves it,” says Sharpe. This year he plans to capture far more of the approximately seven million prospects worldwide who use editing software compatible with his plug-ins.

Creating and marketing a disruptive technology is no easy feat. Matthew Janes, CEO of Resonance Technology, has been working towards commercializing his innovative “resonant hammer” since winning the BMO Bank of Montreal first prize in the 2003 competition.

The hammer, which uses sonic vibrations to drive foundation pilings into the earth quickly and quietly, is destined to replace traditional pile-driving machinery.

Since winning the competition, Janes has been refining his prototype. To date, he has sold one hammer and expects 2010 to be a break-through year for selling his B.C.-manufactured technology in worldwide markets.

Janes has grown the company to four employees and expects to hire four more this year. To date, he has raised $700,000 and is in the midst of a commercialisation round seeking approximately $1.5 million.

The company has also built a resonant drill, which a Canadian distributor is now using for field demonstrations to potential clients.

“A resonant drill will tune the vibration to the natural frequency of the drill string, allowing for increased production and capacity while eliminating ground vibration,” explains Janes. “This is a significant leap beyond conventional technology or the sonic drilling techniques available today.”

In 2002, Signalink Technologies of Kelowna, B.C. entered the NVBC competition with an audible/visible fire alarm signaling device designed to augment existing fire alarm systems in residential and commercial buildings. The company took third prize.

Today, after years of research and development, Signalink’s technology affordably transforms the existing wiring in residential or commercial buildings into an instant data-communications network. The system’s expanded suite of products can be used for building services such as fire and security protection, energy management and even medical devices.

Over the past eight years, Signalink has grown from just four employees to 24, with plans to hire a further staff this year. The firm’s management team now includes Canadian entrepreneur Ed Alfke, founder of Rent-a-Wreck; Vancouver electronics engineer John Francis, whose end-of-train technology eliminated the caboose on freight trains, and former NASA and USAF design engineer Arthur Voss.

To date, the company has raised $8 million in four rounds of financing and expects to complete a further round of financing worth $2 million early this year.

Signalink has won numerous awards, including: Innovative Organization of the Year” Silicon Valley/Telus 2005;  “Most Promising Emerging Technology of the Year” Silicon Vineyard/BDC 2006; “Best Pre-Revenue Company to Invest In” Angel Forum Vancouver 2006; “Most Valued Company, San Francisco Angel Expo 2007; Top 10 Early Stage companies in Canada, 2009, National Angel Capital Organization.

In January 2010, Signalink launched a second generation of its Fire-Link™ product—a fire-alarm system—with new features that include a strobe light for the hearing impaired.

Ideal for retrofits, Signalink’s technology is installed in 300 buildings in North America. Signalink is in the midst of developing a worldwide market and expects to become profitable in 2010. Its market value has grown four-fold since entering the NVBC competition.

Highlights over the past eight years:

• Employee growth:  4 to 24
• Investment:  $8 million; a further $2 million pending
• Market Value: 4-fold growth

RFind tags big clients around the world

Manufacturers around the world are beginning to catch on to RFind Technologies’ radio-frequency identification tags for tracking assets in real time.

RFind, the 2006 first-prize winner, secured a Canadian patent in 2009 for its wireless tag-to-tag communication technology, which lets manufacturers track inventory in warehouses, plants and outdoor lots.

“When a vehicle rolls off the assembly line into a parking lot, it can take a while to find it again among a thousand others that look exactly the same,” says CEO Sharon Barnes. “Unless it has an RFind locating tag.”

That’s why Volvo Group is using RFind’s technology. Ditto for two of North America’s top auto manufacturers.

The tags are also finding favour with companies such as Delhaize Group, which is a major European grocery chain, Calgary Transit and a mid-western U.S. aluminum manufacturer.

“With our technology there’s no need to invest in huge infrastructure, run wires or develop expensive retrofits,” explains Barnes. “Just stick RFind’s tags to the asset—it really is that simple.” The tags then communicate with reference tags placed elsewhere in a facility that wirelessly communicate with a server to determine where the item is located.

The Kelowna company has raised $2 million in equity financing and a further $1.5 million in debt. Barnes expects to turn a profit by this fall.

RFind, which manufacturers its product in B.C., has increased its staff from four in 2006 to 12 today, with plans to hire three or four more employees this year.

Highlights over the past four years:

• Employee growth:  4 to 12
• Investment: $2 million in equity, $1.5 million in debt
• Acquisition of Canadian patent
• Market value: five-fold increase

Since winning first prize in the 2002 competition, Metalogix has not only been profitable but its market value has grown 44-fold.

Co-founders Julien Sellgren, Rasool Rayani, and Geordie Henderson entered the competition with a one-year-old company interested in creating software tools for migrating enterprise content to Microsoft’s content management and collaboration suite.

Today, the company is a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner. Its award-winning software, developed in Vancouver and Bratislava, Slovakia, enables organizations around the world to efficiently migrate, manage, and archive enterprise content on Microsoft SharePoint servers.

With $40 million in investment from organizations such as Bessemer Venture Partners and Insight Capital Partners, Metalogix expanded its business, purchasing H&S Software of Vienna, Austria which produces archiving software, and StoragePoint of Detroit, which produces storage management solutions.

In 2008, the company headquarters moved from Vancouver to Boston, with international headquarters in Switzerland. Metalogix has 75 employees and plans to hire an additional 20 to 30 this year.

Etalim expecting investment infusion in 2010

2009 second-prize winner, Etalim Inc., is expecting to realize up to $8 million from its first round of financing, which is expected to close this summer.

Etalim’s novel solar-power technology can inexpensively convert the sun’s heat, or any fuel, into emission-free electricity.  Serial entrepreneur and CEO Ron Klopfer says 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.

The company plans to complete a demonstration unit by June and expects to go to market in 2012.

Etalim has five employees and expects to hire an additional 15-20 engineers this year.

Highlights over the past year:

• Employee Growth: static but expects to hire 15-20 engineers in 2010
• Investment: an expected $8 million by summer 2010
• Market value: expects to double in value once the demo unit is complete

After two rounds of financing that raised more than $1 million, 2008 winner Saltworks Technology has begun commercializing its innovative saltwater desalination technology into global markets.

CEO Ben Sparrow says the firm’s Thermo-Ionic™ energy-conversion system is more energy-efficient than other leading desalination technologies because it uses up to 80 per cent less electrical/mechanical energy. It is also ideally suited for treating waste saltwater from other desalination plants, an important feature for inland desalination.

BC Hydro’s Powertech Labs proof-tested the technology and the company is currently operating a seawater pilot plant on the Vancouver harbour. This project was supported by the National Research Council of Canada and Sustainable Development Technology Canada. With support from the BC Innovative Clean Energy Fund, Saltworks has also built and tested a solar thermal plant near Penticton, B.C. to confirm its thermo-ionic process with low-grade solar thermal energy.

Saltworks, headquartered in Vancouver, has grown from two employees to 10 and plans to hire an additional six employees this year. The firm’s core technology is manufactured in Vancouver.

Highlights over the past two years:

• Employee growth:  2 to 10
• Investment: more than $1 million
• Market value: 10- to 15-fold growth

Innovative Building-Product Company Gets Green Light, Goes to Market

G.R. Green Building Products of Burnaby, B.C. won the $20,000 British Columbia Innovation Council Economic Impact award in the 2009 competition.

The company has since raised a further $200,000, passed all independent tests for Canadian certification of its roofing products and received patent approval for its innovative process to manufacture “green” roofing and siding materials made from limestone and recycled plastic bottles and bags.

GR Green, which has five employees, is poised to enter the Canadian market this spring and then expand into the remainder of North America and selected major industrialized countries worldwide.