BCIC-New Ventures’ 25 round-three competitors are working on their Round 3 business overviews for submission on August 3rd.
Competition judges will announce the 10 finalists on August 31st but in the meantime let’s have a closer look at the Top 25. Here’s Part II – five randomly selected companies from the Top 25.
Wifarer (Victoria)
Wifarer has developed the world’s first software-only indoor GPS solution. Wifarer pinpoints a visitor’s location with a beacon on a map that moves when they do; visitors need only glance at their smartphone screens to instantly know where they are, even in large, complex, multi-story venues, such as airports, shopping centers, hospitals or museums. Wifarer’s searchable directory helps visitors find what they’re looking for, and its core engine provides them with real-time turn-by-turn directions to their destination. Wifarer also engages visitors with location-aware content specifically targeted to where they are standing, including coupons, video, images, and audio.
MobSafety (Vancouver)
Mobsafety provides a safer environment for children online through the combination of two different products that, when brought together, provide effective control over inappropriate content and social media.
The first product is an internet filtering application known as Mobsafety Ranger that is built for the iPhone and iPad platforms. The program filters internet content based on parents pre-set levels, limits internet access during pre-set times, and alerts parents if their child leaves a geo-fenced area, using GPS technology. The program notifies parents by email or text message alert when pre-determined constraints are violated.
The second product is a cloud-based social network monitoring system. SocialScanner monitors the most popular social networking sites, checking for inappropriate activities that might harm children by analyzing messages, conversations and photos through various filters. This includes monitoring for cyber-bullying, sexting, and friending users with no mutual friends to their existing group (potential sex predator). Parents are kept up to date with a daily or weekly report of their child’s social networking activity. Parents are immediately notified by text or email when a critical violation is detected.
Polymer Research Technologies (North Vancouver)
Polymer Research Technologies takes polyurethane waste destined for landfills and turns it into a recycled polyol (RECYCLOPOL ®) that can be reused by the manufacturers to make more polyurethane. Polyurethanes are the most diverse and leading polymers in the global chemical industry with over 3000 applications (thermal insulation, mattresses, automotives, coatings, main incubators, space labs, aviation and many others) within this growing industry sector.
Polyurethane wastes that are generated by product producers within this industry end up in landfills, with devastating non-reversible environmental effects, as these polymers do not decompose, remaining in landfills for thousands of years.
As polyols, the key raw material in polyurethane industry, , are derived from fossil fuels, the increasing price of oil and need for more efficient and economical energy conservation materials mean demand for polyols are steadily increasing every year with major global shortages. Polymer Research Technologies has recently signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Kingspan Panels, the global leader for insulated metal panels, with other Letters of Interest from other significant global players.
Warranty Life (Port Moody)
Warranty Life helps consumers solve the real world physical problem of the storage and organization of receipts, and automates it using online and mobile tools. For too long, consumers have relied on paper receipts to back product purchases, sometimes missing claims where they could have been made. Warranty Life provides instant online access to receipts, product registration, warranty claim information and even manuals in one central place for free. They also work with retailers to help them improve the sales of extended warranties both in house and post purchase.
Warranty Life not only helps track the consumers purchase, it helps Manage, Protect, Repair, Recycle, Resell and Replace their items over the entire lifecycle of a product.
Form Tools (Richmond)
Web based applications have grown tremendously with the popularity of “cloud” computing and software as a service. Form Tools is an open source web application framework which allows designers and developers to quickly and easily build form based data processing web applications like customer relationship management, online registration, inventory management and financial management systems. Form Tools allow users to generate forms and databases and deploy them to websites, Facebook and content management systems to collect data from a variety of sources and manage them in a central database with a wealth of administrative features.