viatec awards

StarFish Medical

March 31, 2017 by Tectoria

Our Tectorian of the Week is: StarFish Medical!

This Victoria medical-device maker made news this week of their acquisition of the Toronto-based medical-device designer, Kangaroo Group.

StarFish Medical has been around for 17 years and provides design, development, and manufacturing outsourcing services. StarFish partners with innovative companies to create and manufacture breakthrough products for a full range of medical specialty areas including: Cardiovascular, Digital Health, IVD, Ophthalmology, Optics, Technology Commercialization, and Ultrasound.

This new acquisition establishes StarFish Medical as a national medical-device developer, adds 25 employees to their 100 in Victoria, and also puts them on the radar of medical-technology companies that have clustered in the US (Boston and Minneapolis).

It’s no wonder a strong group like StarFish Medical won Team of the Year at the 2016 VIATEC Technology Awards!

We’re thrilled to hear the news, way to go StarFish team!

Schneider Electric

July 9, 2015 by Tessa Bousfield

Schneider Electric started out with a focus on steel in the 19th century and switched gears to electrical distribution and automation in the 20th. They now specialize in manufacturing, hardware and software R&D, and they are one of the largest technology companies in Greater Victoria.

A small fraction of the very large Schneider Electric team accepted the award for Innovative Excellence at the VIATEC Technology Awards Show on June 26th. Project Manager, David Anderson accepted on behalf of his team for their innovative power quality meter. It was designed to help businesses understand where they are using their power and how to use it more efficiently, and it’s been VERY well received.

“Here in Victoria we have power metering design and manufacturing, all under one roof, and this allows us to optimize the project design life cycle and deliver our product in a timely manner,” commented Anderson. “Our future is going to be exciting because we are uniquely positioned to help customers solve their energy efficiency issues and also provide world-class leading products.”

In addition to this award, they have also earned the following in 2015 alone:

World’s most admired companies in 2015 (Fortune Magazine)
World’s Most Attractive Employers in 2015 (Universum)
Hervé Coureil, CIO of Schneider Electric, Finalist for the 2015 CIO Leadership Award (MIT Sloan CIO Symposium)

On top of their innovative achievements, they continue to have a strong presence in our community. In particular, they are top contributors in the VIATEC Food Bank Challenge for the Mustard Seed year after year, and in 2013 they won first place.

We are very excited to see what this powerhouse team achieves next!

Click below to view the Schneider Electric’s video interview for Innovative Excellence, alongside their tough competition!

AML Oceanographic Ltd.

April 23, 2015 by Tessa Bousfield

Announced earlier this month, AML Oceanographic Ltd. (AML) has been selected to supply CTDs (Instruments used to determine the conductivity, temperature, and depth of the ocean), for Ocean Networks Canada’s Smart Oceans™ program. We thought this would be the perfect time to name AML as our Tectorian of the Week!

AML impressed everyone at last year’s VIATEC Technology Awards when they won the Innovative Excellence Award for their UV•Xchange product. It’s an environmentally friendly device that keeps things from growing on sensors in the ocean with the use of ultraviolet (UV) light. Well, we don’t think there’s a UV light around that can stop THEM from continuing to grow.

AML is a vendor of choice for sound velocity measurement for a wide range of marine survey organizations and manufacturers of multi-beam, single-beam, ntrusion detection, and USBL/LBL positioning systems. They are a Canadian manufacturer that does 95% of their business globally and overseas, and they’re right here in Victoria.

Ocean Networks Canada’s Smart Ocean Systems™ are Advanced Ocean Sensor and Instrument Technologies that capture data such as temperature, current, CO2 levels, seismometer readings, and acoustic and video recordings.

AML will assist the Smart Oceans™ program by deploying Metrec•X instruments on cabled observatory platforms off Canadian coasts to provide data imperative to improving environmental monitoring and marine safety. AML’s award-winning UV•Xchange and Cabled UV will prevent biofouling of Xchange™ and other environmental sensors on each CTD, in addition to other critical surfaces of the platform. The prevention of fouling-induced drift will allow the sensors to provide accurate data for the duration of the in-situ deployments.

This is great news and we’re excited to see where AML Oceanographic goes from here.

Ocean Networks Canada also happens to be on the shortlist for the Ocean Innovation Award for their Community Fishers mobile app! (You can vote for them right here, #11).

Jake West

April 9, 2015 by Tessa Bousfield

Jake West is the epitome of a triple threat: He’s an innovative educator, an entrepreneur and a performer… with a specialty in circus acts (you’ve probably seen him down at the Inner Harbour). He’s someone you’d want at your cocktail party, someone you’d want to shape the minds of future generations AND someone you’d want to do business with.

Jake is an educator at the Pacific School of Innovation and Inquiry, the leading school for change and innovation in the entire province. It’s a one-room school house exploding with 3D printers, LEDs and eager youth.

“We are doing amazing things. I am trying to provide kids with the same level of freedom and opportunity to pursue their own personal learning, as the most innovative companies in the world currently do like Pixar and Google,” commented Jake. “Everyday for me is about creation with the kids and the ‘whoa, we are making some awesome stuff.’”

For $10 you can see what Jake and his students have been up to on April 18th at their Theatre Show at Berwick House.

As an entrepreneur, Jake fuses everything he does and everything he teaches. He’s a Monetary Historian, Salesman and Analyst with a particular focus on the technology sector and commodities.

“One thing that I would like to highlight is that Dan Gunn has given us tremendous support to develop cutting edge products for VIATEC,” commented Jake. “We are working furiously to get them done for Dan by the VIATEC Awards, so everyone can see an example of what happens when you enable super talented teenagers to shoot for the moon. We have been getting mentored by engineers from Limbic Media and the kids are actually getting a real experience of what it means to develop a startup and how to work as a team to get things done. I can’t think of a more relevant learning experience for the times we live in.”

Jake has only lived in Victoria for two years and last year he earned himself the VIATEC Technology Award for Education Champion. Now that’s impressive.
(Nominations are still open for this year’s champions).

“I am never leaving this town. I love the fact that I can hang out with incredibly creative people downtown, go to delicious restaurants and then it is only a 10 minute drive to swim in the lake. Not many cities have that.”

Like hearing about awesome people like Jake?

Sign-up for the “This Week in Tectoria” newsletter!

Checkfront

March 26, 2015 by Nevin Thompson

Our Tectorian of the week is Checkfront, a local software startup that has just secured $1 million in investment funding.

RevenueWire alumnus Jason Morehouse serves as CEO of this SaaS startup that is aimed at taking the hassle out of managing bookings and reservations online.

Morehouse co-founded Checkfront with Grant Jurgeneit in 2010 and the pair has never looked back.

Thanks to the vision and hard work of Jason, Grant and their team, Checkfront has grown to become a powerful cloud-based booking management application and e-commerce platform. The online service is designed specifically for schedule-based businesses that need to manage activity, tours, accommodation, events and rentals.

Checkfront has processed over US$350 million in online bookings in just the past twelve months.

The Victoria startup has also seen a blistering 100% revenue growth year-over-year since launching in 2010.

Victoria’s tech ecosystem reaches critical mass

While securing $1 million in financing is truly something that should be celebrated, Checkfront’s success is just another example of the critical mass that is developing in Victoria’s tech sector.

Just as local adtech company Pretio was able to compete with competitors from outside Victoria to purchase Tap-for-Tap, Checkfront caught the eye of local investors and successful veterans of the startup trenches.

Financing was lead by well-known Tectorian Rasool Rayani and includes a local group of angel investors and successful entrepreneurs who are dedicated to helping grow Victoria’s tech community.

Checkfront, which was named VIATeC’s Emerging Technology Company of the Year in 2011 says it plans to use the funds to accelerate its rapid growth, pursue strategic partnerships and grow the team.

Victoria’s tech industry is blooming with new jobs. The ongoing success of Checkfront, combined with the trust of its newest investors is one reason why.