What does Canada's Top 10 and Clean 15 Awards have in common? They both awarded TEC Edmonton’s portfolio companies with their top awards.

Working with TEC Edmonton opens doors, helping companies prepare for the marketplace and the business recognition -  awards - that support that effort.

The journey of startups navigating the marketplace is a bit like an obstacle course. From intellectual property protection to developing a sustainable business plan, to then pitching to investors and defining your market strategy there are many challenges, and risks associated with those challenges.

Luckily, Biolithic Corporation and ATI Composites have partnered with TEC Edmonton to help them overcome those challenges and mitigate the risks, which places them as great contenders in business competitions. In fact, Biolithic is on a winning streak – walking away with the 2010 TEC VenturePrize Business Plan Competition in April, and now Canada's Top 10 Competition in Life Sciences.

“Biolithic is working on the next generation of diagnostic devices,” says Maziyar Khorasani, VP Business Development with Biolithic. “Imagine it: a drop of blood, urine or saliva on a fingernail-sized chip, loaded into a port in a fist-sized box at your doctor’s office, and you’ll know in half an hour or so if you have any number of conditions requiring prompt treatment, such as STDs including gonorrhea, chlamydia and HIV. Biolithic could lead the way to offering an over-the-counter home test for STDs. Recognition through such awards provides Biolithic access to additional capital and publicity that adds to our credibility.”

Billed as the ‘innovative companies to watch’, Canada’s Top 10 winners are given the opportunity to pitch at investment forums in the United States. According to their website, “The forums expose the Top 10™ companies to an exclusive opportunity to present to top tier U.S. and Canadian venture capitalists, licensing executives, and potential strategic partners in a series of invitation only events.”

It also states an impressive fact that the “…current winners and alumni have secured over $600 million in disclosed venture capital financing.” Next steps for Biolithic include the development of a new prototype that will further miniaturize their product, targeting a commercial launch date in 2013. TEC Edmonton continues to work with Biolithic, assisting with corporate mentoring and providing introductions via TEC Edmonton’s network.

In the case of the Clean 15 Awards, this competition focuses on ‘bringing clean technologies to the world faster.’ As the recipient of the 2010 award valued at $80,000, ATI Composites has developed a light weight concrete or mineral foam composite, which has the potential to impact the Structural Insulated Panels (SIP) market, the pre-cast industry as well as the Autoclaved Aerated Concrete (AAC) market - with a new cost effective alternative to these traditional building methods.

“It’s all about the water,” says Michael Mabey, President of ATI Composites. “Most of us in North America have no idea just how scarce fresh water really is. We are told that less than 6% of all the water on the planet is salt free. ATI won this Clean-15 Award because we have shown that we can use salt water, waste materials, and even desert sand to make lightweight, fire resistant, insulating building products. The award has been extremely beneficial in raising the profile and public awareness of our technology.”

The Clean 15 Clean competition website states that “…the competition connects sophisticated large company clients, joint ventures and licensing opportunities to Canadian clean tech providers and companies; stimulates job creation and, motivate researchers and developers to commercialize their clean technology ideas, while increasing the supply of compelling venture proposals.” This Clean 15 Award compliments another achievement for ATI as the company was awarded $50,000 in financial support under the 2010 Alberta Innovative Voucher Program. Currently, ATI is finalizing the application method for their mineral foam and solidifying customer leads. TEC Edmonton continues to assist ATI with their Innovation Voucher providing business development activities such as corporate structure development, and identification of various grants and funding options.