Churchill named to Charlotte’s 40 Under 40 List
March 9th, 2012
We are pleased to announce our COO and Board Member Alex Churchill has been named to Charlotte’s 40 under 40 list.
InfoSense Closes Convertible Note Financing Round with Angel Investors
February 29th, 2012
InfoSense has closed its first round of financing in a series of convertible notes that founder Ivan Howitt says “will be instrumental in funding our near-term sales and marketing activities – to drive awareness and generate preference for our technology within the waste water industry”. Terms of the agreement were not disclosed.
InfoSense Attending South Carolina Environmental Conference in Myrtle Beach, SC
January 5th, 2012
Please visit us in Booth #93 at the South Carolina Environmental Conference where we will be showcasing our SL-RAT™ device and the acoustic pipe inspection method that underlies its success.
The show runs from March 11th to March 13th. We look forward to seeing you there!
http://www.sc-ec.org/index.php
InfoSense welcomes David Rizzo of NC IDEA Partners to Their Advisory Board
December 28th, 2011
Successful entrepreneurial endeavors require a lot more than a good idea and money.
They also require expertise in strategy development, capital formation and building out an organization.
That is why InfoSense is pleased to announce the addition of David Rizzo to our Board of Advisors – joining our existing members, Scott Cardais and Lloyd Breedlove. InfoSense CEO, Dr. George Selembo, states “the addition of David brings our management team yet another highly experienced and highly respected resource we can draw upon to help grow and scale this business to its full potential”
InfoSense Awarded Prestigious NC IDEA Grant
December 14th, 2011
NC IDEA Awards Over $192,000 in Grants to Five
North Carolina Companies
Funds to serve as catalyst for young, high-growth technology startups
DURHAM, NC – December 14, 2011 – NC IDEA, an organization committed to supporting business innovation and economic advancement in North Carolina, announced today that it has awarded over $192,000 in grants to five North Carolina startups in its largest and most competitive grant cycle to-date. Since its inception in 2006, NC IDEA’s grants program has awarded over $2.3M to 62 companies across the state, with these most recent awards being the twelfth cycle of the program.
The five grant recipients were chosen after a 4-month application and selection process, which drew over 175 applications from 24 counties across the state. A committee comprised of experienced venture investors, industry experts and seasoned entrepreneurs selected 24 companies to submit full proposals which was further narrowed down to eleven finalists who were given the opportunity to pitch their idea in person, ultimately resulting in five winners.
“We were extremely impressed with not only the quantity, but quality of applicants this cycle,” said David Rizzo, President and CEO of NC IDEA. “With each new grant cycle, we are finding it more and more challenging to narrow down the field of applicants because so many are deserving of the money. Ultimately, these five recent winners convinced us that our money would have the most impact funding their startups. We look forward to working alongside these companies and watching them progress over the coming months.”
The following five companies are NC IDEA’s most recent grant recipients for the Fall 2011 cycle:
BoostSuite.com – Durham, NC
BoostSuite is a web marketing optimization product for small businesses. BoostSuite allows novice web marketers to build more website traffic and convert more online visitors into customers and leads for their businesses. Unlike current web marketing optimization products that bewilder and discourage small business users, BoostSuite takes only three minutes to set up, is easy to learn, and can be used by anyone. Learn more at www.boostsuite.com.
Cell Microsystems – Chapel Hill, NC
Cell Microsystems accelerates medical discovery by developing novel research tools supporting the basic research behind scientific and medical innovation. The first product, the IsoRaftTM System, is a revolutionary cell sorting and cell separation technology, available to research labs worldwide.
Clinical Sensors – Chapel Hill, NC
Clinical Sensors is focused on the development and commercialization of nitric oxide sensors for monitoring serious medical conditions. The company’s technology is based on both selective sensor membranes and lab-on-a-chip technologies that enable early risk assessment of diseases and health conditions. Clinical Sensors’ short-term objective is to develop and launch a new point-of-care (POC) device as an aid for sepsis risk assessment. Enabling earlier sepsis diagnosis prior to symptoms has shown to improve patient outcome and substantially reduce healthcare costs.
InfoSense – Charlotte, NC
InfoSense is a cleantech startup that makes a novel acoustic sensing technology for the wastewater collection industry. The technology drastically improves the efficiency of assessing pipes for blockages. The company’s gateway product provides a simple blockage assessment in less than three minutes and for a cost less than one tenth that of existing alternatives. With the ability to inspect pipes more easily, wastewater operators now have the ability to better target pipe cleaning resources – reducing unnecessary cleaning costs and helping improve the maintenance of aging sewer infrastructure globally. Learn more at www.infosenseinc.com.
mailVU – Charlotte, NC
mailVU.com is an online video platform that makes it easy for businesses to conduct video marketing: outbound video messaging and distribution, incoming video testimonials, video contests, and video hosting and embedding. Businesses retain complete control over their video portfolio, including branding, distribution, and privacy. mailVU also provides an API for integration into other platforms under their Private Label plan. Learn more at www.mailvu.com.
NC IDEA’s grants program is a catalyst for technological breakthroughs developed in North Carolina that have a significant potential to successfully transition into commercially viable high-growth enterprises. The grants, which are up to $50,000 per recipient, support business plan research and development, reduce risk of early failure and advance projects to the point of suitability for angel or venture capital investment. In addition to the funding, NC IDEA and its network of seasoned business and technology partners mentor and guide the grant recipients through the complex growth cycles that young companies encounter, while also connecting the startups with other investors, institutions and business leaders to maximize their prospects for commercial success.
The upcoming Spring 2012 grant opportunity for North Carolina based companies will open on February 13. Learn more about NC IDEA’s grant application process, timeline and criteria at www.ncidea.org.
About NC IDEA
NC IDEA, a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization, targets promising technology companies that need help bridging the gap between initial product development and venture capital funding. The organization helps young, innovative companies mainly by providing early financing in the form of grants. NC IDEA further supports its grant winning companies by leveraging the organization’s solid partnerships and strategic alliances to assist companies through research phases, business challenges and growth goals. Learn more at www.ncidea.org.
George Selembo, PhD, PE Joins InfoSense team as CEO
August 12th, 2011
We are pleased to announce the addition of Dr. George Selembo to our team in the new position of CEO. He will be focused initially on driving revenue and marketing initiatives as well as building awareness for our technology with regulators and key industry organizations such as WEF and AWWA. Dr. Selembo has prior entrepreneurial success in real estate development and waste water technologies. He holds a Chem. Eng. PhD & MBA from Penn State University.
Alex Churchill Joins InfoSense team as COO
March 8th, 2011
We are pleased to announce the addition of Alex Churchill to our team in the new position of COO. He will focus on developing our infrastructure and financial strategies to ensure profitable scalability. Alex has prior senior management experience building and optimizing operations and supply chains at firms such as Booz & Co., Blue Rhino, Republic Services and thru his own consulting firm Magnus Investments. He holds a BS from Washington & Lee and an MBA from Carnegie Mellon.
InfoSense Completes Delivery of First SL-RAT™ Order to Charlotte Mecklenburg Utilities
February 21st, 2011
InfoSense has completed delivery of the first production order of the Sewer Line Rapid Assessment Tool or SL_RAT™ for Charlotte Mecklenburg Utilities.
Our products use a novel technology, sound energy, to quickly evaluate a pipeline’s potential for blockages. Key features for all our products:
- Easy to operate and to economically justify less than 1/10th the cost of alternatives
- Tuned for the 6”-12” gravity fed sewer lines prevalent in most neighborhoods
- Works in any type of pipe with almost any geometry
- Can provide an accurate assessment in a pipe segment up to 1000’ long
- No contact with waste flow
- No confined space entry required
- No need to clean pipes prior to inspection
The SL-RAT™ targets the need for quick onsite sewer pipe assessment . The SL-RATTM is highly portable and provides a rapid blockage assessment – less than 3 minutes/segment. This product complements the current preferred onsite assessment approaches due to its speed, ease of use, portability, ability to work in smaller diameter pipes, and measurement accuracy. The data is uploaded to our SL-DOGTM SaaS platform for conducting a wide range of analyses.
Our founder, Dr. Ivan Howitt said “the successful delivery of these SL-RAT devices to Char-Meck Utilities is the culmination of almost five years of research, field testing, and product design. We are confident the incredible improvement in cleaning effectiveness seen in our pilot efforts will be scalable with the new SL-RAT”.
InfoSense Awarded National Science Foundation Small Business Innovation Research Grant
July 15th, 2009
This Small Business Innovative Research Phase I project addresses the fundamental research required in developing a cost effective solution to the sewer overflow hazard within combined sewer systems and sanitary sewer systems. Specifically, the complexity and dynamic nature of the wastewater system presents significant challenges for maintenance. Underlying the maintenance policy development is an engineering trade-off: over-maintenance incurs unnecessary maintenance costs and under-maintenance incurs a greater overflow risk. The proposed solution introduces novel technology innovations which address the limitation in both the reliability and economic feasibility of current blockage detection approaches. Reliably predicting blockage locations will mitigate the risk with minimal maintenance requirements. The proposed project develops the technology innovations for implementing a Dynamic Predictive Maintenance System (DPMS) which allows municipal wastewater utilities to institute a just-in-time maintenance program for mitigating combined sewer overflows (CSO) and sanitary sewer overflows (SSO).