Staff Report

GREENVILLE -- InnoVenture 2008, the fifth annual southeastern innovation conference produced by Swamp Fox, has named entrepreneurial companies that will present elevator pitches to investors.

InnoVenture 2008 will be held on March 25 and 26 at the Carolina First Center in Greenville.

Swamp Fox connects people with great ideas to expertise, resources and customers. Presenting entrepreneurs represent a variety of business disciplines, from information technology to sustainability and advanced materials. Geographically entrepreneurs, along with Swamp Fox Anchors and Sponsors, come from across Georgia, Tennessee, and North and South Carolina, collectively the eighth largest mega-region in the world.

“InnoVenture 2008 will present another strong slate of entrepreneurial companies. Prior presenters have raised over $50 million in venture and angel capital, demonstrating that the conference has attracted a pipeline of emerging companies with excellent market opportunities and strong management teams,” said John Warner, President of Swamp Fox LLC. “In addition to capital, entrepreneurs will find excellent opportunities to connect with major companies like Michelin, Milliken, GE, Blue Cross Blue Shield, and Zeus; with major universities like Clemson and UNC Charlotte; and with investor partners like SC Launch! and Noro-Moseley Partners.”

Among the prior InnoVenture presenters who have subsequently raised capital are Zipit, which subsequently raised $4.7 million, Ometic which subsequently raised $20 million, and Digitalsmiths, which subsequently raised $6 million.

Four different 2007 presenters have had a subsequent investment round.

Companies chosen to present at InnoVenture 2008 include the following:

• 11Giraffes Company, Charlotte, N.C., helps customers enhance their brand experience with a single network for the convergence of customized digital media (music, video, interactivity, etc) avoiding the cost of capitalizing dual music and video platforms. The company’s senior management team has extensive experience in both publicly and privately held technology/media based companies.

• Blueridge Analytics, Charlotte, N.C., has launched SITEOPS, patent-pending revolutionary software that gives land developers site costs in hours instead of months. This next-generation, first-to-market CAD software delivers preliminary optimized site designs, along with detailed takeoff estimates, via Software as a Service (SaaS). SITEOPS has saved thousands to millions of dollars per project on grading and other site costs. SITEOPS is currently in use on a number of Fortune 50 retail projects. Clients include Lowe's Companies, Inc., as well as prominent civil engineering firms and land developers.

• Climax Global Energy, Allendale, is commercializing waste-to-fuel technology that converts non-recyclable plastic waste into synthetic crude oil. Climax’s initial market focus is on the processing of waste plastics to sell its products, namely synthetic crude and diesel-range commodities, directly to refineries and fuel terminals with an efficient, safe, environmental friendly and highly profitable process. Climax’s strong management team has over 50 years of combined industry experience and is led by an MIT trained engineer.

• DigitalDerm, Columbia, is addressing melanoma skin cancer rates, which continue to rise nationally and worldwide. DigitalDerm's MoleMapCD service and technology provides a self-contained and easy-to-use cutaneous baseline imaging product enabling both the physician and patient the ability to identify melanoma changes as they occur. Utilizing two prior capital rounds totally 1.6M dollars from private investors and SCLaunch, DigitalDerm has established 13 imaging sites throughout 6 states in the southeast, Arizona and Indiana. Leveraging a combined 75 years of management team expertise in the financial, business and medical imaging arenas, the MoleMapCD is now poised to expand nationally and become the "Standard of Care" in early melanoma detection.

• Emerge Industries, Johnson City, Tenn., has developed and is currently marketing an innovative measuring solution that saves time, reduces costs and helps professionals work smarter. The Sticky Yard Digital Measuring System, the flagship product, is a combination measuring tool and software application that provides a simple and quick method to measure many objects directly from a digital image, reducing a job that can take hours down to seconds. The company's management team has extensive experience with sales, marketing and software development.

• ESP Systems, Charlotte, N.C., offers a proprietary mobile wireless solution that directly addresses the issue of poor guest service in the multi-billion dollar casual dining restaurant market. Each year, an estimated 13% of restaurant guests walk out of casual dining restaurants vowing never to return due to poor service, and ESP’s patented solution prevents over 80% of these failures. ESP Systems is deploying its solution across multiple leading brands, including Applebee’s (franchisee market), TGI Fridays (franchisee market), Chili’s (franchisee market), and Fatz Cafe, a 47 unit southeastern regional concept.

• FirstString, Charleston, is a biotechnology company developing peptide drugs which reduce scarring and promote regeneration in multiple tissue types. FirstString has received regulatory approval for the first in man study in Europe beginning in March 2008.

• GET Interactive, Winston Salem, N.C., is a rich media advertising company that creates new revenue streams, consumer interaction and promotional opportunities for video content. Across the spectrum of entertainment, GET technology allows any video, viewed anywhere to have an opt-in advertising platform for embedded brands.

• Infinity Learning Solutions, Asheville, N.C., is launching DigitalChalk, a "Software as a Service", e-learning, course authoring and delivery solution, which integrates video, audio, PowerPoint slides, images, text, closed captioning and html into course lessons with an easy to use, and secure web based authoring tool.

• Lab Escape, Asheville, N.C., solves the information overload problem at large companies by selling visual analysis software that allows managers to understand large volumes of complex data, ask questions to gain key insights, and then communicate those insights to others. Funded by its founders and revenue, Lab Escape has twelve Fortune 500 customers, 3x annual growth, and a management team of serial entrepreneurs with executive experience in six other startups.

• PinPoint GeoTech, Clemson, developed a GPS based marking and mapping solution for public works departments. Users report significant reductions in fuel and manpower costs, equipment and infrastructure wear and tear, and municipal risks, with greatly decreased carbon emissions from heavy equipment. Founded by two seasoned entrepreneurs in cooperation with the City of Clemson, the system is being marketed nationally and has been deployed in five cities.

• PromoPipeline, Greenville, is a vertical search engine designed to facilitate channel communication, enabling business-to-business channel partners to capitalize on information. PromoPipeline is a SCLaunch! funded company and an InnoVenture 2007 presenter, who is returning to report substantial progress and growth.

• Q Tires, Greenville, provides for millions who drive occasionally or frequently in treacherous winter conditions, patented “Studs on Q” technology that enable them, with the touch of a button, to remotely deploy studs from otherwise all-season tires for added traction on packed snow and ice, and retract them for normal, year-round driving conditions. The CEO had over twenty years of prior experience with Group Michelin.

• Selah Technologies, Pendleton, is an advanced materials company focused on the development of nanotechnology enabled products for the biomedical and consumer electronics industries. Selah has two patent pending platform technologies. Selah Dots™, brightly luminescent carbon nanoparticles, and Selah Tubes™, enriched single-walled carbon nanotubes. Selah is an InnoVenture success story. Selah’s CEO identified Clemson technology at InnoVenture 2006, presented the initial business plan at InnoVenture 2007, and now returns having established a strong management team and with significant progress in identifying key initial customers.

• SensorTech, Greenville, is a Clemson spin-off commercializing a new contact sensing technology. Initial markets are: Prosthetics, orthotics, load cells and custom applications. SensorTech has secured a seed investment from SC Launch and is in final contract negotiation for Prosthetic Sensor Smart Sheet(S3)production, as well as, having discussions with a global company which is a Swamp Fox Anchor. CEO has over 25 years experience previously with Fluor Corporation, CTO has exclusive expertise in the technology and has been named co-discoverer of the technology along with a professor at Clemson University.

• TiBA Solutions, Simpsonville, is a software development firm with seven years of solid growth and profitability. TiBA is currently launching an innovative strategy to expand into additional state and local government markets leveraging a best-of-breed, award-winning Business One Stop e-government solution.