NBIF announces 500K in funding

By Bruce Bartlett – Telegraph Journal | Link to original article (must be subscriber)

RtTech Software Inc., a Moncton-based company that sells applications allowing big industry to find and fix problems causing downtime and energy overuse, received a $500,000 investment Wednesday from the New Brunswick Innovation Foundation (NBIF).

“What we like about this particular investment is how it’s a spinoff from another New Brunswick company, ADM Systems Engineering in Saint John,” said NBIF CEO Calvin Milbury. “It was there that Pablo Asiron and his colleagues saw an opportunity to turn what was originally a one-off solution into a stand-alone product.”

RtTech’s Real-time Energy Management Information System, RtEMIS, can pinpoint when and where any part of a system is using more energy than it should be. It can be as complex as a process that’s using more energy than it needs, or as simple as components that aren’t powering off when idle.

ADM Systems Engineering approached NBIF last fall about an investment to finance a spinoff of the software company, now known as RtTech, Milbury said.

“What we liked about it is that they have developed a couple of products that are now being used by customers so they have a customer base and revenue coming in the door, which is rare for a startup,” he said.

NBIF is a not-for-profit corporation that invests in companies, takes shares and becomes a partner.

“Now we will work with the company to see it grow,” Milbury said.

Once RtTech reaches a point where it can go public or the shares can be sold, NBIF will sell its shares and look for another startup to invest in, he said.

“While we strive to make money, any money we make goes back into fulfilling our mandate which is essentially to build innovation in the province,” he said.

After ADM had helped one of its industrial customers tackle its energy use problems by designing a software package, they realized they had a product with a lot of potential, Asiron said in a phone interview.

The $500,000 investment will be used to hire another software developer as well as to build up both a management and sales team to help expand the business globally, he said.

“We already have around 43 clients including some of the larger mining companies,” he said.

Now that word is getting out about RtTech, other companies interested in managing their energy costs are seeking them out, he said.

“Not only does our product help companies save money, it also helps the environment,” he said.

The software helps identify areas in an industrial facility where there is an overconsumption of energy whether it is electricity, oil, gas or biomass, Asiron said.

RtTech currently has five employees in New Brunswick and one in Nova Scotia as well as contractors in Australia and the United States, he said.