(Halifax, NS) — InNOVAcorp today announced the list of Nova Scotia start-up companies moving on to round two of the I-3 Technology Start-Up Competition.

"At this point in the competition, we have identified the 25 most compelling companies," said Dan MacDonald, president and CEO of InNOVAcorp. "We are very pleased with the quantity and quality of the submissions and look forward to getting a more in-depth look at them in round two."

The following I-3 participants from across Nova Scotia have been invited to compete in round two of the competition:

Zone 1 (Cumberland, Colchester, Pictou, Antigonish and Guysborough counties):
LST Energy Inc. - Jim Trussler, Gus Swanson and Philip Landry -  Pictou
Lucas Sensors Inc. - Luke Young - Pictou
Performance Geonomics Inc. - Donald Crober - Truro
SolarTron Energy Systems Inc. - Edward Herniak - Amherst
X-Flux Environmental Technologies Inc. - David Risk - Antigonish

Zone 2 (Lunenburg, Queens, Shelburne and Yarmouth counties):
Gateway Geomatics - Jeff McKenna  - Lunenburg
Ocean Leader Fisheries Ltd. - Milton LeBlanc and Bruce LeBlanc - Lower Wedgeport
SIGN-MARK-SIGN Ltd. - Terry Hawkins - Shelburne
Terradyne Energy Systems Inc. - Mark Lowe - Bridgewater
Xona Games - Matthew Doucette and Jason Doucette - Yarmouth

Zone 3 (Digby, Annapolis, Kings and Hants counties):
Clare Machine Works Limited - Vince Stuart - Meteghan Centre
Compilr - Patrick Hankinson - Weymouth
Fireworks FX Inc./Solar Flare Inc. - Fred Wade - Grand Pre
Gaiamatics Solutions Inc.  - Trevor Milne - Lawrencetown
MAX ReadTime Ltd. - Catherine Hubley - Mount Uniacke

Zone 4 (Halifax Regional Municipality):
Alcaeus Innovations Inc. -Brad Yeadon - Upper Tantallon
Carbon Sense Solutions Inc. - Robert Niven - Halifax
Clicker Leash Co. - Adina MacRae - Halifax
TetherBerry - Tim Burke and Stephen Hankinson - Halifax
VoIP Solutions - Peter Woodford - Halifax

Zone 5 (Victoria, Cape Breton, Inverness and Richmond counties):
Billdidit Inc. - Joe Menchefski and Bill Coady - Sydney
Fireblade Dairy Services - Chris van Heuvel -  Port Hood
Health Tech Outcomes - Corrine McIsaac - New Waterford
Jema - Brennan O'Leary - North West Arm
Prescribed Solutions Consulting Inc. - Ed Fedora and Paul Graham - Sydney

For brief descriptions of the 25 companies, visit http://innovacorp.ca/2009I-3-StartUp.

Entrepreneurs selected to move on to round two are required to submit a full business plan by November 19 to be reviewed by the six-person judging committees in each zone. The three companies in each zone selected to move on in the competition will be announced on December 8.

Each first-place zone winner will receive a $100,000 award package and each second place zone winner will receive a $40,000 award package of seed investment, cash, and in-kind contributions for development of their start-up ventures. Award packages will include business building services in the form of marketing, accounting, sales, and legal expertise from the I-3 competition partners.

At the end of the competition, one provincial winner will be selected from among the five first place zone winners, and awarded a $100,000 seed investment from InNOVAcorp's HPi(tm) Microfund.

In total, the competition attracted 133 formal submissions from across Nova Scotia, far exceeding InNOVAcorp's goal of 100 submissions.