Fortinet, Navio Named as PioneersFortinet, Navio Named as Pioneers

Fortinet and Navio are among the Technology Pioneers 2006 named by the World Economic Forum

December 6, 2005

5 Min Read

GENEVA -- The World Economic Forum has announced today 36visionary companies selected as Technology Pioneers 2006. The companies, whose products rangefrom real 3D screens to fuel cell motorbikes and intelligent prosthetics, were nominated by the world’sleading venture capital and technology companies. The final selection from 97 nominees was made bya panel of leading technology experts appointed by the World Economic Forum.

Almost half (17) of the Technology Pioneers 2006 are US-based companies with 12 located inCalifornia. The United Kingdom boasts 8 Technology Pioneers 2006, Germany 3 and Israel 3.Canada, France, Hungary, Iceland and Sweden have one each. Technology pioneers are nominatedin three main categories: Energy, Biotechnology/Health and Information Technology.

To be selected as a Technology Pioneer, a company must be involved in the development of lifechangingtechnology innovation and have potential for long-term impact on business and society. Inaddition, it must demonstrate visionary leadership, show the signs of being a long-standing marketleader – and its technology must be proven. Previous Technology Pioneers have included: Autonomy,Cambridge Silicon Radio, Encore Software, Google, Millennium Pharmaceuticals and Napster.

“The creative innovations produced by our Technology Pioneers hold the promise of significantlyaffecting the way business and society operate”, said Peter Torreele, Managing Director of the WorldEconomic Forum. “As a global knowledge hub, we see the Technology Pioneer community as keycontributors to this dialogue and to the mission of the Forum.”The Californian Technology Pioneers 2006 are: (for a full list and profiles:www.weforum.org/techpioneers/2006):

Energy

  • Energy Innovations, Pasadena, CA, USA – The company is developing the world’s firstmass-produced rooftop photovoltaic tracking concentrator system, called the Sunflower,designed to bring the cost of solar below that of utility-supplied electricity.

  • Innovalight, Santa Clara, CA, USA - The company has discovered that the unique lightemission and light absorption properties of silicon can be tuned at the quantum level. Thistechnology will have enormous impacts in replacing conventional crystalling silicon solar cellsand traditional lighting technologies due to the advantages in production costs, energy savingsand lifetime of the materials that the company has developed.

  • MBA Polymers, Richmond, CA, USA - MBA Polymers has developed an automated processto recover plastics and other materials from durable goods such as electronics, computers andautomobiles containing commingled materials.



Biotechnology / Health

  • Amyris Biotechnology, Emeryville, CA, USA - Amyris Biotechnologies has engineeredmicrobes capable of cost-effectively producing high-value, complex molecules that arecurrently available only in small quantities through extraction from natural resources. Theinitial project is to construct a synthetic microbe for use in the production of the anti-malarialdrug artemisinin to meet a critical need in the developing world.

  • XDx, South San Francisco, CA, USA - XDx has developed and launched a technologycalled AlloMap™ testing that enables transplant cardiologists to determine with a simple bloodtest whether a patient is rejecting a transplanted heart.



Information Technology

  • Fortinet, Sunnyvale, CA, USA - The pioneer in network-based Antivirus Firewall systems. ItsFortiGate Systems detect and eliminate the most damaging, content-based threats from emailand web traffic such as viruses, worms, intrusions, inappropriate Web content and more inreal time - without degrading network performance.

  • Matrix Semiconductor, Santa Clara, CA USA - Matrix Semiconductor, Inc. has pioneeredthe design and development of three-dimensional (3-D) integrated circuits. This fundamentalbreakthrough in IC design enables a new class of low cost, high density, secure One-Time-Programmable (OTP), non-volatile memory products, designed to meet the uniquerequirements of high volume consumer electronic markets.

  • Navio Systems, Cupertino, CA, USA - Navio is a pioneer of rights-based commerce. Byenabling publishers to sell rights and not just files, Navio unleashes the power of digitalcommerce to deliver revenue, retention, and customer relationships via any consumer touchpoint, on the Web or mobile phone.

  • Rosum, Mountain View, CA, USA - Rosum provides seamless indoor/outdoor locationtechnology that is rapid, available, and accurate. Rosum TV-GPS integrates signals fromexisting commercial TV towers with signals from GPS satellites to support positioning in allenvironments.

  • Silicon Optix, San Jose , CA, USA - The Company makes digital image processing chipsthat correct distortion in video displays by adjusting the scale and warp of projected images.

  • UPEK, Emeryville, CA, USA - The company provides a variety of biometric authenticationproducts including fingerprint sensors, biometric algorithms, and software. Customers use thecompany's products to secure access to notebooks, mobile and desktop PCs, as well asmanaging physical access to doors, safes, and automobiles.

  • Voltage Security, Palo Alto, CA, USA - Voltage Security delivers the leading enterpriseprivacy management platform for protecting all forms of digital business communication.Based on an award winning breakthrough in security and usability called Identity-BasedEncryption (IBE), Voltage provides solutions for secure communication to leading financialservices, healthcare, government and pharmaceutical companies.



The Technology Pioneers programme is run by the World Economic Forum with guidance from ApaxPartners and Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu. Apax Partners published today the fourth TechnologyPioneers report entitled Pathways to success: a taxonomy of innovation available online atwww.weforum.org/techpioneers/pdf/apax2006.pdf.

Richard Wilson, Partner at Apax Partners Worldwide LLP and Head of its European Tech andTelecom team, said: "Four styles of innovation emerge from this year's Technology Pioneers:incremental – continuous improvement of existing technology; modular – using new technology forexisting applications; architectural – applying existing technology in new combinations; and radical -totally new technology to solve new problems. These areas of Technology Pioneer innovation areevident across technology, telecommunications, biotechnology and alternative energy sources. TheTechnology Pioneers are an increasingly important annual barometer of technology developments."

"It was exciting to see the nominations received for this year's Technology Pioneer class reflect a morediverse population. This wasn't only by sector with an almost even distribution for the first time acrossIT, biotech and energy– but also a diverse population by geography. We received several nominationsfrom growth areas of the world such as India and Korea. As for those selected as the Tech Pioneerclass of 2006, your innovations will certainly impact the global village we live in today –congratulations on your current successes and we'll be watching for more to come." said Anne Taylor,Advisory Partner for the Tech Pioneer programme, Deloitte & Touche, USA.

World Economic Forum Technology Pioneers 2006

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