3D scanner
Takes security checks to a new level, but William Awad hasn’t sold any to Quebec.
“At the end of the day, when the Quebec government wants to purchase, they buy elsewhere. I really find that disappointing.” WILLIAM AWAD
Quebec politicians talk ad nauseam about supporting local entrepreneurship and the need to develop homegrown talent, especially through research and development.
But what does all that blather translate into? When it comes to Voti Inc., zilch. Nothing. Rien.
The state-of-the-art threedimensional scanners the Montreal company makes have been bought by 24 countries and many Canadian provinces. The burgeoning security industry has a wide range of uses for them — in courthouses, government buildings, airports, penitentiaries — including the screening of mail and employees for Saudi Arabia’s royal family at various Riyadh palaces.
But in the nearly three years since making his pitch to Quebec’s Department of Public Safety, Voti founder William Awad has heard nothing but deafening silence.
And yet it would be hard to find a better candidate than Voti that checks all the boxes stumping politicians say they’re looking for to nurture Quebec’s economy of the future. Research & Development? Check. A knowledge-based industry? Check. Job creation? Check (20-plus employees so far). Future-looking technologies? Check. Local engineers, technicians and sales and marketing? Check. A vast array of clients? Check. Many untapped applications? Check, check and check.
Philippe Desjardins, a spokesman for Quebec’s department of public security, said that his ministry didn’t purchases any Voti scanners “because all our detention centre needs are met at the moment.”
The justice department purchased its own machines for courthouses, Desjardins said. A justice department spokesperson was not available for comment.
It’s enough to make Awad want to move to Toronto — which he says is under serious consideration.
“I can’t tell you how much the Ontario government has helped. They even asked us if we’d consider moving there and doing something there.”
“I love Quebec and all. We’re a Quebec-based company, our engineering department is all Quebecers — this whole company is Quebecers, most of them graduated from Quebec universities. And at the end of the day, when the Quebec government wants to purchase, they buy elsewhere. I really find that disappointing.
“We didn’t even get to the bidding process” in a recent security contract for a Quebec courthouse. “We were eliminated immediately.”
It didn’t help that a Voti executive blabbed to some media about a confidential pilot project, but that manager was fired instantly, Awad said.
Despite the lack of home support, Voti has been growing fast since The Gazette first profiled the company nearly four years ago.
Revenues have climbed from $50,000 that year to $500,000 in 2011 and $1.5 million in 2012. So far this year, booked orders total about $3 million.
Company chairman Norman Inkster, commissioner of the RCMP in the 1980s and ’90s, attributes that success to Voti’s proprietary software technology.
“This is breakthrough technology. It’s truly incredible. William is a very bright guy who said ‘I can build a better scanner’ — and he has. But I don’t think he foresaw all the applications that are available to this technology,” Inkster said.
Predicated on seeing through any matter by scanning layer upon layer upon layer and from a multitude of angles, the 3D image scanners are able to detect objects and substances in nooks and crannies that other machines can’t.
“It comes down to the fact that the machines can detect anything that has an atomic number (which identifies a chemical element’s unique properties),” Inkster said. “And that’s amazing.”
Initially, Awad targeted airports, but the dominance of U.S. manufacturers — aided by U.S. protectionism — as well as the slow and difficult certification process forced him to seek out alternatives.
These applications now run the gamut, from jewelry-to-the-stars Tiffany & Co. of New York on one end to prisons at the other — 130 scanners installed worldwide so far
Voti scanners are also in about 20 Canadian embassies around the world, and possibly 10 more next year, Awad said.
“We take the security of our Canadian diplomats and staff abroad very seriously,” Ian Trites, a Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development Canada spokesman, said by email. But he wouldn’t comment on the scanners. “We do not comment on security specifics at our missions abroad.”
Voti’s success elsewhere has allowed Awad to loop back to aviation. In two breakthrough deals, Voti recently was certified by Europe’s STAC (Service technique de l’aviation civile) to screen passengers at airports, and it has been given a contract by an air cargo firm at Dorval’s Trudeau airport to screen its air freight.
These two toeholds present huge growth potential, Awad said, especially as cargo screening becomes more prevalent over the next years.
“That gives us access to airports in Europe, the Middle East, Northern Africa and a lot of other places in the world.”
What makes the scanners unique, Awad said, are the software modules. Prisons, for instance, are on the lookout for tobacco, drugs and cellphone cards, while mining firms — and Tiffany’s — want to detect precious metals being smuggled out (the technology also distinguishes among the precious metals).
For government buildings, airports and military bases, the mission is sniffing out guns or explosives.
Each application has a software module tailored specifically to it.
“The magic is in the software,” Inkster said. “We can remotely update the software to the threat.” That’s where Voti makes its money — licensing the software and collecting yearly fees.
After being bankrolled until now by financial angels — including some of Quebec’s most prominent families and individuals — to the tune of about $10 million, Inkster and Awad said that Voti needs “as little as (another) $10 million” to fund expansion and development projects.
Both cheered their financial backers for their “extraordinary support and patience,” and promised that Voti would finally turn a profit this year.
“We expect to break even within six to eight months,” Inkster said.
“Absolutely,” Awad agreed. “And by the end of 2014, I plan to be in 40 countries, almost the double of today.” Quebec as well? He would not hazard a guess.