NVIDIA Names Top Five Companies From Emerging Companies Summit 2009

SANTA CLARA, CA--(Marketwire - October 26, 2009) - Five of the 60 start-ups that participated in NVIDIA's recent Emerging Companies Summit (ECS) -- which brought together entrepreneurs with those who fund their ventures -- were today awarded the title "Ones To Watch" for their exceptional promise, by a three-member panel.

The companies that received the awards, which were based on technology value utilizing the graphics processing unit (GPU), market opportunity and potential impact include:

• IQ Engines, of Berkeley, Calif., recognizes and labels images, monetizing photos by tying them to relevant retailers.

• Milabra, of New York City, uses a multi-point visual recognition platform to target advertising based on visual content instead of text.

• MirriAd, a London-based start-up that seamlessly embeds advertising into video content, as if it were always there.

• Ubitus, of Taipei, is a software platform provider for fixed mobile convergence applications.

• Visuvi, of Redwood City, Calif., enables image search without any text required.

Highlights / Key Facts:

• 'One To Watch' awards given to top five ECS companies based on: technology value, market opportunity and impact and 'wow' factor.

• Awards include $15,000 in legal services from Cooley Godward Kronish LLP.

• Selection committee included: Greg Clark, senior vice president of business development at Cooley Godward Kronish LLP; Andy Sheehan, managing director at Sutter Hill; Alain Tiquet, group marketing director at NVIDIA.

• The second annual ECS, held from Sept. 30 to Oct. 2, brought together 475 attendees and featured presentations by 60 start-up companies from 15 countries, discussing how they utilize graphics processing units (GPUs) to deliver innovative solutions in areas ranging from cloud computing and computer vision to gaming and image processing.

• Since it launched its GPU Ventures program in March 2009, NVIDIA is actively investing in new companies and offering others some pretty high-grade expertise, all in the name of building out GPU ecosystems.

Quotes:

• "Our goal is to educate, nurture, support and inspire developers and emerging entrepreneurs to continue to develop applications for the GPU platform and we are truly pleased to recognize these five distinguished companies for their outstanding work. The ecosystem consists not only of the emerging companies that we hope to directly support through programs like the ECS, but also the VCs that fund these companies, the partners that work with them, and the customers that purchase products from them."

- Jeff Herbst, vice president of business development, NVIDIA

• "IQ Engines has built a photo tagging engine, which labels images in near real-time. We believe that eventually, every cell phone camera will have visual intelligence. GPUs will be a key part of the solution for these parallel computationally intensive searches and we are honored to have been recognized for our technology."

- Gerry Pesavento, CEO, IQ Engines, Inc.

• "With so many great companies present at this year's ECS, Milabra is very excited to have been recognized as 'One To Watch.'" Monetizing user generated visual media is an opportunity to add significant value to the online marketplace, and our ability to automatically contextualize visual media and serve relevant advertising to it would not be possible without the GPU."

- Sam Cox, CEO, Milabra

• "With the vast majority of internet traffic destined to become video MirriAd had to develop a truly scalable platform capable to meet the future monetization needs of the content industry while delivering the perfection required by the professional video industries. MirriAd's platform and business model would not be possible without the GPU. Thanks NVIDIA for making our technology possible and for recognizing MirriAd as 'One To Watch.'"

- Mark Popkiewicz, CEO, MirriAd

• "Our cloud computing solutions with GPU acceleration allows faster adoption of advanced features and service offerings for equipment manufacturers and network operators. Ultimately, end users are enabled to interconnect with information that means the most to them. We are honored to be recognized as 'One To Watch.'"

- Wesley Kuo, CEO, Ubitus

• "As a visual query processing engine Visuvi relies heavily on graphic processing for indexing and search. The medical images we analyze in radiology and digital pathology can be up to 10 GB per file so the parallel processing capability using GPUs significantly improves analysis time in a cost-effective manner. We look forward to collaborating with NVIDIA and developing real-time medical image search and analytic solutions that will improve patient care and reduce healthcare costs."

- Chris Boone, CEO, Visuvi

Useful Links / Videos:

• http://www.nvidia.com/object/gpu_tech_conf_emerging_companies_summit.html
• http://www.iqengines.com/
• http://www.milabra.com/
• http://www.mirriad.com
• http://www.ubitus.net/index.html
• http://www.visuvi.com/
• http://blogs.nvidia.com/gtc/
• http://blogs.nvidia.com/nTersect/
• http://www.youtube.com/user/nvidia

About NVIDIA

NVIDIA (NASDAQ: NVDA) awakened the world to the power of computer graphics when it invented the graphics processing unit (GPU) in 1999. Since then, it has consistently set new standards in visual computing with breathtaking, interactive graphics available on devices ranging from portable media players to notebooks to workstations. NVIDIA's expertise in programmable GPUs has led to breakthroughs in parallel processing which make supercomputing inexpensive and widely accessible. Fortune magazine has ranked NVIDIA #1 in innovation in the semiconductor industry for two years in a row. For more information, see http://www.nvidia.com.