Section Title
Startup Targets Simpler Sensors
Folsom-based SynapSense announces first product.
By Clint Swett - Bee Staff Writer
Published 12:00 am PST Wednesday, December 6, 2006
Story appeared in BUSINESS section, Page D1
A Folsom startup company, launched by a former Intel executive and a UC Davis professor, today announces its first product, aimed at the fast-growing market for wireless sensor networks.
The technology from SynapSense Corp., backed by $2 million in venture funding, will allow companies to program those networks with just a single mouse click.
Founded in March by former Intel executive Peter Van Deventer and UC Davis computer science professor Raju Pandey, SynapSense hopes its technology's simplicity will set it apart from competitors in the wireless sensor network (WSN) field.
Traditional sensor networks help companies remotely monitor their equipment and other operations. For instance, battery-powered sensors -- some as small as the dot of an "i" -- can report humidity in chip clean rooms, vibrations on water pumps, moisture in a farmer's field, or whether security doors are open or closed.
Setting up a sensor system that communicates wirelessly can save substantial sums by eliminating the need for cabling and other costs, said Van Deventer, SynapSense's president and chief executive.
"It allows companies to extend their instrumentation without rewiring everything," he said. "Now, with just some adhesive or Velcro, you can attach monitoring capability anywhere."
In the past, wireless networks have been complicated by the need to write computer code that allows the wireless transmitters, circuit boards, memory chips and other equipment to communicate with each other, he said.
"Traditionally, to develop a new application can take three to six months and sometimes longer," said Van Deventer, formerly marketing director for Intel's flash memory products in Folsom.
"We are making it so you can develop an application in the matter of a single click," he said. The company is also working on one-click technology for deploying and then managing the networks.
While she hasn't seen SynapSense's system, analyst Mareca Hatler said it could be attractive to many users.
"One the major inhibitors (of WSN) in the industrial area is the lack of complete solutions for building an application," said Hatler, director of research at ON World Inc. in San Diego. "It would be a real plus to speed up the development time."
ON World estimates the global market for WSN technology will grown from $141 million this year to $5.2 billion by 2010.
Rajender Thusu, an analyst with Frost & Sullivan in San Antonio, said SynapSense's technology appears both fast and flexible.
"It really accelerates the development time and it's not oriented to one particular kind of network," he said.
Citing SynapSense's status as a privately held company, Van Deventer wouldn't disclose the company's revenue or its list of customers. But he said a major semiconductor company and a maker of LCD screens are testing SynapSense technology to monitor the temperature and humidity in their manufacturing facilities.
The clients "are very well-known companies, blue chip companies," said Scott Lenet, whose venture capital firm DFJ Frontier in West Sacramento is one of SynapSense's three largest investors. "They have a platform that makes sense and an approach that customers are interested in."
Since it was formed in March, SynapSense has grown to about 15 employees and is still hiring, Van Deventer said. He declined to predict future employment growth or provide revenue projections for the company.
One certainty is that SynapSense will face increasing competition. Just a handful of companies now offer rival technology, but that is sure to grow, Hatler said.
"The market is moving very quickly," she said. "More companies will be looking to provide complete systems for building applications."
But Thusu of Frost & Sullivan said he thinks serious rivals have a way to go. "I don't think anyone else is close to developing this kind of solution," he said.