Having launched the SaaS version of its product in October, Fredericton’s Envenio is on the hunt for $500,000 in equity funding to help finance the development of its fluid analysis software and push into new markets.

Growing out of intellectual property developed at the University of New Brunswick, Envenio has developed revolutionary computational fluid dynamics, or CFD, software, which it calls EXN/Aero.

What that means is that engineers can use the company’s software to analyze and solve problems involving the flow of liquids and gases. The company’s algorithms allow desktop computers to simulate the flow of these substances. Like a virtual wind tunnel, it can simulate how air flows around a vehicle or aircraft to help engineers optimize the shape, structure and performance.

Envenio began six years ago with three mechanical engineers building a business out of IP they licensed from UNB. Initially, it was an engineering consulting company, helping companies and organizations like the Canadian Department of National Defense with their CFD projects. Then in October, it launched products that clients could buy to conduct their own CFD studies at a fraction of the price of competing products.

“It’s actually been good,” said CEO Ian McLeod in an interview. “In October, we asked if people wanted to sign on, and there was a pretty strong uptake right away. So far we’ve been getting really good feedback.”

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Envenio has a Software-as-a-Service product that a lot of customers can use in the cloud as a first step. But it also offers a stand-alone version for clients who don’t want to keep their most valuable IP in the cloud.

The company now has clients in Canada, the U.S. and Europe and has just secured two military clients – one naval and one weapons-based. McLeod said EXN/Aero is a good fit for the automotive and aerospace segments, which always need to simulate the flow of air around and throughout their products.

The key advantage of the Envenio solution is that it leverages powerful computing hardware (like graphics processors) that makes it faster and far less expensive than other CFD solutions on the market. That means that engineers can use Envenio for complicated simulations using desktop-scale computers rather than needing large server clusters.

McLeod said that independent benchmarking of the software concluded that it offered 10 to 11 times better performance per dollar than its competitors.

The company last year secured a $300,000 equity investment from the New Brunswick Innovation Foundation. It was then able to leverage that money into an additional $600,000 in funding from the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency and the National Research Council’s IRAP program. 

Envenio recently has boosted its staff, and the hires have included Vice-President of Business Development Scott Walton, previously CEO of industrial gases company Enovex. With its sales efforts ramping up, Envenio is trying to raise capital again. McLeod said the company has been talking to potential investors in Toronto, Boston and New Brunswick about a raise worth $500,000.

The company has bolstered its sales team and is continuing to develop its product. Envenio is now adding functionality so it can be used in other segments. For example, the company hopes to have combustion models on the market by next year that could be used in the development of gas turbines.