Mirametrix, a Montreal company that makes it easier for people to use computers, has won the first BDC Innovation Award, edging out three other competitors including an Atlantic Canadian company.

Launched in 2011, Mirametrix has developed software that allows people to operate computers or devices with their natural acts. It tracks the user’s eye as he or she reads a screen and integrates the eye-tracking with other actions, such as speaking or gesturing.

“We bring to market a novel way to interact with laptops, tablets and other devices, creating a world of new opportunities in usability, security, learning, gaming and entertainment,” Denis Lavallée, CEO of Mirametrix, said in a statement. “More than 2 billion units of electronic products are sold worldwide on an annual basis. This award is a great validation of our go-to-market strategy and our potential for fast growth."

The company is one of the first portfolio companies of TandemLaunch in Montreal, a company creation platform recently supported by BDC Venture Capital.

Mirametrix expects the technology will be readily accessible to the public in less than two years. The company’s software is currently used by more than 250 clients in 42 countries, including global leaders in higher education like Stanford, Harvard and McGill University, as well as market leaders in software and gaming like Microsoft and Sony.

 “The gaze tracking solution developed by Mirametrix has the potential to transform the way we currently interact with devices much in the same way the mouse did in the early 1980s,” said Jérôme Nycz, Executive Vice President of Subordinate Financing and Venture Capital at BDC. “The opportunity for disruption is massive.”

The BDC Innovation Award, awarded for the first time this year, is organized by the Business Development Bank of Canada and Canada’s Venture Capital and Private Equity Association, or CVCA, to recognize outstanding Canadian startups. A person familiar with the process said the organizers received a range of strong submissions and eventually narrowed them down to a shortlist of four companies. The finalists include Smart Skin Technologies of Fredericton, which is commercializing a pressure-sensitive surface material devised at University of New Brunswick.

“We were nominated by our investors and thought this would be a good opportunity for Atlantic Canada to demonstrate it can build Grade A companies,” said Smart Skin CEO Kumaran Thillainadarajah. “We happen to be based in Atlantic Canada, but we are competing globally. We have a world-beating technology and have built a great company around it.”

The award was announced at the CVCA Conference in Ottawa, at which the association said Robert J. Deluce, CEO of Porter Airlines Inc. won its ‘Entrepreneur of the Year’ Award.

BDC Venture Capital and GrowthWorks won the ‘Deal of the Year’ Award for the venture capital category for their investment in Layer7 Technologies, which sold out to CA Technologies last year.

Fulcrum Capital Partners and Brookfield Asset Management Inc. capture the private equity category for their investment in A & B Rail Services Ltd.