Founded in 2007, WideSail is a spin-off from McGill University. The company is based in Montreal and develops semiconductor products and intellectual property for very high performance error correction. The company will license its designs to developers of integrated circuits for communications applications such as WiFi, WiMAX, 10 Gb Ethernet, Direct Video Broadcast (DVB) and 4G telephony (UMTS Long Term Evolution or LTE).

“We are very pleased to provide funding to WideSail to support the commercialization of highly promising intellectual property originating from McGill University,” said Mark de Groot, Chairman of the board of directors of MSBi Valorisation. “WideSail clearly demonstrates how scientific research from a world class academic institution can be rapidly translated into applications with very strong commercial potential.”

“The researchers at McGill University have created a breakthrough technology which outperforms state-of-the-art error correction techniques,” said Gord Harling, President and CEO of WideSail. “This investment will allow WideSail to develop and demonstrate error correcting circuit designs based on this technology. At the conclusion of this phase WideSail will be prepared to launch a range of high performance products to customers in various markets.”