Victoria company makes big acquisition

Plus, two new Island businesses opened their doors this week.

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Victoria medtech company heads south

Victoria’s StarFish Medical is growing. On Monday, the medical device developer announced its acquisition of Omnica Corporation, a California-based firm that designs and develops medical devices. The acquisition is StarFish’s second in seven years and expands the company’s footprint in a key state for medical technology.

"Adding Omnica to the StarFish family brings us closer to our clients in California and makes us even better placed to lead North America in MedTech innovation," said Scott Phillips, StarFish Medical CEO and founder. "Omnica offers a team of experts in custom medical device development with a strong, local connection to their clients that rivals our own. Omnica's prototyping capacity is unparalleled in the industry. I'm looking forward to joining forces to amplify the support we can offer to medical technology companies.”

The acquisition includes Omnica's 25,000-square-foot facility in Irvine, California, where the firm develops medical products including disposables, diagnostic products, hand-held instruments, monitoring equipment, point-of-care products, and surgical devices.

StarFish says it intends to continue working with the existing team at Omnica.

Originally founded in Victoria in 1999 by CEO Scott Phillips, the company has 200 staff spread between its Victoria and Toronto offices. In 2020, Starfish was contracted by the government of Canada to develop an ICU ventilator for COVID patients on an emergency basis.

📰 More Victoria innovation news

🍄‍ Magical mushroom: Victoria’s Ryan Boyle celebrated the launch and growth of Mushroom Envy, a company creating mushroom-based skincare solutions. After soft-launching at the beginning of the year, the company’s products are now available through nearly 30 retailers and clinics.

🚀 Taking off: Fellow Victorian John Oram announced the launch of VeilStream, a company providing data management solutions. Oram will take on the role of CTO, with Steve Jones as CEO and co-founder.

👀 I see you: MarineLabs caught the eye of Hakai Magazine and was featured in an article on how machine learning systems are being used in marine weather forecasts.

🕴️Tech jobs of the week

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