By: Ryanne McIsaac
SubC Imaging recently won College of the North Atlantic’s (CNA) Acclaim Awards Innovation Award. Alumni Chad Collett and Adam Rowe founded the Clarenville-based business.
Heidi Staeben-Simmons, Associate Vice President Public Affairs and Advancement says she feels they were a smart choice for the award.
“The story of SubC Imaging is a fantastic one that should inspire all CNA graduates,” she said. “They started this company in a basement 13 years ago and now they have nearly 30 employees and sell their products all over the world.”
Despite their humble beginnings, she says they currently have an international presence.
“Their underwater imaging equipment and software has been used to create a 3D map of the Titanic and is currently deployed in Antarctica in an attempt to capture the first ever footage of the colossal squid in its natural environment,” she added.
Chad Collett, founder and CEO of SubC Imaging, says commitment to practical learning—something they learned at CNA, has become ingrained in their company culture.
“A lot of us here did the technology programs at CNA because they have a focus on practical application of theory and knowledge towards completing something, versus just learning about theory and not really knowing how to apply it,” he said. “It’s a very practical set of programs so we continue that spirit here at SubC by constantly innovating and applying new science and new technology to the market to create new products new solutions to problems.”
Collett is enthusiastic about what lies ahead for his team.
“It’s never been a better time to be in the ocean tech sector and specifically in Canada, I’m also really excited about future because here at SubC we are building a new suite of technologies for ROV systems to enable faster higher quality and better inspections,” he said. “We’re bringing all of our technologies together in a way that no other companies around the world have done and I’m very excited about that.”
SubC Imaging dives deep
Aside from their recent Acclaim Awards win, the company has also won the David McNamara Incubator Client Graduate of the Year from the Canadian Association of Business Incubation, the prestigious Outstanding Incubator Graduate Award from the U.S.-based National Business Incubation Association, the 2022 Business of the Year from the Clarenville Chamber of Commerce, and the $20,000 ConX Tech prize for their partnership with Kolossal, who is collaborating with them in the hunt for the elusive squid.
Adam Rowe, Vice President of Software and Co Owner of SubC, emphasizes the importance of understanding clients’ needs.
“One thing I feel has been key to our success is truly understanding the problems that your clients have, and developing strong relationships with those clients so that you can work together collaboratively to make sure that what you’re developing is truly solving the problem that they have, and will work for the environment that they are working in,” he said.
Always striving to improve, Rowe says products at SubC are always evolving.
“We’re looking at things at a bit of a higher level these days instead of focusing in on individual products solving individual problems it’s more about understanding how we can integrate a lot of different things into solving bigger more complex problems,” he said.
Emphasizing the company’s commitment to innovation and efficiency, Rowe elaborated on SubC’s forward-thinking strategy.
“We are doing things more efficiently so we’re really looking at creating an integrated ecosystem of all of our all of our products to do some truly unique things,” he said.
For more information or to nominate a CNA alum for an Acclaim Award, visit www.cna.nl.ca/alumni/awards-program.
