Profile From East toWest
Warren Clark charts the history of Ximea, an imaging company with roots in Slovakia
T
hough the name Ximea has only been around since the formation of the company in
June 2010, the platform on which it has been built dates back around 20 years. In 1992, Max Larin and three fellow engineers leſt their native Moscow to head for Slovakia, largely because they felt that the instability in the Soviet Union caused by Perestroika was not conducive to building companies and careers in their field of expertise. Tey chose Slovakia because it was relatively close to home, meaning they could continue to work as a team, and also because no visas were required. Te four of them started Soſthard
Technology, which specialised in frame grabbers and soſtware for crystallographic image processing, but the first couple of years were very tough. ‘We shrunk to just two people – myself and Vjaceslav Klimkovic,’ recalls Larin, ‘and we had to take on other jobs such as repairing monitors and so on, just to survive.’ Teir fortunes turned a corner in
1994 when Soſthard demonstrated a product aimed at the research community while at a scientific conference in Zurich. Among the visitors was Dr Vasant Desai, one of the founders of Soſt Imaging Systems, a Munster-based soſtware house specialising in solutions for electron microscopy. ‘We did the deal right there
in Zurich to supply them with frame grabbers,’ says Larin. ‘And right from the beginning, it was a dynamic cooperation. Te team at Soſt Imaging had a lot of ideas as to
8 Imaging and Machine Vision Europe • June/July 2012
what we could do to deliver in order to compete in our market, and in return, we were supplying the IP for our specialised real-time Fourier transform soſtware that they were able to integrate into their main product.’ A major leap forward occurred in 1995 when CCD sensors began to become commercially available on the market via Philips Advanced Imaging (later acquired by Teledyne Dalsa). ‘We decided to buy a few of those sensors, which were very expensive at the time, in order to try building our own cameras. We showed our prototype – which was actually built in a shoebox – to Vasant, who was very impressed with the idea of creating our own camera product.’ Within a year, the prototype
moved to a product that was ready to launch – a CCD camera using a Peltier element to cool the sensor, aimed at the microscopy market. Even at that time Soſthard comprised just three people, but the launch of the camera marked a period of fast growth for the company. Its customer base grew to a point where it became an OEM supplier to major companies, such as Siemens.
Tis business model ensured that Soſthard enjoyed a successful 10-year period. It was brought to a slowdown by a
decline in the desire for innovation from large customers, and it was innovation that Soſthard had become expert at selling. ‘We had to make an assessment: do we continue with just OEM business, or do we change?’ says Larin. In the meantime, Soſt Imaging
Max Larin, one of the original founders of the company
We showed our
prototype – which was actually built in a shoebox – to Vasant, who was very impressed
Ximea has sites in the USA, Germany and Slovakia
Systems was acquired by Olympus, and many of the existing team leſt the company (though Ximea continues to supply it), including Vasant Desai. Having enjoyed many years of working together, Larin, Klimkovic and Desai began discussing ways in which they could collaborate on a venture that would make the best use of all their skills. Desai had expertise in sales and marketing, and also experience beyond the scientific market in industrial applications. By coupling this with the technology that Larin and Klimkovic had developed, Ximea was born. ‘Rather than change the structure
of Soſthard, which had strict ongoing contracts in place (and still does), we decided that the best move was to create a new company,’ says Larin, adding that those Soſthard contracts will continue to run their course until their end, at which point the company will either close or be acquired by Ximea. Ximea now comprises 26
employees across three companies: Ximea GmbH, based in Munster, Germany; Ximea Sro, based in Bratislava, Slovakia; and Ximea Corp, based in Colorado, USA.
www.imveurope.com
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