Georgia Tech’s Advanced Technology Development Center (ATDC) will graduate nine technology companies on May 9, bringing to 135 the number of early-stage technology firms it has helped launch and build since 1986. The new graduate companies will be recognized during ATDC’s annual Startup Showcase, which begins at 1:30 in Technology Square.

“With nine companies, this is the largest group of graduates we’ve had at ATDC since 2002,” noted Stephen Fleming, a Georgia Tech vice president and executive director of the Enterprise Innovation Institute, ATDC’s parent organization.  “This year’s graduates represent the breadth of Georgia’s technology community, from medical devices and health information technology to Internet services, media and industrial controls.”

The new ATDC graduates are:

• BLiNQ Media, which provides Facebook advertising optimization;
• Clearleap, which enables television service providers to stream Internet video over existing broadband networks;
• Iconic Therapeutics, a biopharmaceutical company developing treatments for macular degeneration;
• MedShape Solutions, a medical device company applying shape-memory materials to orthopedic treatments;
• PlayON! Sports, the nation’s leading high school sports media company;
• Sentrinsic, which is developing fluid control products for industrial applications;
• SoloHealth, which develops and deploys kiosks for free health screening and information;
• Velocity Medical Solutions, a company developing an FDA-cleared oncology information platform, and
• WorthPoint, the world’s largest source of value information on art, antiques and collectibles.

As it moved into its fourth decade during 2010, ATDC assisted more than 400 Georgia technology startups, and those companies generated capital activity – venture investment and merger/acquisition value – of more than $157 million.  Companies associated with the ATDC, including the incubator’s graduates and companies currently in the program, provided nearly 3,500 jobs during 2010 and recorded revenues of more than $1 billion.

The VentureLab process that is part of ATDC evaluated 125 Georgia Tech research innovations during 2010 and helped form 16 new companies based on them.  Two of this year’s graduates – Medshape Solutions and Sentrinsic – were assisted by the VentureLab program.

During 2010, Forbes Magazine named ATDC to its list of the “ten technology incubators that are changing the world.”  ATDC was the only incubator in the Southeast to be included on the Forbes list.