Critical Materials heads for the Aerospace and Defence advanced materials markets

Critical Software’s Spin-in provides technology and products for monitoring and diagnosis of critical applications of intelligent materials

Guimarães, Portugal, 27th March, 2008 – Critical Materials (CMT) is a start-up company, headquartered in Guimarães, Portugal. It comes out of the entrepreneurial vision of two PhDs from the University of Minho and is backed by Critical Software, a player already on the safety critical systems market. Critical Materials supplies technology for OEMS and delivers products for monitoring and diagnosis of critical applications of advanced materials for the Aerospace and Defence industries. The company’s product portfolio is crafted to extend aircrafts’ lifecycles, maximizing flight-time without jeopardizing safety and reducing maintenance costs.

Critical Materials' vision endorses self-healing bio-inspired materials that will revolutionize the design and maintenance of long-lasting equipment. The company positions itself as an enabling technology provider for the “nervous system and bio-brain” of critical applications of advanced materials.

In the short term, Critical Materials has identified a market opportunity in supplying technology that reduces aircraft maintenance and inspections’ costs through effective components weariness’ monitoring. “Critical Materials was created on top of an innovative technology capable of linking the triplet software-hardware-materials, hence meeting specific markets’ needs where the reliability of the systems is critical" says Gustavo Dias, Critical Materials’ CEO, carrying on by saying “there is a medium/long term opportunity in self-sensing and self-healing materials and associated products that reduce and avoid maintenance downtime. On the next couple of months we will be developing the proof of concept for our key product: the Virtual Structural Analysis System – a system for monitoring and evaluation of critical structural sub-systems based on the virtualization of the relevant physical behaviour of the specific component.".

Critical Material’s capital structure is split between Gustavo Dias (CEO) and Julio Viana (CTO) and Critical Software. The latter plays the role of a business angel as well as contributing with software engineering know-how for the Critical Materials’ Research and Development programme. “We share Gustavo and Julio’s vision and are thrilled with the perspective of associating Critical’s brand to a new capability” adds Gonçalo Quadros, Critical Software’s CEO.

The company is headquarted in Guimarães, Portugal, and is now in the process of hiring the R&D team that is expected to grow to 8 people by the end of 2008. The company expects to break-even in three years.

About Critical Software [www.criticalsoftware.com]

Critical Software is an international company that provides solutions, services and technologies for mission and business critical information systems. The company was founded in 1998, is headquartered in Coimbra, and has offices in Lisbon and Oporto (Portugal) and subsidiaries in San Jose (US), Southampton (UK) and Bucharest (Romania). Critical Software supports customers across several markets including Aerospace, Defence & Homeland Security, Manufacturing, Telecom & Media, Government, Finance & Insurance and Energy & Utilities. Customers include Vodafone, Deutsch Telekom, Infineon, AgustaWestland, NASA, EADS, Northrop Grumman, ESA among many others renowned companies in Europe and the US. The company operates a quality system certified to CMMI® Level3, ISO 9001:2000 Tick-IT, ISO 15504, AQAP 2120 and EN9100. For the 4th year, Critical Software has been listed as one of the Top 500 Hot Growing companies in Europe.