A company that began as a fourth-year design project by four students at Waterloo Engineering has gone on to become a significant player in the additive electronics industry.
Voltera was founded in 2013 after teammates Jesus Zozaya, Katarina Ilić, James Pickard and Alroy Almeida (all BASc '13, mechatronics engineering) spotted an opportunity to bring the rapid iteration of printed circuit boards to hardware development with a desktop device.
The idea won them a prestigious James Dyson Award for student inventors – a first for Canada in the international competition – and laid the foundation for a Waterloo company that has since enabled breakthroughs in wearable tech, medical devices and the aerospace industry.
Customers include top universities, Fortune 500 companies and government agencies.
“What really excites us is the customers we get to work with,” said Zozaya. “We are a small Canadian company with less than 100 people, but we consistently punch above our weight. We’re working with top customers from all over the world and that is very rewarding.”
Go to Made by Waterloo: Prototyping the future of innovation for the full story.