Claude Galipeault of Digitus Biometrics Video Interview with Claude Galipeault, Peter Sandberg, and Gunnar Lindqvist: QuickTime   Windows Media

A Savannah-based company that provides access control technology using a patented biometric system landed an agreement with a distributor and a significant order from a capital consultant during a recent trip to Sweden. 

Digitus Biometrics Inc.’s chief application developer Claude Galipeault traveled with the Swedish-American Chamber of Commerce Atlanta to the annual Entrepreneurial Days conference in the city of Växjö before heading north to Stockholm.

Upon arrival in the capital city, Mr. Galipeault participated in meetings arranged by Chris Miller of the Creative Coast Initiative and Johan Gustafson of Infosphere Inc., who have been facilitating an entrepreneurial pipeline between Savannah and Sweden.

Enduring what has been described as a seemingly incessant line of meetings paid off for Digitus and Mr. Galipeault, who said he accomplished his goals for the trip.

“We were able to get with a product installer/distributor, which was one of my goals to get done in this time, to actually dictate distribution,” Mr. Galipeault told GlobalAtlanta in a video interview in Stockholm.

Peter Sandberg, the potential distributor, works for Trygghets-Produkter about 40 miles north of Stockholm and has been in the security industry for 25 years. He said he was impressed by the Digitus product, which pairs biometric (such as, fingerprint) identification technology with coding systems designed to eliminate the risk of hacking. 

“I think it’s very high quality and very high security…so it’s a very interesting product,” said Mr. Sanburg, who bought one of the Digitus units in order to familiarize himself with it before he is to exhibit it at an upcoming security trade show in September.

Digitus also achieved what Mr. Galipeault called a “concrete,” albeit unwritten, agreement with a venture capitalist who has chosen to buy a number of systems for his own personal use.

These latest developments for Digitus augment the company’s other recent successes in Sweden, including becoming the first company to have its systems installed in a Swedish incubator in Växjö.

Gunnar Lindqvist, who calls himself the “oldest, most experienced Swede in Savannah,” has lived and worked in Savannah for 27 years. He said he has collaborated with Mr. Galipeault on various projects and saw potential for this one to succeed in Sweden.

“He told me about the latest project he was involved in, and I saw the opportunity for export to Sweden of the Digitus products,” Mr. Lindqvist told GlobalAtlanta. 

Eventually, Mr. Galipeault and Digitus hope to use Sweden as a portal into the rest of the European Union and beyond.

The company is the product of seven years of transatlantic development and brainstorming between Mr. Galipeault and Chris Marsden, the company’s founder and chief technology officer.

Mr. Marsden hails from England, but had been spending increasing amounts of time in Savannah as Digitus developed, so he recently moved his family there.

- Wade Caldwell provided reporting for this story from Sweden.