Editor’s note: This is a cross post from Mark Evans Tech written by Mark Evans of ME Consulting. Follow him on Twitter @markevans or MarkEvansTech.com. This post was originally published in January 3, 2012 on MarkEvansTech.com.

 Some rights reserved by Eric Brian Ouano

The flurry of high-tech deals last year saw a bunch of promising startups snapped up – Zite, Rypple, PostRank, PushLife, Tungle and Five Mobile to name a few.

The encouraging part of the Canadian landscape is the growing number of high-quality startups being created and, thankfully, funded. It means that rather than having M&A activity “hollow” things out, there are more startups ready to step into the spotlight.

So, who are the Canadian startups that warrant our attention in 2012?

Who’s going to grow in a major way, attract a significant number of users and customers, launch exciting initiatives, or be acquired. Granted, it’s a subjective list but it is an interesting way to speculate on companies that will capture the spotlight this year. If you leave a comment, I’ll update the list.

To get the ball rolling, here are some of my choices for the “Hot Startup” list:

• ScribbleLive, the world’s leading real-time content creation and publishing company whose clients include Reuters, AP and FA.
• WineAlign, which cracked the 100,000 unique visitor mark for the first time in December
• 500px, one of the leading places to display and share beautiful photography
• Pressly, whose technology is helping publishers create mobile Web sites that embrace the “swipe and read” functionality of apps
• QuickMobile, one of the leading event and conference mobile application developers
• Atomic Reach, which makes it easier for brand to discover, publish and market content
• Wave Accounting, which recently raised $5-million to drive growth of its free online accounting service
• Keek, which offers a video-based social network
• Fixmo, a mobile security company that recently raised $23-million
• TribeHR, which develops human resources service for small and medium businesses
• GoInstant, which is creating technology that lets people co-browse a Web site at the same time.

Note: ScribbleLive and Atomic Reach are digital marketing clients of my company, ME Consulting.
Editor’s note: This is a cross post from Mark Evans Tech written by Mark Evans of ME Consulting. Follow him on Twitter @markevans or MarkEvansTech.com. This post was originally published in January 3, 2012 on MarkEvansTech.com.