After winning the Rhode Island Business Plan Competition in 2002 and receiving some early financing from the Slater Technology Fund, the six-year-old business has turned into a profitable company with customers worldwide.

“In the last year we more than doubled our product sales,” said [Cheryl] Zimmerman, CEO and chairman of the board for FarSounder. “We’re really exploding.”...

...FarSounder is in expansion mode. The company hired a vice president of sales and marketing last year and is looking to hire at least one more employee this year. The company employs 10 people, half of which relocated from out of state.

FarSounder also is looking for a second facility, so that it can move testing of the technology and assembled parts in-house. The company already manufactures all sonar systems in-house, using parts made by vendors in Rhode Island and Southern New England.