July 2026, IWT graduated from the Virginia Economic Development Partnership’s (VEDP) Virginia Leaders in Export Trade (VALET) program.
Virginia Leaders in Export Trade (VALET), is a two-year international business acceleration program that offers a combination of capital resources provided by the Commonwealth of Virginia and professional services from private-sector partners. Following a very thorough evaluation process, only 25 companies per year are accepted into the VALET program. The program is managed by the VEDP.
The Virginia Economic Development Partnership (VEDP) is the state of Virginia’s economic development authority for the Commonwealth of Virginia. Created in 1995, VEDP collaborates with local, regional, and state partners to encourage the expansion and diversification of Virginia’s economy. VEDP works to accomplish these objectives through a variety of activities, including marketing and lead generation; business retention, expansion, and attraction; trade development; business intelligence; competitive benchmarking; site development; performance-based incentives; and talent solutions. VEDP has offices in Virginia, Germany, Japan, Taiwan, and South Korea.
This is the second time IWT has participated in VALET to assist with identifying and understanding mining markets outside of the U.S., and as a result of the past two years IWT has pursued modifications and additions to the SENTINEL product portfolio, establishing and developing channel partnerships in our target markets of Türkiye and Australia, as well as pursuing additional opportunities in Canada, Mexico, and South Africa once the necessary international intrinsically safe product certifications are obtained. During the past two years, IWT has performed multiple market research studies through VEDP and participated in their 2025 Trade Mission to Australia. IWT has also made numerous independent visits to Türkiye, Australia, South Africa, Germany, Poland, and Sweden.