Four Israeli companies feature on the Red Herring Top 100 North America 2011 list. They are text mining solutions developer Digital Trowel, automated fiber optic management solution developer Fiberzone Networks, disk-based data protection solutions developer Sepaton, and video conferencing solutions developer Vidyo.

The blue-and-white start-ups are all headquartered in the US and have development centers in Israel. All the companies were founded by Israelis.

In announcing its list, Red Herring said that the group of 100 firms includes the most innovative companies in North America. The Top 100 are evaluated on both quantitative and qualitative criteria, such as financial performance, technology innovation, quality of management, execution of strategy, and integration into their respective industries.

“Being among the 2011 Red Herring Top 100 North America tech startups is an honor and another acknowledgment of how the Vidyo communications and collaboration platform is changing the rules set by incumbent vendors to deliver superior value to customers and create new markets,” said Ashish Gupta, Vidyo CMO and SVP of Corporate Development.

Similarly, Digital Trowel was honored by its inclusion on the list.

“Being selected as a Red Herring 100 for 2011 represents a significant accomplishment and milestone for Digital Trowel and our Israel-based R&D and text mining team,” said Doron Cohen, Digital Trowel’s CEO. “We recognize the elite group this puts Digital Trowel in company with, and we are both honored and humbled to have been selected.”

Red Herring editors are known for spotting emerging technologies. They were among the first to recognize that companies such as Facebook, Twitter, Google, Yahoo, Skype, Salesforce.com, YouTube, and eBay would change the way we live and work.

“Choosing the companies with the strongest potential was by no means a small feat,” said Alex Vieux, publisher and CEO of Red Herring. “The competition was very strong.”