Kitchener-based Alert Labs announced a strategic investment from Intact Ventures, the strategic venture arm of Intact Financial. The company is the insurance provider’s first investment in Canada.
Alert Labs’ latest funding round also included participation from BDC Capital, Garage Capital, Hedgewood, and several angel and private investors. The company, which is not disclosing the amount of funding, plans to use the money to accelerate marketing and scale business operations.
Alert Labs’ platform includes the Flowie water sensor and Floodie companion sensor, and provides minute-by-minute water use information to protect homes from flood damage. Its analytics engine can identify leaks from the municipal water supply, like a leaky toilet or malfunctioning furnace humidifier, to share insight into water conservation opportunities. Homeowners receive email and mobile alerts for floods, leaks, high or continual water use, and power outages.
“It’s exciting to support a company like Alert Labs that is developing technology that will help protect homeowners and mitigate risk,” says Karim Hirji, senior vice president of Intact Ventures. “We appreciate the importance of providing homeowners and businesses with innovative solutions that are easy to use, cost-effective, and reliable. The value of this type of technology will continue to grow as we adapt to climate change.”
Ruth Casselman, COO and co-founder of Alert Labs, said the 18-person company plans to grow to 50 employees in the next two years. “We have two additional product launches planned for this year; our Sumpie and Saltie Sonar Sensors are currently with beta customers,” Casselman said. “We have customers across Canada now, and the support of our investors will enable us to ramp up our marketing activities to increase our market share. We are primarily targeting home owners, landlords, and property managers, with plans to expand to the US later this year.”
Alert Labs said it is hoping to help Intact decrease its expected $100 billion in water damage repairs over the next five years. The company won $100,000 from Communitech Rev’s Demo Day.
“It is inspiring to have Canada’s leading insurance company believe in our vision and goals, and we’re grateful for the financial support of our investors. This will ultimately enable us to share our products with more customers,” says George Tsintzouras, CEO of Alert Labs. “We’ve designed our sensors with our customer’s experience as the top priority. Our sensors are as easy to install as a watch or a Fitbit —everyone can do it with no tools or professional installers.”
Alert Labs also recently announced a program with the city of Guelph, Ontario. Guelph is the largest city in Canada that relies solely on groundwater for its water source, and the city is promoting Alert Labs’ Flowie Water Sensor Kit as a tool to drive water conservation, and offering a rebate to residents that purchase Alert Labs’ leak and flood protection solution.