Canadian construction-tech company Vitruvi Software has reached a deal to be acquired by Denver, Colorado-based alternative-asset manager Bow River Capital.
Calgary’s Vitruvi provides geospatial information system (GIS)-based software for construction project management that caters to the network, power, and utility sectors.
Vitruvi aims to address “structural inefficiencies built into the utility construction industry” with tech.
Vitruvi founder, president, and CEO Bryan McIver told BetaKit that the transaction gives Vitruvi the capital and resources necessary to scale its product and operations, serve more customers and larger clients, and expand its sales and marketing efforts both in Canada and abroad.
According to McIver, the binding agreement between Vitruvi and Bow River is currently in the process of closing. McIver declined to disclose the acquisition price, noting only that the transaction is a majority acquisition that will see key members of Vitruvi’s management team retain equity in the company.
As part of the transaction, Vitruvi’s team and current management will stay on and lead Vitruvi, which will continue to operate as a standalone business with guidance from Bow River.
Founded in 2016 as Fresnel Software, Vitruvi enables telecommunications and energy industry stakeholders to design, plan, and manage utility projects through a single platform, with the goal of helping them operate more efficiently, improve data visibility, and reduce costs.
Bow River Capital invests in real estate, private credit, private equity, and software growth equity. The latter Bow River arm has purchased Vitruvi. This is Bow River’s software growth equity team’s eighth majority recapitalization to date.
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Bow River targets software firms with between $3 million and $15 million in revenue that are breaking even or cash-flow-positive in terms of their earnings before income, depreciation, taxes, and amortization.
“Vitruvi Software has demonstrated exceptional platform capabilities [and] an intimate
understanding of the digitization of geospatial construction management, combined with a high growth trajectory,” Bow River managing director Steve Joanis said in a statement.
Prior to launching Vitruvi, McIver managed the end-to-end delivery of utility construction projects for 15 years.
After building and selling a mid-market construction company to a multinational firm and stepping in to manage its construction and engineering services division, McIver said he realized “that there were certain structural inefficiencies built into the utility construction industry that had not been adequately addressed by technology,” and set out to address them.
Vitruvi focuses on “bridging the gap … between engineering and construction” and connecting all aspects of construction operations—from cost to quality to schedule—to the geospatial design elements associated with those projects.
To support these efforts, to date, Vitruvi has received an undisclosed amount of funding from unnamed angel and strategic investors.
With Bow River’s help, Vitruvi hopes to accelerate this work. As it looks to do that, McIver said Vitruvi will lean on Bow River’s enterprise software operations and scaling experience.
Feature image courtesy Vitruvi Software.
