Remote monitoring startup Vosker has received a $60 million CAD investment from entrepreneur Stéphan Crétier, along with “certain affiliates,” to support Vosker’s global expansion.
The funds will go toward improving Vosker’s technology, hiring staff, and pursuing acquisitions.
Crétier is the founder of GardaWorld, a private security firm headquartered in Montréal. GardaWorld claims to operate in more than 425 locations in 35 countries worldwide.
The funds will go toward improving Vosker’s technology, hiring staff, and pursuing acquisitions. The company has developed remote monitoring cameras that use artificial intelligence and internet of things technologies to survey areas and provide customers with imagery and data.
Vosker is not disclosing the other investors who participated in what the startup characterized as a Series A round. The round closed in the beginning of December 2021.
Danny Angers, a Vosker co-founder (along with Jimmy Angers and Yan Gagnon) and chief growth officer, told BetaKit that Vosker didn’t want to disclose the terms of the deal. He said they were currently in discussion with some people who might “do something else like a new funding round, and we don’t have to have too much noise around the valuation process of these new investors.”
Angers characterized Crétier’s investment as a minority interest, and said that the size of the stake he acquired was “lower than people would expect.”
Crétier is joining Vosker’s board. Angers said Crétier has broad experience expanding globally in the security market, and will help with mentoring Vosker.
Angers said the number of people Vokser’s plans to hire is still a matter of internal discussion. “It’s international growth,” he said. “We’re still wondering who and where we’re going to hire all these people, but we want to do it in the best way possible in order to use the money in the best way possible.”
The funds will also go toward acquisitions. Voskers said it has some targets, and is in discussions with them. “If the match is good, we’re going to do at least one,” Angers said. Voskers has identified some 500 acquisition targets and is in discussion with 20 to 25 of them, according to Angers.
The funds come just after Vosker raised $100 million in debt financing from HSBC Canada, Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec, Business Development Bank of Canada, and Export Development Canada in December. Those funds are being put toward sales and marketing, new product development, and investment in human capital.
Vosker designs and commercializes cellular-connected cameras that enable remote monitoring of areas where wi-fi and electricity are either not accessible or optimal. The startup claims that billions of media files are produced each year with its various cameras, mainly geared towards security or the outdoor markets. Those files are then delivered to its customers’ computers and mobile phones.
Additionally, the 378-person startup offers premium memberships enabling customers to enhance their monitoring activities.
In May 2021, Vosker rebranded from its former name of GTX in order to unite four siloed operations.
Over the last 17 years, GTX became the holding company for four separate brands: Spypoint, which focuses on hunting cameras; Vosker, which sells security cameras; Kraken Lab, dedicated to product development and new technologies; and Zeniox, which was created when the company saw a surge in customers and needed to increase its customer service capacity.
The initial brand, Spypoint, was founded in 2004 by Gagnon. He later created holding company GTX in 2018, alongside Jimmy Angers and Danny Angers.
Addressing the company’s latest investment, Gagnon, Vosker’s CEO, called it “a very important milestone for our company. Welcoming new shareholders like Stéphan Crétier will bring a new level of industry knowledge and experience to our strategy and fuel our growth in the security business. Our goal has always been to be at the forefront of technology, and today’s announcement will allow us to push even further.”
Image courtesy Vosker
