Fredericton’s ‘Near Threat Analytics’ Acquired By Toronto Company
FREDERICTON — A New Brunswick company that helps businesses and organizations detect threats both at home and abroad has been acquired a Toronto-based company.
Fredericton-based Near Threat Analytics has been acquired by Novus Health, an information and technology-enabled health services provider. Their products include the Travel Navigator application for traveller tracking and alerts. Novus Health has offices located in Toronto and Montréal.
Paul Methot, CEO of Near Threat, says Novus Health was interested in acquiring the company because Near Threat’s platform would help enhance its offerings.
“We built Near Threat because we saw the need for data analytics, especially around risk and resiliency and Novus Health had the same thoughts, especially because they were in the health and travel sector and saw where it was going,” he said. “The data is important and a combination of our two platforms helped to bolster their technology and set them up for the future.”
Founded in 2016, Near Threat is a web-based service designed to provide consolidated, real-time information on the status of a broad range of threat types around the globe. The company uses artificial intelligence (A.I.) to sort through billions of points of data every day to give clients the information they need.
RELATED: N.B. Company Pioneers Technology To Help Businesses Detect Threats Near and Far
With the acquisition, Near Threat’s employees have joined the Novus Health Team and will continue to work out of Fredericton. Methot has also been named Novus Health’s chief technology officer.
“Novus has a large IT team, but they were missing some key roles that fortunately we were able to provide, so most of the team has moved over to Novus at this point,” says Methot. “They lacked skills in advanced data analytics and artificial intelligence and that was our specialty so it worked out perfectly.”
With the world dealing with a pandemic, a lot of companies in the threat-detection space are getting acquired or entering into partnerships with bigger companies. Methot says the coronavirus pandemic is showing the need for platforms like the one Near Threat has created.
“Right now there’s a definite shift in where people are spending their money and they’re definitely more focused on data-based risk platforms than ever before,” he says. “It makes sense that the technology integrates with those types of platforms like Near Threat to better provide better-enhanced services for this new landscape.”