N.S. Startup Exits For More Than $9-Million
HALIFAX — A data analytics firm founded in Halifax has sold for more than $9-million (Canadian).
On October 19, NowVerticle Group announced it had acquired Affinio for $7.3-million (U.S.), including $6-million in cash and the rest in shares.
NowVertical Group is a rapidly growing data analytics and software company based in Toronto.
Affinio was founded in 2013, based on work Tim Burke and others were doing at Dalhousie University’s Innovation In Design Lab. The company’s “graph analytics” technology is a platform that helps marketers better connect with people using rich interest and affinity data.
NowVertical CEO, Daren Trousdell, says he’s been incredibly impressed with the platform and technology Affinio has created.
“They’ve built something so cool. Their original product is a gold standard in the marketing analytics space,” he says.
Trousdell says the seeds of the Affinio deal were sewn in early spring when he met the team for the first time. He was impressed by the venture capital investment the company had secured and thought they had put together a stellar team.
They started talking purchase and the whole thing “materialized pretty fast once we aligned, like four to five weeks,” Trousdell says.
The deal is expected to go through by the beginning of November and Trousdell says NowVertical plans to keep the Affinio team intact.
“We are growing in their region so we are not having any attrition on the team. In fact, it will be the reverse: we’re going to start building in the Halifax area,” he says.
Now Vertical is a globally distributed company with a small team scattered across the US, UK, and Israel. It’s technically headquartered in Toronto, but most of its staff are in the US.
Trousdell says the Affinio acquisition fits nicely into NowVerticle Group’s ambitious growth plans.
The organization is only about a year old and has already raised about $10-million (U.S.) and acquired several companies. Trousdell says there is still a “pretty long list” of other technologies they hope to add to the platform.
“Affinio will be our fifth acquisition. We will definitely have done more than 10 by this time next year,” he says.
Affinio’s Tim Burke declined to be interviewed for this story.
Trevor Nichols is a Huddle reporter in Halifax. Send him your feedback and story ideas: [email protected].
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