CPE News (7/32/2020) – Solink has raised $23 million in Series B funding led by OMERS Ventures with pariticipation of Valor Equity Partners, ScaleUp Ventures and BDC Capital.
Laura Lenz, partner at OMERS Ventures, has joined Solink’s board of directors.
Solink will use the funding to deepen its relationship with existing customers and partners as well as focus on product expansion.
The new round brings total funding to more than $40 million.
In November 2018, Solink closed a $16.3 million Series A round led by Valor Equity Partner with participation of ScaleUp Ventures, BDC Capital and Generation Ventures, a family office and Lenz’ former employer.
Founded by CEO Mike Matta in 2010, Ottawa based Solink is a leader in providing video security and business analytic solutions for businesses including restaurants, retailers and financial organizations.
photo credit: Solink
News Release
Purpose-built video security and business intelligence in one place
OTTAWA, Ontario – June 26, 2020 — Solink, a leader in video security and data analytics, has closed CAD$23 million in Series B funding, led by OMERS Ventures. This round brings Solink’s total funding to more than $40 million. Previous investors Valor Equity Partners, ScaleUp Ventures and BDC IT Ventures also participated in the round. Laura Lenz, partner at OMERS Ventures, will join Solink’s board of directors. Solink will use the investment to deepen its relationship with existing customers and partners as well as focus on product expansion.
Solink offers secure, cloud-based video security for SMBs and large enterprises to increase profits, manage risk, and improve operations. The company has over 5,500 customer sites and over 70,000 cameras across several verticals including restaurant, retail and financial services. Over the past several years, Solink has had a track record of doubling its footprint every year.
By integrating existing security cameras with critical business data such as POS, alarm, and inventory, Solink is able to personalize the use of cameras in the day-to-day application in each customer’s business. Solink currently integrates with over 100 different data sources to process over 120 million transactions per month. This allows customers to drill-down from dashboards to individual events and verify video recordings in seconds – making surveillance cameras far more actionable than ever before. The company uses artificial intelligence (AI) to identify trends and flag suspicious behaviour proactively for any organization.
checking Solink on a laptop
“Our goal when we built Solink was to offer any organization, from individual store owner to senior executives, the ability to ask any question of their business, and use data and video to get a complete answer,” said Solink Founder and CEO Mike Matta. “This next phase of our growth will allow us to integrate more data to help brick and mortar businesses innovate and scale.”
“Solink has the technology and the team to become a global success story far beyond where it is today,” said Laura Lenz, Partner at OMERS Ventures. “Mike and the team have built an impressive, high-growth, customer-focused business with exceptional product market fit, and we are really looking forward to being a part of their success story.”
The COVID-19 pandemic forced business owners to adopt new behaviours and manage their businesses remotely. Solink’s cloud platform saw a 70% increase in consumption during the first weeks of lockdown. The team continues to focus on supporting customers’ specific needs – building a video alarm service, adding new integrations for auditing social distancing, enabling remote ‘temporary access’ for people that would otherwise require on-site visits, allowed customers to backup cameras to the cloud, and introducing AI search capabilities to detect and count people and vehicles. This was done over a span of 3 months at no-added cost to customers.
About Solink
Founded in 2010, Solink is a leader in providing video security and business analytic solutions for businesses including restaurants, retailers and financial organizations. With over 5,500 customers in 15 countries, Solink acts as the hub for smart operations, security, and loss prevention strategies for global brands. Solink’s video surveillance software connects security camera footage with Point of Sale (PoS) data, creating a dashboard of analytics and searchable moments. Restaurants, retailers, and financial institutions use Solink to increase profits, reduce risk, and save time. For more information, visit www.solink.com. Find Solink on Facebook, LinkedIn or Twitter. www.solink.com
About OMERS and OMERS Ventures
Founded in 1962, OMERS is one of Canada’s largest defined benefit pension plans, with CAD$109 billion in net assets as of December 31, 2019. OMERS teams work in Toronto, London, New York, Amsterdam, Luxembourg, Singapore, Sydney and other major cities across North America and Europe – serving members and employers and originating and managing a diversified portfolio of high-quality investments in public markets, private equity, infrastructure and real estate. OMERS Ventures currently manages CAD$2 billion and has made more than 50 investments in disruptive technology companies across North America and Europe. For more information visit www.omersventures.com.