Aiming to aggressively expand its market reach and quickly double the size of its workforce, Waterloo-based Auvik Networks, maker of network monitoring and management software, has announced it has raised CDN$15 million in a Series B financing round.
“We want to invest more in our product and expand our product offering as well as expand our geography,” said Marc Morin, Auvik co-founder and CEO.
The round is being led by Boston-based venture capital firm OpenView with participation from existing investors Celtic House Venture Partners and Rho Canada Ventures.
Auvik’s software suite is the tool that managed service providers use to keep their clients’ IT networks running smoothly. Many small to medium businesses outsource the management of their IT and Internet networks to a managed service provider.
Morin is well-known in the Waterloo Region ecosystem. He is co-founder of PixStream, the video networking pioneer which sold to Cisco Systems in 2000 for US$369 million. He is also a co-founder of well-known Waterloo broadband services provider Sandvine. Morin partnered with Alex Hoff to form Auvik in 2012, and former BlackBerry Chief Technology Officer David Yach joined as a third co-founder shortly thereafter. That same year, Auvik raised a CDN$6-million seed round.
Morin said Auvik will use its Series B funds to establish a more robust overseas footprint.
“We focus on North America, and even though we have customers in Europe, we’re going to be expanding our go-to-market in Europe and other English-speaking regions at this point," said Morin.
Plans are also in the works to sharply expand Auvik’s Waterloo office. The company currently has 52 employees and Morin said the firm hopes to double that number within 18 months.
“The company has been growing at a really accelerated rate,” said Morin. “We’ve been honing the go-to-market, trying to understand and build the sales and marketing. That’s been doing well. We’ll be accelerating that.
“We clearly feel we have a product that applies universally to the managed service providers and we want to suck the oxygen out of the room.”
Morin said the firm was initially planning its Series B round for this fall, but its investors decided to accelerate the timetable.
“Auvik brings together an all-star team with exceptional technology built to give MSPs true visibility into their network infrastructure like never before,” said Ricky Pelletier, Partner at OpenView. Pelletier will join Auvik’s board.
“We are thrilled to be part of such an innovative company led by some of Canada’s leading technologists and very much look forward to this next chapter in Auvik’s journey.”
