Aiming to build out its mobile footprint, Waterloo-based HockeyTech, maker of digital tools for hockey leagues and hockey personnel, announced Friday it had acquired Buzzer Apps, a Halifax-based maker of mobile app solutions.
“The world is mobile, and HockeyTech is eager to provide the best-of-breed services on all mobile devices,” said HockeyTech founder and CEO Stu Siegel. “The acquisition of Buzzer Apps helps us achieve that goal, both in the technology we are acquiring and the talented Buzzer team we have brought to HockeyTech.”
Siegel said that while HockeyTech already has a mobile app presence, Buzzer Apps offers what he termed “a more robust platform.
“That’s what they specialize in,” Siegel said. HockeyTech’s platforms, he explained, have leaned toward solutions for leagues, while Buzzer Apps’ products have largely focussed on fan experience and individual teams – with some of those teams operating within the leagues already serviced by HockeyTech; the synergy made a tie-up logical.
As part of the acquisition, Buzzer Apps owner and president Stewart Zimmel will join HockeyTech in the role of Vice-President of Product & Technology.
The acquisition is the sixth that HockeyTech has made since 2012, the year the company was founded. Siegel said company now has “almost 80 employees,” and that revenue is up 20 per cent this year.
“We’ve grown significantly,” he said. “Revenue has increased even faster than our employee growth as we’ve achieved economies of scale.”
HockeyTech relocated to Waterloo three years ago from Guelph.
“I like to say we hit all the points of what people in Waterloo are interested in, which is technology and hockey – the two religions of Waterloo.
“People are passionate about what they do at our company.”
