Sentinel Alert, a Newfoundland-based software company that won Communitech’s Women Entrepreneurs Bootcamp pitch competition last October, has closed a seed financing round of $525,000.
Participating in the investment are Pelorus Venture Capital, which manages of Venture Newfoundland and Labrador; equity investment firm Killick Capital; and a private angel investor.
Sentinel Alert, based in St. John’s, uses sensor-based software to keep industrial sites safe for workers, by creating a connected team.
“[We’re] able to grow our team and bring in the talent we need to keep building the platform faster, as well as reach out to new markets,” said Sarah Murphy, CEO, on what the round means for the current team of four.
The announcement comes less than four months after Murphy won the second Communitech Women Entrepreneurs Bootcamp pitch competition, taking home $35,000.
For Communitech’s Alayne Hynes, Talent Program Manager, the round is not surprising as Murphy was a “real standout” during the bootcamp.
“She was passionate about what she was doing, dedicated, and very coachable, so for someone like that to – in less than six months – turn around and leverage money into this round of seed funding is absolutely phenomenal,” said Hynes.
And Murphy credits the win with helping her close the round.
“The success we had at the Communitech bootcamp was the attention we needed to attract our angel investor, as well as our second investor,” Murphy said.
Murphy raised this round in spite of the current decline of the Canadian oil and gas industry, which is one of Sentinel Alert’s target markets.
“It’s not a great economy for that and I think that’s one of the fantastic parts about being a startup is that we can realize and react to that,” she said, adding that, “they are not our only target industry, and this (downturn) has caused us to really diversify and explore some other sectors.”
Photo: Sarah Murphy, CEO of Sentinel Alert, pitching at Communitech’s Women Entrepreneurs Bootcamp pitch competition, October, 2015.
