A Richmond-based company that makes high-definition surveillance equipment has raised $25 million in an initial public offering.
Aivigilon Corp. filed its preliminary prospectus in September and on Tuesday began listing on the Toronto Stock Exchange under the symbol AVO. Avigilon issued 5,554,446 common shares, offered at $4.50 per share.
“We were looking to raise $20 million for the company and we achieved everything,” Avigilon CEO and co-founder Alexander Fernandes told Business in Vancouver.
Fernandes said the capital will be used to fund accelerated growth. That growth has been fairly spectacular.
Founded in 2004, the company spent three years in product development. The company had sales of $5 million in 2008 and $17 million in 2009 and has been profitable ever since then. Sales hit $32 million in 2010 and $26 million in the first half of this year.
“The thing that distinguishes us even more than the growth is that we’re also profitable, and we have been for two and a half years now,” Fernandes said.
Deloitte named Avigilon the third fastest growing technology company in Canada this year – up from fifth place last year – and fourth out of 500 technology companies North America-wide. The British Columbia Technical Industry Association also named Avigilon as the emerging company of the year in 2010.
The company now employs 150 people. Fernandes said those numbers will grow.
Avigilon makes high definition surveillance cameras and a software platform for managing HD video networks.
The platform captures, transmits, manages, stores, archives, plays back and exports high-definition video while handling bandwidth and storage. Fernandes said there is a growing demand for high-quality surveillance equipment in government institutions, prisons, data centres, airports and public utilities, like dams and nuclear power plants.
Nelson Bennett
@nbennett_biv