Saskatoon company secures record investment

From operating out of a Saskatoon garage in 2007 to now being a company which will generate close to $40-million this year.

The future is bright for Vendasta – a company that provides digital solutions, selling software tools used by small and medium sized businesses with most of their clients based in the United States.

The company is celebrating after securing one of the largest venture capital investments in prairie tech sector history.

Jacqueline Cook, a spokesperson for Vendasta, said this is a massive accomplishment for not only the province, but the country.

“This is a truly transformational thing not just for our company, but for our entire technology ecosystem in Western Canada,” explained Cook.

“We might not be in Silicon Valley, but we can read the same blogs, take in the same information, and we don’t have to spend three hours in the car going to where we need to be or living in a shoe box.”

The deal values Vendasta at more than $200-million and exceeds what all startups in the province raised in 2017 and 2018 combined.

What this investment from private companies also means for them is that there are big plans set for their future.

“Our goal is to be $100-million in the next few years, so what that means is probably growing our staff to about 300 right now to around 600 in the coming years.”

Cook added that the majority of their 300 employees went to school in the province. Vendasta has hired up to one-third of computer science graduates from the University of Saskatchewan.

The company, which was started by Brendan King and some friends, has sold its products to more than 16,000 companies with a combined total of around 12 million customers.

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