At a press conference in their newly renovated office this morning, Simon Ferragne the CEO of TrackTik, and Julie Lacasse, the company’s VP of Operations, announced that TrackTik has received a $7 million investment to fund their international expansion in 2018.

The round was led by La Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec (CDPQ) and iNovia Capital, a longtime shareholder.

Launched in 2013 as a mobile guard application, TrackTik introduced their full enterprise back suite to the market in 2016. The software is an all-in-one solution for the security industry on a single integrated platform, including real-time guard management and incident reporting, back office financial and administrative functions, and business intelligence.

The company has since grown to 65 full time employees and over 200,000 users in 205,000 facilities in 32 countries.

“From day one I realized there was a big gap in the industry. There was a need for a revolution with the technology. As of today we have a mature product, proven business model, a growing customer base, and we’re ready for the next steps,” Ferragne told MTLinTECH.

The company will use the funds in part to accelerate their planned expansion to Europe and South America in 2018.

“Our first order of business will be expanding to Europe. We’ll be opening an office there in the first quarter of 2018. And then we’ll follow by opening a new office in South America in the last quarter of 2018.”

According to Ferragne, the market in Europe is around $34 billion, and many of the big players there still use pen and paper to manage operations. Tracktik’s goal is to be aggressive on the market and take around 50% of the market shares in the UK, France, Germany, Spain, and Portugal.

“In Europe, 85% of the security market is owned by a handful of players, and we’re already in talks with many of them to accelerate our growth of market shares once we expand there.”

The company also plans to include new technologies like AI and new mobile technologies to provide as much value as possible for their customers.

The money will also be used to expand the team, with 70 planned hires in Montreal in the next 12 months, more than doubling their current team.

“We’re looking to attract more local talent, one of the big challenges. We’re looking for fun go-getter people. We’re opening positions in sales, R&D, support, customer service, pretty much for every position. We’re looking for people who can push boundaries, think outside the box, and aren’t afraid to challenge the status quo.”

The final part of their growth strategy moving forward will be looking for acquisitions in the next year or two. This will allow them to expand their product, but also accelerate market penetration.

“I’d like to thank our staff, our dear clients that give us all of the insight on what to build, our partners like La Caisse and iNovia. It’s been an incredible journey, a lot of work.”