By Euan Rocha
TORONTO, Oct 23 (Reuters) - Canadian commercial drone maker
Aeryon Labs Inc said on Friday it has secured C$60 million
($45.9 million) of financing from a U.S. venture capital firm,
putting it on a path to expand and more than double its sales
growth over the next two years.
Aeryon, which is based in BlackBerry's BBRY.O hometown of
Waterloo, Ontario, is focused on making specialized drones for
military reconnaissance and public safety uses, as well as
drones for commercial uses such as inspection of power lines or
wildlife monitoring.
"In the last four years, we have grown 100 percent
year-over-year in terms of sales and we've been profitable too,
and we now expect that to move into the 200 percent sales growth
range over the next couple of years," said Aeryon's Chief
Executive Dave Kroetsch in an interview.
Kroetsch said the cash infusion from Summit Partners, which
is Aeryon's first major round of financing, will not only help
the firm boost sales, but also more than double its headcount to
about 200 people, most of whom will be based in and around its
headquarters in Waterloo.
The cash infusion is the third largest round of financing
raised by a Canadian start-up this year, tying it with property
information provider Real Matters that raised an identical sum
in May.
The only larger start-up financings in Canada this year have
been point-of-sale technology provider Lightspeed Retail's C$80
million raised in September and Canadian mobile messaging
company Kik Interactive's C$65.3 million financing in August.
Kroetsch said the focus was to help Aeryon to grow, but the
company would be open to exploring either a public market
offering or a sale in a few years' time.
($1 = 1.3069 Canadian dollars)
(Editing by Bernadette Baum)