OMERS Puts Venture Fund to Work in Security and Data Firm

(Bloomberg) -- The venture capital arm of Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement System led a C$23 million ($17 million) investment round in Ottawa-based security and data analytics firm Solink Corp.

For the C$109 billion pension manager, it’s the sixth investment via a new $750 million venture capital fund that backs early-stage technology companies in North America and Europe. Solink is the fund’s second Canadian play.

This round brings Solink’s total funding to more than C$40 million. Previous investors Valor Equity Partners, ScaleUp Ventures and BDC IT Ventures also participated in the round. Laura Lenz, partner at OMERS Ventures, will join the company’s board.

Solink integrates existing security cameras with business data such as points of sale and inventory. It uses artificial intelligence to identify trends and flag suspicious behavior proactively to clients.

The investment is timely as the coronavirus pandemic has forced many business owners to manage their operations remotely. Solink’s cloud platform saw a 70% usage increase during the first weeks of lockdown as countries tried to stem the spread of Covid-19.

“They are leveraging existing cameras, there are millions and millions of video hours that are captured, but not analyzed, out there, and there are no insights from that video capture,” Lenz said by phone. The series B funding will be used for product development, she added.

Solink has over 5,500 customer sites distributed among Canada, France, the U.S., U.K., and Middle East, and over 70,000 cameras across several verticals including restaurants, retail outlets and financial services.

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