Thriving under pressure

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This article was published 09/02/2021 (1846 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

When Librestream was founded in Winnipeg in 2003 as a hardware company with technology that allowed workers to collaborate remotely, its targeted customers were some of the largest, most demanding companies.

Global manufacturing and energy companies that require their field staff to be in touch with the engineering desk at headquarters, such as oil and gas companies or manufacturing firms with far-flung field operations, can also be the most impenetrable and conservative from a new supplier’s perspective.

Fast-forward almost 20 years and some of those companies are not only Librestream’s customers, they are now investors as well.

This week, Librestream welcomed Honeywell and Evergy Ventures as investors, both of whom will also get observer status on the board.

Those two new investors, along with Canadian Business Growth Fund, BDC and Export Development Canada, have made follow-on investments (of an undisclosed amount) on the heels of a $24-million funding round that was announced in June.

“One thing that became apparent when we closed the round (in June) was that there was tremendous interest in the company and the market and the results we were delivering,” said John Bishop, CEO of Librestream.

The iPhone and ubiquitous connected camera led the Winnipeg company to concentrate less on hardware, and it has evolved into an augmented-reality (AR) software company that can integrate into the digital transformation that many industrial companies are undergoing.

While the company kept achieving more customer breakthroughs with those large global customers Bishop sought strategic partners to have a seat at the table.

“It was not just to get more visibility into what Librestream is doing today,” he said. “But to get a broader view and closer connections to companies that are strategic to us.”

Evergy Ventures is the venture capital arm of the Midwest energy company and Honeywell has been a longtime customer and reseller of Librestream.

“It is very cool when you say we want to bring in a couple of strategic investors and look back six months later and realize we did exactly what we had hoped to do,” he said. “We could not be more proud of the two new investors.”

The pandemic has caused a 700 per cent increase in usage of Librestream’s Onsight augmented reality platform. And while there may be a little levelling out, Bishop believes the new normal represents a dramatic growth for the company.

Last year the private company (which does not release financial results publicly) achieved “healthy” double-digit growth in revenue, bookings and employment. And Bishop said the budgets for this year are looking at the same pace of growth.

“We still have a lot of execution to do,” he said. “It’s not smooth sailing. We like the attention and pressure being placed on us as a business right now.”

The pandemic has shown the kind of vulnerability all companies can face, for instance, if they cannot get people to mission-critical locations.

“We see COVID as a catalyst, not something that trails away,” Bishop said. “The waters have receded a little but the new norm is still five to 10 times where we were coming into last year. What it has done is make this amplification go so much higher.”

The latest round of investment was to fund accelerated growth both geographically — it just made its first hires in the Asia Pacific region — and to further develop its technology that is now digitally integrating Internet of Things technology into its collaboration tools.

As well, Bishop said while companies such as Honeywell deploy digital transformation strategies Librestream’s technology is becoming more prominent with executives of those companies whose operational units have supported Librestream.

In announcing its follow-on investment, Canadian Business Growth Fund acknowledged that Librestream has “gained executive-level awareness across enterprises.”

Dennis Odell, vice-president of Evergy Ventures, said, “The energy sector is undergoing profound transformations enabled by new emerging technologies. We invest in companies that make this transformation more accessible, efficient, and valuable for our utility and customers. Our strongest partnerships come from growth equity investments in revenue-generating businesses that are primed for expansion, and Librestream squarely hits those marks.” 

martin.cash@freepress.mb.ca