Stéphan Crétier invests $60 million in a Victoriaville company

The entrepreneur Stéphan Crétier, big boss of GardaWorld, injects 60 million in a Victoriaville company and thus becomes a shareholder of Vosker, a fast-growing remote surveillance platform.

Richard Dufour
The Press

This investment gives Stéphan Crétier a seat on the board of directors, allowing him to play a role in the future progress of the company.

The three young founders of Vosker – Yan Gagnon, 40, and twin brothers Danny and Jimmy Angers, aged 30 – have so far held 100% of the shares.

It was not possible to know the valuation that this investment gives to Vosker and the management is content to say that Stéphan Crétier obtains a minority stake.

“He brings us a new wealth of knowledge and experience in the security industry. It will help us to go all over the world by accelerating our growth. He will guide us, advise us, and connect us to the right people,” says Danny Angers, co-founder, executive vice-president and chief growth officer.

Danny Angers recounts that the leaders of Vosker were able to meet Stéphan Crétier for the first time last March after discussions with various people led “one thing to another” to an appointment.

Stéphan Crétier was not available for an interview. His colleague Isabelle Panelli, from the management office at GardaWorld, however told The Press that Stéphan Crétier was “very happy to invest in Vosker, which is booming and managed by a dynamic and motivated team”.

The turnover of Vosker, which was created in 2018, should reach more than 150 million this year. Danny Angers indicates that the pandemic has “complicated” activities due to the scarcity of materials – electronic parts in particular – used to manufacture surveillance cameras.

Danny Angers explains that the money injected by Stephan Crétier will help Vosker secure parts in advance so that it can obtain them before the competition, which will allow it to respond more quickly to consumer demand.

Stéphan Crétier’s investment also comes at an important time due to the seasonal nature of the products. “It is between July and December that we sell the most products. We therefore have to finance this production in February and March,” says Danny Angers.

He adds that the founders had not yet had to dilute the shareholding because Vosker generates growing margins.

Between 80% and 85% of revenues currently come from the United States, 10% from the rest of the world (mainly from Europe) and 5% from Canada.

To accelerate its growth, Vosker would like to take advantage of the fragmentation of the market to make acquisitions.

“We have identified 500 companies in Canada, the United States and Europe that are potential targets that could allow us to significantly increase our recurring revenues. [abonnements mensuels à la plateforme] and we have very serious discussions with about twenty of them and a transaction could be carried out this year”, says Danny Angers.

Remote monitoring

Vosker has approximately 380 employees, all in Quebec. The company has offices in Victoriaville, Brossard and Montreal. Management does not want to reveal the number of users of its products, but there are hundreds of thousands, says Danny Angers.

Vosker cameras are used to monitor construction sites, farms, wildlife for hunters, cabins, boats at the marina, vineyards, etc.

Originally, the idea of ​​the founders was to provide surveillance cameras for places in remote areas where there is no electricity. They started by selling battery-operated cameras whose technology allowed them to detect movements and to be activated only during an event. Then, we are told, customers started asking for remote viewing, but data transfer was a problem, and that’s when the destiny of the business changed and management wanted to aspire to become a surveillance connectivity giant by developing a technology platform.

The platform notably applies filters to notifications and images to be sent to users according to their needs. The design is made in Quebec. The cameras are assembled in Asia.

Stéphan Crétier’s investment comes as Vosker announced last month that it had secured financing (debt, credit, etc.) of 100 million from HSBC, the Caisse de depot et placement du Québec, Export Development Canada and Business Development Bank of Canada.

“Our economic engine is our employees. They ensure that the dream becomes reality and that the machine advances at that speed,” says Danny Angers.