Fredericton-based Envenio has secured investment $1.3 million in venture capital from Celtic House Venture Partners, Green Century Investments and New Brunswick Investment Foundation.
The computational fluid dynamics, or CFD, software developer said in a statement the funding will be used to grow and strengthen the sales and engineering teams. This growth is in keeping with its plans to increase the use of its cloud-hosted, on-demand CFD platform, EXN/Aero.
“We share Envenio’s belief that the billion dollar global CFD industry is positioned for disruption from new cloud-based and GPU-based approaches that offer unparalleled performance coupled with new service delivery models derived from consumer internet technology,” said Tomas Valis of Celtic House Venture Partners in a statement.
Having launched the SaaS version of its product in October, Envenio said in January it was looking for $500,000 in equity funding.
Solace Lands $2.8M for Lab Expansion
Growing out of intellectual property developed at the University of New Brunswick, Envenio’s software lets engineers analyze and solve problems involving the flow of liquids and gases. The company’s algorithms allow basic computers to simulate the flow of these substances. Like a virtual wind tunnel, it can chart the interactions of liquids and gases in specific conditions and with certain solid shapes.
Envenio began six years ago with three mechanical engineering grads building a business out of IP they licensed from UNB. Initially, it was a service company, helping companies and organizations like the Canadian military with their CFD projects. Then in October, it launched products that clients could buy to conduct their own CFD studies at a fraction of the price of competing products.
As of January, the company had clients in Canada, the U.S. and Europe and had just secured two military clients – one naval and one weapons-based.
The company said that each of the three investors brings decades of industry experience and credibility.
With offices in Toronto and Ottawa, Celtic House Venture Partners has more than $4.5 billion worth of exits and is regarded as one of the most active Canadian investors in technology and innovation. Toronto-based Green Century Investments brings extensive experience from a number of sectors, and its reach extends to many countries including China.
NBIF adds this investment to its $70 million portfolio, alongside $380 million leveraged from other sources. The Fredericton innovation agency previously invested $300,000 in Envenio.
“Since the company was founded, we have funded most of the product development through engineering consulting,” said Envenio Vice-President Scott Walton. “Now that the product is on the market, we are looking to accelerate its adoption. . . . It is our honor to be funded by some of Canada’s leading technology investment firms who have a long history of success in Software-as-a-Service products.”