When the three founders of G2 Research began to look for funding this past summer, they had no idea it would lead to a $4.6 million sale of the company by late November.

Yet Salt Lake City-based Track Group announced today that it paid that amount last week to buy the five-year-old Dartmouth company and gain access to its geo-location software used by law enforcement agencies.

G2 will now lead development for the Track Group, and G2 CEO Tom Gilgan has been named the company’s CTO. One of his first jobs will be to find a larger office because he will have to add several more members to the 10-member team in Dartmouth.

See also: Details of the Track-G2 Deal

The acquisition will enable Track to deliver sophisticated analysis and detailed interpretation of data to improve performance to its customer base, which includes national security, law enforcement, corrections, and health research. It will also help the company to enter related markets more easily.

Track Group, a profitable company that had US$2.6 million in revenue last year, provides customizable tracking solutions to customers around the world. Its shares trade over the counter in the U.S., meaning there is a market for its stock though it is not listed on any stock exchange.

Gilgan said that he and co-founders Ron Stewart and Bruce Annand realized last summer they needed more capital to grow the company, so they decided to look for their first round of funding with a target of about $1.5 million. Working with Jim Lutes, Partner at the financial services consultancy EY, they began to get offers for the whole company and they realized a sale would be the best way to ensure growth.

“This is an opportunity for us to ensure the growth of our technology, our company and our employees, and we’re going to take it,” said Gilgan in an interview.

He was initially surprised that the search for capital produced one inquiry about a sale, and then another. While he was having dinner with one suitor in Denver, he received a call from a California company expressing interest in a purchase.

What the larger companies wanted to buy was G2 Research’s software that can help law enforcement agencies track suspects, convicts and parolees. By analyzing data from the Global Positioning System, a space-based satellite location system, G2 can tell suspects’ daily routines, notice when they stray from that routine, tell who they are meeting with and do predictive analytics on what they may be planning.

“Today, our customers are faced with substantial challenges as it relates to extracting meaningful information from the mass of data accumulated,” Track Group Chairman Guy Dubois said in a statement. “With G2 Research onboard, Track Group will address these challenges holistically by offering advanced capabilities in managing big data to improve decision-making and efficiency.”

G2 Research began by tracking vehicles and more recently added the ability to track high-risk offenders who are wearing ankle bracelets. Gilgan said potential users of the product tend to purchase from existing large companies, so the bracelet technology has not produced a lot of revenue yet.

What the new product has done is convince larger competitors that the G2 Research technology is something they have to have in the next few years, and that led to offers to buy the company.

G2 Research has never taken on outside investment, so the three founders, until this purchase, owned 100 percent of the company. Having grown the company through revenues, Gilgan now said the tight ownership structure (and the fact there were no institutions demanding a return of 10 times) helped G2 make speedy decisions through the exit process.  Gilgan emphasized repeatedly in an interview the company had received great support from J. Curry at the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency’s Halifax office.

The company never reveals its clients, but Gilgan did say it was profitable in 2013. This year there was a late delivery to one installation, which ate into profits so far this year. He said the company is expecting a really strong fourth quarter.

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