By Allan Maurer
UPDATED WINSTON SALEM – InterAct911 Corp., parent company of InterAct Public Safety Systems, will use a $28 million second round of funding to expand its next generation computer-aided 911 system both domestically and internationally.
New investors Foundation Capital and Bay Partners led the round, joined by existing investor SilkRoad Equity.
Silkroad has invested $33 million in the company over the last four years and friends and family added another $5 million to the company’s A round.
The 147-employee company is actively recruiting now and trying to fill 10-15 open positions.
CEO Ted Collins tells TechJournal South that the company, founded way back in 1974, was a family run business for 25 years.
“Then they had a growth spurt which disrupted the steady path they were on,” says Collins. A group in Chicago introduced them to Andrew J. “Flip” Filipowski, co-foudner of Silkroad equity.
Investment stablized the company
“Filipowski’s appetite for growth opportunities is huge,” says Collins, “So he jumped on it.” Over 2005-2006, a professional managment team replaced family managment, with Collins taking the CEO position in May 2007.
Silkroad’s initial investments helped stabilize the company, moving it to EBIDA positive territory this year.
Collins, who is an attorney, points out that the management team now running Interact has been together in some cases for 25 years. “I’ve done seven startups,” he says.”We’re adept at seizing market opportunities.”
InterAct’s suite of mission critical applications include a Next Generation 911 phone system; multi-agency, scalable computer aided dispatch (CAD), mapping and mobile data sharing systems; as well as digital video surveillance and emergency notification systems.
Emerging markets offer a greenfield
Interact already owns 10 percent of the market with about 800 clients, making it the largest player. “That tells you there are a lot of competitors out there,” says Collins. Many of them are smaller, mom and pop type companies. “In this kind of environment, many of them are ripe for acquisition.”
In the U.S., the company has to take business away from a competitor to grow, but it sees greenfield opportunites in emerging markets such as India, Pakistan, North Africa and the Middle East.
“Ironically, they’ll end up with better systems than much of the U.S. because they don’t have legacy systems to deal with,” Collins says.
Warren Weiss, general partner at Foundation Capital who also joins InterAct’s board of directors said, “InterAct is uniquely qualified to serve the needs of the evolving market trends.”
On the Web: www.interact911.com
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