What happened: Checkfront Inc. raises $9.3 million in Series A round
Why it matters: The Victoria tech firm plans to ramp up hiring as a result of the new capital
When Jason Morehouse founded Checkfront Inc. in 2010, the company’s entire employee count could be done on a single hand as it developed products to help tour operators manage bookings.
A decade later, the Victoria-based tech is up to 85 workers as CEO Morehouse expects to hire dozens this year following a $9.3-million funding round announced Monday (March 9).
“There’s certainly a much bigger, wider audience out there that still doesn’t have modern technology to run their business and that’s where we come in,” he told Business in Vancouver.
Framework Venture Partners led the Series A round, which also included participation from Vancouver’s PenderFund Capital Management Ltd., Conconi Growth Partners and the Royal Bank of Canada.
Morehouse said that while there were only two to three workers any given time during the company’s first few years, business began to surge in 2013.
By then Checkfront had processed US$100 million in payments, a figure that’s since grown to $5.5 billion with 5,000 customers in 128 countries.
Customers using the online booking platform range from kayak tour operators to escape room owners, or as Morehouse puts it, anyone “providing experiences to people in destinations.”
The CEO estimates that about 300,000 operators around the world still don’t have access to modern booking technology, which is why the company is focused on ramping up operations, further developing its products and hiring 30-40 workers in 2020 to help it grow.
With the new capital, Framework founding partner Andrew Lugsdin joins Checkfront’s board of directors.
