Canadian investment firm Difference Capital has acquired a 48% stake in US satellite imagery specialist Gotham Analytics for an undisclosed sum.
The stake was bought through the Difference Capital Funding Inc (DCFI) fund, which was founded in March this…
Canadian investment firm Difference Capital has acquired a 48% stake in US satellite imagery specialist Gotham Analytics for an undisclosed sum.
The stake was bought through the Difference Capital Funding Inc (DCFI) fund, which was founded in March this year to focus on technology-orientated investments.
Gotham Analytics develops solutions that leverage on satellite communications for remote monitoring applications. The group’s technology is used in markets including environmental, security, health care, manufacturing and food processing. Currently, Gotham is working with the state of New Jersey to develop an advance early warning flood system called FrontLine AQUA.
Yogi Sookhu, CEO of Gotham Analytics, said: “The partnership and investment from DCFI comes at a critical juncture for Gotham and will enable us to accelerate customer acquisition and product development efforts.”
For Difference Capital, the acquisition represents its third investment since the fund’s creation earlier this year. Its first deal was in May, when the DCFI fund announced a US$19.8m investment in online hosting platform Virgin Gaming, in the form of a convertible debenture. Later, in July, the fund acquired a 15.4% stake in Appinions, the social media marketing group, through the purchase of US$2m worth of convertible debt.
On 8 June, Difference Capital closed the second tranche of a non-brokered private placement. Together with the first tranche, a total of 100.9 million shares were issued to raise approximately US$30.2m. The company said its CEO Michael Wekerle, who co-founded the firm, acquired 14,116,668 common shares in total from both tranches, representing around 12% of Difference Capital’s outstanding shares.
Difference Capital was created in March by Wekerle with co-founders Paul Sparkes, who is president of the group, and Henry Kneis, who is COO.
As well as the technology-focused DCFI fund, Difference Capital has a Partners Fund (DCPF), which was set up in June to trade long and short positions, primarily in equity and interest-earning securities. The firm plans to launch a media-focused fund in autumn, and is expecting to launch a US real estate fund in the near future.
