IronSight, a software company located on 104 Street near Whyte Avenue that streamlines logistics for heavy hitters in the on-shore oil and gas industry, has been acquired by the Norwegian company Kabal.
The April 29 acquisition will open up bigger international opportunities, Shawn Martens, the president and co-founder of IronSight told Taproot.
“IronSight can become a global company overnight,” Martens said. “That’s our number one focus right now.”
Martens and Adam Jessome founded IronSight in 2017 after both worked in the oilfields. The company today has more than 40 employees, funding from Calgary’s ARC Financial among other investors, and more than 60 implementations of its software in North America. That number and its geographical scope will grow with the Kabal acquisition, Martens said. Kabal was founded in 2011, and its logistics software is tailored to the offshore oil and gas industry.
Kabal’s work and culture is similar to IronSight’s but larger, Martens said, adding that its client base is effectively a new list of leads for IronSight, and that the new parent company has resources to share. “We can leverage each other for best practices, scalability, and integration,” he said. “Our engineering team (has gone from) 25 at IronSight to well over 50.”
Martens said IronSight’s clients include six of the top 10 global oil companies (its first was Imperial Oil). He said IronSight has experienced “significant” software-as-a-service growth in the last three years. That growth resonated with Insight Partners, a Kabal backer that has invested more than $90 billion in software since 1995, he said.
Martens did not disclose the value of the acquisition due to confidentiality. IronSight has also received private equity funding and angel investment in the past. Martens did not share those numbers.
He said IronSight stands out from other companies in the field because the co-founders have experience on the ground and because its software, which has more than 75 workflows, makes life easier for clients.
“The amount of documentation that needs to happen for one single job in oil and gas is incredible. We kind of removed all the top administration and barriers, and everything just happens on the platform now,” Martens said. “IronSight often gets called the Uber Eats of the oilfield.”
