Just over two months into its existence, Datakinetics spinoff omNovos has acquired a West Coast firm it says will add to its product line by adding mobile payment options to its suite of retail applications.
The Ottawa firm announced Monday it has acquired Vancouver-based MiniCheckout, a mobile payment solution provider.
omNovos CEO Allan Zander, who is also at the helm of Datakinetics, said talks had begun before the omNovos spinoff in November.
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“Their technology and their strategy aligned very much with what we were looking to do and that certainly helped put together the business plan for omNovos,” he said.
Datakinetics is a data performance and optimization solution provider that deals primarily with financial clients. As its retail client base grew, it decided to spin off omNovos to deal specifically with those customers.
The acquisition brings “new functionality” to omNovos’ current product while adding “significant product development expertise” to its team, the company said.
What that means, Mr. Zander said, is that the five-member MiniCheckout team will add expertise in mobile technology to the team.
“Mobile is obviously a here and now technology. Phones are very ubiquitous. Everyone has a phone. We were absolutely looking for technology that kind of helps embrace mobile,” he said.
He said where MiniCheckout understands the front end of the payment process, Datakinetics has expertise in the backend.
Now omNovos has both, he said.
The company said the acquisition will allow omNovos’ solution to be integrated into a number of point-of-sale systems, allowing more functionality in “marketing automation and real-time predictive modeling.”
Mr. Zander said the MiniCheckout staff joining omNovos will remain in Vancouver and his company will work to strengthen that team. There will be additional expansion in Ottawa as well, as the firm looks to its sales, marketing, and development teams.
Mr. Zander said as omNovos moves through its first year in business, it will be looking for more financing and may try to add a few other small companies to its team.
“There’s a bunch of really neat companies in retail technology, even right here in Ottawa as well as Vancouver that would probably fit within the omNovos envelope very, very well,” he said.
Failing that, he said the company would look to a channel expansion strategy.
“I’m hoping we’ll do both, actually,” Mr. Zander said.
