Glendale-based insurance startup Tech Canary Corp. is raising $500,000, according to a document filed with the SEC on Monday.
The funds will be used to support cash flow as the company quickly grows. It currently has 16 employees, with plans to hire about 30 more this year, said Reid Holzworth, founder and chief executive officer of the firm.
“We’re a growing company, obviously, and really it’s to bring on a few more employees,” Holzworth said. “We’re releasing and building a new product, so we wanted to have a little bit of dry powder to push through to the next level.”
Holzworth, who previously owned an insurance agency, founded Tech Canary in 2013. Unhappy with existing insurance agency management and business automation tools, Holzworth built his own for the agency. After a couple years of using it on the Salesforce.com platform, the company approached him about releasing the product to the wider marketplace.
The Tech Canary product helps insurance agents to improve sales and productivity, providing tools for tracking commissions, automatically downloading carrier policies and managing documents, among other capabilities. With applicability to property, casualty, life, health and employee benefits insurance lines, the solution is now used by more than 200 clients.
The equity fund is accepting a minimum of $25,000 from any outside investor. So far, $200,000 has been raised from one investor. The company previously raised a $300,000 fund last year.
Tech Canary has been growing rapidly, quadrupling its annual revenue to an expected $2 million for 2016. The company plans to soon release a new product, as well, though it can’t reveal the specifics yet, Holzworth said.
“We’re growing very fast and furious right now. Sales are really good,” Holzworth said.
The company moved from a 700-square-foot space at Bayshore Town Center to a 7,000-square-foot space a couple of months ago to accommodate the growth.
“It’s a little bit challenging because of what we do and how we do it, finding real hardcore software developers within the Milwaukee area,” he said. “Especially ones with Salesforce experience.”
