Newfoundland and Labrador-based Verafin was born in 2003, when founders Jamie King, Raymond Pretty and Brendan Brothers decided to take the technology they used to build robots for the mining industry and apply it in a new way to help fight financial crime.
Today Nasdaq bought the fraud-detection software company for USD $2.75-billion in a deal that will see the company’s head office remain in St. John’s while expanding the reach of its software to banks around the world.
The transaction is one of Canada’s largest software deals to date, and by far the largest technology deal in Atlantic Canadian history.
It is being hailed as a win for Newfoundland and Labrador at a time when the province is struggling with high unemployment and low oil prices, and as a coup for the Canadian private capital providers that backed the company.