Canadian software company Lightspeed raises $61 mln

Lightspeed, a provider of software for the retail industry, said on Wednesday it had raised $61 million (C$80.7 million), in the largest funding round for a Canadian technology company so far this year.

Pension fund manager Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec led the fundraising along with Investissement Québec, the investment arm of the province. Further support came from venture capital firms Accel Partners and iNovia Capital.

The move, which brings the Montreal-based company's total funding to date to $126 million, highlights the amount of private capital available for the Canadian technology industry and an increasing interest from large asset managers in the space.

Lightspeed plans to use the capital to boost software infrastructure and expand further into new regions, particularly Europe.

Lightspeed has about 25,000 customers, which include both small and medium businesses, as well as large retail brands such as Adidas, Harmon Kardon and Toms Shoes.

Lightspeed software provides a platform to process transactions, generate receipts and manage inventory for restaurants and other retail segments such as toys, sporting goods and apparel.

"There's a lot of demand. We want to capitalize on this momentum," Chief Executive Dax Dasilva said in an interview.

About 80 percent of its customer base is in North America.

The 10-year old company doubled its revenue last year and is looking to do the same this year, Dasilva said. He declined to say how much revenue Lightspeed generated or if it is making a profit.

The startup is also looking to lay the groundwork in order to go public, if market conditions are favorable, he said.

"We're putting everything in place so that we can have the option to IPO," Dasilva said. "We think it's something that could very well be in our future, so we are preparing for that possibility over the next couple of years as well."

Other Canadian companies that have raised capital this year include Shop.ca, Kik Interactive, Shoes.com, Influitive, Payfirma and Real Matters.

(1 Canadian dollar = $0.7557)