Montréal startup Connect&Go announced that it has closed its Series A financing with an additional $6.2 million investment round.

This recent financing comprises $5 million (all numbers CAD) from Financière Outremont as well as two existing investors, Carey and Gestal. The new round also includes $1.2 million in debt from new investor Finalta Capital.

Connect&Go’s Series A capital was raised across three separate closes that span two and a half years. In 2020, the company raised a total of $7 million CAD, which includes a $4 million extension. The Series A also includes $4 million CAD that Connect&Go said it secured last year.

With this latest financing, Connect&Go said its Series A sits at $17.2 million. Connect&Go told BetaKit that it also closed a $5 million round in 2018, bringing its total funding to about $22 million to date.

Led by co-founders Dominic Gagnon (CEO) and Anthony Palermo, Connect&Go provides a digital operations management platform and wearable technology for the leisure, attractions, and entertainment industry. The startup’s technology features integrations with ecommerce, point-of-sale, food and beverage, as well as RFID access control and cashless payments.

Since it was formed in 2014, Connect&Go claims to have secured partnerships for 800 implementations worldwide, working with brands like The Super Bowl, Vancouver Olympics, Comic Con, and SXSW.

In August last year, Connect&Go acquired experiential technology studio Nomad Logic, as well as 3DB Solution, a digital imaging company for the amusement industry.

When asked why Connect&Go decided to raise a Series A funding across two years, Gagnon told BetaKit that “the opportunities were so strong that we decided to accelerate.”

As fundraising market conditions have tightened, internal funding rounds are becoming increasingly popular in the tech industry.

Toronto industrial AI startup Canvass Analytics also recently announced that it had topped up a cumulative $14.23 million in Series A financing that was spread across three separate rounds and spanned nearly two years.

When asked about the current market conditions that have affected many tech companies, Connect&Go’s CEO said the startup had to close its events division, citing the COVID-19 pandemic. He added that the attractions market, however, “is picking up very quickly and the opportunities are very strong.”

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This latest $6.2 million investment is meant to accelerate the development of Connect&Go’s product and deployments in Europe, where the company said it has worked with more than 10 major amusement parks. It also intends to strengthen its presence in the United States, following its appointment of Ted Molter, former chief marketing officer of the San Diego Zoo.

Having created more than 25 immediate positions in its software development, product, customer success, and data-focused teams, Connect&Go noted it aims to continue to make strategic hires in the coming months.

In partnership with fellow Montréal startup Moov AI, Connect&Go said it will invest more than $1 million in the launch of a forecasting and traffic management engine for the attractions industry.

“One of the main pain points of our customers today is related to managing staff and material resources,” said Gagnon. “Artificial intelligence presents an exciting opportunity for attractions to not only predict traffic several days in advance, but also, to influence trends through pricing strategies and dynamic offers.”

Featured image from Connect&Go’s website.

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