Industry - ViewTrak changes hands, Burlet Leaves

An investor group led by Dragon's Den panelist W. Brett Wilson announced yesterday it has control of Viewtrak Technologies, a livestock software company founded in Edmonton during 1999.  Viewtrak was one of several companies spawned by the livestock industry during the period. Jake Burlet leaves Viewtrak after investing more than a decade of his career to integrate technology into beef production.  

Those familiar with the story will recall that Shawn Ovendon, one of the developers of the CAIMAS(tm) technology which now underlies the PetLynx offering, left to join Jake Burlet and the Viewtrak gang. PetLynx left a difficult large animal industry in 2003 to pursue opportunities in the companion animal industry where conditions appeared more favorable.

"It is a well known fact that companies pursuing the animal information business, have had good intentions but failed to gain a foothold in industry or failed to raise capital," said Larry Evans, President and CEO of  PetLynx Corporation.  "PetLynx has been fortunate to have survived under these conditions and to have achieved a market penetration of more than 8% of the companion animal industry in Canada."

Wilson, was previously invested (Dragon's Den) in tracking technologies through a Winnipeg firm that specialized in recovering cameras, laptops and cellphones. The Viewtrak investment may leverage this subject matter expertise. Industry observers wonder if this change in Viewtrak investor group signals renewed interest in tracking technology and the animal information sector. 

Read the Edmonton Journal article