ST. GEORGE — When Zonos CEO Clint Reid got the news that his company had received $69 million in investment funds, led by Boston-based Silversmith Capital Partners, he celebrated by heading to Culvers for a chocolate Heath milkshake.
To understand what that means, you’d have to know that Reid doesn’t eat sugar. But the investment, which some tech companies get within their first six months, was 10 years in the making.
“It felt like validation,” Reid told St George News. “We always knew that we were great, but that investment means that other companies are beginning to recognize that, too.”
The investment, one of the largest of its kind in Utah, is a sign of good things to come for the company and the greater St. George Community, Reid said.
“Our company is a world leader in cross-border technology,” he said. “This investment will help us continue to meet the challenges of international trade.”
Namely, Reid said, the investment will go toward developing software that will enable what he called “no-surprise transactions.”
“When clients buy goods from another country,” he said, “they are often surprised by the taxes and tariffs that must be collected upon delivery. What we’re trying to do with our services is get those extra charges out of the way on the front end of the transaction, rather than after the fact. We want to create trust and transparency in global trade.”
To do that, Zonos Chief of Staff Joshua Aikens said that the company will be looking to add 100 jobs over the next year.
“We’re mostly looking to hire engineers,” Aiken told St. George News. “These are high-paying jobs, that will flow back into the St. George economy.”
To house these anticipated new hires, Zonos is renovating the former Fed-Ex warehouse just a few hundred feet down the road. They’re also waiting to break ground on a new 55,000 square-foot home, which will be situated next to Vasion headquarters on Tech Ridge, where Zonos is currently housed.
“I’m incredibly grateful to Vasion CEO Ryan Wedig,” Reid said. “I remember when he first showed me the building we’re in now, through an Oculus headset. I asked him if he had some extra space we could use, and he agreed.”
Since then, Zonos has grown its staff to three times what it was a year ago. Reid said that when he founded the company in 2009, he didn’t necessarily plan to build a large company, per se. But some five months ago, Zonos began fielding offers from eight firms that were interested in investing in the company’s future.
Silversmith Capital Partners, a growth equity firm, whose mission is to support the best entrepreneurs in growing, profitable technology and healthcare companies, eventually won out.
“We founded Silversmith to partner with entrepreneurs like Clint, who have lived their customers’ problems and are driven to solve them,” said Todd MacLean, managing partner at Silversmith Capital Partners, in a press release. “That Zonos was able to bootstrap their way to this leadership position speaks to that understanding. It also speaks to the fact their solution helps customers capitalize on the inherent demand that exists in an increasingly borderless world.”
Part of a Series A round of investment, which received participation from individual investors including: Eric Rea, co-founder and CEO of Podium; Aaron Skonnard, co-founder and CEO of Pluralsight; Austen Allred, co-founder and CEO of Lambda School; Josh James, founder and CEO of Domo; and David Elkington, founder of InsideSales.
Reid said that he’s trying to continue to harness the scrappy energy that helped him and his team build Zonos into the global powerhouse that it has become.
“The first goal was to build a great company,” he said. “When you build a great company, it will grow. This funding affirms that. This is the next step in building a great company with great products and great people.”
Copyright St. George News, SaintGeorgeUtah.com LLC, 2021, all rights reserved.