Goldman Sachs invests in Fluent Home's expansion effort

EDMONTON, Alberta—Armed with $40 million in growth financing from Goldman Sachs Specialty Lending Group, Fluent Home, based here, is looking to “keep and better service” its accounts and increase its U.S. business.

“We've always had a presence in the United States,” primarily in Utah, Gary Arnold, Fluent's director of marketing, told Security Systems News. But the summer-sales company has recently acquired new sales teams stateside, and it is “aggressively” recruiting more.

The $40 million credit line, acquired late this summer, will help the company “go forward into the future,” he said.

“There will be some big leaps,” Arnold said.

Fluent Home is a provider of security and home automation services. Product offerings include home automation features such as automatic door locks, connected lights and video cameras and 24/7 monitored security alarms. Monitoring is handled by Reliance Protectron, which was purchased by ADT in 2014.

Ninety percent of Fluent's business is in the residential realm, Arnold said. He declined to get into specifics about Fluent's RMR and other financial data.

The company tends to service more rural areas than its competitors do, he said. In addition to its U.S. markets, it mainly sells and services accounts in Alberta, Saskatchewan, Ontario and British Columbia.

In addition, Fluent's solar program “is taking off right now,” Arnold said. Fluent Solar, experiencing rapid growth in the United States, he said, is partnered with SunEdison and Mosaic for customers in Utah, Arizona and other states.

Fluent received the 2015 Mission 500 Corporate Social Responsibility Award for its yearly contributions, most recently working in the Philippines, where employees rebuilt and re-landscaped an elementary school that had been damaged by a hurricane and earthquake.

The company's next mission, coming up in November, will be to the Dominican Republic to do similar work, Arnold said. About 170 employees will participate this time around.

The company dedicates itself to charitable projects locally and abroad every year.