Big data company entering US federal market through acquisition

A big data software and services company headquartered in Toronto is poised to enter the U.S. government market by agreeing to acquire Allegient Defense, a provider of systems engineering and technical assistance support to federal agencies.

NowVertical Group said Tuesday it has agreed on a total potential price of $10.4 million, a figure that includes an earnout payment of $4 million if Allegiant Defense achieves certain profitability milestones over the next three years.

Headquartered in Arlington, Virginia: Allegient Defense currently has 75 full-time employees and a contracted backlog of $66 million for the years 2022 to 2025.

Founded in 2020, NowVertical Group also operates with the branding of NOW and touts itself as a vertical intelligence software provider that organizes both its business and solutions portfolio around sectors including government.

The acquisition of Allegiant Defense represents part of NOW’s push for expansion into the U.S. public sector market and is the buyer's third such transaction announcement over the current quarter.

NOW revealed two acquisitions in October: one for data governance software platform DocAuthority and the second for Affinio, which designs its product for marketing clients.

Allegient Defense adopted the current branding in 2020 from the former identity of ADS Federal and concentrates its services around data analytics, cloud computing, artificial intelligence and autonomy, unmanned aerial vehicles, directed energy and next-generation weapons systems.

Some of its customers include the Energy and State departments, Office of Naval Research and Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency.

NOW did not disclose the timing of closing the acquisition in its announcement.