Bellevue-based pipeline-software company ITpipes is looking to grow its local presence after raising a $20 million funding round Tuesday.
The company has a total of roughly 60 employees but only four are based in the Seattle area, according to CEO Ned Bebawy. He said he wants to expand the company's local presence and estimated it will have close to 100 total employees in a year.
Headcount growth will come at a measured pace, however.
"Headcount means more headaches. I don't necessarily get excited about headcount," Bebawy said. "The day this company becomes 500 people is the day I'm not the right guy to run it. I don't want the bureaucracy."
ITpipes was founded in 2009, according to the company's LinkedIn page. Its software helps clients gather and analyze data from sewer and stormwater pipeline inspections. According to Bebawy, these pipes need to be inspected visually, and ITpipes can compare how a pipe looks now with how it looked in years past.
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Bebawy said ITpipes' clients are municipalities and contractors that work with municipalities. They include the cities of Mercer Island, Los Angeles and Charlotte, North Carolina, among others. With the funding, Bebawy said, ITpipes wants to grow its sales and marketing and add features to its product such as helping municipalities understand what pipes need more attention.
Bellevue-based Trilogy Search Partners and Dallas-based Miramar Equity Partners co-led the round. ITpipes works out of the Trilogy office at 155 108th Ave. NE in Bellevue. Bebawy said the company doesn't have immediate plans to get its own office.
Bebawy moved to Seattle from Toronto two years ago and took over the CEO role at ITpipes in June of last year. He previously co-founded AutoLeap, a software company aimed at auto repair shops.
Looking ahead, Bebawy said ITpipes' major goal is to make pipe maintenance more preventive and less reactive.
"Any water leakage is catastrophic," Bebawy said. "We believe water is an unlimited resource, but to actually have it be unlimited, you have to treat it with respect. I don't know that we necessarily do a good job of that as a continent."
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