The past year concluded some of the hardest months of Immertec CEO Erik Maltais' life.
Maltais is an ex-Marine and longtime entrepreneur. He co-founded virtual reality startup Immertec in a Tampa garage in 2017. He grew the venture into a national company with millions in venture capital investment from AOL founder Steve Case. Then, in 2023, the company hit the toughest year yet. But now, the company has closed a $4 million Series A extension funding round and returned to focusing on growth.
The new capital, combined with a $1.6 million research grant awarded in December to perform a two-year study, has allowed Immertec the runway to reach profitability.
"This is a tough time for a lot of companies, and it could have gone the other way with Immertec," Maltais said. "Through the participation of new investors and existing investors who believe in our mission, we're now in a position where the likelihood of failing is much lower, and we have an extended runway for two-plus years."
A syndicate of 28 local and non-Florida investors — new and past Immertec investors — led by investor Hamilton Hunt provided the capital behind the round.
With the new money, the company can focus on making sales and eventually landing government contracts. It currently works with six of the world's top 10 medical device manufacturing companies, and its first step is to grow those accounts. It also plans to hire with the new capital.
"We'll see most likely the ability to achieve profitability based on our current growth and our current cost structure," Maltais said.
Immertec has been a player in the Tampa Bay tech community since it saw rapid growth during the Covid-19 pandemic. It closed a $12 million funding deal and began an investing relationship with AOL co-founder Steve Case after a $100,000 investment from the Rise of the Rest tour in 2019.
The new capital is also a refresh for the company, which has spent the last year sweating to raise revenues monthly and cut expenses in half, Maltais said.
Alongside the downturn in venture capital dollars in 2023, the runways for startups narrowed. Venture capital saw a two-year record slump in deal flow and exits nationwide. Many startups slowed as the availability of investment capital grew scarce. Immertec felt this challenge, Maltais said.
Operations slimmed to a fully remote team of 18 employees, a majority Tampa-based, and a distribution facility in Texas.
"Every time I solved the problem, it was only giving me two weeks of runway. For once, I can fully focus on the vision, the big picture and grow the business," Maltais said. "That is a feeling that I have not had for over nine months now, so it's hard to describe it," he said.
