PICS Auditing LLC, an Irvine-based software-as-a-service company that specializes in prequalification of vendors, dropped the Pacific Industrial Contactor Screening acronym and rebranded itself Avetta.
“We’ve moved far outside Pacific and industrial,” co-founder Jared Smith said, referring to the firm’s worldwide expansion into serving various trades, including facilities management, energy, oil and gas, mining, manufacturing and construction. “We just wanted something a little bit more intuitive, big and global. Avetta is at the core of what we do—we vet suppliers.”
The firm is majority-owned by Palo Alto-based Norwest Venture Partners, and provides contract compliance services to companies that depend on and regularly hire large volumes of vendors. Its cloud-based platform, accessible from anywhere in the world, matches vendor-provided information with requirements set forth by the client, including safety history, training certifications and under-age labor programs. It stores the information in its database and can provide it to companies looking to hire contractors with specific qualifications.
Avetta employs about 120 in Orange County and another 150 at offices in Houston; Calgary; Abu Dhabi; Johannesburg; Maidenhead, U.K.; Munich; Paris; São Paulo; Perth, Australia; Singapore; Tokyo; and Hong Kong. It works with about 50,000 companies in more than 100 countries, including The Coca-Cola Co. in Atlanta; American Airlines Inc. in Fort Worth, Texas; BP plc in London; Exxon Mobil Corp. in Irving, Texas; and Moline, Ill.-based Deere & Co.
Avetta’s estimated 2015 revenue was about $50 million. It charges vendors registration and annual membership fees that can differ depending on the level of verification services required and the number of clients they are working with. Avetta also collects fees from the companies it gathers information for that can reach seven figures annually for comprehensive contracts with Fortune 100 companies.
Smith, who started the company in 2003 with former Irvine police officer John Moreland, said the operation is “cash flow positive” and had “a 40% annualized growth rate for the last six or seven years. We think that’s going to increase, not decrease … We are ready for a massive growth moment—we plan tripling or quadrupling in growth over the next few years.”
Likely fueling the ambition is a $25 million investment Moreland raised from Norwest last year, according to his LinkedIn profile. In 2012 he also helped secure $35 million from the same investment firm, which manages about $6 billion in capital, in exchange for a then-minority stake in Avetta.
The company has since doubled its staff and replaced its management team, which now includes Chief Executive John Herr.
“John was at (Aliso Viejo-based) buy.com when they did their IPO, and he was at eBay when they went from 300 to 6,000 employees,” said Smith, who served as chief executive prior to Herr’s arrival last March. “He really has seen hyper growth and I haven’t, so he’s a mentor to me now and is walking me through this. I think in life when you figure out what you do well and what you don’t do well and you admit it, you end up being happier. I’m much happier.”
Herr and Neil Thomas, the firm’s chief revenue officer, came from Adaptive Insights in Mountain View, another Norwest-funded company. Joining as chief financial officer in February was David Justus, a transplant from Retail Equation Inc.—also supported by Norwest. Adam Thier serves as chief technology officer, and Kevin Berens, who also worked at Adaptive Insights, is vice president of product.
Smith, who handles product strategy now, has held several functional and executive roles with Avetta since its inception, including chief financial officer and chief operating officer. Moreland was chief executive from April 2003 to September 2014. He now serves as chairman of Avetta’s board of directors.
Skiver Advertising in Newport Beach helped the company create its new logo and interview customers, who provided input on “what our new brand is going to be.”
