Mobile merger
CALGARY’S ROBOTS AND PENCILS TEAMS UP WITH OHIO-BASED KINETIQ
In the summer of 2015, Deloitte had already named Michael Sikorsky and his Robots and Pencils Inc. the fastest growing company in Alberta and the 34th in North America.
Today, the head office is still in the converted house on Calgary’s 14th Avenue S.W. that it purchased in 2013. But now it’s buzzing with a growing staff of 20, with 30 others working remotely in Calgary and another 100 in the U. S. and London, England. That’s an increase of 50 over the past year and it now has a new U. S. headquarters in Beachwood, Ohio, with the recent merger of Robots and Pencils with Kinetiq Digital, a mobile- first, data- driven digital agency.
Located in the suburbs of Cleveland, Kinetiq Digital was created by Len Pagon and Nathan Carmon, the principals who founded and helped build Brulant/ Rosetta into one of the top 10 privately owned digital agencies in North America before selling it to Publicis for almost $600 million.
“As we looked to the future,” Carmon says, “it became obvious that to accelerate our growth and continue to be a world-class, strategic partner to our clients, we had to expand the breadth and depth of our expertise.”
The answer was a merger with Robots and Pencils, which had grown from a Calgary startup in 2009 to a trusted strategic partner to some of the world’s largest brands, working with some 150- plus clients to create over 250 mobile solutions used by 77 million people worldwide.
The merger of the two companies — to be r e- branded under the Robots and Pencils name — allows it to make more strategic investments to expand capabilities and bring a wealth of expertise that will help the firm be the innovator of choice when it comes to leveraging frontier technology.
Calgary is still where most of their design and technology is developed. Phil Wheaton, vice-president of Pencils, oversees production art, supports the executive team, attends client meetings and is responsible for staff development.
From the start, he says, Sikorsky, a University of Alberta computer engineering graduate, determined to follow talent, and he set about recruiting the best throughout North America.
There are now also teams on site in such technology hot spots as San Francisco and Austin. Besides Calgary, London and the new Cleveland offices, others are located in Winnipeg, Denver, New York and Pittsburgh.
The company has developed many game apps, including the award- winning Spy vs. Spy featuring the famous Black and White spies from DC Entertainment’s Mad Magazine, which for a time was the bestseller in 11 countries.
But helping businesses to work better, smarter and f aster and communicate with consumers is the main focus for new apps.
Locally, Pencils worked with WestJet to develop an iOS app that allows on- thego travellers easy anytime access to key features.
Agrium, as another example, challenged Robots and Pencils to deliver an engaging way to teach students about the need for sustainable agriculture. Journey 2050 is an interactive experience using iPads, where students explore the challenges of feeding growing populations through environmental best practices and managing farms in Kenya, India and Canada.