By Christina Henderson

September 17, 2020

Ascent Vision Technologies (AVT), a veteran-owned firm specializing in counter-drone technology and aerial surveillance systems, announced August 12 that it has been acquired by CACI International for $350 million. AVT will keep its headquarters in Bozeman. Co-founder Tim Sheehy will remain CEO as the business enters its next chapter. 

AVT’s sister company, Bridger Aerospace, was not part of the transaction and will continue under Sheehy’s ownership and direction in Bozeman.

“This is a great outcome for Montana,” said Sheehy. “A lot of local lives were changed here. Every single person on staff got a check because we were an employee-owned company. Not only has a lot of wealth been created in Montana, it’s almost all staying here locally in the community.”

AVT employs 90 people - 60 in Bozeman and 30 in Australia. Many employees are, like Sheehy, military combat veterans.

Tim Sheehy is a former Navy Seal, Army Ranger, and Purple Heart recipient. He co-founded his first company, Bridger Aerospace, in September 2014 just after retiring from the Navy. He moved his family and launched his new venture in Bozeman, attracted to the area’s robust photonics industry and talent out of Montana State University.

From the beginning, Sheehy’s businesses have followed a steep growth curve.

He started with just two guys and an old airplane in a barn, tracking wildfires for the U.S. Forest Service and cattle for private ranchers. Sheehy and his partners soon realized the company’s technology was driving the real value for clients. 

They spun off AVT in 2015 to develop aerial surveillance and imaging systems. The founders formed a joint venture with Australian gimbal maker UAV Vision.

By 2017, the companies had grown to 60 employees serving clients on six continents. Sheehy and his team built a new 30,000 square foot facility in Belgrade near Bozeman and quickly outgrew it. They added a second 60,000 square foot building across the taxiway.

By 2019, AVT had expanded to about 120 employees and won more than $40 million in contracts to support anti-drone technology for the military. One of the company’s systems was used to thwart an Iranian drone attack on a U.S. Navy ship in the Middle East.

From the beginning, AVT’s focus was developing technology to save lives.

“We never built the business to exit, we built the business to take care of our customers,” Sheehy said. “We’re a defense company, so we’re building our core technology to make sure we’re taking care of the end users, who are our men and women in uniform, as well as our firefighters.”

The key industries AVT serves are government aerospace and defense, particularly the U.S. and Australian military. The acquisition will allow the firm to expand use of its primary counter drone technology across multiple military services. AVT will also continue to grow its other two core competencies – airborne payloads and computer vision, which includes artificial intelligence, machine learning and video stream-based analysis. 

As AVT grew from a scrappy startup to a thriving small tech company, it found itself facing off against much bigger players in the defense space. 

“We had grown to a point where we were now competing against the giants – Lockheed, Raytheon, General Dynamics - companies that just vastly outsized us with regard to scope, reach, where-with-all, and financial capability,” Sheehy said. “We needed to find a partner or a path forward that enabled us to survive against those big competitors. Our agility and technological capability can only go so far. The best thing for our customers was for us to ensure that our technology and our team continued to offer the critical capabilities we had.”

According to Sheehy, Ascent Vision Technologies had its pick of acquisition partners. One of the critical selection criteria, in addition to their commitment to the end customer, was a willingness to maintain operations in Montana and Australia. 

“AVT will remain in place,” Sheehy said. “Our team will continue to grow, keep hiring, and creating great high-paying jobs here in Bozeman. It’s still a Montana company that’s going to live here for the foreseeable future.”

AVT plans to add 10 to 20 jobs in Bozeman over the next two years, mainly engineering and technical positions.

Bridger Aerospace was not part of the acquisition but is also growing fast with about 100 employees in Montana. Bridger houses one of the largest airplane hangars in the state for its “super scooper” amphibious firefighting aircraft. The company has several new airframes on order and intends to hire about 50 people over the next three years, primarily pilots and aviation maintenance personnel.

The companies will break ground on a $10 million facility expansion in fall of 2020, including a new fitness center and in-house daycare. These on-site amenities are key to serving employees and their families. AVT and Bridger Aerospace have a young workforce, many with kids in need of childcare. Sheehy and his wife Carmen, a former Marine, are parents to four children age six and under.

“We support the family,” Sheehy said. “We want to make sure mothers and fathers can have time with their kids and ensure that you don’t have to choose between work and home.”

In addition to equity payouts and direct payroll to Bozeman-area employees, AVT is also creating indirect jobs through facilities expansions and is giving to local charities.

“With this exit comes hundreds of millions of dollars that have and will be invested into the economies of the Gallatin Valley and the State of Montana for years to come,” Sheehy said. 

The young CEO views his own story as evidence that Montana is fertile ground for other high-tech enterprises. 

“Montana is a place that people can come here and invest and see great return,” Sheehy said. “This is a place you can come and grow businesses.”

Christina Quick Henderson is the founding executive director of the Montana High Tech Business Alliance and an instructor in the College of Business at the University of Montana.