Vivint

Vivint, Inc.

Type	Private
Industry	Security Systems, Fire detection, Home Automation, Photovoltaics
Founded	1997 (as APX Alarm Security Solutions Inc.)
Founder	Todd Pedersen, Keith Nellesen
Headquarters	Provo, Utah
Key people	Todd Pedersen, CEO, Alex Dunn, president
Number of employees	7000
Website	www.vivint.com

Vivint, Inc. (formerly known as APX Alarm Security Solutions Inc.) is a private smart home services provider in the United States and Canada. In 2012, The Blackstone Group acquired Vivint for more than $2 billion. As of August 2016, Vivint had more than one million customers in the U.S. and Canada. Vivint is listed on the Forbes list of "America’s Best Employers” and was also named one of Forbes’ “Most Promising Companies” in 2013.

In 1999, Keith Nellesen and Todd Pedersen co-founded APX Alarm Security Solutions in Provo, Utah. At the time, the company sold and installed security systems. Vivint began retaining customers in 2006 after it became a home monitoring provider. The company expanded its service to Canada that year after signing a $75 million credit facility agreement with Goldman Sachs. Goldman Sachs and APX Alarm completed another credit facility agreement worth $440 million in 2009. That November, the company acquired a central alarm monitoring station from Criticom Monitoring Services, a subsidiary of Protection One, in St. Paul, Minnesota. APX Alarm opened a new corporate headquarters in Provo, Utah a month later.

APX Alarm Security Solutions rebranded as Vivint in February 2011. The company completed a $565 million senior debt financing led by Goldman Sachs that month. Vivint also received funding from Peterson Partners and Jupiter Partners. The company launched Vivint Solar, a solar energy company, in 2011. The company partnered with Alarm.com early that year to deploy severe weather alerts to their customer base. Vivint was acquired by The Blackstone Group in September 2012. In 2013, Forbes ranked the company 46th in its annual ranking of "America's Most Promising Companies." Vivint acquired Smartrove, a wireless mesh networking technology provider, and began wireless broadband in August 2013. In October, Inc. named the company the second most job creating private company in the United States. In 2013, the company created the Vivint Fellows Program, a summer internship program at the Vivint Innovation Center.