American welding equipment maker ESAB Corp. ESAB-N is buying Eddyfi Technologies Inc., one of Quebec’s most valuable technology companies, for roughly $2-billion in cash.
Quebec City-based Eddyfi employs more than 1,000 people in more than a dozen countries around the world. The company specializes in what is known as non-destructive testing (NDT) instrumentation, which uses both software and hardware to monitor critical infrastructure such as pipelines, power plants, railways and aerospace equipment.
With backing from provincial pension manager the Caisse de dépot et placement du Québec and other investors such as Montreal-based private equity firm Novacap LP, Eddyfi has been a serial acquirer over the past decade.
Martin Thériault, a mechanical engineer who previously worked at another NDT provider called Zetec, self-funded Eddyfi for six years after he founded it in 2010. After first raising outside money in 2016, the company purchased 15 other businesses.
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Eddyfi bought Seattle-based Zetec for US$350-million in 2022. At the time, Mr. Thériault told The Globe and Mail he knew a lot of Canadians who “sold their businesses to the first American that came with their chequebook,” adding it was “good to be building a business that buys abroad instead.”
In an interview on Monday, Mr. Thériault said he wished Eddyfi could have stayed in Canadian hands.
“I thought going public would have helped me do that, but we missed the stock-market window in 2022,” he said, referring to the frenzy of tech companies launching initial public offerings between mid-2021 and early 2022.
“I wish I could keep it Canadian, because I don’t think we have enough Canadian businesses, but quite frankly at two billion Canadian dollars there is not a whole lot of people who could buy this company in Canada,” he said.
Eddyfi made its largest-ever acquisition in early 2020 when it agreed to pay nearly $500-million for Dublin-based pipeline inspection service provider NDT Global. After abandoning plans to go public in mid-2022, the company renamed itself Previan – from the French “prévient,” which literally translates to “prevents” – and established Eddyfi and NDT as subsidiaries.
In June, 2025, Previan was split back into two separate entities with Eddyfi and NDT once again becoming stand-alone businesses. Days later, Eddyfi made what would become its final acquisition, buying Italian structural monitoring system maker Sisgeo for an undisclosed sum.
NDT today employs roughly 880 people and, in addition to pipeline monitoring, provides diagnostic and subsea robotics services. That company was refinanced in mid-2025 with Novacap making what the company called at the time “a significant additional investment” to become its key shareholder.
Several refinancing options were also considered for Eddyfi at the time, the company said in a statement on Monday, but ultimately the value of the ESAB offer “made the difference to complete a sale.”
Mr. Thériault said the gap in valuation between what investors were willing to accept in order to provide financing versus what ESAB was willing to pay in order to buy the company outright was “night and day.”
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While he does not plan to remain with Eddyfi once the sale to ESAB closes in mid-2026, Mr. Thériault intends to remain chair and chief executive officer of NDT Global. That business, he said, is expected to generate US$375-million in revenue this year.
Eddyfi, by contrast, is expected to generate approximately US$270-million in revenue and US$80-million in adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization in 2026, ESAB said in a statement.
As part of the transaction, ESAB has promised to maintain Eddyfi’s work force and head office in Quebec City, which Mr. Thériault said was important for the Caisse to support the deal. Eddyfi has roughly 425 staff based in Quebec City, Mr. Thériault said, though he expects ESAB will use that as a base for growth.
“Quebec is actually the global hub for NDT,” he said. “It is the hottest place. It has been dubbed the Silicon Valley of NDT, so I’m not so concerned about ESAB.”
