AnalytixInsight

With a major unsecured notes offering announced by CGI (GIB.A-TSX, GIB-NYSE) seeking to raise US$1 billion, and funding for another couple hundred million dollars announced by private VC backed Canadian companies, September is of to a good start by the Canadian innovation sector in capital markets. In addition M&A, remains an active theme, with a major acquisition and exit announced in the space this past week. Stripe is discussing a 2022 public listing, which could be an interesting stock to look out for, as well as Sportradar, which could go public soon. SoftBank announced a Deutsche Telekom share swap deal, and in addition will borrow against its remaining T-Mobile stock, which could aid global VC funding as SoftBank’s Vision Fund 2 is trying to invest more in European tech companies. On the regulatory front, a judge just ruled a massive blow against Apple’s App Store business. With a Japanese acquisition, PayPal gains a buy now, pay later (BNPL) service platform, even as some US data suggested credit risk in this segment. In the ESG space, we saw ambitious long term US solar plans, per a NY Times article, which could move the US towards producing almost half of its electricity from the sun by 2050 and a major investment into car battery tech by Toyota.

While this past week was relatively quiet in Canadian public markets, EMERGE Commerce (ECOM-TSXV) announced a $24 million acquisition funded with cash on hand. Consensus expectations call for a busy fall, with regards to “risk-on” driving public capital markets activity in Canada. Private Canadian VC backed companies announced a couple hundred million dollars of funding last week, which appears to be lower than the past few weeks. In the USA, despite lower SPAC activity leading to fewer IPOS in Q2 2021, more companies continue on the path to being public. Last week, Allbirds, Reddit, Samsara, Binance, and NordicTrack were amongst companies that announced plans to go public. Intuit could be in talks to buy Mailchimp for more than US$10 billion, and Robinhood’s stock fell after Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Gary Gensler told Barron’s that banning the controversial practice of payment for order flow is “on the table” and PayPal is exploring a stock-trading service for US customers amid a boom in retail investing, CNBC first reported Monday.

Last week, we saw an upsize raise announcement from Converge Technology Solutions Corp. (CTS-TSX), raising $225 million, before its greenshoe option. Private innovation companies announced financings of around $400 million. Shopify’s (SHOP-NYSE, SHOP-TSX) integration with Tik Tok garnered widespread attention. In the ecommerce space, on Friday afternoon, Affirm shares soared on news of an Amazon partnership for buy now, pay later. Recall, Affirm also partners with Shopify, which also had a stake in the in Affirm at the time of Affirm’s IPO. In August, Square jumped into the space with a US$29 billion deal to buy Australian fintech Afterpay. The week also saw announcements pertaining to public market entrances by Rivian, drawing a response from Elon Musk. As well as news of Warby Parker, Toast, Virgin Orbit, and Forbes going public.

We witnessed a decent level of Canadian public company M&A last week, with over $300 million of transactions in the past week. Recall, Sophic Capital has previously suggested that M&A could be a positive catalyst for small to mid cap innovation companies in the fall. At the same time, private companies saw over $300 million of VC funding as well. GlobalFoundries Inc has filed confidentially with U.S regulators for an initial public offering (IPO) in New York that could value the chipmaker at around US$25 billion, we could see an allocation of capital to hard tech, such as semiconductors, owing to recent geopolitical tensions, according to some industry watchers. Tencent warned on its second-quarter earnings call that China’s regulatory crackdown on internet companies will continue, as Asian tech stocks stumbled again after a series of volatile weeks. Topps trading cards terminated its SPAC merger and Michael Burry, of the Big Short fame, unveiled a new short bet against Cathie’s Wood’s innovation ETF.