AnalytixInsight

Last week, was full of corporate earnings, with plenty of high-profile companies reporting their quarterly results. Our favourite stock from our sell side equity research days, Shopify (SHOP-NYSE, SHOP-TSX), reported a monster quarter, in what is typically a seasonally soft period. We recently had a conversation with the Morning Brew on Shopify’s evolution and success during the COVID pandemic, as the company appears to be at a crossroads. Canadian VC backed firms, had an extraordinarily strong week with regards to fund raising, with news by Sonder, Vena, and Clio. Multiple Chinese tech giants seem to be coming under increasing government scrutiny, while Apple’s much anticipated iOS 14.5 was made available, which could cause some dislocation in the ad-tech ecosystem.

This past week was perhaps the most subdued in the past few months in Canadian tech and clean tech capital markets activity. After a few months of intense activity, we’re not too surprised. Within Sophic clients, AnalytixInsight (ALY-TSXV, ATIXF-OTC), made a very significant announcement of a product launch by its 49% owned unit, MarketWall, with Intesa Sanpaolo, a major European bank. As well, Sophic spoke with Ayre Group Ventures about Sophic Client, Mijem (private) and Bitcoin SV. New listings in the USA, were relatively quiet as well. Coinbase, according to some is being classified as a “broken IPO”, disregarding the reference price. We are intrigued by Discord, and Microsoft no longer being in M&A discussions, likely suggesting Discord go public.