Thought Leadership

Toronto based 1Password’s $125 million raise at a $2.5 billion valuation received a lot of interest this past week. While public markets saw a large number of tech companies report their Q2 financials. In the USA, popular trading app, Robinhood dropped 12% in its trading debut, while investor interest in fintech stocks has remained elevated these past few months. Regulatory overhangs on US listed Chinese stocks persisted, as SEC has stopped processing registrations of US IPOs and other sales of securities by Chinese companies. While Trevor Milton, the founder of electric truck maker Nikola, has been indicted on charges of making false and misleading statements to investors, the US Department of Justice said on Thursday. In Canada, Shopify (SHOP-NYSE, SHOP-TSX) now allows merchants to sell NFTs directly through their storefronts.

Last week saw a fair bit of news pertaining to Canadian VC activity, including a shout out from market intelligence firm CB Insights, indicating data indicates that Canadian startups this year have already raised more than double their 2020 totals. The same data set indicates that Canada’s venture capital results now rival those of the entire Latin American region. In the public markets small cap space, Kraken Robotics (Sophic Client, PNG-TSXV, KRKNF-OTC) signed definitive agreement to acquire PanGeo and announced a public offering of units for approximately $10 million and Body and Mind (Sophic Client, BAMM-CSE, BMMJ-OTC) closed a US$11.1 million debt financing. Sophic Client LuckBox (LUCK-TSXV, LUKEF-OTC) CEO, Thomas Rosander investor update. In the USA, Robinhood plans to raise as much as US$2.3 billion in its upcoming stock-market debut. The popular investing app said it’s offering 55 million shares priced at between US$38 and US$42 each during its roadshow. At the top end of that range, Robinhood could have a market valuation of US$35 billion. Bitcoin mining firm Core Scientific is going public via SPAC in a US$4.3 billion deal. Lastly, with overhang on US listed Chinese equities increasing, the Nasdaq could rise 10%, according to investment firm Wedbush.

Canadian public capital markets appear to be in the seasonal summer lull, which most industry participants expect to be more pronounced than usual this year. That said, Sophic Client GameSquare Esports (GSQ-CSE) announced a second acquisition in a few weeks, as management executes on a disciplined M&A strategy. Wealthsimple has introduced fractional shares to make buying and selling large stocks more accessible for new retail investors. The move comes amid a recent rise in retail investing on trading platforms during COVID-19, which has benefitted Wealthsimple. For investors looking to play the retail investing trend, Sophic Client, AnalytixInsight (ALY-TSXV, ATIXF-OTC) could be an interesting stock to watch in the fall. In the USA, there was a decent level of IPO activity this past week, combined with potentially large M&A. At the same time, numerous news items allude to regulatory risk for large cap tech, including the US President & White House sparring with Facebook over the misinformation on the platform.

A lot of attention this week focused on US listed Chinese equities, which have collectively lost nearly a trillion dollars of value as recent regulatory uncertainty clouds these stocks. In North America, Toronto and US startups hit records for VC funding in H1/2021 – in both cases, six month activity nearly matched all of 2020. Payments firm, Stripe could be taking its first steps to its public markets debut, while European fintech Wise, direct listed in London, and Nextdoor and Planet Labs are going public in the US via the SPAC route. Sophic Capital client Real Luck Group (LUCK-TSXV, LUKEF-OTC) is poised to become a dominant esports betting service. CEO Thomas Rosander is hosting an investor update on Monday, July 19 at noon EST / 9am PST. Investors are encouraged to submit their questions via email at All@SophicCapital.com. Another Sophic client, Swarmio (Private) is aiming to go public on Canadian Securities Exchange as indicated in Canadian tech blog Betakit.

This past holiday shortened week saw a lower level of Canadian capital markets activity than we’ve all grown accustomed to over the past few months. As we head into the short US trading week, and the summer, the consensus seems to be that the recent high volume of capital markets activity may slow down. That said, Robinhood filed for its much anticipated IPO, on the back of a large US$70 million FINRA fine and other regulatory concerns, including that the CEO had federal prosecutors serve a search warrant on his cellphone. Some have argued that Robinhood’s IPO could mark the top for “meme” stocks — time will tell. Even as regulatory risks seem to mount for large tech companies, a D.C. federal court on Monday dismissed two antitrust cases brought against Facebook last year in a major setback for federal and state regulators. On the streaming media front, both Apple and Disney appear to be running into some headwinds, as evidenced by a few data points. CRISPR injected into blood treated a genetic disease for first time. In a medical first, researchers injected a CRISPR drug into the blood of people born with a disease that causes fatal nerve and heart disease and shown that in three of them it nearly shut off production of toxic protein by their livers, which could herald a new phase fore this exciting new technology.