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Weekly Cache

Weekly Investment News and Analysis

Please see what we’ve been reading in technology and ESG related investing this week. Please feel free to send us what you’ve found interesting.

Latest Investment News

August 24, 2025: Record Highs For Dow And S&P500

Last week, Dow Jones rose 1.5%, S&P 500 gained 0.3%, both hit record highs Friday after a “dovish” speech by Powell. Nasdaq composite was down 0.6% of the week, as investors look to Nvidia earnings next week following some recent mixed data-points on the AI trade. First-day IPO pops are running hot (median ~36%), reigniting IPO underpricing debates. Netskope’s IPO filing highlighted ongoing expected cyber demand into the fall window. Anthropic is reportedly targeting up to a US$10B raise at a ~US$170B valuation. Databricks is raising at a US$100B+; Canva’s secondary priced at ~US$42B. OpenAI logged its first US$1B revenue month, and reiterated compute constraints and hyperscale capex needs. Google expanded its TeraWulf backstop and warrants. The U.S. moved to take a 10% non-voting stake in Intel via CHIPS funds. Thoma Bravo is in talks to take Dayforce private. Palantir’s multi-session drawdown gave shorts rare relief as valuation debates intensified. Google/Kairos inked a TVA-linked advanced-nuclear PPA (target 2030). Apple is weighing Gemini to power a revamped Siri. Google unveiled Pixel 10 with “Magic Cue”. ESPN launched its full-fat streaming app. Robinhood and CME/FanDuel pushed further into event-driven prediction markets. In Canada, Sophic Client Kraken Robotics posted Q2 revenue of +16% y/y to $26.4M; GM expanded to 56% even as adj. EBITDA margin dipped to 18% on higher opex. Cash rose to $32.9M, and a post-quarter $115M bought deal strengthened the balance sheet. Management reiterated 2025 guidance (rev $120–135M; adj. EBITDA $26–34M). Legend Power reported softer Q3 rev ($0.39M) and a larger loss amid deal timing. Management cited one of the strongest backlogs and late-stage opportunities into year-end. Plurilock Q2 revenue grew to $16.4M with improved adj. EBITDA y/y. Management’s outlook highlighted higher-margin Critical Services, NATO/public-sector expansion. Separately, Plurilock agreed to sell CloudCodes assets for ~$1.78M. Renoworks launched LeadPOD + AI Design Assistant to convert homeowner engagement into measurable pipeline.

Invesment News in the Past Weeks

April 11, 2021: Canadian capital markets have a better week following recent turbulence

April 11, 2021: Canadian capital markets have a better week following recent turbulence

After a few weeks of relatively muted capital markets activity, this past week witnessed a bit of on uptick in innovation sector related public market financings. That said, private markets activity was very robust as well, exceeding public market financings. We’re encouraged with the level of support Kneat (KSI-TSXV) has received from investors; a stock we covered for a few years as sell side equity analysts. Sophic Client, AnalytixInsight (ALY-TSXV), could benefit from anticipation of its MarketWall unit’s business-to-consumer user growth at Intesa Sanpaolo alone. We published a research piece highlighting our conservative estimate of what every 100,000 MarketWall users could add to AnalytixInsight’s share price. We also investigate how the stock could benefit when analyzing potential revenues generated by users. Another Sophic client, Mijem (private) announced an investment by noted technology entrepreneur Calvin Ayre, founder of venture capital firm Ayre Group Ventures and blockchain conglomerate CoinGeek. In the USA, Coinbase released monster Q1/21 metrics ahead of a highly anticipated direct listing this coming week. Following suit, cryptocurrency exchange Kraken, could go public as well. We are also looking forward to the public markets debut by Topps, Grab, and Didi.

April 04, 2021: Relatively muted holiday shortened capital markets week in North America

April 04, 2021: Relatively muted holiday shortened capital markets week in North America

The holiday shortened past week saw muted capital markets activity in public equity markets in Canada and the USA, on the heels of a turbulent few weeks. In Canada, Sophic Client, AnalytixInsight (ALY-TSXV, ATIXF-OTCQB) announced a transformative regulatory approval as an online financial broker by the Italian financial markets regulator. As a result, the platform will allow users to trade stocks, options, and derivatives in Italy and later in other European countries. Quisitive (QUIS-TSXV) announced a major acquisition in the financial services vertical. In the USA, we’re looking forward to Coinbase’s direct listing in mid-April. The Invesco Solar ETF (TAN-NYSE), had a strong finish to the week following Biden infrastructure plan, as did Sophic client, UGE International (UGE-TSXV, UGEIF-OTC).

March 28, 2021: Canadian capital markets see slight uptick, even as North American investors exhibit price sensitivity

March 28, 2021: Canadian capital markets see slight uptick, even as North American investors exhibit price sensitivity

After a few weeks of volatility in Canadian capital markets, last week saw a bit of an uptick in activity. That said, we’re hearing investors are pushing back on some richly valued new issues. We’re excited to see MDA (a Canadian company we’ve known as 15 years as sell side equity analysts) could be a public company once again. In the USA, Robinhood has filed confidentially for a US IPO. Both Robinhood & SoFi have indicated they will let retail investors buy into IPOs. We’re also watching Coursera’s IPO, as many influential investors COVID could forever change education. WeWork could go public via a SPAC. In the US too, recent IPO debuts by Vizio and DigitalOcean suggest investors could be more price sensitive with regards to new issues than in the past few months.

March 21, 2021:Relatively quiet week in Canadian growth sector capital markets, but pipeline remains very busy

March 21, 2021:Relatively quiet week in Canadian growth sector capital markets, but pipeline remains very busy

Given market volatility in the technology and growth sectors over the past few weeks, this last week saw a muted level of new growth sector equity financings in Canada once again. That said, new offering pipelines appear healthy, and our contacts at various investment banks suggest there could be up to ten newly minted tech companies in Canada relatively soon. Sophic client, AnalytixInsight (ALY-TSX), could be an interesting stock to watch over the next few weeks, as the company could benefit from increased retail investor trading globally – the company, last week, also announced a new ESG focused offering. In this regard, we are also watching eToro’s SPAC in the USA, as well as public debuts by Deliveroo, Coinbase, Stripe.

March 14, 2021: Expect Canadian tech & clean tech capital markets to remain exceptionally busy

March 14, 2021: Expect Canadian tech & clean tech capital markets to remain exceptionally busy

As market volatility continued early last week after tumultuous trading the previous week, our discussions with our capital markets contacts suggest new issue pipelines remain exceptionally busy, which, in our view, bodes well for public markets relating to Canadian tech and clean tech. In the Canadian small cap space, we were encouraged to witness Sophic Client Luckbox (LUCK-TSXV), and separately, EMERGE Commerce (ECOM-TSXV) both close recently announced upsized financings. We’re also eagerly anticipating Telehealth provider Dialogue’s IPO. With Bitcoin hitting US$60K over the weekend, we expect crypto to remain an active theme globally. In the USA, Roblox and Coupang, both had strong public market debuts last week, as generally expected.

March 07, 2021:Market volatility causes Canadian capital markets speed bump

March 07, 2021:Market volatility causes Canadian capital markets speed bump

After three successive weeks of extraordinarily strong capital markets activity by the Canadian technology and clean tech sectors, this past week was impacted by ongoing market volatility as we expected last week. Public markets equity raises were under $100 million by our count. We are keeping an eye out on the performance of TAAL (an interesting Bitcoin SV play) and General Pizza (our due diligence found the pies to be delicious!). In the USA, we’re eager to see public debuts by Coupang, Instacart, Rocket Lab and Cipher in coming weeks/months.

February 28, 2021:Another Strong Week for Canadian Capital Markets, Market Volatility Near Term Speedbump

February 28, 2021:Another Strong Week for Canadian Capital Markets, Market Volatility Near Term Speedbump

After two consecutive weeks of extraordinarily strong capital markets activity by the Canadian technology and clean tech sectors, with total public equity fundraising announcements of around $2.5 billion. That said, recent market volatility could temper upcoming near-term activity as investors digest recent new issues and grapple with increased market fluctuations. In the USA, we look forward to upcoming public market debuts by Coinbase, Robinhood, Roblox and Toast.

February 21, 2021: Canadian Capital Markets’ Strong Run Continues

February 21, 2021: Canadian Capital Markets’ Strong Run Continues

After our last weekly update, highlighted a very busy week for Canadian capital markets, last week was extremely busy as well, coming in at around $900 million in public markets equity transactions. Amongst our client list, Sophic client, Luckbox (LUCK-TSXV) announced a $5 million equity financing, which was raised to $15 million owing to strong investor demand. The launch of the second-ever bitcoin ETF just days after approving the first crypto fund, in Canada (EBIT-TSX & EBIT.U-TSX) received considerable attention. In the USA, Coinbase was reportedly valued above US$100 billion, ahead of a direct listing. SpaceX raised ~US$ 850 million at a ~US$75 billion valuation.

February 14, 2021: Monster Week For Canadian Capital Markets Fund Raising

February 14, 2021: Monster Week For Canadian Capital Markets Fund Raising

After our entry last week, highlighting a relatively quiet week in Canadian equity markets funding, this past week was perhaps one the busiest we can recall. We counted around ten different transactions in public equity markets, totaling close to a billion dollars. From our previous sell side equity research coverage list, we noted very significant developments with Mogo acquiring a stake in Coinsquare, and a share consolidation in the theScore, ahead of a potential US listing. In the USA, we would keep an eye out for Coupang and Rivian’s public market debuts, we expect both to perform well. Amongst our client list, Sophic client, Luckbox (LUCK-TSXV) announced a meaningful addition to the company’s management team, with the appointent of former Dunder, Mr Green and Electronic Arts executive Mr. Thomas Rosander as Chief Customer Officer.

February 07, 2021: Relatively Quiet Week For Canadian Small Cap Equity Funding

February 07, 2021: Relatively Quiet Week For Canadian Small Cap Equity Funding

While this past week, was relatively quiet in terms of Canadian small cap equity funding; sports betting and gaming stocks performed well. Sophic client, Luckbox (LUCK-TSXV) stock performed well as the company announced its entry into sports betting and Sophic client Kontrol Technologies (KNR-CSE) stock also performed well on the back of a $2 million funding from the province of Ontario. In the USA, Robinhood appears to be going ahead with its plans to go public in 2021 as downloads surged despite recent weeks’ public relations fiasco. In other developments, the tech media had some fresh data on Apple’s speculated virtual reality headset, which will reportedly cost US$3,000 and have 12 cameras with eye-tracking technology.

January 31, 2021: Wallstreetbets Captures Everyone’s Attention

January 31, 2021: Wallstreetbets Captures Everyone’s Attention

In Canadian tech & clean tech capital markets, this past week, we witnessed some healthy activity related to cryptocurrencies, as well as Sophic Client, UGE International (UGE-TSXV) raising over $6 million through a bought deal offering. Many Canadian investors are also aware of Monkey Knife Fight, which is being acquired by Bally’s, we were impressed by the product’s engagement as we followed the company’s evolution over the past few years. In the USA, and overall markets the Gamestop / Wallstreetbets has captured everyone’s attention and increased market volatility. As some may have speculated WeWork could be considering going public via a SPAC, Roblox’s IPO could be delayed, and Coinbase is considering going public via a direct listing.

January 24, 2021: An Eventful Week for Canadian Tech & Clean Tech Stocks

January 24, 2021: An Eventful Week for Canadian Tech & Clean Tech Stocks

Canadian tech & clean tech capital markets had an eventful week, marked by new issues, fund raising and M&A. In the USA, there was considerable chatter focused on the recent GameStop stock pop and resultant drama. Crunchbase had some interesting data around unicorns and their recent proliferation. Meanwhile, Bitcoin seems to be undergoing a correction, which some attribute to Janet Yellen’s comments at her recent Senate confirmation hearing.