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

January 19, 2025: Market Could Be Getting Off Intermediate Pause

Markets had a positive end even as US markets will be closed on Monday, suggesting the intermediate ~month long pause could be behind us. Dow Jones rose 3.7% last week, S&P 500 gained 2.9%, and Nasdaq composite was up 2.45%. Trading platform eToro has filed confidentially for a US IPO that could value the company at over US$5 billion. eCommerce company, Rokt, was valued at US$3.5 billion in secondary deal, and is targeting a 2026 IPO. Data analytics firm Databricks raised US$5 billion in debt in a new round of financing that will help the company offset taxes from employee share sales, Bloomberg reported.A.I. military start-up Anduril is planning a US$1 billion factory in Ohio. Saronic, a three-year-old startup that is aiming to make a fleet of autonomous boats for the U.S. Navy, is in talks to raise US$500 million. The Series C round talks, which remain ongoing, would value the nascent company at over US$3 billion. TSMC, the world’s largest chipmaker, reported on Thursday that net income increased 57% to US$11.6 billion in the December quarter from a year ago, thanks to strong demand for artificial intelligence chips. The EU is reassessing its probes into Apple, Meta, Google and other big tech companies. In Canada, Sophic Client Plurilock, upsized its special warrant offering to $4.8 million from $2.5 million. Edge Total Intelligence announced a non-brokered private placement for gross proceeds of ~$5 million. Sophic Client NowVertical Group executives purchased shares in the open market, and the CEO is taking an equity bonus in lieu of cash. A Fortune 500 food company signed a five-year renewal with Sophic Client Boardwalktech. Toronto-based healthcare platform League secured a US$100 million ($144 million) credit facility from RBCx. Toronto-based corporate card and expense management technology startup Float has secured a $70 million Series B round.

Invesment News in the Past Weeks

September 27, 2020

IPO activity in the USA cooled a bit after a few heated weeks, while M&A kept chugging along. In Canada, publicly listed technology companies announed ~$85 million in bought deals.

September 20, 2020

It’s great to see Nuvei have a successful IPO on the TSX last week — we believe robust IPOs are a very important part of the Canadian public markets ecosystem, even as US capital markets rediscover SPACs. Canadian VC also reported strong activity.

September 13, 2020

Lots of activity in the Canadian VC space this past week, as well as Lightspeed’s NYSE debut. Sophic client, Kontrol (KNR-CSE) had positive news of another successful test of its Covid detection product, BioCloud.

September 6, 2020

We hope you’re enjoying the long weekend with your loved ones. Many high growth stocks pulled back on Thursday, and Friday to some extent – however, valuations still remain elevated. Interestingly a Financial Times piece on Friday suggested Softbank’s option trading could have been tech stocks higher over the summer.

August 30, 2020

Monday saw the one the highest number of SEC S-1 filings for high profile companies going public as we have seen in nearly fifteen years in capital markets. September, should be a very interesting month!

August 23, 2020

While the Tik-Tok drama continues to unfold, high profile companies including SpaceX, Robinhood, Airbnb, Ant Financial, Palantir move ahead to either raise capital or go public. Palantir also plans to move its headquarters from the Bay Area to Denver, which could aid the trend of tech companies being more widely located, which we believe is a tailwind for the Canadian tech ecosystem. For example, Odyssey Interactive’s founders previously worked in the United States but opted to establish the company in Canada, because of the strong startup ecosystem in Canada.

August 16, 2020

Epic Games and Facebook appear to be pushing back against app store policies, which could have far reaching implications. Several high profile companies are expected to go public this fall & Robinhood is garnering lots of attention (including, gracing the cover of this week’s Barrons).