The Alkaline Water Company Inc. (NASDAQ: WTER) (CSE: WTER)

Founded in 2012, The Alkaline Water Company Inc. (NASDAQ: WTER) (CSE: WTER) is headquartered in Scottsdale, Arizona. Its flagship product, Alkaline88®, is a leading premier alkaline water brand available in bulk and single-serve sizes, along with eco-friendly aluminum packaging options. With its innovative, state-of-the-art proprietary electrolysis process, Alkaline88® delivers perfect 8.8 pH balanced alkaline drinking water with trace minerals and electrolytes and boasts the company’s trademarked label ‘Clean Beverage’. Quickly being recognized as a growing lifestyle brand, Alkaline88® launched A88 Infused™ in 2019 to meet consumer demand for flavor-infused products. A88 Infused™ flavored water is available in six unique all-natural flavors, with new flavors coming soon. Additionally, in 2020, the company launched the A88CBD™ brand, featuring a broad line of topical and ingestible products. These products are made with lab-tested full and broad-spectrum hemp and include salves, balms, lotions, essential oils, bath-salts, CBD infused drinks, tinctures, capsules, gummies and powder packs.

Innovation and Expansion

Founded in 2012, The Alkaline Water Company began with a mission to create the best-tasting water in the world. At the time, there were two emerging trends in health-conscious consumers: a growing interest in the alkaline diet and perceived health benefits of pink Himalayan rock salt. By combining these two concepts in an alkaline water and trademarking the name Alkaline88, The Alkaline Water Company began offering what it calls the smoothest tasting Clean Beverage™ in the U.S. enhanced-water category.

Now a top bulk alkaline-water brand (the company reported record sales in March and April 2020, surpassing March and April 2019 numbers by 114% and 171%, respectively), The Alkaline Water Company is committed to growing its national footprint through innovation and expansion. That mindset was evident as the company introduced eco-friendly aluminum bottles and branched out into flavor-infused waters; the company currently offers six different flavors: peach/mango, lemon/lime, raspberry, watermelon, blood orange and lemon.

The company’s commitment to innovation may be most evident in its newest product line: A88CBD. This line of CBD-infused products includes tinctures, capsules, gummies, salves, balms, hand and foot lotions, essential oils, bath bombs and bath salts, as well as CBD-infused drinks, water and beverage shots. These quality, CBD-infused offerings are all made with lab-tested, full-spectrum hemp and are conveniently packaged and perfect for on-the-go or at home use.

In addition, The Alkaline Water Company has implemented an aggressive growth strategy, with numerous organic initiatives focused on national multichannel, mass-market expansion through a direct-to-warehouse model and co-packing facilities that are strategically located within 600 miles of 95% of the U.S. population. In addition to this strong brick-and-mortar approach, the company recently launched a B2C e-commerce platform (www.A88CBD.com) and aggressive digital-marketing campaigns.

Clear Advantages in a Growing Market

With consistent growth year over year, the company reported $32.2 million in revenue in fiscal 2019 and has emerged as a growth leader in the functional (value-added) waters space, which is the fastest-growing segment of the bottled water industry.

The Alkaline Water Company’s efforts are focused on its clear competitive advantages, including its strong marketing (the inclusion of alkaline in product names); existing grocery channels, which feature excellent relationships and a nationwide broker network; distinctive branding; proprietary technology, which produces great-tasting, high-quality water, infused drinks and other products; and price, with a broad range of products in all formats, from bulk bottles to single serve.

As the company focuses on strategic growth, it is eyeing the impressive potential of a market that is on a strong upswing. Annual bottled water sales have now surpassed soda consumption, with soda sales in the United States having declined by $1.2 billion over the past five years. Some research indicates that the global bottled water market will reach an estimated $280 billion this year, while the CBD market is forecast to top $20 billion by 2024.

With its products available in all major trade channels, including grocery stores, drug stores, c-stores and big-box retailers, The Alkaline Water Company is also looking to expand into new spaces, such as health and beauty, hospitality and specialty retailer locations.

Seasoned Management Team

The Alkaline Water Company is led by an experienced team focused on the company’s core strategy of building a national retail footprint and extending its lifestyle brands into other consumer packaged goods categories.

Richard A. Wright, President, CEO and Co-Founder of The Alkaline Water Company Inc., oversees all aspects of the business, successfully guiding the company through strategic opportunities and delivering greater than 50% growth since the company’s inception. A passionate and versatile leader with a strong track record of innovation, collaboration and achieving goal-driven results, Wright is a serial entrepreneur with more than 41 years of experience. Early in his career, he spent years at one of the ‘Big Four’ accounting firms, working his way up to Regional Director of Tax and Financial Planning. As a CPA, entrepreneur and former CFO, Wright brings extensive knowledge of finance, operations, sales and marketing to the team, and he has participated in hundreds of M&A transactions throughout his career.

David Guarino, CFO, Secretary, Treasurer and Director, earned a Bachelor of Science in accounting and a Master of Accountancy from the University of Denver. From 2008 to 2013, Guarino was President and a Director of Kahala Corp., a worldwide franchisor of multiple quick-service restaurant brands with locations in 49 states and more than 25 countries. From 2014 to 2015, Guarino was President of HTI International Holdings Inc., a technology company focused on forward osmosis water filtration technology.

Frank Chessman, National Sales Manager, is a graduate of the University of Southern California’s Marshall School of Business. He spent 25 years with Ralph’s Grocery, Kroger’s largest division, working at many levels before ultimately becoming Vice President of Advertising & Marketing. He then served 14 years as Executive Vice President at Simon Marketing. Chessman has more than a decade of experience in the beverage manufacturing industry.

Brian Sudano, Director, is managing partner of Beverage Marketing Corporation and BMC Strategic Associates. Sudano’s experience covers nearly the entire beverage industry, from energy drinks to wine, with special expertise in beverage alcohol by virtue of varied industry experience across a broad range of projects. Sudano manages several major clients, providing ongoing strategic and market advice and leading projects in strategic planning, market entry analysis and planning, sales/distribution, business modeling, brand repositioning and international opportunity assessment. He has spoken at many beverage industry events and is a contributing editor at Beverage World magazine.

Aaron Keay, Chairman, has been a successful investor, entrepreneur and financier to multiple small cap and startup companies over the last decade. During his time with these companies, he served in advisor, board-member and senior-management roles. His experience ranges across multiple sectors in mining, biotech, health and wellness, tech and cannabis, where he has invested and raised more than $500 million.

Investment Considerations

• The Alkaline Water Company Inc. is a leading producer of premium bottled alkaline and flavored water sold under the brand names Alkaline88® and A88 Infused™, respectively.
• The company has become known for its innovative, state-of-the-art proprietary electrolysis beverage process that enhances its products with trace Himalayan minerals and electrolytes and delivers perfect 8.8 pH balanced alkaline drinking water.
• The company’s two leading products – Alkaline88 and A88 Infused – are available at more than 70,000 major retail locations across the United States.
• The Alkaline Water Company reported record sales in March and April 2020, surpassing March and April 2019 numbers by 114% and 171% respectively.
• The company recently launched a new product line: A88CBD. This line of CBD-infused products includes tinctures, capsules, gummies, salves, balms, hand and foot lotions, essential oils, bath bombs and bath salts, as well as CBD-infused drinks, water and beverage shots.
• The Alkaline Water Company has implemented an aggressive growth strategy with numerous organic initiatives focused on national, multichannel mass-market expansion.
• Annual bottled water sales have now surpassed soda consumption. Some research indicates that the global bottled water market will reach an estimated $280 billion this year, while the CBD market is forecast to top $20 billion by 2024.

TAAT Lifestyle & Wellness Ltd. (CSE: TAAT) (OTCQB: TOBAF)

TAAT Lifestyle & Wellness Ltd. (CSE: TAAT) (OTCQB: TOBAF) is a life sciences company dedicated to giving legal-aged smokers the choice to keep the smoking experience that they enjoy with no nicotine and no tobacco.

The key players of TAAT Lifestyle & Wellness are from leading tobacco brands. They are guiding the mission with the company’s proprietary product, TAAT(TM), which uses the company’s proprietary Beyond Tobacco(TM) base material. The base material undergoes a 14-step process to taste and smell just like tobacco and uses a patent-pending refinement technique.

This provides the company with unique opportunities on the global tobacco market, which was estimated at $849 billion in 2019, with approximately 1.3 billion people using tobacco in some form worldwide (https://nnw.fm/bvKFL).

TAAT Lifestyle & Wellness was founded in 2006 and is headquartered in Vancouver, Canada, with operations in Las Vegas, Nevada.

TAAT(TM)

TAAT is a smokable alternative to tobacco cigarettes using the Beyond Tobacco base material, which contains zero tobacco and zero nicotine. The current TAAT offering comes in three varieties: Original, Smooth and Menthol, which were launched during Q4 2020 in Ohio. The company’s Ohio tobacco wholesaler also distributes for major tobacco industry names such as Altria, RJ Reynolds (a subsidiary of British American Tobacco) and ITG.

The TAAT Beyond Tobacco experience was created to replicate the sensory elements of smoking a tobacco cigarette. Market testing in California and Nevada reached a consensus that TAAT products offered no significant differences in experience when compared to tobacco cigarettes, in terms of the following aspects:

• Visual – the nearly identical product packaging and enhanced smoke volume
• Auditory – the “crackling” sound of the base material when it is ignited
• Smell – when burning, TAAT emits a tobacco-like scent
• Taste – the patent-pending Beyond Tobacco base material undergoes a refinement process that creates a tobacco-like taste
• Touch – TAAT satisfies the “hand-to-mouth” fixation and motor habits, such as flicking ashes

TAAT Beyond Tobacco Targeting Current Smokers

TAAT Lifestyle & Wellness is currently targeting the market of legal-aged smokers with its proprietary product. The company aims “not to create a new problem, but to solve an existing one.” TAAT Lifestyle & Wellness offers a non-addictive alternative to tobacco, with several competitive advantages making it a promising option on the United States market, such as:

• Price – TAAT can be offered at a lower price than competing products in the tobacco category, which adds to the propositioned value for current legal-aged smokers.
• Experience – TAAT appeals to current smokers who wish to give up the tobacco and nicotine but keep the smoking experience they enjoy.
• Branding/Packaging – TAAT is American-grown and American-made, with its Beyond Tobacco base material serving as a legacy to the combustible tobacco products.

The current alternatives to cigarette smoking do not offer a comparable experience. Previously marketed products, like vaping, proved difficult for some legal-aged smokers to adopt, as the experience was too different from traditional cigarettes.

Market Outlook

In 2016, the United States tobacco market was valued at over $100 billion, a number that’s expected to grow over the next decade (https://nnw.fm/yd8oP). In terms of volume, over 215 billion cigarettes were sold to roughly 34 million adults in the United States in 2018. These numbers represent almost 14% of the adult population. Of those, almost two-thirds smoked more than 15 cigarettes in one day. A standard pack is comprised of 20 cigarettes.

The company’s Beyond Tobacco, as a non-tobacco product, has a price-driven consumer advantage in many states. While state taxes on traditional cigarettes vary, most tend to average around $1.82 per pack. Washington D.C. is on the higher end of the tax spectrum at $4.50 per pack, whereas Missouri is only $0.17 per pack (https://nnw.fm/D3WnT).

TAAT Lifestyle & Wellness estimates that, if one pack of TAAT Beyond Tobacco was sold at 20% of all United States tobacco points of sale, the product would capture 0.25% of the market, the equivalent of approximately 2.7 million cartons of cigarettes per year.

Management Team

Setti Coscarella is the Chief Executive Officer of TAAT Lifestyle & Wellness Ltd. He is experienced in investment banking, private equity and entrepreneurship. In 2017, Mr. Coscarella was the lead strategist for Reduced-Risk Products at Philip Morris International. While there, he worked with thousands of smokers to better understand how to position smoking alternatives, developing programs that could help smokers convert to reduced-risk products. Mr. Coscarella holds an MBA from the Schulich School of Business, specializing in finance, marketing and corporate strategy. He also has a Bachelor of Science in mathematics and physics from the University of Toronto.

Tim Corkum is the company’s Chief Revenue Officer. He has a lengthy history in the tobacco industry, having served 21 years at Philip Morris International. Mr. Corkum has experience leading the international commercialization of combustible cigarettes and working on reduced-risk product offerings. During his 21-year tenure, he held senior positions in business development, sales strategy, key account management and corporate affairs. He holds a BA from Carleton University with a concentration in law.

Joe Deighan is Founder of TAAT Lifestyle & Wellness and oversees research and development. He is the founder of vape liquid ‘JJuice’, created in 2012. JJuice was distributed across all of the United States and in 26 other countries, alongside the private label production that was done for other brands. Mr. Deighan sold JJuice in a cash deal that was valued at over $800,000 in 2017. He currently handles all R&D and production for Beyond Tobacco, knowing the product better than anyone else in the company.

Investment Considerations

• TAAT Lifestyle & Wellness is focused on serving the current smokers’ market, offering its target audience the opportunity to keep the smoking experience that they enjoy with no nicotine and no tobacco.
• The company’s proprietary product, TAAT Beyond Tobacco, undergoes a patent-pending refinement process.
• The product was successfully launched in Ohio during Q4 2020, with nearly one-third of the visitors to the TryTAAT webpage requesting their samples by mail.
• TAAT Lifestyle & Wellness management is highly experienced in the tobacco industry, including roles with larger businesses like Philip Morris International.
• The global tobacco market was estimated at $849 billion in 2019, with approximately 1.3 billion people using tobacco in some form. These numbers provide a foundation of several hundred million legal-aged smokers worldwide who may turn to nicotine- and tobacco-free products such as TAAT.
• TAAT Lifestyle & Wellness Ltd. is offering a product that could significantly change how current legal aged smokers quit smoking thanks to its replicated sensory elements mimicking the traditional cigarette experience.

Save Foods Inc. (NASDAQ: SVFD)

Save Foods Inc. (NASDAQ: SVFD) is an agri-food tech company focused on developing and selling eco-friendly products specifically designed to ensure food safety and extend the shelf life of fresh fruits and vegetables. The company is focused on addressing two of the most significant challenges faced by the industry: (1) food waste and loss, and (2) food safety.

Fungi like mold and yeast, as well as foodborne pathogens, are typically responsible for fresh produce spoilage and foodborne illness. Save Foods’ integrated solutions improve safety, freshness and quality every step of the way, from field to fork. The company’s natural products control human and plant pathogens, allowing growers, packers and food retailers to reduce waste and boost revenues. More food ends up on consumers’ plates, and less ends up in landfills.

Save Foods’ products use all-natural ingredients to protect fresh produce from microbial spoilage and pathogens with zero toxicity. The company’s treatments leave no harmful residues on produce or in the environment and maintain product freshness over time. Fresh produce treated with Save Foods’ products can already be found in supermarket chains across the U.S. Those chains have reported that the company’s products are reducing fruit spoilage by 50% on average at the retail level. With no need for additional steps in the treatment process nor special equipment, Save Foods’ products are easy to implement and come in versatile applications suitable for the different stakeholders along the food supply chain.

Initial applications for the company’s offerings include post-harvest treatments in fruit and vegetable packing houses that process citrus, avocados, pears, bell peppers and mangos. By controlling and preventing pathogen contamination and significantly reducing the use of chemicals and their residues, Save Foods’ products not only prolong shelf life; they also ensure safe, natural and healthy food. Save Foods has the first green products that could realistically replace the different chemicals used today in food treatment while controlling waste and food safety.

Products & Technology

• SavePROTECT or PeroStar, a processing aid added to fruit and vegetable wash water and used in post-harvest treatment;
• SF3HS and SF3H, post-harvest treartment solutions to control both plant and foodborne pathogens;
• SpuDefender, for controlling post-harvest potato sprouts; and
• FreshPROTECT, for controlling spoilage microorganisms on post-harvest citrus.

Save Foods’ products are based on a proprietary blend of food acids which have a synergistic effect when combined with certain types of sanitizers and fungicides at low concentrations in a non-organic setting. The combination eliminates fungicide residues or reduces them to levels below the established Maximum Residue Levels (MRLs). The company’s fruit and vegetable wash is odorless and does not irritate human eyes, skin or airways. Save Foods’ blend does not leave any residues of toxicological concern on the treated surface of produce, and all its ingredients are classified by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) as Generally Recognized As Safe (GRAS).  There are 7 patent families related to Save Foods’ technology.

Applications

The company’s products have been commercially validated on citrus, mangos, avocados, pears, bell peppers, microgreens and various fresh cut vegetables. Save Foods is in the validation process for bananas, apples, figs, berries, lettuce, papayas and more. The company is also validating the efficacy of its products for pre-harvest treatment, starting with citrus trees.

Market Outlook

The world population is expected to grow to almost 10 billion by 2050, boosting current agricultural demand by some 50%. Providing healthy and safe food for the world’s population is one of the biggest challenges of the 21st century.

Globally, around 664 million tons of fresh fruits and vegetables are lost every year from field to fork, wasted by spoilage, and almost one in 10 people globally falls ill every year from eating contaminated food, with an estimated resulting cost around $90 billion.

Disposing of all that wasted food requires additional expense and harms the environment with resulting greenhouse gas emissions. The post-harvest food treatment market was valued at $1.5 billion in 2019 and is expected to grow to $2.3 billion by 2026, achieving a CAGR of 6.5%.

Management Team

David Palach is CEO of Save Foods. He spent over a decade with Intel Israel, where his last position was Manager of Business Development for Israel and Europe. Prior to that, he served as a controller of two of Intel’s largest factories in Israel, where he supervised a budget of over $1 billion. He also served as the CEO of B-Pure Corporation Ltd., a management and maintenance company involved in protecting and improving the environment. During his tenure, he helped turn around several struggling subsidiaries and made them profitable.

Vered Raz Avayo is the company’s CFO. Before joining SaveFoods in 2018, she spent more than 10 years as CFO at LGC, the Leviev Group of Companies. She has operated her own financial and business consultancy and has served as a director for a number of public companies in Israel.

Dan Sztybel is CEO of SaveFoods Ltd., the Israeli subsidiary of Save Foods Inc. He previously led the Life Sciences Advisory at EY Israel and early on recognized the potential of Israel as a center of innovation in the digital health space. He has been an adviser on digital health strategy to large pharmaceutical companies and is a cofounder of MyndYou, a digital health start-up focusing on cognitive impairment. He is also a co-founder of the DigitalHealth.il conference, the largest digital health conference in Israel.

Dr. Neta Matis is Vice President of R&D at Save Foods Ltd the Israeli subsidiary of Save Foods Inc . She holds a Ph.D. in organic chemistry and an MBA from Tel Aviv University. Prior to joining Save Foods in 2019, she held multiple research chemist and product development roles at Verdia Inc. and its parent company, Helsinki-based Stora Enso Oyj.

Nimrod Ben Yehuda is the founder and CTO of Save Foods Ltd. He was previously the CEO/CTO of Swissteril Water Purifications Ltd. He has also been CEO at Nir Ecology Ltd., and was Joint-CEO at NitroJet Ltd.

Dr. Art Dawson is the U.S. Business Manager for SaveFoods Inc. He has been president of The Dawson Company, which focuses on creating sales opportunities for new agricultural technologies, previously Dr. Dawson held senior industry positions like General Manager Worldwide of the Decco , the Post Harvest Division for Elf Atochem. He holds a Ph.D. in Plant Physiology from UC Riverside and is licensed in California as an agricultural Pest Control Advisor.

Investment Considerations

• The agricultural produce treatment space has been active in recent years, attracting more than $26 billion in new investment in 2020.
• In May 2021, Save Foods Inc. closed on a $12 million public offering and uplisted its shares to the Nasdaq.
• The company has seen rapid movement from successful pilots with packing houses and food retailers.
• Save Foods Inc. products present prospective competitors multiple barriers to entry, including a short time to market, zero toxic residues and addressing both spoilage and food safety.
• The company has an exclusive agreement with PlanetAgro for distribution of Save Foods’ products in Mexico.

Additional Resources

• Company Website
• Corporate Media Kit
• NewsRoom

SRAX Inc. (NASDAQ: SRAX)

Sustainable Green Team Ltd. (OTC: SGTM)

Sustainable Green Team Ltd. (OTC: SGTM) is currently incorporated and in good standing in the State of Delaware. The company conducts business activities principally through its two wholly owned subsidiaries, National Storm Recovery LLC, a Delaware limited liability company, and Mulch Manufacturing Inc., an Ohio corporation.

Through its subsidiaries, the company provides tree services, debris hauling, removal and biomass recycling, mulch manufacturing, mulch packaging, sales of next-generation mulch products and sawmill operations manufacturing specialty cypress lumber.

The company’s primary corporate objective is to provide a solution for the treatment and handling of tree debris that has been historically sent to local landfills and disposal sites, creating an environmental burden and pressure on disposal sites around the nation, by converting the biomass into a marketable beneficial use product.

The company’s solutions are founded in sustainability, based on vertical integration efforts that begin with collecting tree debris through its tree services division and collection sites and then, through its processing division, recycling and using that tree debris as a feedstock that is manufactured into a variety of organic, attractive, next-generation mulch products that are packaged and sold to landscapers, installers and garden centers.

The company plans to expand its operations through a combination of organic growth and strategic acquisitions that are both accretive to earnings and positioned for rapid growth from the resulting synergistic opportunities identified. The company’s customers include governmental, residential and commercial clients.

Company Products and Services

Tree Care, Removal and Services

National Storm Recovery LLC (“NSR LLC”), d.b.a. Central Florida Arborcare (“CFA”), was initially founded to provide tree maintenance, disaster recovery, debris hauling, removal and disposal services. Each of these services is provided to residential, commercial and governmental customers and was structured to drive revenue for the company. Examples include:

• A multi-year contract with the Town of Oakland, Florida (an area known for its large old oak trees), for emergency debris hauling and tree removal and
• A multi-year contract with the Orange County, Florida, School District (covering 267 properties that include schools, administrative sites and maintenance facilities) for tree removal, trimming and maintenance services.

In each case, these contracts are renewable following their initial multi-year terms, with aggregate terms of five years.

NSR LLC has spent years perfecting its technique for proper tree care, removal and services. From tree removal, stump grinding and tree care to grapple hauling and storm recovery, NSR LLC/CFA ensures properties remain safe and business can continue as usual.

NSR LLC/CFA was established as a company to provide tree maintenance, disaster recovery, debris hauling (Rose Transport), removal and disposal services – services that provide it with access to a large amount of wood or tree debris.

Thought of from a different perspective, the company has access to a large amount of “feedstock” that is required to manufacture wood-based mulch products. However, unlike traditional wood-based mulch manufacturers who purchase ALL their feedstock, the company is paid to cut it, paid to haul it and paid to dispose of large volumes of clean wood debris. Its cost, in that limited equation, was its own disposal cost. However, by processing the tree material into mulch and selling it, the company:

1. Eliminates its disposal costs;
2. Receives the feedstock it would need as a mulch manufacturer at a much lower net cost;
3. Does not have to police its suppliers to ensure responsible tree harvesting, because the trees and material the company handles are either from trees and branches downed in storms or cut as part of the care and maintenance of the trees for which it is paid to care; and
4. Has a “cost structure” for its feedstock that is even better than a competitor that secures feedstock using unscrupulous or irresponsible harvesting methods and/or sources.

So, by grinding, screening and packaging the tree material that it is already receiving (and is paid to receive), the company is able to leverage its existing activities, create additional value and position itself to substantially increase its overall revenue and earnings prospects – all while decreasing the burden that this material would otherwise place on local landfills or collection sites.

Mulch

In February 2020, SGTM acquired 35-year-old industry leader and innovator Mulch Manufacturing Inc. (“MMI”). Structured as a share exchange, this strategic partnership provides the company with a significantly larger footprint in the mulch industry.

MMI will strive to become more vertically integrated by receiving a substantial volume of wood fiber recovered from CFA’s operations and its Rose Transport Grapple fleet to feed the growing raw material needs to augment its long-standing fiber procurement process. MMI has the product line and distribution system to address a substantial customer base, which can be expanded. MMI offers many mulch variants, including cypress, cypress bark, pine bark, IPEMA certified playground chips, numerous colored mulches and its proprietary patented ‘SoftScape’.

The acquisition includes MMI’s national distribution agreements, an increase in production and packaging capacity and its sales contracts with numerous big box retailers. MMI includes mulch production, sawmill operation, Nature’s Reflections colorant manufacturing and equipment manufacturing.

Next-Generation Products

The company’s vision and commitment to the environment is paired with MMI’s revolutionary “next-generation” mulch product, Nature’s Reflections Softscape®.

Softscape mulch products, created from natural forest products, are color-enhanced with environmentally safe colorants to provide four-year color retention and are free from contaminants. Safe for people and pets, Softscape allows water and air to penetrate soil and roots, which is vital to plant health.

Cypress Sawmill

Mulch Manufacturing’s Homerville Sawmill Operation is located in Homerville, Georgia. The mill was founded in 1981.

The mill currently operates as the nation’s only mill to exclusively saw cypress and has capacity to saw 6.5 million board feet annually. The mill has a drying capacity of 3.1 million board feet annually, as well as milling capabilities, and it produces in excess of 2,500 trucks of mulch products annually.

The mill is sourced through a network of timber companies, timber dealers and private landowners. Mulch Manufacturing ensures that best management practices are employed when harvesting cypress logs to ensure the sustainability of the product.

Room for Expansion

The company has received final zoning approval for its 100-acre site, located in Lake County, Astatula, Florida, which will serve as the company’s flagship tree debris collection site. The facility will also house the company’s mulch manufacturing, soil composting and production bagging. This prime location includes a 5,000-square-foot building that contains warehouse and office space. The 100-acre property can accommodate millions of cubic yards of organic debris and will allow the company’s debris hauling division to realize significant savings on its transportation costs.

The company has chosen as its new headquarters the Mulch Manufacturing facility in Jacksonville, Florida, comprising a 100,000-square-foot warehouse/truck terminal. It is located on 26 acres for centralized operations of MMI and NSR LLC, and it has ample room to expand as needed. The facility recently began new operations to provide grapple truck services, wood/biomass recycling and operation of a new mulch production/bagging facility in the Jacksonville area.

Leadership

SGTM’s leadership team boasts more than 40 years of next-level experience with mulch manufacturing and treating and caring for trees. This team is guided by a roster of highly qualified professionals:

• Tony Raynor, Chief Executive Officer
• Edward Lee, Chief Operating Officer
• Scott Siefker, Chief Financial Officer

Investment Considerations

• The SGTM team boasts more than 40 years of next-level experience with mulch manufacturing, colorant production, product innovation and treating/caring for trees and tree debris recycling.
• The company’s services include tree removal, trimming, grapple hauling, land clearing, stump grinding, mulch processing/production/bagging, colorant production, cypress lumber production, transportation and distribution.
• Its acquisition of MMI provides the company a significantly larger footprint nationally and abroad.
• MMI maintains its historical contracts with big box retailers nationally for bagged mulch sales.
• The company benefits from a competitive advantage over other mulch manufacturers, because the acquisition of mulch feedstock drives revenue instead of simply being a cost of goods sold.
• SGTM is an environmentally responsible corporation focused on being “stewards of the environment” in all aspects of its business; the source of its sustainable feedstock coming from its tree services division decreases the environmental burden on landfills.
• The company has ample room for expansion utilizing the 100-acre site in Florida approved as the flagship tree debris collection site and mulch feedstock production facility, as well as the 100,000-square-foot building and 28-acre site in Jacksonville.
• SGTM was a recipient of the Angie’s List Super Service Award in 2018.
• A strategic relationship with a national waste disposal company has provided the company millions of dollars in cost savings and years of time that would otherwise have been incurred if the company had needed to secure the required locations and permits that the partnership provided; this relationship represents a significant potential expansion opportunity for the company.
• SGTM’s indirect subsidiary through MMI, Nature’s Reflections, manufactures its own product line of colorant and mulch coloring machines.

Additional Resources

• Central Florida Arbor Care Website
• Mulch Manufacturing Website
• Corporate Media Kit
• NewsRoom

Red White & Bloom Brands Inc. (CSE: RWB) (OTCQX: RWBYF)

Red White & Bloom Brands Inc. (CSE: RWB) (OTCQX: RWBYF) is a torchbearer blazing a new frontier in American cannabis by adhering to the highest ethical, manufacturing, educational, branding and employment standards available in the industry.

Red White & Bloom is a super state operator, leveraging a sizable footprint to dominate the areas in which it operates. CEO Brad Rogers and other management members have seen the struggles of multi-state operators who have spread themselves too thin, which is why Red White & Bloom is intent on dominating each state it enters before expanding further.

Although targeting individual states in the United States, the company is headquartered in Toronto, Canada. Red White & Bloom was established after privately held MichiCann Medical Inc. merged with publicly traded Tidal Royalty in 2019.

Brands

Red White & Bloom has entered strategic brand acquisitions and partnerships aimed at helping the company expand its presence and position as one of the largest players in the United States cannabis market. Red White & Bloom is always diligently searching for brands to acquire that will provide additional value to the company and expand its national footprint.

The company’s current brand portfolio includes:

• Platinum Premium Cannabis Products (PV): Platinum uses innovative thinking, honesty and responsibility to remain at the forefront of the cannabis industry. PV holds itself and its partners to the highest standards, providing clean and safe CBD and THC products. In the company’s press release dated January 13, 2021, it reported system-wide sales of Platinum-branded products exceeding $2.8 million for the first week of January alone.
• High Times®: In June 2020, the company acquired the licensing rights and branding of High Times dispensaries and High Times cannabis-based CBD and THC products in Michigan, Illinois and Florida. The company also acquired branding of High Times hemp derived CBD products nationally in the United States carrying the Culture® brand.
• Mid-American Growers: Mid-American began as a family operation in 1971 in Granville, Illinois. The original 8-acre greenhouse has expanded to a 3.6-million-square-foot, state-of-the-art technology and science facility under glass. Mid-American’s product offerings include its CBD Icy Relief Salve, CBD Icy Relief Roll-on and CBD Gummies.

Retail Focus

Red White & Bloom is working to establish a significant retail presence across multiple jurisdictions. In Michigan, the company is invested in and has the rights to acquire (subject to regulatory approvals) a licensed operator that controls the assets of 18 dispensary locations throughout the state. Red White & Bloom is also pursuing opportunities in Florida aimed at making its proposed retail footprint compelling and attractive to the majority of cannabis consumers within each state.

Cultivation

Red White & Bloom is focused on standardization and quality, with everything guided by a relentless commitment to the highest standards. The company acquired a 3.6-million-square-foot standardized facility dedicated to helping it achieve premium value for the products it intends to cultivate.

As it continues to expand, the company remains committed to the practices that have guided its success in the past, including:

• A top-down approach to cultivation developed under the guidance of PhDs with expertise in growing principles, SOPs and, most importantly, the science behind it all.
• Commitment to exceeding the requirement of the states in which it operates. The company cut its teeth under the world’s first national cannabis purity regime – a regime that most new markets use as a benchmark – so quality is in its DNA.
• Science-driven production methods supported by automated, perpetual, standardized operations that enable craft cannabis-like quality at an industrial scale.

Footprint

Assuming completion of the currently proposed investments and acquisitions, Red White & Bloom will be among the cannabis market’s largest companies, joining the ranks of a select few multi-state operators dominating the industry. Red White & Bloom currently has assets (closed and in closing stages) in Michigan, Illinois, Florida, California, Oklahoma and Massachusetts.

The company’s strategic acquisition and super state operator model, combined with its commitment to top-quality product and service, position it to become a leading player in the North American cannabis market.

When evaluated beside competitors in the cannabis space, Red White & Bloom boasts an extremely attractive valuation. While large cap cannabis firms serving North American markets averaged enterprise-value-to-EBITDA multiples of 14.9x as of December 2020, Red White & Bloom’s enterprise multiple was just 3.4x, as noted in the company’s latest investor deck.

In 2020, the cannabis market worldwide was valued at $24.6 billion. This amount is expected to expand at a CAGR of 14.3% from 2021 to 2028, resulting in a market size of $84 billion in 2028 (https://nnw.fm/f09ZL). Of the 2020 valuation, the largest revenue share (91.1%) was attributed to North American consumers (https://nnw.fm/vObW6).

Management Team

Brad Rogers is the CEO and Executive Chair of Red White & Bloom. He is a visionary for the future of cannabis and CBD products in the United States market, with a proven track record of building successful and profitable businesses in the rapidly expanding and new economic sector. Mr. Rogers was a part of the team that built one of the first commercially scaled production facilities in the world for medicinal cannabis. He also served as President for one of the leading licensed producers in Canada. Both of his ventures were successful, with a combined market cap of $2 billion.

Michael Marchese is the company’s Co-Founder and Marketing Advisor. He has played a crucial role in its development and organization, overseeing capital raises, acquisition strategy and brand identity. Mr. Marchese has a strong reputation and presence in the cannabis industry. He also co-founded and directed the branding of Aleafia Health Inc., which he continues to counsel. Through his branded company, Marchese Design, he has served as a highly trusted counselor to top-level execs, including C-Suite level employees, offering insights into the process of creating, building and maintaining brand identities.

Theo van der Linde is the CFO and Director of Red White & Bloom. He is a Chartered Accountant with 20 years of experience in finance, administration and public accounting. The experience he has acquired spans multiple industries, including mining, oil & gas, financial services, retail and manufacturing. For the last nine years, he has primarily focused his career on the mining industry, working with junior exploration and producing mining companies at various stages of growth in several jurisdictions. Mr. van der Linde is also the current President of Executive Management Solutions Ltd.

Investment Considerations

• Red White & Bloom considers itself a super state operator (not a multi-state operator), as it goes in with a sizable footprint and dominates the areas in which it operates before expanding.
• The company currently operates, has cannabis assets in, or is in the process of closing cannabis assets in Michigan, Illinois, Florida, California, Oklahoma and Massachusetts.
• Red White & Bloom is always looking to acquire new brands that will help to expand its brand awareness and advance its mission.
• The company has established a major presence in Michigan through its investee, which has a total of 18 dispensaries and three cultivation operations.
• Red White & Bloom intends to finish 2021 with 50+ locations across the country.
• The company’s brand portfolio includes Platinum Vape, Platinum Wellness, High Times and Mid-American.
• The global cannabis market was valued at $24.6 billion in 2020, with 91.1% of this revenue attributed to North America; the market is expected to reach $84 billion by 2028.

Additional Resources

• Company Website
• NewsRoom

QSAM Biosciences Inc. (OTCQB: QSAM)

QSAM Biosciences Inc. (OTCQB: QSAM) is a clinical stage biotechnology company focused on bringing to market targeted therapeutic radiopharmaceuticals. The company is committed to advancing the fight against cancer through the discovery, development and delivery of effective treatment options for adult and pediatric patients.

QSAM Biosciences was founded in 2020 by Executive Chairman Dr. C. Richard Piazza and CEO Douglas Baum. It is headquartered in Austin, Texas.

CycloSam®

CycloSam®, QSAM Biosciences’ initial technology, is a clinical-stage bone targeting radiopharmaceutical invented by world-renowned scientists at IsoTherapeutics Group LLC. By leveraging a patented, low specific activity form of Samarium-153 (resulting in far less undesirable europium impurity) and what management believes to be a superior chelating agent in DOTMP, CycloSam is designed to selectively target sites of high bone mineral turnover to deliver a prescribed tumor-killing dose of radiation to the bone tumor sites while minimizing radiation exposure to nearby healthy tissue. These parameters are currently being tested in an FDA-cleared clinical trial.

CycloSam® has been shown in laboratory testing to cause significantly less (30x less) buildup of long-lived radionuclidic impurities than prior FDA-approved drugs, which management believes will enable the ability to safely administer therapeutic doses via higher and multiple-dose regimens and effectively expand its potential clinical utility to therapeutic uses in areas of high unmet medical needs.

The indications for CycloSam® currently being evaluated by QSAM Biosciences include:

• Metastatic Bone Cancers – On April 28, 2022, QSAM Biosciences announced that the first patient had commenced treatment in its clinical trial evaluating CycloSam in patients with metastatic bone cancer. As noted in the release, the study is a Phase 1 open-label, dose-escalation trial to evaluate the safety, tolerability, dosimetry, and preliminary efficacy of CycloSam®.
• Pediatric Osteosarcoma/Ewing’s Sarcoma – On February 2, 2022, the company announced that the U.S. FDA has granted Rare Pediatric Disease Designation to CycloSam for the treatment of osteosarcoma. Combined with a previously granted orphan drug designation for osteosarcoma received in 2021, this milestone “may allow QSAM to potentially bring CycloSam® to market more rapidly through additional incentives and eligibilities,” according to CEO Douglas Baum.
• Bone Marrow Ablation – In a 2020 single patient Investigational New Drug (IND) study, an investigator concluded that high-dose CycloSam® can be administered safely to ablate bone marrow in advance of a stem cell transplant with no apparent renal toxicity and no unexpected adverse events attributable to the drug.

QSAM Biosciences’ preclinical and clinical development pipeline is supported by a strong IP portfolio. The company has secured 14 patents across three distinct patent families spanning the U.S., Japan, Canada and the European Union.

Market Outlook

Through its ongoing development of CycloSam®, QSAM Biosciences is targeting multiple large and underserved market opportunities. According to the American Cancer Society, roughly 400,000 new cases of malignant bone metastasis are diagnosed annually in the U.S. alone. Additionally, QSAM will pursue indications for osteosarcoma and Ewing’s sarcoma that are the most common primary malignancies of bone tissues in children.

Despite this pressing need, the current standard of care for bone cancer is aggressive and suboptimal, leading to marginal success with significant side effects and poor long-term survival prognosis. As a result, QSAM Biosciences estimates a sizable market opportunity for its development pipeline.

• Bone Metastasis has an estimated total addressable market of $20 billion in the U.S. based on total new cases and comparable drug pricing.
• Osteosarcoma/Ewing’s Sarcoma have a total addressable market of roughly $125 million in the U.S. based on approximately 1,000 new cases in 2021.
• The total addressable market for Bone Marrow Ablation is projected at $1 billion, with an estimated 32,000 procedures completed annually.

The company anticipates that the ability to administer CycloSam® for higher and multiple-dose regimens may expand its clinical utility for therapeutic uses in additional areas of high unmet medical needs.

Management Team

QSAM Biosciences is led by an experienced management team and board with an extensive record of FDA approvals, big pharma partnerships and M&A transactions.

Dr. C. Richard Piazza is the Executive Chairman of QSAM Biosciences. Since 2017, he has also served as President and CEO of IGL Pharma Inc., the licensor of CycloSam®, and as a consultant to IsoTherapeutics Group LLC, the inventors of the technology. Dr. Piazza also currently serves on the board of directors of NovaScan LLC, a privately held cancer detection and diagnostics company. He has more than 48 years of health care experience in both medical devices and pharmaceutical/biotech and has led several technology companies to market success, including numerous FDA approvals in both sectors. Dr. Piazza obtained a BS in Economics and a BS in Speech Pathology from the State University of New York and an MA & PhD in Economics from the University of Buffalo and Leeds University.

Douglas R. Baum is the company’s CEO and Director. He brings to QSAM Biosciences over 30 years of experience in the bioscience and biotech industries, including development, FDA/EMA approval and commercialization of multiple drugs and medical devices. Mr. Baum has overseen 15 product approvals through the FDA and EMA and raised over $85 million in capital to fund breakthrough technologies. From 2017 to 2020, he consulted with multiple medical schools and biotech and pharmaceutical companies, and, from 2012 to 2017, he served as President, Chief Executive Officer and Director of Xeris Pharmaceuticals Inc. Mr. Baum holds a Master of Science in Technology Commercialization and a BBA in International Business and Marketing from the University of Texas.

Adam King is the CFO of QSAM Biosciences. He is also the Founder and CEO of King Consulting Group, where he provides a range of financial and reporting services for clients. Before founding King Consulting Group in January 2021, Mr. King was the CFO for Netsertive, a venture-backed digital marketing company. From 2016 to 2018, he was the Office Managing Audit Director for BDO’s Greenville, South Carolina, office, in addition to serving as Audit Director in Raleigh, North Carolina, and Boston, Massachusetts. While at BDO, Mr. King worked with various clients, from tech and life science start-ups to billion-dollar publicly traded companies. He holds a Bachelor of Science in Accounting from Elon University and is a CPA in Raleigh, North Carolina.

Investment Considerations

• QSAM Biosciences Inc. is committed to advancing the fight against cancer through the discovery, development and delivery of effective treatment options for adult and pediatric patients.
• CycloSam®, QSAM Biosciences’ initial technology, is a clinical-stage bone targeting radiopharmaceutical being evaluated for multiple indications.
• CycloSam has been shown to cause significantly less buildup of long-lived radionuclidic impurities than prior FDA-approved drugs.
• There is significant precedent that the radioisotope used in CycloSam, Samarium-153, is effective in treating bone cancer, as demonstrated in a published study conducted in over 500 patients using an older formulation of the drug.
• There is also significant preliminary safety precedent for Samarium-153, as shown through the 2020 single patient IND and the super-therapeutic dose administered in that study.
• QSAM Biosciences’ preclinical and clinical development pipeline is supported by a strong IP portfolio.
• The company is led be an experienced management team with an extensive record of FDA approvals, big pharma partnerships and M&A transactions.

Additional Resources

• Company Website
• Corporate Presentation
• NewsRoom

Pressure BioSciences Inc. (PBIO)

Pressure BioSciences, Inc. (NASDAQ: PBIO) develops, markets and sells proprietary laboratory instrumentation and associated consumables to the life sciences sample preparation market. Sample preparation refers to the wide range of activities that precede most forms of scientific analysis. It is often complex and time-consuming, yet a critical part of scientific research. The market for sample preparation products is currently estimated at $6 billion worldwide.

The Company’s product line can be used to exquisitely control the sample preparation process. It is based on a patented, enabling technology platform called pressure cycling technology (“PCT”). PCT uses alternating cycles of hydrostatic pressure between ambient (14.5 psi) and ultra-high levels (up to 100,000 psi) to safely and reproducibly control critical biological processes, such as the lysis (breakage) of cells, the digestion of proteins, and the inactivation of pathogens.

Pressure BioSciences’ product line is led by its newly released, next-generation Barocycler 2320EXTREME instrument. Named a finalist in the prestigious 2017 R&D Awards (also known as the “Oscars of Innovation”), the Barocycler 2320EXT is already being touted by some key opinion leaders as an essential element of the $1.8 billion U.S. “Cancer Moonshot” program. For example, Professor Phil Robinson, Co-head of the cancer research center of the Children’s Medical Research Institute (Sydney, Australia), said in a recent interview: “We are collecting the whole proteome on 70,000 tumor samples from all classes where complete clinical outcome is known. Due to its unique capabilities, the Barocycler 2320EXT has become a critical part of our program. It is the primary enabler of the high-throughput component of the project. Without this step, our project simply could not be done. In fact, the Barocycler 2320EXT works so well we have just purchased two more.”

Momentum is building when it comes to the potential for using the Company’s unique PCT technology platform. Leading scientists are intrigued by Pressure BioSciences’ approach, which among other attributes, revolutionizes the process of rupturing cells (lysis) for further study, yielding superior biomolecules for investigation. The Company’s technology transcends current methods of breaking open cells, which use chemicals, blades, metal beads, or other damaging and altering methods that can ultimately adversely affect the result for researchers. Pressure BioSciences’ PCT technology utilizes customized, controlled hydrostatic (water) pressure to rupture cells in a chamber, enabling exquisitely customized levels of pressure to optimally break open different types of cells at prescribed pressure levels—something never before accomplished in a commercial setting. Using this pioneering method, the result is a truer, more legitimate sample, which boosts the efficacy of research and the quality of results. The potential impact of this technology on scientific advancement is enormous, enabling research scientists to begin their studies with biological samples of unprecedented integrity, with the potential to improve research outcomes at the earliest, most critical step. PCT can additionally inactivate pathogens (e.g., viruses, bacteria) using hydrostatic pressure, making the samples safer to study—another innovation with astronomical potential for application in a variety of markets.

The Company’s high-pressure instruments for research purposes are marketed throughout the United States, Europe, China and Japan. To date, Pressure BioSciences has installed nearly 300 PCT Systems in over 165 leading academic, government, biotech and pharma laboratories around the world. Its primary applications are in biomarker discovery, forensics, agriculture and pathology. Over 100 scientific papers have been published on the advantages of the PCT platform, which is also being used in the specialized fields of drug discovery and design, bio-therapeutics characterization, soil and plant biology, vaccine development and histology.

Impressive as their biotech business is, there is more to the PBI story. Pressure BioSciences recently received two patents in China for its novel Ultra Shear Technology (UST), a process that has potential in a wide range of industrial applications, including extending the shelf life of some food products and making two insoluble liquids (like oil in water) soluble. Patents have also been filed in many other countries worldwide. UST is a novel technique based on the use of intense shear forces generated from ultra-high-pressure valve discharge.

This important technology has the potential to play a significant role in a number of commercially important areas through its ability to create high-quality, stable nanoemulsions. Scientific studies indicate that improved absorption, higher bioavailability, greater stability, lower surfactant levels and other advantages can be achieved with nanoemulsions – all hugely important factors in the fields of nutraceuticals, cosmetics, pharmaceuticals, and in various medical products. There is an enormous opportunity in the cannabis market, since the technology can potentially reduce oil droplets containing cannabidiol (CBD) to nanoparticles, after which they can be safely suspended in a stable water solution—something many companies have endeavored to achieve without success. Researchers looking for a way to increase the bioavailability of cannabinoids in the body will find this technology a game changer.

The Company’s UST technology also has possibilities in the production of clean label foods, which are currently processed using several innovative methods, including high-pressure treatments (such as Starbucks’ Evolution line of juices). In 2015, the worldwide market for high-pressure processed (HPP) food was estimated at U.S. $10 billion. UST uses ultra-high pressures and certain valves to generate intense shear forces under controlled temperature conditions to produce nanoemulsions, and which also significantly reduces food-borne pathogens. Pressure BioSciences’ initial focus with this technology will be to evaluate UST for the production of high-quality dairy products and beverages.

Investment Considerations

• Poised to disrupt sciences sample preparation market estimated at $6 billion
• Nearly 300 patented enabling technology platform products installed at more than 150 sites worldwide
• Two patents awarded in China for Ultra Shear Technology used in wide range of industrial applications, including “clean foods.”
• Finalist in prestigious 2017 R&D 100 Awards recognizing top revolutionary technologies.
• Technology being used as part of the U.S. “Cancer Moonshot” initiative.

Predictive Oncology (NASDAQ: POAI)

Predictive Oncology (NASDAQ: POAI) is focused on the use of data and artificial intelligence (AI) to develop personalized cancer therapies, which can lead to more effective treatments and improved patient outcomes. The company has several tools that support its mission of bringing precision medicine to the diagnosis of cancer.

Through its subsidiaries, Predictive Oncology’s portfolio of assets includes the following:

• A database of clinically validated historical and outcome data from patient tumors
• An in-house Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments (CLIA)-certified lab
• A “smart” patient-derived tumor profiling platform
• An in-house bioinformatics artificial intelligence (AI) platform
• A new computerized approach growing tumors in the lab to rapidly develop patient specific treatment options
• An FDA-approved fluid collection and disposal system

Using these resources, and in collaboration with key players in the pharmaceutical, diagnostic and biotech industries Predictive Oncology is working to determine the best pathways for more individualized and effective cancer treatment.

Subsidiaries

Predictive Oncology leverages the synergies of its three wholly owned subsidiaries to bring precision medicine to the diagnosis of cancer.

Helomics applies artificial intelligence to its rich data gathered from the company’s trove of more than 150,000 tumors to personalize cancer therapies for patients as well as drive the development of new targeted therapies in collaborations with pharmaceutical companies. This database, the largest of its kind in the world, is comprised of ovarian, head and neck, colon and pancreas tumors. Helomic’s CLIA-certified lab provides clinical testing that assists oncologists in individualizing patient treatment decisions, by providing an evidence-based roadmap for therapy.

In addition to its proprietary precision oncology platform, Helomics offers boutique CRO services that leverage its TruTumor™ patient-derived tumor models coupled to a wide range of multi-omics assays (genomics, proteomics and biochemical), and an AI-powered proprietary platform (D-CHIP) to provide a tailored solution to its clients’ specific needs.

TumorGenesis is developing a new, rapid approach to growing tumors in the laboratory without the use of rats or mice, allowing for the identification of biomarkers indicative of cancer. This methodology “fools” the tumor into thinking it is still in the body. As a result, the tumor reacts as it naturally would, thereby increasing the accuracy of the biomarker. Once the biomarkers are identified, they can be used in TumorGenesis’ Oncology Capture Technology Platforms which isolate and helps categorize an individual patient’s heterogeneous tumor samples to enable development of patient-specific treatment options.

Skyline Medical’s patented, FDA-cleared STREAMWAY® System is the first true, direct-to-drain fluid disposal system designed specifically for medical applications such as radiology, endoscopy, urology and cystoscopy procedures. The STREAMWAY system is changing the way healthcare facilities collect and dispose of potentially infectious waste fluid by connecting directly to a facility’s plumbing system to automate the collection, measurement and disposal of waste fluids.

The STREAMWAY minimizes human intervention for better safety and improves compliance with Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) and other regulatory agency safety guidelines. The STREAMWAY eliminates canisters, carts and evacuated bottles, which reduces overhead costs and minimizes environmental impact by helping to eliminate the approximately 50 million potentially disease-infected canisters that go into landfills annually in the United Sates.

Skyline has achieved sales in five of the seven continents through both direct sales and distributor partners.

Competitive Advantage

Precision medicine has become the holy grail of cancer therapeutics. Data driven predictive models of tumors and their responses are critical in both new drug development and individualized patient treatment. The race has begun to model various tumors, which takes 5 to 7 years of clinical evaluation to establish historical and outcome data.

Predictive Oncology enjoys significant competitive advantage. The company already has a vast historical collection of tumors and related data, plus the ability to obtain existing associated outcome data. While others wait for outcome data, Predictive Oncology is in a unique and powerful position, working to deliver the promise of precision medicine to reality. Predictive Oncology already has the clinical data, including how a tumor responded to certain drugs, an in-house bioinformatics AI platform, and only needs to do the tumor sequencing. The significance is underscored by the collaboration with UPMC Magee-Women’s Hospital, designed to reveal which mutations responded to which drug then develop powerful predictive models for future testing and treatment.

Leadership Team

J. Melville (“Mel”) Engle, Chairman and CEO of Predictive Oncology, has over 20 years’ experience in leadership roles in both the biotechnology and healthcare industries. Mr. Engle was previously the CEO of Engle Strategic Solutions, a practice specializing in consulting and coaching for CEOs and business owners. Prior to starting his consulting practice in 2012, Mr. Engle served as CEO of Thermogenesis, a Nasdaq-listed company. In 2002, Mr. Engle was recruited by Merck KGaA to serve as President and CEO of Dey L.P, a division of Merck, where he played an instrumental role in increasing sales from $250 million to over $600 million during his tenure. From 1980 to 1994, Mr. Engle served as a senior executive with Allergan Inc., which marketed branded eye care pharmaceuticals, surgical and diagnostic equipment, dermatological products and Botox.

CFO Bob Myers has over 30 years of experience in multiple industries focusing on medical device service and manufacturing. He has spent much of his career as a CFO and controller. Myers holds an MBA in Finance from Adelphi University and a BBA in public accounting from Hofstra University.

Dr. Mark Collins, Chief Information Officer of Helomics, has held multiple executive roles in a variety of discovery, informatics and bioinformatics functions within global pharma, and founded three startup software companies in the machine learning and drug discovery space. In 2001, Dr. Collins worked for Cellomics (now part of Thermo Fisher Scientific), where he played a pivotal role in establishing the High-Content Cell Analysis market, building and commercializing several key informatics and bioinformatics products. After leaving Thermo Fisher, Dr. Collins developed and commercialized informatics solutions for clinical and translational research, specifically in the specimen tracking, omics data management and NGS analysis space, through key roles at BioFortis, Global Specimens Solutions and Genedata. Dr. Collins received his undergraduate degree in Applied Science from the University of Wolverhampton, UK and his Ph.D. in Microbiology from the University of Surrey, UK.

Investment Considerations

• Helomics is collaborating with the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine to study the use of artificial intelligence to improve clinical decision making for ovarian cancer patients. More than 22,000 women are diagnosed with ovarian cancer in the U.S. each year.
• Entered an agreement with Interpace Diagnostics Group Inc. (IDXG) and Helomics to develop products to diagnose and assess the risk for thyroid cancer as well as provide appropriate therapeutic recommendations. The treatment market for thyroid cancer is expected to reach $2.1 billion by 2025.
• Skyline Medical has received its first order for four STREAMWAY machines to be sold to local hospitals in India. The Indian healthcare industry is estimated at more than $100 billion, with the nation’s medical device industry valued at more than $6 billion.
• Helomics signed a collaborative research agreement with Pittsburgh-based molecular imaging company, ChemImage, to expand personalized medicine to prostate cancer diagnosis and treatment.
• TumorGenesis and partner 48Hour Discovery received the Alberta Innovates grant for development of novel cancer treatments.

Additional Resources

• Corporate Media Kit
• Research Report
• Predictive Oncology Website
• Skyline Medical Website
• Helomics Website
• Leadership Team
• NewsRoom

Skyline Medical

Helomics

PlantX Life Inc. (CSE: VEGA) (Frankfurt: WNT1) (OTCQB: PLTXF)

PlantX Life Inc. (CSE: VEGA) (Frankfurt: WNT1) (OTCQB: PLTXF) aims to redefine the plant-based community through e-commerce, with a core objective of becoming the most trusted and convenient destination for people living plant-based lives. PlantX is a multifaceted marketplace providing consumers all things plant-based ranging from an efficient e-commerce experience, connecting consumers with interactive PlantX brick-and-mortar stores, and a PlantX home delivery system for products, meals, recipes and more.

PlantX is a high-growth technology company focusing on consumer-packaged goods (“CPG”) for the plant-based opportunity. The PlantX platform aims to serve as the digital face of this community with its one-stop-shop for everything plant-based, including:

• An easy-to-use e-commerce shopping experience featuring the following:
  • Plant-based grocery items (from all your pantry needs to vitamins, cosmetics and even pet food)
  • Meal delivery with recipes created by well-known plant-based chefs throughout the world
  • Plant shop – delivering a wide variety of affordable indoor houseplants to homes across Canada and the U.S.
  • Easy to follow plant-based recipes every week
  • Partnerships with restaurants, nutritionists, chefs and brands
  • A community of like-minded individuals
• State-of-the-art flagship PlantX locations

Since first launching in February 2020, PlantX Life has offered various services available through its comprehensive platform. This online marketplace features over 10,000 items across diverse product categories such as pantry items, beverages, personal care, pet food and indoor plants. In addition, PlantX has collaborated with renowned chefs and nutritionists to create 20 unique and pre-made meals delivered to the comfort of your own home.

Headquartered in Vancouver, Canada, PlantX’s mission is to spearhead the plant-based movement, celebrate and promote health and wellbeing, raise plant-based awareness in a hyper-palatable world, connect with global consumers and forge a welcoming plant-based community.

The company currently reports 4 million stock options and 24 million warrants outstanding, with a total of 88,832,159 shares issued and outstanding and a total market cap of $89.9 million on January 18, 2021. PlantX has continued to catalyze its capital markets dynamics by applying to list its common shares on the Nasdaq Capital Market (“NASDAQ”). The company’s common shares are eligible for electronic clearing and settlement through The Depository Trust Company (“DTC”) in the United States.

Market Outlook

With its comprehensive e-commerce platform, PlantX is strongly positioned for a prominent role in the fast-growing plant-based food market, e-commerce and the online food delivery sectors. The global plant-based food market is expected to reach $74.2 billion by 2027, expanding at a CAGR of 11.9% . Similarly, the online food delivery market has steadily grown, especially during the current pandemic. This trend seems here to stay. In the United States alone, the sector is expected to report $28.5 billion by 2024, with companies such as UberEats experiencing 152% increases in food deliveries in the summer of 2020.

Complementary to these trends, and as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, online sales and digitization have also both grown exponentially in 2020. Grocery shopping has seen a remarkable transition to e-commerce, withonline grocery sales growing by 53% in 2020. Amid the pandemic-imposed physical interactions and related consumer behavior change, large retailers have been compelled to meet this surge in e-commerce demand. For example, Whole Foods Markets has increased its online sales capacity by over 60% in 2020. The global meal kit delivery system is also becoming increasingly popular and is expected to achieve a market value of $19.92 billion by 2027, expanding at a CAGR of 12.8%.

PlantX aims to capitalize on this anticipated exponential market growth of the plant-based, e-commerce and home-delivery industries.

Digital Platform for the Plant-Based Community

The digital interface provided by PlantX spans a health and wellness initiative that offers thousands of plant-based products, meal delivery, indoor plants, recipes and a community space for those who are like-minded about plant-based products and healthy lifestyles. PlantX has been compared to Amazon, except with a focused tailored selection of plant-based offerings.

PlantX provides everything a consumer needs for plant-based living at the click of a button. With PlantX, customers can:

• Shop
• Find recipes
• Read blogs
• Join a community forum
• Listen to podcasts
• View cosmetics
• Research vitamins
• Purchase plant-based pet foods
• Read corporate updates
• Subscribe to an insightful newsletter

The company’s website was designed with a user-friendly interface that allows customers to visit the site and easily find what they need. Forums for communicating with a plant-based community make it easier to swap recipes or locate the best restaurants serving vegan and vegetarian-friendly cuisine.

PlantX Flagship Locations – British Columbia (Canada), San Diego (California), & the State of Israel

PlantX will link the e-commerce platform to flagship brick-and-mortar stores for a highly sensory customer experience. This is anticipated to drive corporate growth and global brand recognition.

These PlantX branded flagship locations will first launch in:

• Squamish, British Columbia, Canada
• San Diego, California, United States
• Tel Aviv, State of Israel

Customer engagement, education and creating a global plant-based community will be furthered through this initiative.

PlantX Restaurant Partnerships

With consumers becoming better informed and more health and environmentally conscious, a growing number of restaurants will start catering to the needs of customers who are vegan, vegetarian, have food-allergies (or specialized diets), or simply want to eat healthier.

PlantX proactively aims to support this change and help restaurants meet the needs of the plant-based community. Restaurants that want to increase revenue, drive traffic and make an impact can therefore partner with PlantX to better serve their customers by expanding and refining their menus.

Future Goals for PlantX Life

Having successfully completed all of the milestones that PlantX had set-out to achieve in the second half of 2020, PlantX strives to continue scaling through organic growth, strategic partnerships and accretive M&A opportunities. The upcoming plans from PlantX includes a global expansion strategy for distribution in North America, Europe and Israel.

Verticals launched in 2020 include:

• New meals and programs by renowned chefs
• Flagship PlantX locations
• PlantX branded goods
• United States meal delivery and LIV
• Online peer-to-peer fitness

Management Team

Sean Dollinger, the Founder of PlantX Life Inc., has had a very active professional career that started when he was only 17. While still in college, he started a delivery service that soon became one of Canada’s largest delivery firms (before companies like Postmates and Uber Eats ever existed). In 2014, Mr. Dollinger founded Namaste Technologies, the largest international e-commerce distributor of vaporizers and accessories. He brought Namaste public and turned it into a $1.2 billion business in two years. After finding a plant-based diet himself, and seeing the massive benefits that it provided for him, he decided he wanted to find a way to give back to the community and focus on something he loves. PlantX Life was born from this desire and became his passion project. He truly walks the talk.

Julia Frank is the CEO of PlantX Life. She has an MBA in digital entrepreneurship, and, in her past roles, she set up renowned strategies for large corporations like BMW and Daimler in Germany. Beyond her professional business prowess, Ms. Frank finds tremendous joy in preparing delicious and nutritious plant-based meals and is the face of the company. She practices a healthy and active lifestyle that includes experiencing as many cultures as possible to add more knowledge of the industry at large. This globally inclusive perspective gives her the unique advantage of being able to see plant-based living from all angles.

Lorne Rapkin, CPA, CA, LPA, is the President and CFO of PlantX Life and is also a partner at Rapkin Wein LLP. He has experience with clients in almost every industry, including finance, professional services, real estate, automotive, media and manufacturing. Mr. Rapkin works very closely with investment and public firms, seeking to comply with IFRS accounting standards. His roles often require him to work with management on go-public transactions, acquisitions and mergers. His keen attention to detail is an asset to any client he works with, and PlantX is no exception.

Alex Hoffman is the company’s CMO and has spent the last 10 years in the creative field cultivating her passion for design and appreciation for beauty. This is apparent in all of the creative decisions and outcomes seen at PlantX. Her role within the company is to oversee all of the brand marketing activities, establish and execute key processes for rapid growth, and work closely with management to refine the brand’s message for key segments and emerging opportunities. She has a sharp vision for exactly what’s needed to convey the company’s core messages and principles to both the public and investors, and she is a visionary with respect to creative marketing ideas and concepts.

Investment Considerations

• First-Mover Advantage: PlantX maintains a first-mover advantage as the first (known) public company fully focused on the plant-based e-commerce space.
• Strong Execution: PlantX has strong business fundamentals. The company is well-capitalized with cash on the balance sheet, no debt, low CapEx requirements and diverse revenue streams.
• Discounted to Peers: For the month of December 2020, PlantX achieved a gross revenue of $1,029,883. PlantX is strongly positioned against public plant-based peers, who are trading at much higher revenue multiples.
• High-Growth Sectors: PlantX’s operates in three high-growth industries – the plant-based, e-commerce/technology and consumer-packaged goods sectors. PlantX plans to fill the void in the marketplace by bridging the gap between these investment opportunities.
• Organic Growth & Strategic M&A: The company plans to grow organically through new partnerships, global brick-and-mortar locations and additional product verticals, as well as through a pipeline of accretive M&A opportunities.
• Global Positioning: The move for PlantX is global, and the intent to list on Nasdaq evidences PlantX’s commitment to investor accessibility and corporate growth.

Nextech AR Solutions Corp. (CSE: NTAR) (OTCQB: NEXCF)

Nextech AR Solutions Corp. (CSE: NTAR) (OTCQB: NEXCF), based in Vancouver, Canada, is a leading provider of web-based augmented reality for e-commerce, advertising and virtual events, with technology ranging from simple 3D images to using 360-degree videos. Nextech AR provides businesses with a powerful end-to-end augmented reality platform designed specifically to increase online sales.

The company is currently pursuing four unique verticals with its innovative technology, including:

• Virtual Conference Platform: Nextech’s advanced Augmented Reality and Video Learning Experience Platform for Events leverages an SaaS model to give organizations the ability to create engaging virtual event management and learning experiences. Automated closed captions and translations for over 64 languages are available. The global virtual events market was valued at $90 billion in 2020 by Grandview Research, and it’s expected to reach more than $400 billion by 2027.
• ARitize™ for eCommerce: Launched in early 2019, the company’s SaaS platform for webAR in eCommerce serves as a ‘full funnel’ end-to-end e-commerce solution for the AR industry. The solution includes the Aritize360 app for 3D product capture, ‘Try it On’ technology for online apparel, 3D and 360-degree product views, ‘one click buy’ and much more.
• ARitize™ 3D/AR Advertising Platform: Launched in Q1 2020, this ad platform is being marketed as the industry’s first end-to-end solution leveraging 3D asset creation for 3D/AR ads. In 2019, according to IDC, global advertising spend totaled roughly $725 billion.
• ARitize™ Hollywood Studios: The studio is in development as a means of producing immersive content using 360-degree videos and augmented reality as primary display platforms.

Unique Marketing Strategy

Nextech AR’s efforts to disrupt the market for web-based augmented reality for e-commerce are supported by a unique go to market strategy. First, the company seeks to build or acquire platforms targeting a number of rapid growth industries, most notably AR, edTech, e-commerce, 3D/AR advertising and virtual & hybrid events.

After identifying these market opportunities, the company seeks to integrate new AR technologies into existing or novel platforms in an effort to secure market share and promote growth. These technologies include WebAR, Human Holograms, 360 Portals, ScreenAR, Genie in the bottle and AiRShow.

Nextech AR then aims to leverage these platforms to land and expand partnerships with a number of blue chip customers. The company’s current customer base includes the likes of Amazon, Johnson & Johnson, ViacomCBS, Toyota and Carnegie Mellon University.

Growth Capital

Nextech AR generates revenue through a software-as-a-service model from technology services, delivery of service revenue and sales of products through e-commerce.

As noted in its latest investor presentation, the company achieved record bookings in Q4 2020 of $7.3 million (estimated), marking a greater than 275% year-over-year increase. The company also realized greater than 235% revenue growth for calendar 2020, reporting $20 million for the 12-month period. Nextech AR attributes its 2020 increase in revenues to the contracts secured with new customers, expanded agreements with existing customers and additional conversions from e-commerce channels.

With its newly launched 3D ad network now bolstering its operations, Nextech AR is projecting revenues in excess of $50 million for 2021.

Recent Company Highlights

• February 16, 2021: The company announced it has hired Zak Mcleod, formerly of Fastly, as its new Senior Director of Sales – EMEA. The company also announced that Rory Ganness, formerly of Salesforce.com, has joined the Nextech team as Director of Enterprise Sales – North America.
• February 11, 2021: The company announced the launch of version 2.0 of its AiR Show app, an application that turns top music artists into interactive ‘live’ holograms, providing an immersive and engaging AR experience.
• February 8, 2021: The company announced the launch of new standardized chat features within its Virtual Experience Platform (VXP) and recently-launched ARoom collaborative streaming solution. Nextech will also offer the chat platform as a stand-alone SaaS service externally, increasing the company’s revenue potential for 2021.
• January 26, 2021: The company announced, in partnership with ARB Meetings and Events, it has signed a six-figure annual contract to supply its InfernoAR video conferencing and virtual events platform to NAMD.
• January 25, 2021: The company announced that Strategic Site Selection (SSS), a 15 year old site selection leader in the meeting and events industry, has selected Nextech AR as a preferred channel partner, making Nextech’s industry leading virtual experience platform and services available to SSS clients.
• January 20, 2021: The company announced that Microsoft’s Azure Cloud Services platform will be a standard offering across its virtual experience platforms and consumer apps, enabling hyper-scalable, secure and immersive events and applications for users.
• January 15, 2021: The company signed a renewal agreement with Poly with an initial value of $470,000 for a six-month term and the potential for additional revenue after the six months.

Management Team

Evan Gappelberg is CEO and Founder of Nextech AR. He is an experienced operating executive specializing in creating, funding and running hyper-growth startups in both the public and private sectors. Notably, he took Take-Two Interactive Software Inc. (NASDAQ: TTWO) public with a market cap of $30 million and played a key role in guiding its growth to a current market cap of roughly $14 billion. Mr. Gappelberg has extensive experience as both a hands-on operating executive and a public markets professional.

Paul Duffy is the company’s President. He is a serial entrepreneur with over 25 years of experience in successfully starting, expanding, diversifying and selling global technology companies. Mr. Duffy is the creator of the HumaGram and inventor of the patent for Holographic Telepresence over the Internet (TOIP).

Augen Winschel is the COO of Nextech AR. He is an 18-year SAP executive with over 20 years of leadership experience in the areas of business management, business operations, marketing, product management, digital business and enterprise artificial intelligence.

Kashif Malik, CPA, CA, is the company’s CFO. He has over 15 years of financial experience spanning IPOs, M&A activity, corporate restructuring and capital raising. Mr. Malik has worked globally with public and private companies, including Merck & Company Inc. (NYSE: MRK), Real Matters Inc. (TSX: REAL) and Constellation Software Inc. (TSX: CSU). He obtained his Chartered Accountant designation while working at Deloitte.

Hareesh Acchi is the company’s President of 3D/AR Advertising. He is a 20-year Microsoft technology veteran with experience leading digital transformation and scaling businesses and enterprise organizations across the advertising industry.

Investment Considerations

• Nextech AR Solutions Corp. is a leading provider of web-based augmented reality for e-commerce, advertising and virtual events.
• The company provides businesses with a powerful end-to-end augmented reality platform designed specifically to increase online sales.
• Nextech AR’s current customer base includes the likes of Amazon, Johnson & Johnson, ViacomCBS, Toyota and Carnegie Mellon University.
• The company achieved record bookings in Q4 2020 of $7.3 million (estimated), marking a greater than 275% year-over-year increase.
• The Nextech AR management team has extensive experience stemming from time with a collection of Fortune 500 companies.

Nemaura Medical Inc. (NASDAQ: NMRD)

Nemaura Medical Inc. (NASDAQ: NMRD) is a medical technology company developing affordable diagnostic and digital tools for chronic disease management. Its flagship product, sugarBEAT®, is a wearable, non-invasive and flexible Continuous Glucose Monitor (CGM) designed to help people with diabetes and prediabetes manage their glucose levels. Insulin users can adjunctively use sugarBEAT when calibrated with a finger-stick glucose reading.

sugarBEAT consists of a daily disposable adhesive skin patch connected to a rechargeable transmitter with a smartphone app displaying glucose readings at five-minute intervals for periods of up to 24 hours. One of the great advantages of the product, apart from the fact that users no longer need to draw blood samples or prick their fingers, is that a person can wear the CGM patch on whatever day they choose. Existing CGM devices must be implanted under the skin. Wearable disposability is a unique feature of sugarBEAT and a world first, opening up vast potential for changing the way people manage their chronic disease conditions. sugarBEAT received CE mark clearance in May 2019, allowing it to be marketed and sold within the European Union as a Class 2b Medical Device. The company submitted a premarket approval (PMA) application to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in 2020 which is currently under review.

Founded in 2011, Nemaura set out to develop a single platform technology to measure blood markers at the surface of the skin. Since then, the company has evolved with the creation of wearable technologies and digital health care solutions that encourage and empower people to take charge of their own health and well-being. Nemaura’s skin surface blood monitoring technology has allowed the company to create additional products, which are in the pipeline, such as Lactate Monitoring.

Technologies

Digital Solutions for Weight Loss and Potential Reversal of Type 2 Diabetes

This is a digital program that comes with more than a decade of clinical evidence demonstrating excellent efficacy. The company has combined this with its glucose-monitoring platform to bring a product to market to help people with diabetes manage their condition and potentially reverse Type 2 diabetes.

Glucose Monitoring Solutions for Diabetes Prevention and Reversal

Over 420 million people worldwide are living with diabetes, and prediabetes cases total almost three times that number. Undoubtedly, diabetes is an urgent global health crisis. Combining clinical research with patient-friendly technology, Nemaura’s sugarBEAT product delivers a non-invasive, affordable and flexible method of blood glucose tracking for improved diabetes management.

Continuous Lactate Monitoring for Athletic Performance (Non-Medical)

Lactic acid is a key performance indicator for the body and a guide to how well muscles react to long term exertion and recovery. Well-trained athletes and those who regularly engage in sports are very efficient at faster lactate ‘recycling’ for extra energy (ATP). Nemaura expects to launch its lactate sensor to the sports and personal training market in 2022.

Continuous Lactate Monitoring in Disease State (Medical)

An increase in blood lactate levels is also a marker of critical disease states. Recent publications have indicated the presence of elevated lactate levels in patients with COVID-19 infection. Nemaura has developed a lactate sensor that is being integrated into the company’s platform, which will be submitted for regulatory clearance upon completion of requisite clinical studies.

Continuous Temperature Monitoring for Viral Infection Detection and Disease Progression

A person’s body temperature says a lot about their health. Several diseases, including COVID-19, are characterized by an increase in body temperature, so temperature monitoring is a vital tool in the detection, diagnosis and prevention of the spread of disease. Nemaura is expecting to submit this adaptation of the device for regulatory clearance in 2022.

Market Opportunity

Obesity and diabetes are two of the major drivers of the current chronic disease epidemic. According to the International Diabetes Federation, there are more than 463 million people living with diabetes worldwide. In the U.S., about 28,000 people are diagnosed with diabetes every week, and more than 34 million suffer from diabetes. Another 88 million Americans have prediabetes. Other industrialized countries show similar numbers based on their populations. In the U.K., 4.8 million people have diabetes, with another diagnosed every two minutes. In Germany, 9.5 million have diabetes, with almost half estimated to be undiagnosed and so at greater risk.

On average, employers and insurers spend more than $9,000 annually on health care for an employee with diabetes, compared to $1,600 annually for a healthy employee. In the U.S. alone, more than $760 billion was spent on diabetes-related health care expenditures during 2019. Nemaura is positioned at the intersection of the global Type 2 diabetes market that is expected to reach nearly $59 billion by 2025, the $50-plus billion prediabetic market, and the wearable health-tech sector for weight loss and wellness applications forecast to hit $60 billion by 2023.

Management Team

Dr. Faz Chowdhury has been CEO and chairman of the board of Nemaura Medical since 2013. He has more than 20 years of experience in the pharmaceutical and medical devices industry, taking products from concept to commercial launch. He is sole inventor on more than 100 granted and pending patents and has authored textbook chapters on nano-biosciences for Wiley and Elsevier. He holds a master’s degree in microsystems and nanotechnology from Cranfield University, and a doctorate from the University of Oxford in nano-medicine and drug delivery.

Justin Mclarney is CFO at Nemaura. He most recently was the Senior Director, International Finance at Lands’ End Inc. He also worked for Office Depot as Senior Director of Finance for the largest business unit within the European group. Prior to that, he spent more than 10 years in practice, the majority of which was with Ernst & Young LLP.

Dr. Fred Schaebsdau is Vice President of Strategy & Strategic Alliances at Nemaura. He has more than 15 years of executive experience in the CGM, blood glucose monitoring and insulin delivery industries, including time with Abbott Diabetes Care, as General Manager of Dexcom Germany and at Roche Diabetes Care, where he was Senior Vice-President, Head of Global Strategy and Business Development. The firm he founded is the exclusive distributor in Europe, the Middle East and Africa of UniStrip®, the world’s first generic blood glucose test strip. He is licensed to practice medicine in the U.S. and Germany.

David Scott is Director of Commercial Development and Licensing at Nemaura. He is a trained chemist with over 35 years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry, including deal brokering, marketing, strategic planning, finance, business development and acquisitions. He has also provided licensing training for a number of multinational pharma companies and training organizations and is the author of best-selling report Scrip’s Practical Guide to Pharmaceutical Licensing.

Investment Considerations

• Nemaura’s flagship product, sugarBEAT®, is a wearable, non-invasive and flexible Continuous Glucose Monitor (CGM) designed for people with diabetes and prediabetes.
• sugarBEAT received CE mark clearance in May 2019, allowing it to be marketed and sold within the European Union, and Nemaura has submitted a premarket approval application to the U.S. FDA.
• Nemaura continues to build a world-class management team.
• Nemaura plans to launch a direct to consumer metabolic health program in 2021, using its glucose monitoring platform at the core of the program.
• Nemaura has several patents (both filed and pending) and substantial trade secrets covering its technology platform.
• The company has orders in the U.K. for 200,000 sugarBEAT sensors and a further 2 million projected over the next two years for the U.K. alone.
• The company is positioned at the intersection of the global Type 2 diabetes market that is expected to reach nearly $59 billion by 2025, the $50-plus billion prediabetic market, and the wearable health-tech sector for weight loss and wellness applications forecast to hit $60 billion by 2023.

McEwen Mining Inc. (NYSE: MUX) (TSX: MUX)

McEwen Mining Inc. (NYSE: MUX) (TSX: MUX) is an asset rich diversified gold and silver producer in the Americas and has a large exposure to copper through its subsidiary, McEwen Copper, owner of the Los Azules copper deposit in Argentina, believed to be the 9th largest undeveloped copper resource in the world.

is an asset rich diversified gold and silver producer in the Americas and has a large exposure to copper through its subsidiary, McEwen Copper, owner of the Los Azules copper deposit in Argentina, believed to be the 9th largest undeveloped copper resource in the world.

Led by a management team with a track record of success, MUX owns and operates mines in some of the most prolific gold producing regions in the Americas. In recent months, the company has undertaken strong actions to lower production costs and increase production across its portfolio of gold assets, driving some costs below the industry average. Gold and copper prices are forecast to enter a major uptrend over the next couple years. McEwen Mining is laying the groundwork to capitalize on this opportunity now.

Seldom is management so aligned with investors’ interests with a commitment to the company’s success. CEO Rob McEwen maintains a 17% ownership stake in McEwen Mining and a 13.8% ownership in McEwen Copper with a combined cost base of roughly $220 million. McEwen founded Goldcorp, where he took the company from a market capitalization of $50 million to over $8 billion, and that same vision led MUX to create McEwen Copper.

For McEwen Mining shareholders, the company’s 51.9% stake in McEwen Copper is expected to be a gamechanger, turbocharging MUX by creating the world’s next copper unicorn.

McEwen Copper

Most mined copper is currently used in infrastructure, with new critical demand emerging for use in the electrification of transportation and the global energy transformation. The price of copper rose from a low of about $2 per pound two years ago to over $4 per pound today, and strong demand is expected to continue to soar. A study by S&P Global, titled The Future of Copper: Will the Looming Supply Gap Short-circuit the Energy Transition?, projects global copper demand to nearly double over the next decade, from 25 million metric tons today to about 50 million metric tons by 2035. Based on current trends, S&P Global projects annual supply shortfalls to reach nearly 10 million metric tons in 2035.

McEwen Mining is a 51.9% shareholder in McEwen Copper, holder of a 100% interest in the Los Azules copper project in San Juan, Argentina, which was ranked the 9th largest undeveloped copper deposit in the world by Mining Intelligence (2022). Its current copper resources are estimated at 10.2 billion pounds at a grade of 0.48% Cu (Indicated category) and an additional 19.3 billion pounds at a grade of 0.33% Cu (Inferred category). McEwen Copper also owns a copper exploration project in Nevada, called Elder Creek.

In a 2017 Preliminary Economic Assessment (PEA), Los Azules was estimated to have a 36-year life, but indications are that the project could ultimately become an even larger mine, with a longer life, since in the assessment, only 55% of the known copper resources are to be mined. Numerous drill holes have shown strong copper mineralization extending below the PEA pit bottom. Its average annual production for its first 13 years was pegged at 415 million pounds of copper in the 2017 PEA – enough copper to supply 2.2 million electric vehicles per year.

In August 2022, McEwen Copper closed its non-brokered, private placement offering of $82 million, after securing a $25 million investment from mining giant Rio Tinto’s technology arm, Nuton LLC. In February 2023, Nuton agreed to invest an additional $30 million into McEwen Copper. Its current stake in the copper subsidiary is 14.2%.

“We are extremely pleased to have Nuton’s strong continued participation in McEwen Copper,” Rob McEwen stated in a news release. “Together we are exploring new technologies that save energy, water, time and capital in the pursuit of delivering green copper to Argentina and the world, a product that will contribute to the electrification of transportation and the protection of our atmosphere.”

Also in February 2023, FCA Argentina S.A., a subsidiary of Stellantis N.V., one of the world’s leading automakers, invested ARS $30 billion in McEwen Copper to advance development of the Los Azules copper project and for general corporate purposes. Its current stake in McEwen Copper is 14.2%.

“We are delighted to have Stellantis as a partner in the future development of our Los Azules copper project,” Rob McEwen said of the investment. “Together, we share a vision to build a mine for the future based on regenerative principles that can achieve net-zero carbon emissions by 2038.”

Another of Rio Tinto’s subsidiaries, Kennecott Exploration, signed an option to earn a 60% interest in McEwen Copper’s other copper project, Elder Creek, by spending $18 million on exploration. The Elder Creek project is prospective for porphyry copper and gold mineralization and is well situated in a district hosting several large copper and gold mines, including Marigold, Lone Tree and Phoenix. Kennecott Exploration will be the operator of the exploration program. McEwen Mining holds a 1.25% net smelter return (NSR) royalty on the Elder Creek property.

Following the capital raise, McEwen Copper is well-funded to advance its Los Azules Project. Publication of an updated PEA on the Los Azules copper project is planned for Q2 2023. A Feasibility Study and IPO are planned for 2024. MUX is strategically reducing its interest to increase its treasury, in order to reduce debt and fund the further development of its gold and silver mines. In May 2023, the company decreased its senior secured debt by $25 million through the secondary sale of McEwen Copper shares.

When McEwen Copper’s Los Azules copper project is compared with other recent transactions and market valuations of copper projects in the same region, it appears very undervalued.

MUX’s management believes its ownership stake in McEwen Copper is not currently reflected in the share price of the company. In fact, it is management’s belief that the combined value of its 51.9% interest in McEwen Copper, plus its gold mines and portfolio of mineral royalties, represents a share value ranging from a low of $8 to a high of $34 per share, as detailed in the company’s latest corporate presentation.

Gold & Silver Projects

The Fox Complex

McEwen Mining owns a 100% stake in the Fox Complex in the heart of a prolific gold district in Timmins, Canada.

“When MUX bought the Fox Complex, in late 2017, it was a distressed asset with a history of high operating cost/oz. While it has taken longer than I expected, the cost to produce an ounce of gold is significantly lower,” CEO Rob McEwen stated in a news release.

In Q1 2023, McEwen Mining reported cash cost/oz at the Fox Complex of $1,088 on quarterly production of 12,700 GEOs. This was in line with the company’s guidance and marked a significant improvement from Q1 2022, when the mine struggled with effects of the pandemic and equipment failures.

Located in one of the most prolific gold production areas in the world, along the Destor-Porcupine Fault Zone within the Abitibi Greenstone Belt, the Fox Complex includes the Black Fox mine and Froome mine which together have, so far, produced in excess of 1,000,000 ounces of gold. Also, it includes the Grey Fox and Stock deposits that have an estimated additional 1,600,000 ounces in reserves and resources. The 2.7-billion-year-old Abitibi Greenstone Belt, formed by ancient volcanic activity, has proved to be one of the world’s richest and most abundant gold regions, boasting total gold content of over 300 million ounces.

Full year 2023 guidance for The Fox Complex puts production estimates at 45,000 GEOs, 28% of MUX’s total production.

The Gold Bar Mine

McEwen Mining owns a 100% stake in the Gold Bar mine located in an area well known for gold production, the southern Roberts Mountains of the Battle Mountain-Eureka-Cortez gold trend in Eureka County, Central Nevada. The Gold Bar mine is on the same geological structure some 25 miles south of Nevada Gold Mines, a joint venture of Barrick and Newmont. This Cortez-Goldrush complex contains estimated reserves and resources of greater than 50 million gold ounces. Its annual gold production is 1,000,000 ounces.

Gold Bar had been previously mined, between 1991 and 1994, producing 134,000 gold ounces. MUX built a new facility in 2019. The open pit mine was expected to be a large contributor to MUX’s revenue and gold production, however operating challenges arose that reduced gold production and drove cost/oz unacceptably high. Mining activities have shifted recently to a nearby, satellite deposit called Gold Bar South (GBS). Going forward the expectations are higher gold production and lower operating cost/oz as a result of mining a higher ore grade (concentration of gold per ton) and having to move half the amount of material to capture an ounce of gold.

Gold Bar continued to ramp-up mining from the Gold Bar South deposit in Q1 2023, and successfully placed 15,000 contained gold ounces on the heap leach pad. Following delays due to extreme snow and rainfall, mining resumed at the site in April, which will continue to add gold inventory to the heap leach pad, contributing to the increase of production in the balance of the year.

The Gold Bar Mine will account for approximately 28% of McEwen Mining’s 2023 total attributable production, with guidance pegged at 45,000 GEOs. Most of Gold Bar production in 2023 will be from GBS.

El Gallo/Fenix

Project Fenix is the proposed redevelopment plan for McEwen Mining’s El Gallo Complex in Mexico. There is a long history of mining in this region. MUX’s involvement began in 2013 operating it as an open pit, heap leach mine which produced 281,000 gold equivalent ounces at average cash cost of $655 per ounce. However, due to the transition to deeper sulfide mineralization that is not amenable to heap leaching, mining activities ceased in the second quarter of 2018. The redevelopment envisions constructing a mill at the existing mine site that will initially reprocess the existing heap leach material then transition to open pit mining and processing the sulphide mineralization. The company recently acquired a complete process plant on very advantageous terms that has considerably reduced the projected capital requirements for the project.

CEO Rob McEwen stated in a news release, “This acquisition has made Fenix more attractive to build and could provide a new long life mine for McEwen Mining.”

The initial development approach is to build a mill to reprocess the material on the heap leach pad and produce approximately 17,000 oz of gold annually for eight years. Construction of the Fenix project is expected to be completed by early 2024.

Mine San José

McEwen Mining is a 49% owner and non-operator of the San José gold and silver mine located in Santa Cruz province, Argentina. This high-grade underground mine has been operating since 2007 and currently has an expected life of six years with a reserve grade of 342 gpt silver and 5.7 gpt gold and a resource grade of 427 gpt silver and 7.0 g/t gold.

Exploration is continuing to extend high-grade veins and discover new veins at the complex. San José’s drilling programs to define additional resources and reserves have a long history of success due to a high vein density, aided by good geophysical response from hidden veins. Drilling at the Telken target in the South of the property, and adjacent to Newmont’s Cerro Negro mine, is planned for Q3.

Production guidance for 2023 for MUX’s 49% is 70,000 GEOs, 44% of MUX’s total production. As a minority shareholder in the mine, MUX equity accounts for its investment in San Jose, and it receives 49% of the dividends from the mine’s free cash flow.

Market Outlook

Mining stocks took a beating in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. However, that could change, as many analysts are now forecasting a gold bull market in 2023.

“The operating challenges we faced in recent years have severely damaged our credibility with our shareholders and the market. As a result, few investors have taken a close look recently at our assets,” Rob McEwen said in a news release. “If they did, I believe some would see the potential value that I see today… I believe there is considerable potential value in MUX, and that is a big reason why I have a personal financial commitment of $220 million in MUX and McEwen Copper.”

Management Team

Robert R. McEwen is Chairman, CEO and Chief Owner of McEwen Mining. He has been associated with the gold industry all his career, with his first 18 years in the investment industry and, since 1990, as CEO of several gold mining companies. He founded Goldcorp and took that company from a $50 million market capitalization to more than $8 billion. He owns 17% of McEwen Mining and is in complete alignment with investors – the cost of his investment in MUX and McEwen Copper is $220 million and he takes an annual salary of only $1. He was awarded the Order of Canada and the Queen Elizabeth’s Diamond Jubilee Award, was inducted into the Mining Hall of Fame, was named an Ernst and Young Entrepreneur of the Year and has Honorary Doctor of Law degrees from York University and Western University.

William Shaver is interim COO and a Director of McEwen Mining. He has decades of management and executive experience in mine design, construction and operations. He was a founder of Dynatec Corporation, which became one of the leading contracting and mine operating groups in North America. In 2013, he was recognized as Ernst and Young Entrepreneur of the Year. Most recently, he served as COO of INV Metals. He is a Professional Engineer with a B.Sc. in Mining Engineering from Queens University.

Perry Ing is interim CFO at McEwen Mining. He has 25 years of experience in the Canadian mining industry. Over the past 15 years, he has held positions as CFO of Mountain Province Diamonds, Kirkland Lake Gold and McEwen Mining. Prior to that, he worked at Barrick Gold and Goldcorp and started his career in the mining practice at PwC. He has a Bachelor of Commerce from the University of Toronto and is a Chartered Professional Accountant in Canada and Certified Professional Accountant in the U.S.

Adrian Blanco S. is the company’s Director – America and Mexico Operations. He has extensive international experience in several industrial sectors and has held executive positions in Mexico, the United States, Peru and Argentina. He joined the McEwen Mining team in 2015 and has led a successful business transformation toward operational discipline, best business practices and financial profitability at subsidiaries Compañia Minera Pangea and McEwen Mining Nevada. He graduated from an Executive Management Program at IPADE and Harvard Business School.

Michael Meding is Vice President and General Manager of McEwen Copper. He has over 20 years of international experience, primarily with major mining companies such as Barrick Gold and Trafigura, including extensive experience with project development and operations in Argentina. While at Barrick Gold’s Veladero mine in Argentina, Mr. Meding played a key role in the turnaround, extension of the mine life and subsequent strategic partnering with Shandong Gold. He holds an MBA from Indiana University in Pennsylvania and an MBA from the Leipzig Graduate School of Management in Germany.

Investment Considerations

• McEwen Mining is an asset rich gold and silver producer with large exposure to copper.
• McEwen Mining CEO Rob McEwen maintains a 17.3% ownership stake in McEwen Mining with a cost base of roughly $220 million.
• McEwen Copper’s Los Azules project is one of the world’s largest and most economically robust underdeveloped copper projects.

Additional Resources

• Company Website
• Corporate Presentation
• Investor Presentation
• MUX NewsRoom

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Kaival Brands Innovations Group Inc. (NASDAQ: KAVL)

Kaival Brands Innovations Group Inc. (NASDAQ: KAVL) is a company focused on growing and incubating innovative and profitable products into mature and dominant brands in their respective markets. Its vision is to develop internally, acquire, own or exclusively distribute these innovative products and grow each into dominant market-share brands with superior quality and recognizable innovation. In line with this vision, Kaival Brands is the exclusive global distributor of all products manufactured by Bidi Vapor LLC, which are intended exclusively for adults 21 and over.

Kaival Brands is on a mission to set the highest standard and elevate the adult consumer experience for vaping. The company is headquartered in Grant, Florida.

Bidi® Stick

Bidi® Stick, Bidi Vapor LLC’s primary offering, is the fastest-growing closed system disposable electronic nicotine delivery system (ENDS) in the U.S.

Intended exclusively for adults 21 and over, the one-time use device is designed with premium features, including a high-quality battery, satisfying Class A nicotine offering consistently smooth throat hits and an aluminum body. Bidi Stick is ready to use straight from the package, providing a consistent and precise amount of nicotine with every draw.

Bidi Stick and all Bidi Vapor products are sold primarily through national convenience stores, as well as online exclusively through authorized direct retailers and GoPuff, the digital convenience store.

Bidi® Cares Initiative

The tamper-resistant Bidi Stick is the only ENDS on the market with an ecologically friendly, mass-recycling program. The Bidi® Cares initiative focuses on promoting sustainable practices to save the environment, one step at a time, through proper disposal of vapor products.

Through Bidi Cares, Kaival Brands and Bidi Vapor aim to promote and educate consumers on the dangers of improper waste disposal.

Bidi® Pouch

On January 26, 2021, Kaival Brands took a step toward building on the success of Bidi Vapor’s e-cigarette device when it announced the debut of the Bidi® Pouch. Officially launching in early February, the Bidi Pouch provides a tobacco-free nicotine formulation packed in an easy-to-go tin can, available in six flavors.

“We are excited that Bidi Vapor continues to develop and innovate new ways to bring the Bidi Vapor experience to adult consumers. Bidi Vapor’s new Bidi Pouch offering, which we will exclusively distribute, is just another example of our ability to meet the demands of the marketplace,” Niraj Patel, CEO of Kaival Brands, stated in the news release. “The pouch marketplace is yet another opportunity to demonstrate Bidi Vapor’s premium experience to adult users. We believe that Bidi Vapor’s share of the nicotine pouch market will rival Bidi Vapor’s market share achievement in vape. It represents a significant opportunity for us as the exclusive distributor of Bidi Vapor’s products in 2021 and beyond.”

Recent Corporate Developments

• March 1, 2021: Kaival Brands announced its entry into two new distribution agreements boosting the company’s potential store count for Bidi Vapor products to over 54,000 – a 500% increase over 2020. Patel noted in the news release that this milestone, along with recent corporate developments, has the company “feeling extremely confident about [its] fiscal year 2021 revenue guidance range of $400m – $450 million.”
• March 16, 2021: The company reported $37.4 million in revenue for the fiscal quarter ended January 31, 2021. This figure brought its cumulative revenues since commencing business operations in March 2020 to roughly $100 million, despite revenue slowdowns during the fourth quarter of 2020 as a result of packaging and labeling updates. Patel forecast an increase to revenues during Kaival Brands’ second fiscal quarter ending April 31, 2021. He also reaffirmed the company’s confidence in its fiscal 2021 revenue guidance.
• March 18, 2021: Kaival Brands announced its appointment of three new directors to its board ahead of its proposed uplisting to the Nasdaq Capital Market. The appointments of Paul Reuter, Carolyn Hanigan and Roger Brooks as independent directors are intended to ensure the company complies with certain Nasdaq corporate governance rules.
• March 31, 2021: The company announced that Bidi Vapor LLC has successfully completed the regulatory process to enter four new, significant markets – the U.K., Australia, New Zealand and Russia.

Market Outlook

The U.S. e-cigarette and vape market was valued at $6.09 billion in 2020, according to data from Grand View Research. The firm expects the industry to expand at a compound annual growth rate of 27.3% from 2021 to 2028, with growth factors including rising awareness of tobacco alternatives.

Management Team

Nirajkumar Patel is the CEO, CFO, President, Treasurer and Director of Kaival Brands and owner of Bidi Vapor LLC. In 2004, Patel received a Bachelor of Science in pharmaceutical sciences from AISSMS College of Pharmacy in Pune, India. He moved to the United States in 2005, and he continued his education at the Florida Institute of Technology, where he graduated in 2009 with a master’s degree in medicinal and pharmaceutical chemistry. He currently holds a Six Sigma Black Belt Certification.

Eric Mosser is the COO, Secretary and Director of Kaival Brands. Mosser attended Arizona State University, where he studied business management. In 2004, he graduated from Rio Salado College with an associate degree in applied science in computer technology.

Paul Reuter is a Director of Kaival Brands. He brings to the company nearly five decades of industry experience in small box retail as a journalist, editorial director, entrepreneur and speaker. Mr. Reuter has launched two successful businesses, including MidWest Retail Group LLC, which was the largest U.S. 7-Eleven franchise group, where he served as Chairman and founding partner from April 2013 through June 2019. He is also the founder of Kreative Collaborations LLC, an industry consultancy.

Carolyn Hanigan is a Director of Kaival Brands. She served as the President of Reynolds American Innovation Company, an operating company of Reynolds American Inc. (“RAI”), from January 2016 to June 2018. Ms. Hanigan also led the global vapor collaboration with British American Tobacco (“BAT”) up until RAI was acquired by BAT in 2017. She served as the architect of RAI’s U.S. reduced risk products strategic direction to further the vision of transforming tobacco, preparing the U.S. commercial execution and regulatory applications for a wide array of products, including the Glo tobacco heating products; the Velo nicotine pouches; and the Alto, Ciro, Vibe and Solo nicotine vaporizers. Ms. Hanigan holds a Bachelor’s degree in business from Boston College and a Master of Business Administration degree from St. Mary’s College.

Roger Brooks is a Director of Kaival Brands. Since 2005, he has served as the Chairman, Treasurer and Co-Founder of Abierto Networks. Prior to his roles with Abierto, Mr. Brooks was the lead independent director and a member of the compensation and audit committees for Moldflow Corporation, a Nasdaq-listed software firm that was sold to Autodesk Inc. in 2008. He holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Connecticut and a Master of Business Administration degree from New York University, Stern Graduate Business School. He is also a graduate of the Stanford University Executive Management Program.

Investment Considerations

• Kaival Brands is the exclusive global distributor for Bidi Vapor LLC, including both Bidi® Stick and Bidi® Pouch.
• Bidi Stick is the fastest-growing closed system disposable electronic nicotine delivery system in the U.S.
• Kaival Brands debuted Bidi Pouch, a tobacco-free nicotine formulation packed in an easy-to-go tin can, in Q1 2021.
• The company reported $37.4 million in revenue for the fiscal quarter ended January 31, 2021, bringing its cumulative total since commencing business operations in March 2020 to roughly $100 million.
• Kaival Brands recently filed for uplisting to the Nasdaq Capital Market.
• The U.S. e-cigarette and vape market is forecast to achieve a 27.3% CAGR from 2021 to 2028, reaching a valuation of $40.25 billion, according to Grand View Research.

InMed Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ: INM)

InMed Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ: INM) is a global leader in the manufacturing and clinical development of rare cannabinoids. InMed is a clinical stage company developing cannabinoid-based pharmaceutical drug candidates, as well as manufacturing technologies for pharmaceutical-grade rare cannabinoids.

The company is dedicated to delivering new therapeutic alternatives to treat conditions with high unmet medical needs. The company is also developing a proprietary manufacturing technology to produce pharmaceutical-grade rare cannabinoids in the lab and has recently announced an LOI to acquire a leading rare cannabinoid manufacturer

Research and Technology

There are more than 100 rare cannabinoids found in only trace amounts in the cannabis plant, together making up less than 1% of the plant’s biomass. InMed is initially focused on the therapeutic benefits of cannabinol (CBN) in diseases with high unmet medical need. Preclinical studies of CBN demonstrated an excellent safety profile and showed CBN has potential for therapeutic benefit over other cannabinoids such as tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) and cannabidiol (CBD).

Evidence suggests there may be great therapeutic potential in rare cannabinoids. Each has a specific chemical structure, and different cannabinoids have been observed to have distinct physiological properties in humans, including therapeutic potential for specific diseases as well as unique safety profiles. CBN is the active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) in InMed’s two lead programs for dermatological and ocular diseases.

InMed’s most advanced compound, INM-755, is a CBN topical cream under clinical development for the treatment of epidermolysis bullosa, a severe genetic skin disorder. To date, INM-755 has been evaluated in two Phase 1 clinical trials in healthy volunteers. InMed has filed Clinical Trial Applications in several countries as part of a global Phase 2 clinical trial of INM-755 (cannabinol) cream in epidermolysis bullosa. Responses from the National Competent Authorities and Ethics Committees are expected throughout the summer of 2021.

InMed is also involved in developing INM-088, an ocular CBN formulation being researched for the treatment of glaucoma, the second leading cause of blindness in the developed world. InMed is currently evaluating several formulations to deliver CBN into the eye to address issues of dosing frequency, side effects and treatment penetration. INM-088 is being designed for topical delivery to the eye. This localized delivery results in very little drug being absorbed or migrating into the bloodstream, thus minimizing potential adverse side effects. INM-088 shows promise to reduce intraocular pressure and provide neuroprotection of the eye.

Manufacturing

The limited availability of rare cannabinoids like CBN makes them economically impractical to extract directly from the plant for pharmaceutical use. InMed is developing IntegraSyn, a cannabinoid synthesis manufacturing system to create rare cannabinoids in the lab that are bioidentical to the compounds derived from the cannabis plant. IntegraSyn uses multiple standard pharmaceutical processes and has achieved a cannabinoid yield of 5 grams per liter, surpassing commercial viability and significantly exceeding currently reported industry yields. InMed is now focusing on manufacturing scale-up to larger batch sizes while continuing process optimization, targeting increased cannabinoid yield and further reducing overall cost of goods.

BayMedica Inc. Acquisition

On June 29, 2021, InMed announced it had entered into a non-binding letter of intent to acquire BayMedica Inc., a private company based in Nevada and California that specializes in the manufacture and commercialization of rare cannabinoids.

As noted in the news release, BayMedica is a revenue-stage biotechnology company leveraging its significant expertise in synthetic biology and pharmaceutical chemistry to develop efficient, scalable and proprietary manufacturing approaches to produce high quality, regulatory-compliant rare cannabinoids for consumer applications. BayMedica is currently commercializing the rare cannabinoid CBC (cannabichromene) as a B2B supplier to distributors and manufacturers marketing products in the health and wellness sector. BayMedica is planning additional rare cannabinoid launches for the coming year.

Pursuant to the indicative terms of the LOI, InMed and BayMedica intend to negotiate and enter into a definitive agreement under which InMed would acquire 100% of BayMedica in exchange for 1.6 million InMed common shares to be issued to BayMedica’s equity and convertible debt holders, with any such issued InMed common shares being subject to a six-month contractual hold period.

Market Outlook

There is a rapidly growing demand for rare cannabinoids. However, their low natural concentration makes traditional harvesting of these compounds cost prohibitive. Biosynthesis allows production of rare cannabinoids in the lab that are bioidentical to compounds found in nature, with significantly higher yields which reduce costs. Biosynthesis can produce pharmaceutical-grade, bioidentical, THC-free compounds at a cost that’s 70 to 90 percent less than wholesale prices of naturally harvested rare cannabinoids.

Cannabinoid-based pharmaceuticals are expected to overtake the market as rare cannabinoids become less expensive and more available. According to Statista, the value of the consumer market for cannabinoid-based pharmaceuticals in the United States is forecast to grow to $25 billion by 2025 and to $50 billion by 2029, with cannabinoid-based pharmaceuticals used to treat health conditions including pain, respiratory conditions, autoimmune conditions and more.

Management Team

Eric A. Adams has been CEO and president of InMed since June 2016. He has more than 25 years of experience in establishing corporate entities, capital formation, global market development, mergers and acquisitions, licensing and corporate governance. He previously served as CEO at enGene Inc. Prior to enGene, he held senior positions in global market development with QLT Inc. (Vancouver), Advanced Tissue Sciences Inc. (La Jolla, CA), Abbott Laboratories (Chicago, IL) and Fresenius AG (Germany).

Bruce S. Colwill is InMed’s CFO. He has more than 25 years of financial leadership experience in public and private companies. Prior to InMed, he served as CFO of General Fusion Inc., a private clean energy company. He was also CFO at Entrée Resources Inc., a mineral exploration company, from 2011 to 2016. He has held CFO roles at Neuromed Pharmaceuticals Ltd., Response Biomedical Corp, Forbes Medi-Tech Inc. and Euronet Worldwide Inc.

Alexandra D.J. Mancini is Senior Vice President, Clinical and Regulatory Affairs at InMed. She has more than 30 years of global biopharmaceutical research and development experience. She has been an executive with numerous biotech companies, including senior vice president of Clinical and Regulatory Affairs at Sirius Genomics; senior vice president of Clinical and Regulatory Affairs at INEX Pharmaceuticals; and vice president of Regulatory Affairs at QLT Inc.

Eric C. Hsu is Senior Vice President, Pre-Clinical Research and Development at InMed. He joined InMed with more than 18 years of scientific leadership experience in the field of gene therapy. He has held various positions within enGene Inc., including vice president of Research and vice president of Scientific Affairs and Operations. He received his Doctorate from the Department of Medical Biophysics at the University of Toronto.

Michael Woudenberg is Vice President, Chemistry, Manufacturing and Controls at InMed. He has more than 20 years of successful drug development, process engineering, GMP manufacturing and leadership experience. He has held positions with 3M, Cardiome Pharma, Arbutus Biopharma and, most recently, was Managing Director of Phyton Biotech LLC.

Investment Considerations

• InMed has a world class leadership team with a successful track record of drug development and commercialization.
• The company recently announced closing of a $12 million private placement.
• InMed has a solid and expanding intellectual property portfolio with multiple patents filed.
• The company recently signed an LOI to acquire rare cannabinoids manufacturer BayMedica.
• InMed retains all commercial rights to its IntegraSyn manufacturing system.
• InMed has filed clinical trial applications in several countries as part of a Phase 2 clinical trial of INM-755 (cannabinol) cream in epidermolysis bullosa.
• The consumer market for cannabinoid-based pharmaceuticals in the United States is forecast to grow to $25 billion by 2025 and to $50 billion by 2029.

Golden Matrix Group Inc. (NASDAQ: GMGI)

Golden Matrix Group Inc. (NASDAQ: GMGI), based in Las Vegas, Nevada, is an established gaming technology company that develops and owns online gaming IP and builds turnkey online casino solutions for gaming operators as well as configurable and scalable white-label gaming platforms for international customers, located primarily in the Asia-Pacific region. GMGI’s gaming IP includes tools for marketing, acquisition, retention and monetization of users. The company’s platform can be accessed through both desktop and mobile applications.

GMGI’s sophisticated software automatically declines any gaming or redemption requests from within the United States, in strict compliance with U.S. law.

Golden Matrix, through a subsidiary, also runs a pay-to-enter prize competition in the United Kingdom and Ireland.

The company’s shares began trading on the Nasdaq under the symbol ‘GMGI’ on March 17, 2022. Golden Matrix shares were previously traded on the OTCQX Best Market.

For the quarter ended January 31, 2022, the company reported revenue of $8.88 million, an increase of 355% over the same quarter one year earlier. Net income for the three-month period was $349,379, up from $52,158 a year earlier. It was the company’s 14th consecutive profitable quarter.

In December 2021, Golden Matrix announced it had entered into a purchase agreement to acquire a controlling ownership interest in UK-based RKingsCompetitions Ltd., one of Ireland’s and the United Kingdom’s leading independent online competition companies. RKings presents customers with paid and free entry routes to competitions that offer a range of prizes, including residential properties, luxury and exotic motor vehicles, holiday packages, technology packages and cash. The competitions are currently open only to residents of Ireland and the United Kingdom. Golden Matrix acquired an 80% ownership interest in RKings for cash and stock. The company also secured an option to purchase the remaining 20 percent interest of RKings, subject to certain requirements.

In March 2022, Golden Matrix announced it had applied for a Mexican gaming permit and, once approved, expects to offer online gaming in Mexico as well as roll out the RKings tournament business globally.

Technology

Golden Matrix Group develops fully operational online casino turnkey solutions as well as highly modular, configurable and scalable gaming platforms for its international customers in an effort to promote user acquisition, engagement, retention and monetization. The provided white label gaming platform is unparalleled in both mobile and desktop website deployment, proving compatible throughout all major operating systems and web browsers. In addition, the platform enhances the client’s ability to cater to various gaming scenarios including but not limited to transaction management and a range of loyalty and reward programs. Moreover, user engagement is optimized through the ability to accommodate both free and paid games.

The company’s GM-X System (and recently its next generation GM-Ag System) is considered the industry standard, granting access to over 10,000 games from more than 25 game providers. Through the GM-X System, Golden Matrix offers the industry’s most extensive game portfolio. The company’s gaming partners dominate the global online gaming market to deliver innovative games and premium brand titles. The GM-X System offers payment gateways that integrate with third party platforms or digital wallets. It supports all major currencies and offers multiple language options. The system’s data analytics provide the operator with a 360-degree view of the gaming platform’s performance.

GMGI currently supports over 500 unique casino brands and over 6 million players.

Market Outlook

Online gaming and sports betting sites and apps are increasingly taking market share from traditional location-based casinos. Widespread internet service availability and increasing use of mobile phones for playing online games from homes and public places is driving the market, according to a report from Grand View Research. In addition, factors such as easy access to online gambling, legalization and cultural approval, corporate sponsorships, and celebrity endorsements are also contributing to market growth. The growing availability of cost-effective mobile applications across the globe is further expected to fuel market growth.

This trend is only expected to accelerate as millennials reach their peak earning years and Gen Z youth begin to complete their education and move into careers. These generations are completely comfortable with online recreation, and with using technology like digital wallets and digital gameplay that underpins online gaming.

The global online gambling market was valued at $53.7 billion in 2019 and is expected to grow at a CAGR of 11.5% from 2020 to 2027 to reach a value of $127.3 billion, according to Grand View Research, with much of the growth expected from the U.S. and Asia. Even Europe, the most mature gaming market, is expected to grow at a rate of 20-25% year-over-year.

Management Team

Brian Goodman is CEO of Golden Matrix Group. He has more than 20 years of diverse senior management experience and business development roles within the technology and internet gaming industries. He has a tertiary science qualification as well as a marketing and sales background. His previous roles have been entrepreneurial and include CEO and senior management positions in smaller organizations, which he founded or in which he held equity, as well as multinational organizations.

Cathy Feng is COO at Golden Matrix. She is a co-founder of GMGI and holds a Master of Commerce degree. She has 10 years of experience as a financial officer in the technology and internet gaming industries. In past management positions, she interpreted, analyzed and presented financial and operation information to facilitate business decisions, grow companies and resolve complex problems. In addition, she has skills in marketing, business development, leadership and strategic planning.

Omar Jimenez is CFO and Chief Compliance Officer at GMGI. Prior to joining the company, he was CFO and COO of Alfadan Inc., a supplier of marine outboard engines. He has held senior financial management and operational positions at public and private companies including NextPlay Technologies, American Leisure Holdings, US Installation Group and Onyx Group. He holds various accounting professional certifications, including CPA and CPCU, and degrees in finance, accounting and business.

Henry Zhang is Chief Technology Officer at Golden Matrix. He oversees all aspects of development, integration and deployment of GMGI’s technology systems. He plays a key role in evolving GMGI’s technology business to lead and shape the industry. He is responsible for developing and scaling new businesses, including online gaming, eSport and P2P Systems. He was instrumental in launching the GM-X system and has been with the company for more than six years.

Investment Considerations

• Golden Matrix’s common stock began trading on the Nasdaq on March 17, 2022.
• The company achieved record revenues of $8.88 million in the quarter ended January 31, 2022, marking a year-over-year increase of 355%.
• Golden Matrix reported net income for the quarter ended January 31, 2022, of $349,379, versus $52,158 one year earlier.
• Golden Matrix has delivered exceptional growth over the years, with 14 consecutive profitable and cash flow positive quarters.
• Golden Matrix has a solid balance sheet and intends to make accretive and synergistic acquisitions in the coming months, with all targeted acquisitions to be profitable and cash positive.
• Golden Matrix in March 2022 announced it has applied for a gaming permit in Mexico and expects to offer iGaming and launch the RKings tournament platform there.
• GMGI currently supports over 500 unique casino brands and over 6 million players.

FingerMotion Inc. (OTCQX: FNGR)

FingerMotion Inc. (OTCQX: FNGR) is an evolving technological company with core competencies in mobile payment and recharge platform solutions in China. FingerMotion is in the process of developing additional value-added technologies to market to users.

Founded in 2016, FingerMotion’s goal is to serve over a billion users in the Chinese market and expand its model to other regional markets. The company has offices in Hong Kong, Shanghai and New York City.

Current Offerings

FingerMotion is analyzing and transforming mobile data to improve the lifestyle of the public through technology and innovation. The company’s current offerings include:

• Telecommunications Products and Services – FingerMotion’s proprietary universal exchange platform, ‘PigeonHole Integration System (PIS)’, offers seamless integration between telecom operators and online stores. The service platform’s offerings include top up and recharge, data plan, mobile phone, loyalty points redemption and subscription plans. The platform offers reliable and secure transactions, real-time reconciliation, simple integration for partners and efficient settlements.
• SMS and MMS Services – The integrated platform is registered as FingerMotion’s IP in China and provides a robust back-end control panel for corporate partners to manage their own messaging settings. FingerMotion’s clients range from insurance to financial industries, ecommerce firms, airlines and more. The platform offers competitive pricing for partners and provides quick and efficient review to meet timely marketing initiatives.
• Big Data Insights – FingerMotion brings Big Data-enabled insurance solutions through its Big Data Insights arm, Sapientus. The company’s strategic partnerships with the largest Chinese telecommunications giants allow access to uncover behavior insights through geolocation and mobile data usage. Its Big Data offerings include risk scoring, precise marketing, simplified underwriting and customized products.
• Rich Communication Services (RCS) – FingerMotion’s RCS platform will be a proprietary business messaging solution that enables businesses and brands to communicate their services to customers via 5G infrastructure. The company expects its RCS platform to offer a better user experience, more efficiency and cost-effectiveness when compared to other solutions.

Telecommunications and Insurtech Markets

The global telecommunications market was valued at $1.74 trillion in 2019 and is expected to grow at a CAGR of 5% from 2020 to 2027. The steady increase is expected to be driven by the adoption of 5G and the increased popularity of Internet of Things (IoT) applications.

The Chinese telecom market was valued at $254.1 billion in 2017 and is also constantly expanding. The current Chinese telecom market is dominated by three mobile operators – China Mobile, China Unicom and China Telecom, which together are responsible for around 1.6 billion active subscribers (https://ibn.fm/zfwy9).

In addition, the insurtech (insurance technology) market was valued at $2.72 billion globally in 2020 and is expected to grow at a CAGR of 48.8% from 2021 to 2028. The large increase is attributed to the rising use of technology solutions for everyday activities like acquiring insurance coverage (https://ibn.fm/TGo7D).

Through its proprietary platforms and technologies, FingerMotion is uniquely positioned to capitalize on the telecom and insurtech markets’ growth and opportunities.

Management Team

Martin J. Shen is the Chief Executive Officer of FingerMotion Inc. He has over 15 years of experience in senior management roles within entrepreneurial startups and large multinational corporations. He has acquired a wide range of corporate management, financial oversight and operation administration expertise through these roles. In his most recent role, he founded Imperial Distributors (formerly known as AP Martin Pharmaceutical Supplies Ltd.), establishing the company as the preferred choice for distributional support to regional pharmacies throughout Western Canada. Before founding Imperial, Mr. Shen served as the Chief Operating Officer and Chief Financial Officer at Wales and Son Industrial (formerly Weir Minerals), a firm specializing in global delivery and support for mining slurry equipment. He began his career at PricewaterhouseCoopers in Vancouver, with work tours in the tax department in Singapore and the tax audit and advisory group in Hong Kong. Mr. Shen is a U.S. Certified Public Accountant and holds a Bachelor of Science from the University of British Columbia.

Lee Yew Hon is the company’s Chief Financial Officer. From 2006 until November 2020, he was the Chief Financial Officer of Cubinet Interactive Group of Companies, and he also took on the Chief Operating Officer role in 2011. During his tenure, he was instrumental in leading Cubinet and building teams across the Southeast Asia region, setting up financial processes within a short time. Mr. Lee spearheaded the growth of Cubinet to other regions, including Europe, the Middle East and Russia. He received his diploma from Tunku Abdul Rahman College in 1996. He is a Chartered Accountant, a member of the Malaysia Institute of Accountants (MIA) and an Associate Member of the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants, UK (ACMA).

Li Li is the Senior Vice President of FingerMotion. She recently served as Advisor to Shenzhen WuYiKa Technology Co. Ltd., a comprehensive service platform dedicated to online service distribution and payment. The company has become a fast and efficient provider of new media marketing solutions for the mobile internet. She has held high-level management positions with multiple industry names, including Hangzhou JiuYue Information Technology Co. Ltd. and Hangzhou LingXuan Information Technology. Ms. Li started her career in 2004, founding Shanghai ChuangYeZZ Network Technology Co. Ltd. and serving as its Vice President. With the close cooperation of local operators, the company launched SMS, MMS, WAP, mobile JAVA games, Hunan Satellite TV e-magazine and other wireless internet services to meet the rapid development of wireless internet and application requirements. She received her degree from Nanjing Academy of Engineering.

Investment Considerations

• FingerMotion’s current offerings includes telecommunications products and services, SMS and MMS services, Big Data Insights (Sapientus) and a Rich Communication Services (RCS) platform.
• The global telecom industry reached $1.74 trillion in 2019 and was forecast to grow at a CAGR of 5% from 2020 to 2027.
• The insurtech market was valued at $2.72 billion for 2020 and is expected to grow at a CAGR of 48.8% during the forecast period from 2021 to 2028. FingerMotion’s proprietary platform, Sapientus, is poised to leverage demand for mobile insurance in the Chinese market.
• The company’s Rich Communication Services platform will provide additional resources for businesses and brands in China looking to increase their communications networks and leverage 5G technology.
• The company’s management team is made up of individuals who are highly experienced in finance and Big Data, including multiple entrepreneurs who have successfully founded their own companies.

Flora Growth Corp. (NASDAQ: FLGC)

Flora Growth Corp. (NASDAQ: FLGC) is an internationally focused cannabis brand builder that leverages natural, cost-effective cultivation practices to supply cannabis derivatives to its diverse business divisions, including cosmetics, hemp textiles, and food and beverage. Flora Growth operates one of the largest outdoor cultivation facilities in the world with an aim of marketing a higher-quality premium product at below-market prices. By prioritizing natural ingredients and value-chain sustainability across its portfolio, the company creates premium products that help consumers restore and thrive.

Flora Growth completed the first traditional cannabis IPO on Nasdaq in May 2021. Although currently headquartered in Toronto, Ontario, with plans to relocate its head office to Miami, Florida, the company’s base of operations is in Colombia, where it has built an extensive distribution network that includes Colombia’s largest distributors.

Currently, Flora Growth is organically growing market share for its existing brand portfolio (pharmaceuticals, textiles, cosmetics, and food & beverage) while seeking revenue-generating acquisitions that offer an accretive distribution network to amplify revenue growth.

Existing Brand & Product Portfolio

Flora Growth’s portfolio spans a number of verticals – each with a thoughtful brand designed to resonate with its intended end consumer. In line with the company’s mission, each brand prioritizes natural ingredients and value-chain sustainability.

Flora Lab S.A.S

Flora Lab is the company’s GMP certified manufacturing and R&D center focused on producing pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, and nutraceuticals for domestic and international markets. Its offerings include product lines that are private label, white-label, and custom formulas.

Through Flora Lab, Flora Growth has relationships with 1,500+ distribution channels, manufactures 63+ OTC products registered with INVIMA (Colombia National Food and Drug Surveillance Institute), and holds multiple GMP certifications enabling international export in an effort to leverage Flora Lab’s capacity to produce a wide range of CBD-infused products.

Flora Beauty

Flora Beauty is the company’s CBD beauty and cosmetics division founded by fashion and beauty industry icon Paulina Vega. Its current offerings include two CBD skincare brands targeting the U.S. and Latin American markets – MIND NATURALS and AWE. These lines exemplify Flora Growth’s socially conscious approach to business. Currently, Flora Beauty products are offered globally through e-commerce, as well as through Falabella’s 111 retail locations across Latin America. The company is in negotiations with major department stores to launch the line in the U.S. and is also exploring opportunities in the U.K. and other European markets.

KASA Wholefoods

KASA Wholefoods is a Colombian manufacturer of food and beverages leveraging responsibly sourced exotic fruits from the Amazon. KASA has a $10 million+ distribution agreement with Tropi, Colombia’s largest food distributor, which has 130,000+ distribution points across the country.

Mambe, KASA’s leading brand, is already offered through over 980 distribution points across Colombia. Flora Growth expects this network to grow to over 1,200 distribution points in 2021, including one of Colombia’s largest coffee chains, Tostao Café & Pan.

Hemp Textiles & Co.

Through its Hemp Textiles division, Flora Growth intends to utilize its large land package and cultivation infrastructure to capture market share in the rapidly growing hemp industrials segment.

The company’s first brand through this division, Stardog Loungewear, offers a line of comfortable loungewear made from natural, organic materials. Stardog has been distributing globally through e-commerce and brick and mortar channels in Bogota since fall 2020, and the company intends to open U.S. brick and mortar locations in 2021.

Accretive M&A

Flora Growth is targeting transactions to complete the supply chain via key infrastructure to enhance its global distribution with the aim to compete on low-cost, high-quality inputs paired with premium brands that create business lines with robust margins.

To date, Flora has announced two major transactions.

Koch & Gsell (Acquisition)

• Amplify CPG portfolio’s revenue growth through leading brand, Heimat, currently with TTM revenues of $7.6 million.
• Leverage Koch &Gsell’s distribution network of 2,500+ stores to introduce Flora to the Swiss, European and Asian markets.
• Bring patented hemp cigarette manufacturing technology into new markets utilizing Flora’s high-quality cannabis.

Hoshi International (Investment)

• Equity Investment of €2 million into Hoshi to establish Flora as a preferred supplier to two EU processing facilities.
• Opens gateway for Flora Growth’s cannabis through international distribution agreements in the EU and U.K.
• Hoshi’s experienced team and increased access to the EU cannabis market to serve as a catalyst for revenue growth.

Cultivation

Key to Flora Growth’s expansion efforts is its cultivation strategy. The company’s Cosechemos farm, located in Bucaramanga, Colombia, is currently licensed to cultivate 247 acres of cannabis. Through three successful pilot crop plantings, the location has demonstrated a production cost of just $0.06/gram. For comparison, the average cost of North American cannabis (based on 2019 figures from Aphria, Tilray, Sundial, and Aurora) equates to roughly $1.89/gram.

Flora Growth is uniquely positioned to capitalize on Colombia’s favorable growing conditions, low-cost infrastructure, and affordable local workforce as it looks to ramp up its cultivation efforts moving forward.

Leadership Team

Bernard Wilson is the Chairman of Flora Growth. A senior financial professional, Dr. Wilson is the former Vice-Chairman of PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP and is the Chairman of the Founders Board of the Institute of Corporate Directors. He has also served as Chairman of the Canadian Chamber of Commerce; Chairman of the International Chamber of Commerce – Canada; and Member of the Canada/U.S. Trade Committee. Dr. Wilson draws on this experience to ensure Flora Growth adheres to effective corporate governance practices.

Luis Merchan is the company’s President and CEO. He is a proven executive with over a decade of experience in enterprise sales management, corporate strategy, merchandising and expense management, and customer experience. Mr. Merchan previously served as Macy’s Inc.’s Vice President of Workforce Strategy and Operations, where he managed the enterprise’s multi-billion-dollar P&L expense line for the entire 540 store portfolio. Throughout his tenure at Macy’s, he led various sales and marketing initiatives, including the B2B corporate sales team that was responsible for $160 million in annual revenue. Mr. Merchan obtained his Bachelor of Industrial Engineering from Pontifical Xaverian University in Bogota, Colombia, and his MBA from McNeese State University. He also holds a Graduate Certificate in Marketing Management from Harvard.

Juan Manuel Galan is a Strategic Advisor to the Flora Growth management team. Mr. Galan currently serves as a senior consultant to The World Bank. He is a politician and former senator of Colombia, serving three terms from 2006 to 2018 as a member of the Colombian Liberal Party. He is also a former professor at the University of Rosario and holds more than 20 years of journalistic, academic, governmental and parliamentary experience. During his time as a senator, Mr. Galan was a key leader, with 29 bills and 27 debates on political control, and 17 laws to his name. The most relevant of those laws was authoring the medical cannabis law that resulted in the legalization of medical cannabis in Colombia.

Stan Bharti is a Director of Flora Growth. Mr. Bharti currently serves as Executive Chairman of Forbes & Manhattan. He has more than 30 years of professional experience in business, finance, markets, operations and more, with a focus on the resource and technology sectors. To date, Mr. Bharti has amassed over $3 billion worth of investment capital for the companies with which he has worked and their shareholders. He is a Professional Mining Engineer and holds a master’s degree in engineering from Moscow, Russia, and University of London, England.

Javier Franco is the company’s VP of Agriculture. Mr. Franco is a master horticulturist with more than 25 years of experience in the design, implementation, and management of cultivation and propagation facilities of more than 30 species of cut flowers in Latin America. He completed his agricultural studies at Zamorano University in Honduras and later at an International Exchange Program at Ohio State University. Mr. Franco has directed technical, commercial, and research groups in the cut flower, fruit and vegetable markets in Latin America and has participated in the commercial development of new technologies applied in agribusiness. He has also led the agri-management of organic crops and certifications of Good Agricultural Practices.

Investment Considerations

• Flora Growth is uniquely positioned to achieve revenue growth, with a balance sheet supported by two successful financings and the recent launch of multiple operating divisions.
• The company boasts a robust M&A pipeline featuring strategic targets with near-term revenue growth opportunities and global distribution channels.
• Flora Growth is led by an exceptional management team featuring cannabis, CPG, and capital markets experts who have raised more than $3 billion in combined public financings.
• The company’s brand portfolio features 280+ products, 70+ medical and cosmetic licenses, and 2,500+ points of distribution across Latin America and the U.S.
• Flora Growth has a healthy balance sheet with minimal debt; the company reported a cash balance of $25.3 million with long-term debt of just $0.7 million as of April 19, 2021.
• The company’s all-natural, outdoor cultivation operations allow for production costs below $0.06 per gram – roughly 60% lower than its closest peer.

FingerMotion Inc. (NASDAQ: FNGR)

FingerMotion Inc. (NASDAQ: FNGR) is an evolving technological company with core competencies in mobile payment and recharge platform solutions in China. FingerMotion is in the process of developing additional value-added technologies to market to users.

Founded in 2016, FingerMotion’s goal is to serve over a billion users in the Chinese market and expand its model to other regional markets. The company has offices in Hong Kong, Shanghai and New York City.

Current Offerings

FingerMotion is analyzing and transforming mobile data to improve the lifestyle of the public through technology and innovation. The company’s current offerings include:

• Telecommunications Products and Services – FingerMotion’s proprietary universal exchange platform, ‘PigeonHole Integration System (PIS)’, offers seamless integration between telecom operators and online stores. The service platform’s offerings include top up and recharge, data plan, mobile phone, loyalty points redemption and subscription plans. The platform offers reliable and secure transactions, real-time reconciliation, simple integration for partners and efficient settlements.
• SMS and MMS Services – The integrated platform is registered as FingerMotion’s IP in China and provides a robust back-end control panel for corporate partners to manage their own messaging settings. FingerMotion’s clients range from insurance to financial industries, ecommerce firms, airlines and more. The platform offers competitive pricing for partners and provides quick and efficient review to meet timely marketing initiatives.
• Big Data Insights – FingerMotion brings Big Data-enabled insurance solutions through its Big Data Insights arm, Sapientus. The company’s strategic partnerships with the largest Chinese telecommunications giants allow access to uncover behavior insights through geolocation and mobile data usage. Its Big Data offerings include risk scoring, precise marketing, simplified underwriting and customized products.
• Rich Communication Services (RCS) – FingerMotion’s RCS platform will be a proprietary business messaging solution that enables businesses and brands to communicate their services to customers via 5G infrastructure. The company expects its RCS platform to offer a better user experience, more efficiency and cost-effectiveness when compared to other solutions.

Telecommunications and Insurtech Markets

The global telecommunications market was valued at $1.74 trillion in 2019 and is expected to grow at a CAGR of 5% from 2020 to 2027. The steady increase is expected to be driven by the adoption of 5G and the increased popularity of Internet of Things (IoT) applications.

The Chinese telecom market was valued at $254.1 billion in 2017 and is also constantly expanding. The current Chinese telecom market is dominated by three mobile operators – China Mobile, China Unicom and China Telecom, which together are responsible for around 1.6 billion active subscribers (https://ibn.fm/zfwy9).

In addition, the insurtech (insurance technology) market was valued at $2.72 billion globally in 2020 and is expected to grow at a CAGR of 48.8% from 2021 to 2028. The large increase is attributed to the rising use of technology solutions for everyday activities like acquiring insurance coverage (https://ibn.fm/TGo7D).

Through its proprietary platforms and technologies, FingerMotion is uniquely positioned to capitalize on the telecom and insurtech markets’ growth and opportunities.

Management Team

Martin J. Shen is the Chief Executive Officer of FingerMotion Inc. He has over 15 years of experience in senior management roles within entrepreneurial startups and large multinational corporations. He has acquired a wide range of corporate management, financial oversight and operation administration expertise through these roles. In his most recent role, he founded Imperial Distributors (formerly known as AP Martin Pharmaceutical Supplies Ltd.), establishing the company as the preferred choice for distributional support to regional pharmacies throughout Western Canada. Before founding Imperial, Mr. Shen served as the Chief Operating Officer and Chief Financial Officer at Wales and Son Industrial (formerly Weir Minerals), a firm specializing in global delivery and support for mining slurry equipment. He began his career at PricewaterhouseCoopers in Vancouver, with work tours in the tax department in Singapore and the tax audit and advisory group in Hong Kong. Mr. Shen is a U.S. Certified Public Accountant and holds a Bachelor of Science from the University of British Columbia.

Lee Yew Hon is the company’s Chief Financial Officer. From 2006 until November 2020, he was the Chief Financial Officer of Cubinet Interactive Group of Companies, and he also took on the Chief Operating Officer role in 2011. During his tenure, he was instrumental in leading Cubinet and building teams across the Southeast Asia region, setting up financial processes within a short time. Mr. Lee spearheaded the growth of Cubinet to other regions, including Europe, the Middle East and Russia. He received his diploma from Tunku Abdul Rahman College in 1996. He is a Chartered Accountant, a member of the Malaysia Institute of Accountants (MIA) and an Associate Member of the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants, UK (ACMA).

Li Li is the Senior Vice President of FingerMotion. She recently served as Advisor to Shenzhen WuYiKa Technology Co. Ltd., a comprehensive service platform dedicated to online service distribution and payment. The company has become a fast and efficient provider of new media marketing solutions for the mobile internet. She has held high-level management positions with multiple industry names, including Hangzhou JiuYue Information Technology Co. Ltd. and Hangzhou LingXuan Information Technology. Ms. Li started her career in 2004, founding Shanghai ChuangYeZZ Network Technology Co. Ltd. and serving as its Vice President. With the close cooperation of local operators, the company launched SMS, MMS, WAP, mobile JAVA games, Hunan Satellite TV e-magazine and other wireless internet services to meet the rapid development of wireless internet and application requirements. She received her degree from Nanjing Academy of Engineering.

Investment Considerations

• FingerMotion’s current offerings includes telecommunications products and services, SMS and MMS services, Big Data Insights (Sapientus) and a Rich Communication Services (RCS) platform.
• The global telecom industry reached $1.74 trillion in 2019 and was forecast to grow at a CAGR of 5% from 2020 to 2027.
• The insurtech market was valued at $2.72 billion for 2020 and is expected to grow at a CAGR of 48.8% during the forecast period from 2021 to 2028. FingerMotion’s proprietary platform, Sapientus, is poised to leverage demand for mobile insurance in the Chinese market.
• The company’s Rich Communication Services platform will provide additional resources for businesses and brands in China looking to increase their communications networks and leverage 5G technology.
• The company’s management team is made up of individuals who are highly experienced in finance and Big Data, including multiple entrepreneurs who have successfully founded their own companies.

Energy Fuels Inc. (NYSE American: UUUU) (TSX: EFR)

Energy Fuels Inc. (NYSE American: UUUU) (TSX: EFR), based in Lakewood, Colorado, is the country’s largest producer of uranium and the leading conventional producer of vanadium, both designated by the U.S. government as critical minerals.

As the leading U.S. diversified uranium miner, Energy Fuels’ uranium production portfolio stands apart in the world. Energy Fuels has more uranium production facilities, more production capacity, and more in-ground resources than any other company in the United States. In fact, the company’s assets have produced over one-third of all U.S. uranium over the past 15 years and is uniquely positioned to increase production to meet new demand.

Energy Fuels utilizes both conventional and in-situ recovery (“ISR”) technology to produce uranium from three strategic facilities:

• White Mesa Mill in Utah (conventional) has a licensed capacity of over 8 million pounds of U3O8 per year. The highly strategic White Mesa Mill is the only conventional uranium mill in the country and is proximate to some of the largest and highest-grade uranium mines and projects in the U.S., including the Company’s Canyon mine, La Sal Complex, Henry Mountains Complex and Roca Honda Project. White Mesa Mill provides Energy Fuels with significant production scalability as uranium demand increases. The White Mesa Mill also has other diverse businesses, including vanadium, rare earth elements (REE’s), alternate feed materials recycling and land cleanup, all described below.
• Nichols Ranch Plant (ISR) is located in the productive Powder River Basin district of Wyoming and has a total licensed capacity of 2 million pounds of U3O8 per year. Nichols Ranch has produced 1.2 million pounds of U3O8 since commissioning in 2014, and it has significant future expansion potential from 34 fully licensed wellfields containing significant in-ground uranium resources.
• Alta Mesa Plant (ISR) is located on over 200,000 acres of private land in Texas. The fully licensed and constructed ISR project has a total operating capacity of 1.5 million pounds of uranium per year and produced nearly 5 million pounds of U3O8 between 2005 and 2013. This low-cost production facility is currently on standby, maintained in a state of readiness to respond to expected increases in demand.

In addition to being the largest uranium miner in the U.S., Energy Fuels’ overall portfolio also includes a pipeline of high-quality, large-scale exploration and development projects that are permitted or are in advanced stages of permitting, as well as an industry-leading U.S. NI 43-101 Mineral Resource portfolio.

FACTOID: Energy Fuels has led industry efforts over the past two-plus years to get the U.S. government to recognize the importance of domestically produced uranium, including the 2018 – 2019 Uranium Section 232, the ongoing Nuclear Fuel Working Group and the recently announced creation of the U.S. strategic uranium reserve. The U.S. is by far the largest consumer of uranium in the world, yet we import almost all of our requirements; Energy Fuels aims to change that.

Nuclear Market Potential

Multiple studies in top scientific journals have shown that nuclear power is cleanest and most economical way to produce reliable electricity as worldwide demand continues to soar. Nuclear power is presently the only available and affordable low-carbon power source that can meet both current and future baseload electricity demands while simultaneously reducing air pollution and mitigating climate change. U.S. nuclear power plants currently generate nearly 20% of the nation’s electricity overall and 55% of its carbon‐free electricity and even a modest increase in electricity demand would require significant new nuclear capacity by 2025. According to the World Nuclear Association (WNA), there are currently 441 operable reactors, with another 54 units under construction and 439 in various stages of planning; in addition, the WNA has identified a potentially massive supply/demand gap through 2040 of 1 billion pounds. These factors among others are expected to significantly drive increased demand for uranium.

Reasons Nuclear is Gaining Traction

• Nuclear reactors emit no greenhouse gases during operation. Over their full lifetimes, they result in comparable emissions to renewable forms of energy such as wind and solar.
• Unlike any other form of energy, the waste from nuclear energy is contained and managed securely. Used fuel is currently being safely stored for ultimate disposal or future reprocessing, and 96% of this waste can potentially be recycled.
• Greater demand for clean electricity to power everything from homes to automobiles, reducing dependence on fossil fuels.

No. 1 U.S. Producer of Vanadium in 2019

Energy Fuels also produces vanadium as a byproduct of uranium production. Vanadium is designated a critical mineral, essential to the economic and national security of the United States. Energy Fuels was the largest producer of vanadium in the U.S. in 2019, and has significant high-grade, in-ground vanadium resources, as well as a separate high-purity vanadium production circuit at their White Mesa Mill, which is also the only conventional vanadium mill in the country. Crucial for use in the steel, aerospace, and chemical industries, vanadium plays a critical role in the production of high-strength and light-weight metallic alloys and demand is expected to increase across the globe.

Energy Fuels has several fully permitted and developed standby mines containing large quantities of high-grade vanadium, along with uranium, including:

• La Sal Complex (Utah)
• Whirlwind Mine (Colorado/Utah)
• Rim Mine (Colorado)

Vanadium has also gained increased attention as a catalyst in next-generation high-capacity, “community-scale” batteries used for energy storage generated from renewable sources. Demand is only expected to grow as this market expands. With recent upgrades in its vanadium production operations, in 2019 Energy Fuels produced commercial levels of the highest purity (99.7%) vanadium in the mill’s history and can rapidly adjust production to meet volatile market conditions. Energy Fuels is one of the very few known avenues that provides investors access the vanadium market.

Rare Earth Element (REE) Production, Alternate Feed Material Recycling, and Land Cleanup

The White Mesa Mill also provides the company with diverse cashflow generating opportunities. Security of supply for Rare Earth Elements (REEs) supporting U.S. military and defense requirements is a major issue today. Energy Fuels has been approached by a number of entities, including the U.S. government, inquiring about the potential to process certain REEs at the mill. The White Mesa Mill is currently licensed to process certain REEs, including tantalum and niobium. And, early indications are that the mill can be utilized to produce several other REEs. The White Mesa Mill is also the only facility in North America licensed and capable of recycling alternate feed materials (AFMs). AFMs are essentially low-level waste materials that contain recoverable quantities of natural (or unenriched) uranium. The Company typically generates between $5 and $15 million per year from AFM recycling. Finally, Energy Fuels is seeking to become involved in the cleanup of legacy Cold War era uranium mines in the Four Corners region of the U.S., including on the Navajo Nation. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has access to over $1.5 billion for the cleanup of just a fraction of the sites on the Navajo Nation. The White Mesa Mill is fully licensed to receive much of this material, we are one of the government’s lowest cost options, and we have the ability to recycle the material and produce usable uranium from it.

Management Team

Mark S. Chalmers, President and CEO
Mark S. Chalmers is the president and chief executive officer of Energy Fuels, a position he has held since Feb. 1, 2018, following his role as chief operating officer of Energy Fuels from July 1, 2016 – Jan. 31, 2018. From 2011 to 2015, Chalmers served as executive general manager of Production for Paladin Energy Ltd., a uranium producer with assets in Australia and Africa, including the Langer Heinrich and Kayelekera mines where, as head of operations, he oversaw sustained, significant increases in production while reducing operating costs. He also possesses extensive experience in in situ recovery (“ISR”) uranium production, including management of the Beverley Uranium Mine owned by General Atomics (Australia), and the Highland mine owned by Cameco Corporation (USA). Chalmers has also consulted to several of the largest players in the uranium supply sector, including BHP Billiton, Rio Tinto, and Marubeni, and until recently served as the chair of the Australian Uranium Council, a position he held for 10 years. Chalmers is a registered professional engineer and holds a Bachelor of Science in Mining Engineering from the University of Arizona.

W. Paul Goranson, COO
W. Paul Goranson is the chief operating officer for Energy Fuels. Goranson has 30 years of mining, processing and regulatory experience in the uranium extraction industry that includes both conventional and in-situ recovery (“ISR”) mining, and he is a registered professional engineer. Prior to the acquisition by Energy Fuels of Uranerz Energy Corporation, Goranson served as president, chief operating officer and director for Uranerz, where he was responsible for operations of the Nichols Ranch ISR Uranium Project. In addition to those duties, he also managed uranium marketing, regulatory and government affairs, exploration and land. Prior to joining Uranerz, Goranson served as president of Cameco Resources, where he led the operations at the Smith Ranch-Highland, Crow Butte and North Butte ISR uranium recovery facilities. Goranson also served as vice president of Mesteña Uranium LLC, and he has served in senior positions with Rio Algom Mining, (a subsidiary of BHP Billiton), and Uranium Resource Inc. Goranson has a Bachelor of Science in Natural Gas Engineering from Texas A&I University, and a Master of Science in Environmental Engineering from Texas A&M University-Kingsville.

David C. Frydenlund, CFO, General Counsel, Corporate Secretary
David C. Frydenlund is chief financial officer, general counsel, and corporate secretary of Energy Fuels. His responsibilities include oversight of all legal matters relating to the company’s activities. His expertise extends to NRC, EPA, state and federal regulatory and environmental laws and regulations. From 1997 to 2012, Frydenlund was vice president of regulatory affairs, general counsel and corporate secretary of Denison Mines Corp., and its predecessor International Uranium Corporation (“IUC”). He also served as a director of IUC from 1997 to 2006 and CFO of IUC from 2000 to 2005. From 1996 to 1997, Frydenlund was vice president of the Lundin Group of international public mining and oil and gas companies, and prior thereto was a partner with the Vancouver law firm of Ladner Downs (now Borden Ladner Gervais) where his practice focused on corporate, securities and international mining transactions law. Frydenlund holds a bachelor’s degree in business and economics from Simon Fraser University, a master’s degree in economics and finance from the University of Chicago and a law degree from the University of Toronto.

Curtis H. Moore, Vice President of Marketing and Corporate Development
Curtis H. Moore is the vice president of Marketing and Corporate Development for Energy Fuels. He oversees product marketing for Energy Fuels, and is closely involved in mergers & acquisitions, investor relations, public relations, and corporate legal. He has been with Energy Fuels for over 12 years, holding various roles of increasing responsibility. Prior to joining Energy Fuels, Moore worked in multi-family real estate development, government relations and public affairs, production homebuilding, and private law practice. Moore is a licensed attorney in the State of Colorado. He holds Juris Doctor and MBA degrees from the University of Colorado at Boulder, and a Bachelor of Arts dual degree in Economics-Government from Claremont McKenna College in Claremont, California.

EverGen Infrastructure Corp. (TSX.V: EVGN) (OTCQB: EVGIF)

EverGen Infrastructure Corp. (OTCQB: EVGIF) (TSX.V: EVGN) is developing Canada’s Renewable Natural Gas Infrastructure Platform, starting on the west coast in British Columbia. The company is combating climate change and helping communities contribute to a sustainable future by acquiring, developing, building, owning and operating a portfolio of renewable natural gas (RNG), waste-to-energy, and related infrastructure projects.

While EverGen is currently focused on British Columbia, its continued growth is expected across other regions of North America. RNG is produced differently than conventional natural gas, without drilling wells. RNG is derived from biogas, which is captured from decomposing organic waste in landfills, food waste, agricultural waste matter and wastewater from treatment facilities. This waste feedstock is supplied to an anaerobic digester which contains bacteria that breaks down organic matter in the absence of oxygen. The resulting biogas is captured and cleaned to create carbon neutral or carbon negative RNG to be used by the existing North American gas pipeline grid. By capturing these emissions and transforming them into RNG, then combusting into CO2, the overall greenhouse gases (GHG) impact is materially less potent than allowing natural decomposition to release methane into the atmosphere. Liquid and solid digestate matter is a byproduct of the RNG production process and is used as fertilizer and in other applications.

EverGen operates three projects in British Columbia. The company was incorporated in 2020 and went public in 2021, with its common shares listed on the TSX Venture Exchange under ticker symbol ‘EVGN’. In February 2022, EverGen’s common shares began trading on the OTCQB Venture Market in the U.S. under ticker symbol ‘EVGIF’. The company is headquartered in Vancouver.

Portfolio Projects

Fraser Valley Biogas is one of three projects in EverGen’s portfolio. Located in Abbotsford, British Columbia, the facility has been digesting manure and off-farm organics since 2011 and was the first agricultural digester in Canada to produce RNG. The RNG generated through this project is part of a FortisBC program to supply renewable gas to homes, businesses and other customers. Fraser Valley Biogas also provides Abbotsford farms with renewable fertilizer via the digestate produced. EverGen acquired Fraser Valley Biogas early in 2021 and is currently enhancing and expanding the facility. These optimization projects resulted in record production during the month of September 2021, supporting the growing demand for RNG in British Columbia. Optimization activities contributed an additional 18% of RNG production for September and a 9% higher year-to-date production compared to the previous year. The facility produces approximately 80,000 gigajoules of RNG, enough to heat more than 1,000 homes for a year.

Net Zero Waste Abbotsford, a wholly owned EverGen subsidiary and portfolio project, is an existing composting and organic processing facility and RNG expansion project. The British Columbia Utilities Commission recently approved a 20-year offtake agreement between the facility and FortisBC, an electricity and gas utility. Under this agreement, FortisBC will purchase up to 173,000 gigajoules of RNG annually for injection into its natural gas system upon completion of an anaerobic digester project at Net Zero Waste Abbotsford. Once construction is complete, this project is expected to produce enough energy to meet the needs of more than 1,900 homes.

Sea to Sky Soils, a wholly owned EverGen subsidiary and portfolio project, is an existing composting and organic processing facility and potential future RNG expansion project which has been operating near Pemberton, British Columbia, on Lil’wat Nation land since 2012. The Lil’wat Nation is a key partner and supporter of the facility, which has employed a majority of its staff from the First Nation since inception. The Sea to Sky Soils facility processed approximately 160 percent of its forecast tonnage in the second half of 2021. In total, Sea to Sky Soils processed approximately 36,000 tons of organic waste in 2021. The facility is working with the Ministry of Environment to expand its operational capacity in 2022. EverGen has partnered with local municipalities – including Metro Vancouver and the municipality of Pemberton – for the delivery of additional organic waste to the facility. The facility is an important part of EverGen’s RNG infrastructure platform and serves as a source of valuable feedstock to support the company’s existing and future operations.

Market Outlook

A report from Global Market Insights states that the biogas market is projected to see significant growth over the next few years, driven by a shifting preference to utilize biogas to reduce emission levels from traditional fuels. Escalating RNG usage by gas utilities as a sustainable and low carbon alternative to supply heat and electricity in industries and buildings will further stimulate growth. RNG is increasingly deployed across the transport sector, especially for heavy vehicles and vessels, to abate GHG emissions.

Many North American gas utilities have set RNG targets of 5% to 15% of production by volume in 2030, compared to less than 1% by volume in 2020. FortisBC has a goal of including 15% RNG in its gas supply by 2030. EverGen believes this presents a potential C$16 billion+ opportunity for RNG producers.

Management Team

Chase Edgelow is co-founder and CEO at EverGen. He has over 15 years of specialized private investment, finance, and technical expertise in the energy and infrastructure sectors. His background is as a Facilities Engineer with Petro-Canada, independently managing energy infrastructure capital projects located in western Canada. He holds a Professional Engineer designation from the province of Alberta.

Mischa Zajtmann is co-founder and President at Evergen. He has 15 years of experience providing consulting and management for Canadian and American companies in the natural resources and energy space. He is a corporate securities lawyer who began his career at Blake, Cassels & Graydon LLP. His J.D. is from the University of Saskatchewan Law School. He’s a member of the British Columbia Bar.

Sean Mezei is COO at EverGen. He has 20 years of experience in the RNG industry, having served previously as the president of Greenlane Biogas and as a senior manager at QuestAir, and founder and president of Dekany Consulting. He was a co-chairman of the American Biogas Council’s RNG working group for six years. He has been a Registered Professional Engineer in the province of British Columbia since 1994.

Natasha Monk is CFO at EverGen. She is a CPA with 12 years accounting, financial reporting, and tax experience in public practice and industry. She is currently a partner at Affirm LLP, where she advises and consults to a wide variety of companies in multiple industries across public and private sectors. Prior to joining EverGen, she worked at KPMG. She graduated from the University of Calgary.

Investment Considerations

• EverGen forecasts EBITDA growth from about C$3 million in 2021 to more than C$12 million in the next 12 months from expansion of core operating assets.
• EverGen stock began trading in the U.S. on the OTCQB Venture Market under ticker symbol ‘EVGIF’ on February 15, 2022.
• EverGen has low-risk long term contracted or reoccurring revenue (similar to Large Cap Independent Power Producers), with two revenue sources via RNG sales and organic waste tip-fee contracts providing a high margin business with EBITDA margins of 50-60%.
• In its most recent reporting, the company reported gross profit of C$1.58 million on revenue of C$1.95 million for the quarter ended September 30, 2021.

Additional Resources

• Company Website
• Company Presentation
• NewsRoom

Fintech Ecosystem Development Corp. (NASDAQ: FEXD)

Fintech Ecosystem Development Corp. (NASDAQ: FEXD) is a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) formed for the purpose of effecting one or more business combinations with an intent to focus on the financial technology sector.

The company’s mission is to create and grow a global financial services ecosystem to address unmet mobile money needs in developing and industrialized countries and markets. FEXD plans to achieve this by acquiring and merging with financial technology pioneers that have the potential to help establish its global fintech ecosystem, and by continuing the development of proprietary technologies and applications to keep the company at the forefront of the cashless society market.

Digital money is replacing physical cash. Consumers can buy products and services from anywhere in the world and make payments across borders. Parents can send money to students studying in other countries. Migrant workers are sending money to families in developing nations. Rural villagers without banks can send and receive money using their smartphones. FEXD is developing mobile transaction platforms, applications and services that are helping to implement these changes.

The company plans to offer a diverse portfolio of products and services to consumers and businesses in the United States, South Asia, East Asia, Africa, Europe and Latin America. Its growth strategy includes acquisition, innovation and market development.

FEXD is a Delaware corporation based in Collegeville, Pennsylvania. The company was launched in May 2021 by a management team led by Dr. Saiful Khandaker that has extensive experience in developing and managing financial service platforms and applications, primarily in the mobile money sector. FEXD is sponsored by Revofast LLC.

Acquisition Targets

In September 2022, FEXD announced definitive agreements for business combinations with Rana Financial Inc., a Georgia corporation, and Mobitech International LLC (dba Afinoz), a limited liability company organized in the United Arab Emirates. The agreements call for Rana and Afinoz to become wholly owned subsidiaries of FEXD, with the combined company expected to continue trading on the Nasdaq under existing ticker symbol ‘FEXD’. The mergers are expected to close in Q2 2023.

Rana Financial

Rana Financial is a licensed money transfer company founded in 2009. Rana provides fast and affordable online and mobile transfer of funds between the U.S. and Latin America. Rana has been providing money transfer services in the U.S. market for 13 years and has 30,000 active users. Rana’s money transfer business grew to 200,000 transactions in 2021. The merger agreement values Rana at an implied $78 million enterprise value.

Mobitech International LLC

Mobitech International LLC (dba Afinoz) is an artificial intelligence-enabled digital lending platform used by India’s leading banks, non-banking financial companies and fintech loan providers. Afinoz’s fintech platform supports enterprises making loans primarily to middle- and working-class borrowers via its website or through its mobile phone application. Afinoz’s platform makes loans available and affordable to millions of Indian workers and unbanked users by providing access at a low cost. Afinoz’s platform has more than 50 lending partners, and its database of registered users in India includes more than two million individuals. The merger agreement values Afinoz at an implied $120 million enterprise value.

Market Opportunity

According to analysis by global market research firm Mordor Intelligence, the worldwide financial technology market is valued at approximately $194 billion in 2023 and is projected to grow to nearly $500 billion by 2028, representing a CAGR of 18.97% for the forecast period. According to the report, various financial crises and the COVID-19 pandemic have fueled consumer adoption of, and investor interest in, fintech over the past several years.

Management Team

Dr. Saiful Khandaker is Founder, CEO and President of FEXD. He is Group CEO and founder of FAMA Holdings Inc., a global developer of fintech platforms, applications and services based in the U.S. with offices in the U.K., India, Bangladesh and Zambia. He is currently leading the development of the FAMACASH™ network, a global fintech ecosystem to provide fast, affordable mobile money services in underserved countries such as Bangladesh. Before founding FAMA, Dr. Khandaker spent more than two decades leading the development of software solutions for Fortune 100 companies and startups. He also helped numerous clients modernize their fintech services as Chief Technology Officer at Mi3. He holds a Doctor of Management in Organizational Leadership, a Master of Science in Technology Management, and a Bachelor of Science in Computer Information Systems.

Jenny Junkeer is CFO at FEXD. She is a Chartered Accountant with over 17 years of experience. As CEO of Junkeer New Era Consulting, she leads a team specializing in helping companies launch and optimize business operations in fast-changing industries. She has extensive experience helping organizations scale operations to maximize value. She is an Adjunct Association Professor at Deakin University in Australia, a board member of the Global Health Initiative Foundation, and Director of Implementation at ConnectCV. She holds a Bachelor of Commerce Degree (Honors) from Monash University.

Energy Fuels Inc. (NYSE American: UUUU) (TSX: EFR)

Energy Fuels Inc. (NYSE American: UUUU) (TSX: EFR), based in Lakewood, Colorado, is the country’s largest producer of uranium and the leading conventional producer of vanadium, both designated by the U.S. government as critical minerals. Energy Fuels is also making progress entering the rare earth element production business.

As the leading U.S. diversified uranium miner, Energy Fuels’ uranium production portfolio stands apart in the world. Energy Fuels has more uranium production facilities, more production capacity, and more in-ground resources than any other company in the United States. In fact, the company’s assets have produced over one-third of all U.S. uranium over the past 15 years and is uniquely positioned to increase production to meet new demand.

Energy Fuels utilizes both conventional and in-situ recovery (“ISR”) technology to produce uranium from three strategic facilities:

• White Mesa Mill in Utah (conventional) has a licensed capacity of over 8 million pounds of U3O8 per year. The highly strategic White Mesa Mill is the only conventional uranium mill in the country and is proximate to some of the largest and highest-grade uranium mines and projects in the U.S., including the Company’s Canyon mine, La Sal Complex, Henry Mountains Complex and Roca Honda Project. White Mesa Mill provides Energy Fuels with significant production scalability as uranium demand increases. The White Mesa Mill also has other diverse businesses, including vanadium, rare earth elements (REE’s), alternate feed materials recycling and land cleanup, all described below.
• Nichols Ranch Plant (ISR) is located in the productive Powder River Basin district of Wyoming and has a total licensed capacity of 2 million pounds of U3O8 per year. Nichols Ranch has produced 1.2 million pounds of U3O8 since commissioning in 2014, and it has significant future expansion potential from 34 fully licensed wellfields containing significant in-ground uranium resources.
• Alta Mesa Plant (ISR) is located on over 200,000 acres of private land in Texas. The fully licensed and constructed ISR project has a total operating capacity of 1.5 million pounds of uranium per year and produced nearly 5 million pounds of U3O8 between 2005 and 2013. This low-cost production facility is currently on standby, maintained in a state of readiness to respond to expected increases in demand.

In addition to being the largest uranium miner in the U.S., Energy Fuels’ overall portfolio also includes a pipeline of high-quality, large-scale exploration and development projects that are permitted or are in advanced stages of permitting, as well as an industry-leading U.S. NI 43-101 Mineral Resource portfolio.

FACTOID: Energy Fuels has led industry efforts over the past two-plus years to get the U.S. government to recognize the importance of domestically produced uranium, including the 2018 – 2019 Uranium Section 232, the ongoing Nuclear Fuel Working Group and the recently announced creation of the U.S. strategic uranium reserve. The U.S. is by far the largest consumer of uranium in the world, yet we import almost all of our requirements; Energy Fuels aims to change that.

Nuclear Market Potential

Multiple studies in top scientific journals have shown that nuclear power is cleanest and most economical way to produce reliable electricity as worldwide demand continues to soar. Nuclear power is presently the only available and affordable low-carbon power source that can meet both current and future baseload electricity demands while simultaneously reducing air pollution and mitigating climate change. U.S. nuclear power plants currently generate nearly 20% of the nation’s electricity overall and 55% of its carbon‐free electricity and even a modest increase in electricity demand would require significant new nuclear capacity by 2025. According to the World Nuclear Association (WNA), there are currently 441 operable reactors, with another 54 units under construction and 439 in various stages of planning; in addition, the WNA has identified a potentially massive supply/demand gap through 2040 of 1 billion pounds. These factors among others are expected to significantly drive increased demand for uranium.

Reasons Nuclear is Gaining Traction

• Nuclear reactors emit no greenhouse gases during operation. Over their full lifetimes, they result in comparable emissions to renewable forms of energy such as wind and solar.
• Unlike any other form of energy, the waste from nuclear energy is contained and managed securely. Used fuel is currently being safely stored for ultimate disposal or future reprocessing, and 96% of this waste can potentially be recycled.
• Greater demand for clean electricity to power everything from homes to automobiles, reducing dependence on fossil fuels.

No. 1 U.S. Producer of Vanadium in 2019

Energy Fuels also produces vanadium as a byproduct of uranium production. Vanadium is designated a critical mineral, essential to the economic and national security of the United States. Energy Fuels was the largest producer of vanadium in the U.S. in 2019, and has significant high-grade, in-ground vanadium resources, as well as a separate high-purity vanadium production circuit at their White Mesa Mill, which is also the only conventional vanadium mill in the country. Crucial for use in the steel, aerospace, and chemical industries, vanadium plays a critical role in the production of high-strength and light-weight metallic alloys and demand is expected to increase across the globe.

Energy Fuels has several fully permitted and developed standby mines containing large quantities of high-grade vanadium, along with uranium, including:

• La Sal Complex (Utah)
• Whirlwind Mine (Colorado/Utah)
• Rim Mine (Colorado)

Vanadium has also gained increased attention as a catalyst in next-generation high-capacity, “community-scale” batteries used for energy storage generated from renewable sources. Demand is only expected to grow as this market expands. With recent upgrades in its vanadium production operations, in 2019 Energy Fuels produced commercial levels of the highest purity (99.7%) vanadium in the mill’s history and can rapidly adjust production to meet volatile market conditions. Energy Fuels is one of the very few known avenues that provides investors access the vanadium market.

Rare Earth Element (REE) Production, Alternate Feed Material Recycling, and Land Cleanup

The White Mesa Mill also provides the company with diverse cashflow generating opportunities. Security of supply for Rare Earth Elements (REEs) supporting U.S. military and defense requirements is a major issue today. Energy Fuels has been approached by a number of entities, including the U.S. government, inquiring about the potential to process certain REEs at the mill. The White Mesa Mill is currently licensed to process certain REEs, including tantalum and niobium. And, early indications are that the mill can be utilized to produce several other REEs. The White Mesa Mill is also the only facility in North America licensed and capable of recycling alternate feed materials (AFMs). AFMs are essentially low-level waste materials that contain recoverable quantities of natural (or unenriched) uranium. The Company typically generates between $5 and $15 million per year from AFM recycling. Finally, Energy Fuels is seeking to become involved in the cleanup of legacy Cold War era uranium mines in the Four Corners region of the U.S., including on the Navajo Nation. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has access to over $1.5 billion for the cleanup of just a fraction of the sites on the Navajo Nation. The White Mesa Mill is fully licensed to receive much of this material, we are one of the government’s lowest cost options, and we have the ability to recycle the material and produce usable uranium from it.

Management Team

Mark S. Chalmers, President and CEO
Mark S. Chalmers is the president and chief executive officer of Energy Fuels, a position he has held since Feb. 1, 2018, following his role as chief operating officer of Energy Fuels from July 1, 2016 – Jan. 31, 2018. From 2011 to 2015, Chalmers served as executive general manager of Production for Paladin Energy Ltd., a uranium producer with assets in Australia and Africa, including the Langer Heinrich and Kayelekera mines where, as head of operations, he oversaw sustained, significant increases in production while reducing operating costs. He also possesses extensive experience in in situ recovery (“ISR”) uranium production, including management of the Beverley Uranium Mine owned by General Atomics (Australia), and the Highland mine owned by Cameco Corporation (USA). Chalmers has also consulted to several of the largest players in the uranium supply sector, including BHP Billiton, Rio Tinto, and Marubeni, and until recently served as the chair of the Australian Uranium Council, a position he held for 10 years. Chalmers is a registered professional engineer and holds a Bachelor of Science in Mining Engineering from the University of Arizona.

W. Paul Goranson, COO
W. Paul Goranson is the chief operating officer for Energy Fuels. Goranson has 30 years of mining, processing and regulatory experience in the uranium extraction industry that includes both conventional and in-situ recovery (“ISR”) mining, and he is a registered professional engineer. Prior to the acquisition by Energy Fuels of Uranerz Energy Corporation, Goranson served as president, chief operating officer and director for Uranerz, where he was responsible for operations of the Nichols Ranch ISR Uranium Project. In addition to those duties, he also managed uranium marketing, regulatory and government affairs, exploration and land. Prior to joining Uranerz, Goranson served as president of Cameco Resources, where he led the operations at the Smith Ranch-Highland, Crow Butte and North Butte ISR uranium recovery facilities. Goranson also served as vice president of Mesteña Uranium LLC, and he has served in senior positions with Rio Algom Mining, (a subsidiary of BHP Billiton), and Uranium Resource Inc. Goranson has a Bachelor of Science in Natural Gas Engineering from Texas A&I University, and a Master of Science in Environmental Engineering from Texas A&M University-Kingsville.

David C. Frydenlund, CFO, General Counsel, Corporate Secretary
David C. Frydenlund is chief financial officer, general counsel, and corporate secretary of Energy Fuels. His responsibilities include oversight of all legal matters relating to the company’s activities. His expertise extends to NRC, EPA, state and federal regulatory and environmental laws and regulations. From 1997 to 2012, Frydenlund was vice president of regulatory affairs, general counsel and corporate secretary of Denison Mines Corp., and its predecessor International Uranium Corporation (“IUC”). He also served as a director of IUC from 1997 to 2006 and CFO of IUC from 2000 to 2005. From 1996 to 1997, Frydenlund was vice president of the Lundin Group of international public mining and oil and gas companies, and prior thereto was a partner with the Vancouver law firm of Ladner Downs (now Borden Ladner Gervais) where his practice focused on corporate, securities and international mining transactions law. Frydenlund holds a bachelor’s degree in business and economics from Simon Fraser University, a master’s degree in economics and finance from the University of Chicago and a law degree from the University of Toronto.

Curtis H. Moore, Vice President of Marketing and Corporate Development
Curtis H. Moore is the vice president of Marketing and Corporate Development for Energy Fuels. He oversees product marketing for Energy Fuels, and is closely involved in mergers & acquisitions, investor relations, public relations, and corporate legal. He has been with Energy Fuels for over 12 years, holding various roles of increasing responsibility. Prior to joining Energy Fuels, Moore worked in multi-family real estate development, government relations and public affairs, production homebuilding, and private law practice. Moore is a licensed attorney in the State of Colorado. He holds Juris Doctor and MBA degrees from the University of Colorado at Boulder, and a Bachelor of Arts dual degree in Economics-Government from Claremont McKenna College in Claremont, California.

Investment Considerations

• Largest producer of uranium in the United States (2017-2019); assets accounted for over one-third of nation’s supply since 2006
• Leading U.S. vanadium producer in 2019 with flexibility to respond to evolving markets
• Diverse business opportunities, including alternate feed materials recycling, land cleanup and rare earths, which all have significant potential to drive significant cash flow
• Positioned to benefit from Trump Administration’s pursuit of $1.5B over 10 years to purchase uranium from U.S. miners, along with other U.S. government support of domestic production
• Strong cash, working capital and inventory positions
• Proven track-record of sustained U.S. market leadership

Additional Resources

• Company Website
• Corporate Media Kit
• NewsRoom

Eloro Resources Ltd. (TSX.V: ELO) (OTCQX: ELRRF)

Eloro Resources Ltd. (TSX.V: ELO) (OTCQX: ELRRF) is a publicly traded exploration and mine development company with a portfolio of gold and base-metal properties in Bolivia, Peru and Quebec.

The company has an option to acquire a 99% interest in the highly prospective Iska Iska Property, classified as a silver-tin polymetallic epithermal-porphyry complex, a significant mineral deposit type in the Potosi Department of southern Bolivia. Iska Iska is a road-accessible, royalty-free property.

Eloro also owns an 82% interest in the La Victoria Gold/Silver Project, located in the North-Central Mineral Belt of Peru, some 50 kilometers south of Barrick’s Lagunas Norte Gold Mine and Pan American Silver’s La Arena Gold Mine. La Victoria consists of eight mining concessions and eight mining claims encompassing approximately 89 square kilometers. La Victoria has good infrastructure, with access to road, water and electricity, and is located at an altitude that ranges from 3,150 meters to 4,400 meters above sea level.

The company has a strong management and technical team working diligently to uncover the value of both Iska Iska and La Victoria. Eloro is based in Toronto, Canada.

Projects

Iska Iska – Potosi, Bolivia

Iska Iska is associated with a Miocene possibly collapsed/resurgent caldera, emplaced on Ordovician age rocks with major breccia pipes, dacitic domes and hydrothermal breccias. The property is wholly controlled by the title holder, Empresa Minera Villegas S.R.L. It is located 48 kilometers north of Tupiza city, in the Sud Chichas Province of the Department of Potosi. This is an important mineral deposit type in the prolific South Mineral Belt of Bolivia. Eloro commissioned a NI 43-101 Technical Report on Iska Iska, which was completed by Micon International Limited and is available on Eloro’s website and under its filings on SEDAR.

A fully financed drill program is currently underway on the property, situated near world-class deposits including Silver Sand, San Bartolomé, Pulacayo, San Cristobal, San Vicente, Chorolque, Tasna, Choroma and Siete Suyos. Iska Iska is in the southwest part of the Eastern Cordillera, which hosts a number of major polymetallic mines and mineral deposits. Drilling and continuous channel sampling results have demonstrated some very high metal values, especially silver and tin, within an immense system, where mineralization has been encountered in every drill hole to date. The company believes there is excellent potential for world-class bulk mineable deposits.

La Victoria – Ancash, Peru

The La Victoria project, targeting gold and silver production, is situated near world-class, low-cost gold producers Pan American Silver and Barrick Gold Corporation. Located in Ancash Department, La Victoria sits on the western slopes of the Peruvian Andes. The property is located 12 hours from Lima, with a travel distance of 600 kilometers. The nearest road accessible population centers from La Victoria are Huandoval, Pallasca and Cabana. The project includes four principal mineralized zones in Peru’s prolific North-Central Mineral Belt – San Markito, Victoria, Victoria South and Ccori Orcco – with excellent potential for gold discovery. Operations at La Victoria are planned to proceed with a 2,000-meter diamond drilling program to test targets to outline potential resources at San Markito. Trenching and sampling confirmed high silver values and veins at San Markito in 2020.

Market Outlook

According to industry association The Silver Institute, the outlook for silver demand is exceptionally promising, with global demand forecast to rise to a record high of 1.112 billion ounces in 2022. The increase will be driven by record silver industrial fabrication, which is forecast to improve by 5%, as silver’s use expands primarily in solar energy and electric vehicle (EV) manufacturing. The institute states that government commitments to carbon neutrality have resulted in a rapid expansion of green energy projects, driving record photovoltaic panel installations which are expected to lift silver demand in this segment to an all-time high in 2022.

Rising demand in the electronics industry is also boosting the demand for tin, which is primarily used in solder. The electronics and electrical industries use solders containing 40-70% tin, which provide strong and reliable joints under a variety of environmental conditions. At present, the majority of the assemblers are using patented tin-and-copper-based solders. Mordor Intelligence estimated tin demand at 387 kilotons in 2021 and forecasts demand growth of 2.5% annually through 2027. Over the medium term, surging demand from the EV market and increasing applications in the electrical and electronics industry is expected to drive the market.

Management Team

Thomas G. Larsen is CEO of Eloro. He has more than 40 years of experience in the investment industry, specializing in corporate finance and management of junior resource companies, raising in excess of C$200 million. He previously held the position of President and Chief Executive Officer of Champion Iron Limited. Prior to that, he was President and Chief Executive Officer of Champion Iron Mines Limited.

Dr. Bill Pearson is Executive VP of Exploration for Eloro. He has more than 40 years of direct experience in the exploration and production of minerals worldwide. He played an integral role in the acquisitions of Desert Sun Mining Corp. by Yamana Gold in 2006 and Central Sun Mining by B2 Gold in 2009. He was formerly VP Exploration at Desert Sun Mining and Senior VP at Central Sun Mining.

Miles Nagamatsu, CPA, is CFO at Eloro. He has over 30 years of experience in accounting, management, lending, restructurings and turnarounds. Since 1993, he has acted as a CFO of public and private companies primarily in the mineral exploration and investment management sectors. He holds a Bachelor of Commerce degree from McMaster University.

Osvaldo Arce Burgoa is General Manager at Eloro. He is a geological and mineral processing engineer with 26 years of experience in Bolivia. He is a former President of the Bolivian Geological Society, Main Technical Advisor of the National Mining Corporation (COMIBOL) and has served as exploration manager and chief geologist at various mining and exploration companies. He has authored two books on Bolivian geology and holds a doctorate in mining engineering from Tohoku University in Sendai, Japan.

Investment Considerations

• As of September 7, 2022, the company had a market capitalization of C$235 million.
• In the period ending June 30, 2022, Eloro reported C$14.4 million in cash on hand.
• The company’s stock is covered by analysts from Cantor Fitzgerald and Haywood Securities.
• Eloro has raised more than C$40 million in multiple financing deals.
• Eloro’s strong management and technical team is working diligently to uncover the immense value of the Iska Iska and La Victoria projects, both of which are located in mining-friendly jurisdictions.

Additional Resources

• Company Website
• Iska Iska Presentation
• La Victoria Presentation
• NewsRoom

D-Wave Quantum Inc. (NYSE: QBTS)

D-Wave Quantum Inc. (NYSE: QBTS) is a leader in quantum computing systems, software and services focused on delivering customer value via practical quantum applications for problems such as logistics, artificial intelligence, materials sciences, drug discovery, scheduling, fault detection and financial modeling. As the only provider building both annealing and gate-model quantum computers, the company is unlocking commercial use cases in optimization today, while building the technologies that will enable new solutions tomorrow.

D-Wave is a pioneer in quantum computing, with a history of delivering the world’s first commercial quantum computer; the first real-time quantum cloud service; countless hardware and software product and research milestones; and the planned first cross-platform quantum solution which will deliver both annealing and gate-model quantum computers to customers via an integrated platform. Its current commercial product offerings include: Advantage™ (fifth generation quantum computer), Leap™ (quantum cloud service), Launch™ (quantum computing onboarding service) and Ocean™ (full suite of open-source programming tools).

D-Wave’s relentless pursuit of practical quantum computing has resulted in the technology being used today by some of the world’s most advanced enterprises – more than 25 of the Forbes Global 2000 use D-Wave.

D-Wave’s commercial customers include blue-chip industry leaders like Volkswagen, Accenture, BBVA, NEC Corporation, Save-On-Foods, DENSO and Lockheed Martin. The company boasts an extensive IP portfolio featuring more than 200 issued U.S. patents and over 100 peer-reviewed papers published in leading scientific journals.

Founded in 1999, D-Wave is the world’s first commercial supplier of quantum computers. With headquarters and the Quantum Engineering Center of Excellence based near Vancouver, Canada, D-Wave’s U.S. operations are based in Palo Alto, California.

Advantage™ Quantum Computer

With the Advantage™ Quantum Computer, D-Wave has incorporated two decades of experience and over 10 years of customer feedback to create the first and only quantum computer designed for business. The platform features a new processor architecture with over 5,000 qubits and 15-way qubit connectivity. This is 2.5x more connections and more than double the number of qubits than the company’s previous generation quantum computer.

D-Wave’s quantum computers, first located in its facilities in British Columbia, have been available to North American users through its Leap™ quantum cloud service since 2018. It has since introduced new Advantage systems in Julich, Germany, and most recently, Marina Del Rey, California, which marked the availability of the first Advantage quantum computer physically located in the United States.

That new deployment is part of the USC-Lockheed Martin Quantum Computing Center (QCC) hosted at USC’s Information Sciences Institute (ISI), a unit of the University of Southern California’s prestigious Viterbi School of Engineering. Additionally, Amazon Web Services (AWS) and D-Wave announced that the U.S.-based system is available for use in Amazon 2racket, expanding the number to three different D-Wave quantum systems available to AWS users.

Leap Quantum Cloud Service

D-Wave’s customers interface with its systems through the Leap™ quantum cloud service. Leap delivers immediate, real-time access to the company’s Advantage quantum computer and quantum hybrid solver service, all with enterprise-class performance and scalability.

Leap allows developers proficient in Python to get started building and running quantum applications. Through a seamless and secure cloud-based connection, users can easily start solving complex problems of up to 1 million variables and 100,000 constraints.

Using Leap, D-Wave customers have developed quantum hybrid applications for use cases in manufacturing, logistics, financial services, life sciences, materials science, retail and transportation. By eliminating the need to wait hours, days or weeks to get good answers to a broad array of problems, D-Wave is helping businesses move forward.

D-Wave Launch

D-Wave Launch™ is the company’s onboarding platform aimed at helping businesses easily start their quantum journey. Through this program, D-Wave’s team of experts and partners aid enterprises in identifying best use cases for quantum and work with them to develop a proof of concept and production pilot.

From there, the team coordinates with customers to get their hybrid quantum applications up and running, providing ongoing Leap quantum cloud access to ensure the application is operating smoothly and delivering real business value.

Target Verticals

While the potential applications for quantum computing are effectively limitless, D-Wave has identified a number of industry verticals as key areas of focus for its quantum architecture, providing case studies for each. These include:

• Manufacturing – D-Wave worked with Volkswagen to identify a commercial optimization application, the binary paint shop problem, which was run on D-Wave’s hybrid solver service. The solver outperformed four purely classical methods on problem sizes at commercial scale (N=3,000). In a separate project, similar inputs were tested using a leading ion trap system, which failed to find any commercial solution.
• Life Sciences – Menten AI makes use of D-Wave quantum computing to assist in the design of novel therapeutic peptides—short strings of amino acids that can act as potent drugs. With the rise of COVID-19, D-Wave’s Advantage system made it possible to identify molecules that might be especially well-suited for binding and inhibiting the related spike protein, producing several promising peptide designs.
• Finance – Multiverse Computing, a leader in developing quantum solutions for the financial sector, leveraged D-Wave’s hybrid solver service in a collaboration with BBVA, one of the world’s largest financial institutions. Multiverse demonstrated management strategies that far exceeded the granularity of traditional returns in a fraction of the time, helping BBVA identify a low-risk portfolio for investment.

Market Opportunity

The quantum computing total addressable market is projected to grow between $450 billion and $850 billion over the next 15 to 30 years, with between $5 billion and $10 billion of anticipated TAM growth coming in the next three to five years, according to Boston Consulting Group. Driving factors behind this growth include rising investments in quantum computing tech by governments and an increasing number of commercial use-cases.

Forward-thinking organizations see quantum as an opportunity to move ahead of the competition. From finding efficiencies and reducing waste to decreasing time to solution and solving problems abandoned due to complexity, the business value is real. According to data from 451 Research, 40% of large enterprises are already experimenting with quantum computing.

D-Wave is strategically positioned – in an industry with significant barriers to entry – as evident by a decades-long track record serving a roster of blue-chip customers. The company is singularly focused on helping its customers achieve clear value by leveraging quantum computing in practical business applications. With a full stack of systems, software, developer tools and services, D-Wave is working to enable enterprises, governments, developers and researchers to access the power of quantum computing, thereby providing an intriguing opportunity for prospective investors.

D-Wave’s current investor base includes PSP Investments, Goldman Sachs, BDC Capital, NEC Corporation, Aegis Group Partners and In-Q-Tel.

Leadership Team

Dr. Alan Baratz has served as the CEO of D-Wave since 2020. Previously, as Executive Vice President of R&D and Chief Product Officer, he drove the development, delivery, and support of all of D-Wave’s products, technologies, and applications. Dr. Baratz has over 25 years of experience in product development and bringing new products to market at leading technology companies and software startups. As the first president of JavaSoft at Sun Microsystems, he oversaw the growth and adoption of the Java platform from its infancy to a robust platform supporting mission-critical applications in nearly 80 percent of Fortune 1000 companies. He has also held executive positions at Symphony, Avaya, Cisco, and IBM. Dr. Baratz holds a doctorate in computer science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

John Markovich is the company’s CFO. He brings to D-Wave over three decades of experience working with rapidly growing private and public technology companies across all stages of development. Mr. Markovich has directed the finance, accounting, tax, treasury, M&A, legal, operations, customer service, IR, HR, and IT functions for companies ranging from privately held pre-revenue startups to an NYSE-listed Fortune 500 multi-national company with over $1.2 billion in annual revenue. During his career, he has negotiated and closed over 150 debt, equity, M&A, and joint venture transactions exceeding $2.5 billion in value; over a dozen private placements; nearly a dozen M&A transactions; and several international joint ventures. Mr. Markovich holds a BS in Business from Miami University and an MBA from the Michigan State Graduate School of Business.

Investment Considerations

• D-Wave is the world’s first commercial supplier of quantum computers.
• The company’s customers include blue-chip industry leaders like Volkswagen, Accenture, BBVA, NEC Corporation, Save-On-Foods, DENSO and Lockheed Martin.
• The Advantage™ Quantum Computer is currently on its 5th generation, featuring 2.5x more connections and more than double the number of qubits of its predecessor.
• Leap™ delivers immediate, real-time enterprise access to the company’s Advantage quantum computer through the cloud.
• D-Wave’s current investor base includes PSP Investments, Goldman Sachs, BDC Capital, NEC Corp., Aegis Group Partners and In-Q-Tel.
• The global quantum computing market is forecast to reach $3.2 billion by 2028, expanding at a CAGR of 30.8% from 2021.

Additional Resources

• D-Wave Systems Website
• DPCM Capital Board of Directors
• Events & Webinars
• NewsRoom

Cybin Inc. (NYSE American: CYBN) (NEO: CYBN)

Cybin Inc. (NYSE American: CYBN) (NEO: CYBN) is focused on progressing psychedelic therapeutics by utilizing proprietary drug discovery platforms, innovative drug delivery systems, novel formulation approaches and treatment regimens for psychiatric disorders.

The company is on a mission to revolutionize mental health care.

Key Facts

• Led by CEO Doug Drysdale
  • 30 years of experience in the health care sector
  • Chaired the board of directors of a NASDAQ-listed company and, as a CEO for the past 13 years, has built and turned-around four pharmaceutical companies
  • Completed 15 corporate acquisitions across three continents and has raised $4 billion of both public and private capital
  • Former Head of M&A at Actavis Group (Actavis was sold to Watson Pharmaceuticals in 2012 for €4.25 billion)

• Experienced scientific team
  • The only scientific team in the industry that has successfully developed a commercial psychedelic drug
  • Facilitated billions in pharmaceutical sales
  • Successfully helped develop widely used drugs such as: Allegra, Sabril, Anzemet & Vaniqa
  • 300 combined peer reviewed publications by scientific leadership include work in addiction and psychedelics
  • Team collectively involved in 37 exits across the biotech sector and various other verticals
  • Overseen 60+ IND programs with FDA
  • Team pedigree: Merck, Elan, GSK, Sanofi, Eli Lilly and UCB

Product Offering and Pipeline

Cybin has four drug development programs CYB001, CYB003, CYB004 & CYB005.

• Cybin is using psilocybin as the basis for its first new anti‐depressant pharmaceutical drug.
• Cybin is also focused on other novel psychedelic compounds, such as DMT, MDMA and other analogues, that will have improved pharmacokinetic profiles while retaining the efficacy of the original molecules.
• The company is building a portfolio of proprietary deuterated molecules, which are more stable, improved and expected to result in more scalable treatments, as compared to peers.
• To date, Cybin has facilitated 20 pre-clinical studies on a portion of its molecules within its discovery pipeline. These studies have been conducted through in vitro and in vivo, with many promising results allowing for full IND-enabling studies on certain molecules.
• Cybin’s Phase II trials on CYB001 will assess the drug’s effectiveness as a treatment for Major Depressive Disorder, as well as helping to determine the proper dosage.
• Cybin has developed a pipeline of nearly 50 different psychedelic molecules (i.e., DMT, psilocybin) and is currently engaged in pre‐clinical research to understand which are best suited for further development.

Cybin currently holds 10 provisional patents. The company’s IP portfolio, technology rights and provisional patents include:

1. A provisional patent application filed for an oral film delivery mechanism
2. A provisional patent application filed for nebulization technology
3. Multiple patent applications filed for deuterated psychedelic molecules and analogs
4. A discovery pipeline of tryptamines and phenylethylamines alongside certain metabolites
5. A patent application filed for platforms that are expected to create supportive treatment regimens

Cybin X Kernel

On January 11, 2021, Cybin announced its entry into an agreement with neurotech pioneer HI LLC (dba Kernel) to leverage its innovative Kernel Flow technology for Cybin’s upcoming sponsored clinical work.

Kernel Flow is a full-head coverage, time-domain functional near-infrared spectroscopy system designed to detect hemodynamic changes in the brain. The platform pulses light through the skull and into the bloodstream in order to measure how much oxygen the blood is carrying at any given time. Kernel Flow is expected to facilitate further and more detailed research into psychedelic therapeutic offerings for those suffering from mental health disorders.

“Access to Kernel’s innovative Flow technology adds another exciting dimension to the investigative work that Cybin is doing to develop breakthrough treatments for mental health disorders such as depression and addiction,” Cybin CEO Doug Drysdale stated in a news release. “Currently, clinical investigators rely on limited subjective information from patients. The ability to collect quantitative data from our sponsored drug development programs is potentially game-changing in terms of our ability to measure where psychedelics work in the brain in real time, and how we ultimately design our future therapeutics.”

Market Outlook for Psychedelic Therapies

Cybin’s rich IP portfolio could help position the company in a prominent role in the expanding U.S. psychedelic therapies market.

Over 700 million people globally are affected with some sort of mental illness, addiction or eating disorder, according to the World Health Organization, leading to a sizable treatment market.

• The global treatment market for mental disorders is estimated at $2.5 trillion, including $800 billion in direct economic costs, according to the National Centre for Biotechnology Information.
• In the U.S., the direct and indirect economic costs of mental disorders are estimated at $467 billion by the National Institute of Mental Health.
• In Canada, the direct and indirect costs associated with treating mental disorders total C$51 billion, according to the Centre for Addiction and Mental Illness.
• The U.S. psychedelic drugs market was valued at $2.1 billion in 2019 and is expected to reach nearly $6.9 billion by 2027, accelerating at a CAGR of 16.3 percent, per Data Bridge Market Research.

Management Team

Doug Drysdale is the Chief Executive Officer of Cybin Inc. He is an experienced corporate director and CEO, having chaired the board of directors of a Nasdaq-listed company and led turnarounds at three pharmaceutical companies as CEO. With over 30 years of experience in the health care sector, Mr. Drysdale has formed cohesive management teams, recruited board members, completed 15 acquisitions across three continents and raised $4 billion in private and public capital. He holds a bachelor’s degree in microbial and molecular biology from the University of East Anglia in the United Kingdom and was recognized as the ‘Entrepreneur of the Year’ by Ernst and Young in 2012.

Eric So is Co-Founder, Executive Chairman and President of Cybin. He is the Co-Founder and current Managing Director of Trinity Venture Partners Inc., a boutique merchant bank. He is a veteran founder, investor, operator and advisor to disruptive companies. He began his career practicing in the areas of corporate commercial securities, finance and mergers & acquisitions at a leading international legal firm. Mr. So has a Bachelor of Science with a major in anatomy and cell biology and a minor in psychology from McGill University. He has a Bachelor of Laws from the University of Windsor.

John Kanakis is Cybin’s Co-Founder and SVP of Business Development. He is also the Co-Founder and Managing Director of Trinity Venture Partners Inc. He is the Co-Founder of several start-up companies across various sectors. Mr. Kanakis has raised over $100 million for the start-ups of which he has been a part and brings over 10 years of experience in medical device manufacturing and regulatory frameworks to Cybin.

Paul Glavine is the Co-Founder and Chief Operating Officer of Cybin. He is also the Co-Founder of Global Canna Brands, which was granted the first-ever tier 3 cultivation license in Jamaica. His first cannabis start-up, Truverra, was sold to The Supreme Cannabis Company (TSX: FIRE). He has advised on M&A and other financial transactions totaling over $50 million. He is a serial entrepreneur and investor with vast experience in the biotech and cannabis industries.

Alex Nivorozhkin, Ph.D., is Cybin’s Chief Scientific Officer. He is a lead NCE inventor of multiple successfully partnered drug discovery and development programs and a technology developer of proprietary formulations for CNS drugs. Dr. Nivorozhkin is a seasoned medicinal chemist, drug delivery expert and founder of multiple biotech companies.

Michael Palfreyman, Ph.D., is the company’s Chief R&D Officer. He brings three decades of preclinical/clinical development experience to the Cybin team, including time with Scriptgen, EnVivo Pharma, Sanofi, GSK, Amorsa Therapeutics and others. Dr. Palfreyman has successfully led multiple IND filings and clinical programs, and he boasts a significant portfolio of CNS therapeutics patents and commercial products.

Brett Greene is Cybin’s Chief Innovation Officer. He served as a research administrator for the Center for Drug Discovery (one of the top cannabinoid and serotonin research centers in the world) for over a decade. Greene is a recognized leader in the field of psychedelics and has co-managed more than $80 million in federal funding for cannabinoid and serotonin research. A co-founder of Psymposia, Greene also co-managed the NIDA-sponsored Chemistry & Pharmacology of Drug Abuse (CPDA) conference for five years.

Alex Belser is the company’s Chief Clinical Advisor. Mr. Belser is a licensed psychologist, clinical supervisor and psychedelic researcher at Yale. He has been active in the psychedelic research community for 20 years and has conducted clinical research with psilocybin and MDMA for a variety of indications. Mr. Belser’s research has been featured in The New York Times, The Atlantic, The New Yorker, The Guardian and VICE, as well as in Michael Pollan’s book, How to Change Your Mind.

Eric Hoskins is Cybin’s Governance Committee Chair. He served as Ontario health minister from 2014 to 2018, maintaining responsibility for one of the largest health care systems in North America. Mr. Hoskins is a former elected Member of Ontario Provincial Parliament with cabinet positions in health, economic development and trade, children and youth services, and immigration. He brings to the Cybin team more than 30 years of experience in public policy, complex diplomacy, international affairs, health care, media and economic development at the intersection of business, politics and complex social and political circumstances. Hoskins is a proven negotiator and navigator at the highest levels of government and bureaucracy.

Investment Considerations

• Cybin Inc. currently has four molecules/technologies in its clinical pipeline in various stages of development with a robust discovery pipeline.
• The company’s management team is comprised of leaders with experience in various aspects of the pharmaceutical and innovative therapeutics market.
• Recent studies have shown promising effects in the use of psilocybin, DMT and LSD therapies for psychiatric disorders in patients.
• The company holds eight provisional patents for various delivery mechanisms and related technologies.
• Cybin’s therapeutic advances are catering to a global market of over 700 million people affected by mental illness.
• The U.S. psychedelic therapies market is expected to expand significantly, reaching $6.9 billion by 2027, as the prevalence of depression and mental disorders continues to increase.
• Cybin has raised nearly $C90 million to date.

CNS Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ: CNSP)

CNS Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ:CNSP) is a clinical stage biotechnology company specializing in the development of novel treatments for primary and metastatic cancers of the brain and central nervous system.

The company was founded in 2017 and is headquartered in Houston, Texas.

Organ Targeted Therapeutics

The company’s lead drug candidate, Berubicin, is proposed for the treatment of glioblastoma multiforme (“GBM”), an aggressive and incurable form of brain cancer. Berubicin also has potential to treat other central nervous system malignancies. Based on limited clinical data, Berubicin appears to be the first anthracycline to cross the blood brain barrier in the adult brain, and it was the subject of a successful Phase 1 study which found the MDT and produced efficacy data as well.

CNS holds a worldwide exclusive license to the Berubicin chemical compound. The company has acquired all requisite data and know-how from Reata Pharmaceuticals Inc. related to a completed Phase I clinical trial of Berubicin in malignant brain tumors. In this trial, 44% of patients experienced a statistically significant improvement in clinical benefit. In 2017, CNS entered into a collaboration and asset purchase agreement with Reata.

CNS intends to explore the potential of Berubicin to treat other diseases, including pancreatic and ovarian cancers and lymphoma. The company is also examining plans to develop combination therapies that include Berubicin.

CNS estimates that more than $25 million in private capital and grants were invested in Berubicin prior to the company’s $9.8 million IPO in November 2019.

CNS intends to submit an IND for Berubicin during the fourth quarter of 2020 and expects to commence a Phase II clinical trial of Berubicin for the treatment of GBM in the U.S. in Q1 2021. A sub-licensee partner was awarded a $6 million EU/Polish National Center for Research and Development grant to undertake a Phase II trial of Berubicin in adults and a first-ever Phase I trial in pediatric GBM patients in Poland in 2021.

The company’s second drug candidate, WP1244, is a novel DNA binding agent licensed from the MD Anderson Cancer Center. In preclinical studies, WP1244 proved to be 500-times more potent than the chemotherapeutic agent, daunorubicin, in inhibiting tumor cell proliferation. The company has entered into a sponsored research agreement with the MD Anderson Cancer Center to further the development of WP1244.

CNS Pharmaceuticals recently engaged U.S.-based Pharmaceutics International Inc. and Italian BSP Pharmaceuticals SpA for the production of the Berubicin drug product. The company has implemented a dual-track manufacturing strategy to mitigate COVID-19-related risks, diversify its supply chain and provide for localized availability of Berubicin. CNS has already completed synthesis of Berubicin’s active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) and has shipped the API to both manufacturers in order to prepare an injectable form of Berubicin for clinical use.

Global Brain Tumor Therapeutics Market

The high recurrence rate of malignant brain tumors is due to reappearance of focal masses, indicating that a sub-population of tumor cells in these cancers may be insensitive to current therapies and may be responsible for reinitiating tumor growth. This necessitates the development of newer drugs in the market that demonstrate greater efficacy in treating such aggressive cancers.

A global increase in neurological disorders has placed increased attention on cancers of the brain over the past decade. Neurological disorders are becoming one of the most prevalent types of disorders, due to longer life expectancy, greater exposure to infection and an increasingly sedentary lifestyle. Because few treatments for primary and metastatic cancers of the brain exist, costs are high and have acted as a restraint for the brain tumor therapeutics market.

Despite progress in surgery, radiotherapy and chemotherapeutic strategies, effective treatments for brain cancer are limited by a lack of specific therapies for the brain and the difficulty in transporting therapeutic compounds across the blood brain barrier. Therefore, there is a significant need for novel and effective therapeutic drugs and strategies that prolong survival and improve quality of life for brain tumor patients.

Several companies are making significant investments into R&D, which is expected to bring more treatment options to the market in the near future. Industry reports consistently project continued growth in the market.

One report estimates that the global brain tumor therapeutics market will reach a valuation of $2.74 billion in 2023, with the market expected to register a CAGR of 11% during the forecast period from 2018 to 2023. Another report projects that the global brain tumor therapeutics market will reach $3.4 billion by 2025, up from $2.25 billion in 2019 (http://nnw.fm/eDUjp).

Management Team

John M. Climaco is the CEO of CNS Pharmaceuticals. For 15 years, Climaco has served in leadership roles for a variety of health care companies. Recently, Climaco served as the Executive Vice President of Perma-Fix Medical S.A, where he managed the development of a novel method to produce Technitium-99. Climaco also served as President and CEO of Axial Biotech Inc., a DNA diagnostics company. In the process of taking Axial from inception to product development to commercialization, Climaco forged strategic partnerships with Medtronic, Johnson & Johnson and Smith & Nephew.

Christopher Downs, CPA, is the company’s Chief Financial Officer. Downs previously served as Interim Chief Financial Officer and Executive Vice President of InfuSystem Holdings Inc. (NYSE: INFU), a supplier of infusion services to oncologists in the United States. Downs holds a Bachelor of Science from the United States Military Academy at West Point, an MBA from Columbia Business School and a Master of Science in Accounting from the University of Houston-Clear Lake.

Dr. Donald Picker is the Chief Scientific Officer of CNS. Picker has over 35 years of drug development experience. Prior to joining CNS, Picker worked at Johnson Matthey, where he was responsible for the development of Carboplatin, one of the world’s leading cancer drugs, which was acquired by Bristol-Myers Squibb with annual sales of over $500 million. In addition, he oversaw the development of Satraplatin and Picoplatin, third-generation platinum drugs currently in late-stage clinical development.

Sandra L. Silberman, M.D., Ph.D., is the Chief Medical Officer of CNS Pharmaceuticals. Silberman is a hematologist/oncologist who earned her B.A., Sc.M. and Ph.D. from the Johns Hopkins University School of Arts and Sciences, School of Public Health and School of Medicine, respectively, and her M.D. from Cornell University Medical College. She then completed both a clinical fellowship in hematology/oncology and a research fellowship in tumor immunology at the Brigham & Women’s Hospital and the Dana Farber Cancer Institute in Boston, Massachusetts. Silberman has played key roles in the development of many drugs, including Gleevec(TM), for which she led the global clinical development at Novartis. Silberman advanced several original, proprietary compounds into Phases I through III during her work with leading biopharmaceutical companies, including Bristol-Myers Squibb, AstraZeneca, Imclone and Roche.

Investment Considerations

• CNS Pharmaceuticals’ lead drug candidate, Berubicin, is proposed for the treatment of glioblastoma multiforme (GBM), an aggressive and currently incurable form of brain cancer.
• In a Phase I clinical trial of Berubicin in malignant brain tumors, 44% of patients experienced a statistically significant improvement in clinical benefit.
• In preclinical studies, the company’s second drug candidate, a novel DNA binding agent, was 500-times more potent than the chemotherapeutic agent, daunorubicin, in inhibiting tumor cell proliferation.
• A global increase in neurological disorders has placed increased attention on cancers of the brain over the past decade.
• Industry reports estimate that the global brain tumor therapeutics market will reach $2.74 billion in 2023 and $3.4 billion by 2025, up from $2.25 billion in 2019.

CISO Global, Inc. (NASDAQ: CISO)

CISO Global, Inc. (NASDAQ: CISO) is an industry leader in cybersecurity and compliance services. The company leverages an integrated approach to reduce noise and bridge common silos that often limit the effectiveness of cybersecurity programs. Pulling disparate technologies, teams, and vendors together, CISO helps its clients enjoy a simpler and more successful journey to cyber resilience. Since 2019, CISO Global has worked to rapidly expand by acquiring world-class cybersecurity and compliance businesses with top-tier talent who utilize the latest technology to create innovative protection solutions.

The CISO Global workforce is comprised of cybersecurity experts spanning not only global geographies, but also specialties, industries, regulatory frameworks and focus areas. Its team includes audit and compliance specialists, certified forensics experts, ethical hackers, IEEE® certified biometric professionals, security engineers, around-the-clock analysts, and more – all backed by the most respected credentials in the industry. On an ongoing basis, the company works to identify cyber talent that is culturally aligned and that offers operating leverage through both existing customer revenue and relationships.

CISO Global has invested in enterprise solutions and executive talent to integrate its different organizations into an ecosystem that works together to provide complete cybersecurity through cross-pollination of solutions that begin at the network level and extend through technologies, people, policy, and practices. This ecosystem is intended to foster additional growth opportunities and drive overall recurring revenue. Once engaged, the company strives to become trusted advisors for customers’ cybersecurity and compliance demands by providing tailored security solutions based upon their organizational needs.

While cyber resilience requires cycles of continuous improvement, it is a journey that few in the current business and security climate seem to understand. With its deep bench of seasoned experts, CISO Global works to simplify that journey for its growing customer base, straightening out the curves and speeding up the process to resilience along the way.

Cybersecurity is a Culture, Not a Product

Integrating compliance and security, including principles of security by design, CISO Global helps its clients create an organization-wide culture of cybersecurity. Its offerings include audit and compliance, security operations center services, security engineering, virtual Chief Information Security Officer services, incident response, certified forensics, technical assessments and cybersecurity training.

In contrast to the majority of cybersecurity firms that specialize in a specific technology or service, CISO Global seeks to differentiate itself by remaining technology agnostic, focusing on accumulating highly sought-after subject matter experts. Cerberus Sentinel believes that bringing together a world-class team of technological experts with multi-faceted proficiency in the critical aspects of cybersecurity is key to providing technology agnostic solutions to its clients in a business ecosystem that suffers from a chronic lack of highly skilled professionals.

CISO Global’s goal is to create a culture of security and to help quantify, define and capture a return on investment from information technology and cybersecurity spending. Its end-to-end, holistic process covers every aspect of clients’ cybersecurity and compliance requirements in an effort to promote greater efficiency and strengthen awareness about the integral role of internal team members in the cybersecurity culture of an organization.

As a result of this strategy, CISO Global customers receive an efficient engagement from a single partner that covers a wide range of their needs – addressing challenges more thoroughly and resolving problems more rapidly when compared to working with a host of vendors.

Market Outlook

According to an analysis by the firm Research and Markets, the global managed security services market was valued at $22.45 billion in 2020 and is projected to reach $77.01 billion by 2030, growing at a CAGR of 12.8% through the forecast period.

An expected increase in cybercrime, cost effectiveness of provided solutions and stringent mandatory government regulations aimed at protecting corporate data will drive the global managed security services market for the foreseeable future.

In addition, the documented and growing use of mobile devices in the workplace and the rise in captured and stored digital data serve to fuel market growth. Moreover, growing awareness about the critical nature of data security, the growing importance of e-business and demand for customized services is expected to offer ample opportunities for expansion of the market during the forecast period.

Management Team

David Jemmett is CEO and founder of CISO Global. He has more than 35 years of executive management and technology experience with telecommunications, managed services, and cybersecurity consulting services. He previously held positions as CEO of GenResults, a leading provider of security consulting services and technology solutions, and as CTO and founder at ClearData Networks, a HIPAA-compliant HealthDATA cloud hosting platform.

Dave Bennett is COO at CISO Global. Since 2015, he has served on the President’s STEM Advisory Board of Grand Canyon University. Before joining Cerberus Sentinel, he served as Chief Product Officer at Experian Health and as Senior Vice President, Product for Gainwell Technologies. He has also held positions as Vice President and Worldwide Head of Build, Healthcare and Life Sciences at DXC Technology, and as EVP, Product and Strategy at Orion Health.

Ashley Devoto is President and Chief Information Security Officer at CISO Global. Over the past 17 years, Devoto has worked with the cybersecurity elite to design, build, and operate world-class cybersecurity programs for large, diverse organizations in both government and commercial enterprises. Prior to joining CISO, Devoto served as CISO for Booz Allen Hamilton, as business information security officer (BISO) at Bank of America, and as a cyberspace operations officer in the United States Air Force.

Deb Smith is CFO at CISO Global. Prior to assuming that position, she was the company’s EVP, Finance and Accounting. She has also served as SVP, Global Accounting at International Cruise and Excursions Inc., and as Chief Accounting Officer for BeyondTrust, an information security software company. She has also held the positions of Corporate Controller at Aspect Software and Assistant Controller at JDA Software.

Investment Considerations

• CISO Global shares were listed on the Nasdaq in the first quarter of 2022.
• The company joined the broad-market Russell 2000 Index in June 2022.
• CISO Global posted a 376% revenue CAGR for the years 2019 through 2021.
• In 2021, 58% of the company’s revenue was recurring revenue from managed services contracts.
• CISO Global has completed 12 strategic acquisitions since October 2019.
• The global managed security services market was valued at $22.45 billion in 2020 and is projected to reach $77.01 billion by 2030, growing at a CAGR of 12.8% through the forecast period.

Aditxt Inc. (NASDAQ: ADTX)

Aditxt Inc. (NASDAQ: ADTX) is a biotech innovation company developing technologies focused on mapping and reprogramming the immune system. Aditxt’s immune mapping technologies are designed to provide a personalized immune profile. Aditxt’s immune reprogramming technologies, currently preclinical, are being developed to retrain the immune system to induce tolerance to address rejection of transplanted organs, autoimmune diseases, and allergies.

As further discussed below, the company’s first commercial product is an immune mapping technology, AditxtScore™, which is designed to provide a personalized profile of the immune system.

The company’s preclinical immune reprogramming technology, Apoptotic DNA Immunotherapy™ (“ADi™”), aims to retrain the immune system to induce tolerance, with the goal of addressing vast unmet needs in transplanted organ rejection, autoimmune diseases, and allergies. The company is developing specific ADi™ products for psoriasis, type 1 diabetes, and skin grafting.

Headquartered in Richmond, Virginia, Aditxt also operates locations in Silicon Valley and New York.

AditxtScore™

AditxtScore™ is a proprietary platform designed to provide a personalized, comprehensive profile of an individual’s immune system. The underlying technology, licensed from Stanford University through an exclusive worldwide agreement, offers a highly sensitive and accurate method of detecting and quantifying cellular responses, allowing greater specificity, quantification, and amplification of both clinical and commercial opportunities.

The company’s first commercial application of the platform, AditxtScore™ for COVID-19, delivers timely reports on vulnerability and immune status relating to SARS-CoV-2 and its known variants, giving consumers and physicians the data needed to make informed health decisions. Potential future applications will offer early detection of an array of conditions, including diabetes, cardio-metabolic maladies and hormonal imbalances.

Aditxt’s AditxtScore™ immune monitoring center in Richmond, Virginia, is operational and designed to support the anticipated increased demand for AditxtScore™ as well as related products and services. The company is currently scaling its capabilities at this location, with a goal of processing up to 10 million immune system tests/reports annually.

ADi™

ADi™ is Aditxt’s immune reprogramming platform addressing disease-causing immune responses while maintaining the immune system’s ability to combat pathogenic infection. The company is commercializing a nucleic acid-based technology called Apoptotic DNA Immunotherapy™ (ADi™) which utilizes a novel approach that mimics the way our bodies naturally induce tolerance to our own tissues (therapeutically induced immune tolerance). Aditxt believes its ADi™ technology platform can be engineered to address a wide variety of indications.

Aditxt is currently developing ADi™ products for psoriasis, type 1 diabetes and skin grafting.

Currently, immuno-tolerance is achievable through chimerism and cell-based therapy, but there is a clinical need for a more practical and cost-effective approach which:

• Can be made into a product
• Does not require additional hospitalization
• Is simple to produce and ship

Preclinical studies have demonstrated that ADi™ treatment significantly and substantially prolongs graft survival, in addition to successfully “reversing” other established immune-mediated inflammatory processes. ADi™ treatment is not expected to require hospitalization, instead being delivered as an injection in minute amounts into the skin.

IP Portfolio

Both AditxtScore™ and ADi™ are supported by a strong IP portfolio.

AditxtScore™, built upon initial technology invented, licensed from and used at Stanford University, is protected by U.S. patents encompassing methods, systems, and kits for detection and measurement of specific immune responses.

ADi™ technology is protected by seven patent families, including:

• 8 U.S. patents
• 4 pending U.S. patent applications
• 86 foreign patents and 14 pending foreign patent applications spanning the EU, Australia, Canada, Japan, China, India and Hong Kong

These patents are broadly categorized into three groups:

• Autoimmune diseases and Type 1 Diabetes
• Organ transplantation and a method of producing plasmid DNA to prevent immune activation
• Composition of matter for a tolerance delivery system for antigens of interest

Aditxt also possesses and/or in-licenses substantial know-how and trade secrets relating to the development and commercialization of its product candidates, including related manufacturing processes and technologies.

Market Overview

The potential market opportunities presented by immune monitoring and reprogramming are extensive, particularly as Aditxt continues to evaluate additional applications for the platforms.

The company’s initial focus on organ transplantation and related autoimmune response provides some insight into the potential of its approach. According to BCC Research, the global organ and tissue transplantation and alternatives market is on course to reach $120.3 billion by 2024, recording a CAGR of 7.4% from 2019. Industry data suggest that approximately 50% of all transplanted organs are rejected within 10-12 years, further highlighting the critical need for a practical, cost-effective solution to harmful autoimmune responses.

Through its focus on the COVID-19 testing market with AditxtScore™, Aditxt demonstrated the wide-ranging potential of its portfolio. Fortune Business Insights estimated the global COVID-19 diagnostics market at $48.64 billion for 2022. While demand for COVID-19 diagnostics is expected to lessen in the coming years, Aditxt will be uniquely positioned to leverage its existing infrastructure stemming from these operations as the company works to advance broader applications for the AditxtScore™ platform.

Leadership Team

Amro Albanna is the Co-Founder, Chairman, and CEO of Aditxt. He has founded multiple startups to commercialize innovations in various industries, including healthcare, enterprise software, telecommunications, nano technology, consumer health, and biotech. Mr. Albanna has led numerous M&A and going-public transactions as a founder, co-founder, and senior executive.

Shahrokh Shabahang, D.D.S., MS, Ph.D., is the company’s Co-Founder, Chief Innovation Officer, and a member of its board. He brings to the team more than 20 years of experience in developing and commercializing life science technologies focused on product and clinical development in the fields of microbiology and immunology.

Corinne Pankovcin, CPA, MBA, is the President of Aditxt. Prior to joining Aditxt, Ms. Pankovcin served as CFO for several world class organizations, including Business Development Corporation of America, Blackrock Kelso Capital and AIG Capital Partners. In these roles, Ms. Pankovcin was responsible for executing portfolio investments and managing significant M&A transactions.

Thomas Farley is the Chief Financial Officer of Aditxt. From December 2015 to June 2020, Mr. Farley was the Controller and Treasurer of Business Development Corporation of America (“BDCA”), a publicly listed business development company. Prior thereto, from January 2011 to August 2015, Mr. Farley was the Senior Controller of Blackrock Capital Investment Corporation (NASDAQ: BKCC). Prior to joining BlackRock Capital Investment Corporation, Mr. Farley was a Senior Controller for PineBridge Investments Emerging Markets practice. Mr. Farley was also an Accounting Manager for Bessemer Venture Partners prior to his tenue at PineBridge. Mr. Farley began his career with PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, from 1996 to 2001. Mr. Farley earned his B.S. in Accounting from Long Island University and is a Certified Public Accountant.

Rowena Albanna is the company’s Chief Operating Officer. Ms. Albanna has over two decades of experience in senior leadership roles for both technology startups and public companies. Ms. Albanna’s experience spans a wide variety of industries, including biotechnology, insect control, nanotechnology, consumer electronics, financials, telecommunications, e-commerce, online marketing, medical, and defense.

Matthew Shatzkes is the Chief Legal Officer and General Counsel of Aditxt. As a former partner at an AM Law 50 law firm, Mr. Shatzkes advised a wide variety of healthcare related entities, including biotech companies, on corporate, regulatory, and strategic business matters. Mr. Shatzkes will oversee all aspects of the legal functions at Aditxt, including, providing advice and counsel on governance, regulatory matters, strategic alliances, mergers and acquisitions, and commercial transactions.

HempFusion Wellness Inc. (TSX: CBD.U) (OTC: CBDHF) (FWB: 8OO)

HempFusion Wellness Inc. (TSX: CBD.U) (OTC: CBDHF) (FWB: 8OO) is a leader in the health and wellness CBD industry, providing innovative and diversified proprietary formulations utilizing the power of whole-food hemp nutrition.

Invested heavily in regulatory compliance, HempFusion aims to consistently meet and even exceed the high standards required by retailers and consumers – putting safety, quality and consistency first. In support of these efforts, the company is U.S. Hemp Authority Certified and is a current board member of the U.S. Hemp Roundtable, a coalition of leading companies committed to advancing safe hemp and CBD products.

HempFusion reported 1,750 shareholders and $18.3 million in cash as of June 30, 2020 – the second-largest cash position in its sector – with no debt. Looking ahead, the company is currently preparing to launch an IPO directly onto the Toronto Stock Exchange (“TSX”) senior board, where it has already reserved ticker symbol ‘CBD.U’. Learn More About HempFusion Upcoming IPO.

HempFusion is headquartered in Denver, Colorado.

HempFusion’s Proprietary Wellness Portfolio

The diverse product portfolio showcased by HempFusion includes 46 products that are currently on shelves. The company’s leading offerings include HempFusion-owned Biome Labs, HF Labs and Probulin. Due to the time and resources allocated to increasing the compliance of these proprietary products, HempFusion may have a competitive advantage and create additional retail opportunities that are not available for other CBD companies.

HempFusion’s Diversified Revenue Pipeline

HempFusion’s focus and investment into regulatory compliance has opened doors to major food and drug mass or big box retailers that are not available to other CBD companies. This strategic approach includes five distinct channels:

• Natural Health Retailers
• eCommerce
• Big Box / Food and Drug Mass
• Doctor Practitioner
• Convenience

HempFusion’s Line of Products

HempFusion’s branded line of products is based on the company’s proprietary Whole Food Panoramic Full-Spectrum Hemp Complex. Each product is condition-specific, targeting needs such as sleep, energy and stress.

All of HempFusion’s products are made from DNA-verified, European Union registered, non-GMO, organic industrial hemp. The company’s offerings span multiple product categories, including:

• Tinctures and capsules – These offerings make up the most popular product category in the $4 billion U.S. CBD market.
• OTC topicals – HempFusion is one of the few CBD companies marketing FDA Drug Listed Topicals. The FDA compliance standards ensure that these products meet the standards set by larger national retailers.
• Condition-specific OTC products – HempFusion has OTC products that are condition-specifically targeted, including:
  • OTC Pain Products – The global pain relief market for topicals is projected to reach $13.3 billion by 2025, with a CAGR from 2018 to 2025 of 7.4%.
  • OTC Eczema Products – The global dermatitis market is projected to reach $13.6 billion by 2026.
  • OTC Acne and Aging/Beauty Products – The global market for beauty and anti-aging products is currently estimated at $1.08 trillion.
  • OTC First Aid and Wound Healing Products – In 2019, the 10 top-selling first aid ointments in the United States generated over $650 million in sales.

Probulin Probiotics and Digestive Enzymes

Probulin Probiotics is a 100% wholly owned subsidiary of HempFusion Wellness Inc. and is currently one of the fastest growing probiotics brands in the United States, according to Spins syndicated data.

The Probulin product line addresses a wide range of consumer needs, including daily care, total care, women’s health and children’s products. The probiotics market represents a growing opportunity, as it is estimated to reach $7 billion globally by 2022.

Because of the diverse offerings of the Probulin line, it serves as HempFusion’s gateway to retailers who may not currently carry CBD products.

This ‘Trojan Horse Strategy’ is intended to allow the company to establish, develop and build relationships among these retailers. By achieving approved vendor status, the company may be able to facilitate faster onboarding times, enabling accelerated access to its CBD products in the future.

HF Labs and Biome Research – Doctor and Practitioner Product Lines

The HF Labs and Biome Research product lines are directed toward doctors and practitioners and cater to hospitals, compounding pharmacies and free-standing dispensaries. With an estimated target market of 28,000+ integrative medical doctors and 70,000+ licensed chiropractors in the United States, these offerings create a unique market opportunity as HempFusion continues to broaden its footprint in the CBD industry.

Research on CBD and Human Safety

HempFusion is one of 12 CBD companies selected to participate in ValidCare’s groundbreaking study regarding CBD and human safety, which is expected to be complete by the end of October 2020. The study is designed to address previous questions from the FDA regarding CBD products.

As part of this study, HempFusion and the other selected companies will be conducting human trials to determine if the daily use of full-spectrum hemp-derived CBD or CBD isolate impacts the human liver.

Management Team

Jason Mitchell, N.D., is the co-founder, Director and CEO of HempFusion. He has over 20 years of experience in the natural products industry and is a naturopathic doctor certified by the ANMCB. Mitchell received his doctorate from the Trinity College of Natural Health and is a member of the American Naturopathic Medical Association and the CNHP. He is an expert in supplemental formations and was responsible for successfully creating and launching over 300 industry-leading products during his 15-year tenure at Country Life Vitamins.

Ian DeQueiroz is the Chief of Brand Strategy & Partnerships and a Director for HempFusion. He is a serial entrepreneur with experience in early-stage cannabis and hemp companies. In 2010, he acquired his first cannabis CO2 extraction company in the United States. DeQueiroz has facilitated the licensing process for many companies in the United States, as well as one of Jamaica’s premier cannabis companies, Epican Medicinals Ltd.

Jon Visser is HempFusion’s Chief Revenue Officer. He has over 25 years of experience in all areas of sales and marketing, with a proven track record of consistently driving growth across all major channels. Visser was previously the Senior Vice President of Sales at Navajo Inc., a multi-national manufacturer/distributor of brands like Pennzoil Automotive Supplies, Piranha Eyewear and Navajo Inc., the largest distributor of trial- and travel-sized health and beauty products in the United States. Visser grew annual sales from $60 million to $128 million in less than three years while at Navajo Inc.

Bruce Valentine Jr. is the Chief Financial Officer of HempFusion. He has a proven track record working with high-growth companies and was named CFO of the Year in 2013 by the Northern Colorado Business Report. Valentine is the former CFO of Otter Products and has over 15 years of financial management experience.

Ola Lessard is the Chief Marketing Officer of HempFusion and is also the President of the U.S. Hemp Roundtable. She has experience in marketing creative and effective brand strategies. She is a former Vice President of Marketing at Barlean’s, an award-winning supplements provider based in Washington.

Nancy Angelini is the Director of the Doctor/Practitioner Channel. She has over 25 years as an active, licensed practitioner. Angelini travels the country as a lecturer and product manager. She is responsible for opening doors to some of the largest doctor/practitioner networks in the United States.

Daniel Brody is the Chief Corporate Officer of HempFusion. He is the co-founder and former Vice President of The Green Organic Dutchman Holdings Ltd. (TSX: TGOD) (OTCQX: TGODF). Brody has been instrumental in listing multiple world-class cannabis companies, including TGOD, Emblem Corp. and Plus Products Inc. (CSE: PLUS) (OTCQX: PLPRF). Before joining the cannabis industry, he spent seven years working at two leading Canadian brokerage firms.

Investment Considerations

• HempFusion’s current product offerings, already available in stores, include tinctures, capsules, OTC topicals, edibles, probiotics and a doctor/practitioner line.
• The company abides by all FDA regulations for its full line of products. It is one of few companies marketing FDA Drug Listed Topicals.
• HempFusion is currently one of 12 CBD companies conducting a study addressing FDA concerns regarding CBD products and human safety.
• The significant time and capital invested in HempFusion’s compliance provide the company with a competitive advantage in the expanding CBD market.
• The CBD sector is projected to reach $16.8 billion by 2025.
• The company has the second-largest cash presence in the market at $18.3 million as of June 30, 2020, and it is preparing to launch an IPO and list on the Toronto Stock Exchange under ticker symbol ‘CBD.U’.