180 Life Sciences Corp. (NASDAQ: ATNF)

180 Life Sciences Corp. (NASDAQ: ATNF) is a clinical-stage biotechnology company focused on the development of novel drugs that fulfill unmet needs in inflammatory diseases, fibrosis and pain by leveraging the combined expertise of luminaries in therapeutics from Oxford University, the Hebrew University and Stanford University.

KBLM has valued 180 Life Sciences at $175 million, with the acquisition being carried out via a share swap through which each share of 180 Life Sciences will be exchanged for one share of KBLM.

Drug Development Programs

180 Life Sciences is leading the research into solving one of the world’s biggest drivers of disease – inflammation. The company is driving groundbreaking study into clinical programs, which are seeking to develop novel drugs addressing separate areas of inflammation for which there are no effective therapies.

The company’s primary platform is a novel program to treat fibrosis and inflammation using anti-TNF, with its lead program in phase 2b/3 clinical trials with first results expected in 2021. Further clinical trials are scheduled to begin by the end of 2020. The company has two additional programs that are in the preclinical stage and are showing promising results.

• Fibrosis & Anti-TNF (Phase 2b/3 Trials): Based at the Kennedy Institute within Oxford University, the fibrosis and anti-TNF program is being led by Professor Jagdeep Nanchahal, a surgeon-scientist who has been running the phase 2 trials, and Professor Sir Marc Feldmann, a renowned immunologist and one of the pioneers of anti-TNF therapy. The program is designed to address four critical areas of inflammation:
  1. The phase 2b/3 trial evaluating the treatment of early stage Dupuytren’s disease (DD) is a fully grant-funded and enrolled study, with top line data expected to be available by Q4 2021.
  2. The phase 2b trial studying the treatment of frozen shoulder is likewise grant-funded and is scheduled to be initiated by Q3 2021.
  3. The phase 2 trial in post-operative cognitive deficit (POCD) is anticipated to commence in Q4 2021.
  4. Preclinical studies in liver fibrosis and nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) are set to begin in late 2020.
• Inflammatory Pain (Preclinical): Directed by Professor Raphael Mechoulam at the Hebrew University in Israel, this program is focused on discovering novel compounds to treat chronic inflammatory pain.
• A7nAChR (Preclinical): Led by Professor Lawrence Steinman and Dr. Jonathan Rothbard, 180 Life Sciences is seeking to develop a treatment for ulcerative colitis in ex-smokers by targeting the a7nAChR, a nicotine receptor in the body and a central factor in the body’s method of controlling inflammation.

Market Size for Anti-Inflammatory Medication

According to a study carried out by Allied Market Research, the anti-inflammatory therapeutics market is expected to grow to an approximate $106.1 billion annual market size in 2020, registering a CAGR of 5.9% during the period from 2015 to 2020.

Ranging from asthma treatments to targeting the causes of diseases such as arthritis, multiple sclerosis, psoriasis and inflammatory bowel disease, anti-inflammatory therapeutics have seen a sharp increase in usage, particularly given that they allow for medical responses that are more targeted and effective while possessing lesser side effects relative to conventional drugs.

Management Team

Professor Sir Marc Feldmann, Co-Chairman, is known to be a pioneer of anti-TNF therapy, which seeks to suppress the immune system by blocking the activity of TNF, a substance in the body that can cause inflammation and lead to immune-system diseases. As of today, anti-TNF therapy drugs have become the world’s largest drug class, with sales estimated at over $40 billion per annum. Feldmann has received seven international awards for biomedical innovation over the years, including the Crawford and Lasker awards, and he is a member of the Royal Society.

Professor Lawrence Steinman, Co-Chairman, is a scientific luminary, having discovered the role of integrins, which led to the creation of Natalizumab, a highlight effective treatment for multiple sclerosis and inflammatory bowel disease. Steinman is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and has received four international awards for biomedical innovation, including the Charcot Prize. Prior to joining 180 Life Sciences, Steinman founded Centocor, a pharmaceutical company that was sold to Johnson & Johnson for $4.9 billion.

Dr. James N. Woody, CEO, was instrumental in the discovery of Remicade as Chief Scientific Officer at Centocor. Previously, Woody founded Avidia and Proteolix, both of which were subsequently sold to Amgen, and he was a General Partner at Latterell Venture Partners. Boasting over 25 years of pharmaceutical research and management experience, Woody was also previously the general manager of Roche Biosciences, the former Syntex Pharmaceutical Company.

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.

Appia Rare Earths & Uranium Corp. (CSE: API) (OTCQX: APAAF)

Appia Rare Earths & Uranium Corp. (CSE: API) (OTCQX: APAAF) is a mineral exploration company focused on exploration activities at its newly acquired Cachoeirinha rare earths project (“PCH Project”) in Brazil, as well as delineating high-grade critical rare earth elements (REE) and gallium at its Alces Lake property in Saskatchewan. Other properties in Appia’s portfolio include its Elliot Lake Property in Ontario’s historic mining camp, with a large NI 43-101 uranium and rare earths resource. Fully funded with over $5 million (CDN) in cash, no debt, aggressive exploration currently underway, and experienced management, Appia is progressing rapidly on multiple fronts in highly desired market sectors.

The company is headquartered in Toronto, Canada.

Projects

PCH Project-Brazil

The PCH project hosts REE mineralization in both ionic clays developed from the weathering of alkaline granites and in-situ rare earth mineralization associated with the underlying granite and a carbonatite intrusion to depths greater than 100 meters. Sampling data shows enrichment in rare earth minerals to depths of between eight meters and +30 meters.

In early 2023, Appia announced a definitive agreement to acquire a 70% interest in the PCH Project, which is 17,551 hectares in size and located in the Tocantins Structural Province of the Brasília Fold Belt, Goiás State, Brazil. It is classified as an alkaline intrusive rock occurrence with the potential for highly anomalous REE and Niobium mineralization.

The region around Iporá, a city located roughly 30 km from the PCH Project, has significant mineral exploration and mining activity and well-developed infrastructure.

In July 2023, Appia commenced an aggressive auger and reverse circulation (RC) drill campaign to delineate a potential resource estimate at the PCH project. Initial results at the site revealed significant exploration potential with impressive values that often surpass known ionic clay deposits in Brazil, particularly for the highly valuable heavy rare earths Terbium and Dysprosium.

The auger holes drilled at Target 4 have exhibited a range of total REE grades, ranging from 274 ppm to 16,648 ppm (1.66%), with an average of 1,291 ppm total REE. The valuable rare earths used in magnet applications – praseodymium, neodymium, terbium and dysprosium (Pr, Nd, Tb, and Dy) plus yttrium (Y) accounted for approximately 14% of total rare earths, reaching a maximum of 28.4%. Notably, the deposit also contains anomalous values of niobium and scandium, with average values of 736 ppm for Nb and 62 ppm for scandium in a composite sample from Target 4.

Heavy rare earths (HREEs) show maximum values of 1,624 ppm and average values of 1,291 ppm, primarily as terbium and dysprosium. Light rare earths (LREEs) show maximum values of 14,024 ppm (1.54%) with an average of 1,145 ppm. Neodymium and praseodymium, the main magnetic light rare earths, show respective maximum values of 3,131 ppm (Nd) and 885 ppm (Pr) and average values of 216 ppm (Nd) and 61.7 ppm (Pr). The overall HRRE/LREE ratio has a maximum of 39.5% and an average value of 16.67%.

“Appia is thrilled with the progress made and the promising results thus far,” CEO Tom Drivas stated in a news release. “The company remains committed to advancing its exploration plans, aiming to promptly gather significant data throughout the year, and to work towards estimating a maiden mineral resource in the coming months.”

Alces Lake Project – Saskatchewan

Appia’s Alces Lake project, located in northern Saskatchewan, encompasses some of the highest-grade total and critical REEs and gallium mineralization in the world, hosted within several surface and near-surface monazite occurrences that remain open at depth and along strike.

Following the company’s acquisition of additional new mineral claims in the area in February 2023, Appia’s Alces Lake claim block now totals 38,522 contiguous hectares (95,191 acres) – 100% owned by the Company.

Appia announced the completion of a NI43-101 technical report on the property in June 2023, providing an update on exploration previously reported in March 2021.The report is available on SEDAR under the company’s profile.

Extensive diamond drilling and geophysics surveys are underway to explore a more than 25-kilometer structural corridor. In July 2023, the company issued an update on its diamond drill program having completed the first phase of drilling at the project’s Magnet Ridge Zone to further test the extent of the mineralization to the south south-east (SSE). President Stephen Burega noted the presence of “continued mineralization at significantly thicker intercepts.”

As part of its 2023 exploration program at Alces Lake, Appia plans to target priority areas that extend SSE from the Wilson, Richard, Charles, Bell, Ivan, Dylan, Dante and AMP zones through the Magnet Ridge Zone and beyond, covering an area extending approximately 20 kilometers in length and 5 to 7 km in width. Appia will also undertake reconnaissance drilling on priority regional geological and geophysical targets in the Western Anomaly area.

Other Projects

• Appia holds a total of 75,314 hectares (186,106 acres) of land on four uranium claim blocks in the prolific Athabasca Basin (Loranger, North Wollaston, Eastside and Otherside). Exploration plans for these properties are expected to be announced once permits are in hand.
• Appia also has a 100% interest in 12,545 hectares (31,000 acres), with rare earth element and uranium deposits over five mineralized zones, in the Elliot Lake Camp, Ontario.

Market Opportunity

A report from Mordor Intelligence forecasts the global REE market is expected to grow from 168 million tons in 2023 to 206.25 million tons by 2028, marking a CAGR of 4.19% during the forecast period. The market is gradually improving following the economic and production restrictions of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Factors driving the market’s growth include high demand from emerging economies and the dependency of environmentally friendly technologies on rare earth elements.

According to UxC, one of the nuclear industry’s leading market research and analysis companies, the uranium market is rapidly becoming production-driven, where spot and long-term prices more closely correlate to the marginal cost of uranium production.

Although global reactor requirements are projected to be flat through 2024, UxC forecasts that significant demand growth from 2025 to 2040 will necessitate new production as resources are exhausted at several uranium projects. In addition, a large percentage of production exists in regions of the world with high geopolitical risk, which makes the market vulnerable to future disruptions and price volatility.

Management Team

Tom Drivas is CEO of Appia Rare Earths & Uranium Corp. He is an entrepreneur with over 30 years of experience in various industries, including over 20 years in the mineral resource industry. He is also currently a director of Romios Gold Resources Inc., a publicly traded company he founded in 1995.

Stephen Burega is President of Appia. He brings 16 years of management and operations experience in the mining and natural resources sectors. His extensive emerging markets background, along with a deep understanding of stakeholder management, social development and structured community engagement, position him well to lead Appia’s First Nations community engagements. He is also President and CEO of Romios Gold Resources which is focused on base and precious metal exploration in North America.

Frank van de Water is the company’s CFO. He holds CPA and CA designations and has been involved with international mining, metals and resource companies in North America, Latin America, Europe and Africa for more than 40 years.

Dr. Irvine R. Annesley, Ph.D., is VP Exploration at Appia. He is a licensed geoscientist (P.GEO.) and Professor in Economic (Mining and Mineral Exploration) Geology at École Nationale Supérieure de Géologie in France and an Adjunct Professor in Geology at the University of Saskatchewan. He has over 35 years of global exploration and applied research experience in uranium, gold and base metals exploration, most recently with Athabasca uranium explorer JNR Resources Inc.

Don Hains, P.Geo., is the company’s Consulting Geologist and Qualified Person Consulting Industrial Minerals Expert.

Antonio Vitor is Appia’s Country Manager, Brazil. He has a track record as a portfolio manager and board member. He has held multiple significant positions, including Territory Manager at Shell, as well as Senior Project Planning and Consulting roles at PwC and Petrobras.

Jack Lifton is the company’s Senior Technical Advisor and Consultant. He is an author and lecturer on the market fundamentals of technology metals.

Amesite Inc. (NASDAQ: AMST)

Amesite Inc. (NASDAQ: AMST) is a high-tech artificial intelligence software company offering a cloud-based platform and content creation services for K-12, college, university and business education and upskilling. Amesite’s platform enables every business, institution and school to launch outstanding online learning programs, branded-to-them, in just days: easily, affordably and effectively.

Amesite-offered courses and programs are branded to its customers. The company’s customers gain mass customized environments for their learners, through cutting-edge, disruptive technologies and services, as well as patent-pending features. With over 98% retention of learners across all of its programs, Amesite gives customers an online solution for delivering learning that works!

With no institution-wide training required, Amesite launches learning programs in just weeks or days. The platform’s ease of use is unparalleled – and Amesite offers full training and customer support for customers and users! Signup is simple, and Amesite also integrates 1,000s of APIs, making sure that the solution works with existing tools and scales to customer needs.

Amesite uses artificial intelligence technologies to provide customized environments and greater accessibility for learners and easy-to-manage interfaces for instructors, in the U.S. education market and beyond. Amesite adheres to a business model that combines scalability and flexibility, positioning the company for growth in three main expanding markets: employee learning and development, K-12 and higher education.

Customized Solutions for Learning Communities

The company provides its services via a cloud-based, single-threaded, single page application that easily integrates with existing educational tools and systems while also enabling integration of best-in-class third party tools and custom-built features. In addition, the platform offers end-to-end security, as all hosting is handled by Amesite and any collected data is only used to improve learning.

Business Solutions

Through its customized and scalable online learning products delivered via a single, easy-to-use platform for both compliance and training, Amesite enables businesses to quickly and efficiently improve team performance.

Amesite’s products were designed to identify and address key issues in professional development learning, allowing customers to efficiently identify skill gaps, complete training and certification, and drive employee engagement, with the end goal of increased preparedness and productivity.

On signup, Amesite customers receive access to a branded platform equipped with all the learning products and programs their teams need, access to on-demand and customized content and instructors, and regularly updated employee learning programs. The product includes key features such as:

• Data analytics – Analysis of employee training progress and course correction insight, as well as detailed analytics at every level, helping management make informed decisions while upskilling their teams
• Customizable dashboards – Access to first-class communication tools with messaging and video conferencing capabilities, allowing clients to monitor employee learning progress
• Rapid launch within 24 hours – Fast launch and implementation of a system that meets employee needs, without compromising substance or quality and without requiring prior training
• Ease of use – A social media-inspired interface to keep employees and management engaged and reduce training time

Solutions for Universities and K-12 Schools

Amesite enables K-12 schools and universities to launch scalable and fully customized online educational products for every learner, without requiring additional staff or IT assistance. The company’s fully managed learning and upskilling platform is easy to use, requiring no training before deployment, while being equipped with a social media-inspired design to attract students and keep them engaged, and delivering courses and content with best-in-class compliance and security.

In addition, the platform is provided with customized courses that are in high demand and are continuously updated. It also tracks progress, maintaining a higher level of engagement and commitment to learning. Colleges and universities have access to expert curation, content and instructors, with state-of-the-art customer service, and they are able to pay as they go, only for the programs they need, fully branded to them.

As with the business solutions, K-12 schools and universities gain access to a series of helpful features and functionalities on signup with Amesite, such as launch within 24 hours, customizable dashboards, data analytics, ease of use and high engagement. Other key features include customizable grade books and automation, optimizing courses to learners’ needs and providing auto-graded assessments.

Solutions for Offices During COVID-19

Committed to helping businesses return to work during and after the COVID-19 pandemic, Amesite’s platform and features can help solve key problems organizations will face in the process.

The company offers turn-key technological solutions that allow businesses to bring their teams back to work safely and effectively. Moreover, Amesite can help leaders make decisions on returning to work by leveraging real-time, actionable analytics and tracking and analyzing employee data management in full compliance and with proven security.

Market Outlook and Opportunities

By combining AI-driven technologies with significant competitive advantages in terms of cost, engagement, results, scalability and flexibility, Amesite is uniquely positioned for fast growth in three core markets.

The employee learning and development sector in North America was valued at approximately $169 billion in 2019, driven by technological advancements in the field and a heightened focus on employee upskilling and professional development in the marketplace (https://ibn.fm/0ISNg).

The U.S. higher education sector and the K-12 segment are also fast expanding, providing multiple opportunities to Amesite and its turn-key educational solutions. There were approximately 16.6 million learners in the U.S. higher education system in 2018, following a steady increase in the number of undergraduate enrollments, while the K-12 sector had approximately 56.6 million students in 2019.

Corporate Awards

Amesite has been recognized by multiple organizations for its commitment to excellence, both in terms of its technology and its workplace culture.

The company’s recent accolades from The National Association of Business Resources, which focus on workplace excellence, include:

• 2020 Best and Brightest Companies to Work for in the Nation
• 2020 National Best and Brightest in Wellness

Additionally, Amesite’s cloud-based platform won Business Intelligence Group’s 2020 BIG Innovation Award, which recognizes organizations, products and people that are bringing new ideas to life in innovative ways.

Management Team

Ann Marie Sastry, Ph.D., is the President, CEO, Chair of the Board and Interim Chief Financial Officer of Amesite. Between 2008 and 2015, Dr. Sastry served as president, CEO, co-founder and member of the board of Sakti3, which was sold to Dyson Ltd. for $90 million. She continued with Dyson as head of the global solid state battery team, where she focused on technology advancement and strategy, organizational growth and partnerships. Before becoming an entrepreneur, Dr. Sastry was a professor of engineering at the University of Michigan, obtaining some of the highest honors in her scientific field throughout her 17-year scientific career. She holds Ph.D. and MS degrees from Cornell University and a BS in mechanical engineering from the University of Delaware. Her work has been featured in reputable publications such as Forbes, The Economist, USA Today, The New York Times, Wall Street Journal and many more.

Mike Smiley serves as Amesite’s Director of People. Mr. Smiley previously served as HR and administrative manager at Sakti3, where he received six workplace excellence awards. In this role, he helped integrate the Sakti3 team into Dyson following its acquisition, and then served as a member of Dyson’s People Enablement Team to help enable a high-performance culture via process improvements and organizational change. Mr. Smiley’s expertise encompasses performance management, global hiring and global HR collaboration on issues such as benefits, compliance and regulatory change.

Annovis Bio Inc. (NYSE: ANVS)

Annovis Bio Inc. (NYSE: ANVS) is a late-stage clinical drug platform company pioneering transformative therapies for neurodegenerative disorders such as AD and PD. Annovis Bio stands out by developing a drug that targets multiple neurotoxic proteins simultaneously, aiming to restore axonal and synaptic activity. This innovative approach addresses both the cognitive decline in AD and the motor dysfunction in PD, making Annovis a unique player in the neurodegeneration space.

Lead Drug Candidate: Buntanetap

Buntanetap (formerly known as Posiphen) targets neurodegeneration by inhibiting the formation of multiple neurotoxic proteins, including amyloid beta, tau, alpha-synuclein, and TDP43. This multifaceted inhibition improves synaptic transmission and axonal transport, reduces neuroinflammation, and protects nerve cells from dying. Unlike monoclonal antibody therapies, buntanetap is an orally available small molecule capable of inhibiting multiple neurotoxic proteins at once, positioning it as a comprehensive solution for neurodegenerative diseases.

In a recent Phase II/III Alzheimer’s study, buntanetap demonstrated statistically significant efficacy. Patients with early AD showed a significantly higher rate of improvement in ADAS-Cog 11 scores across all treatment doses compared to placebo, with a 3.3 point improvement compared to 0.3 for placebo (p < 0.01). Plasma Tau protein levels also reduced, consistent with previous Phase II biomarker data, further validating buntanetap’s mechanism of action.

Similarly, in the recently completed Phase III study of buntanetap in patients with early PD, buntanetap significantly improved disease-related daily non-motor and motor functions in Parkinson’s patients who had a diagnosis over 3 years as well as improved cognition in all PD patients. It further underscores buntanetap’s potential as a transformative therapy.

Market Opportunity

The aging population presents a significant market opportunity, with nearly 7 million Americans currently suffering from Alzheimer’s Disease (AD), a figure projected to rise to almost 13 million by 2050 (Alzheimer’s Association) (Republican Policy Committee). Additionally, approximately 1.2 million people in the U.S. have Parkinson’s Disease (SingleCare).

The economic burden of Alzheimer’s is immense, with care costs expected to reach $360 billion in 2024 and escalate to nearly $1 trillion annually by 2050. The need for effective, comprehensive treatments like Buntanetap is more critical than ever.

Company Highlights

• Innovative Therapeutic Approach: Annovis Bio uniquely targets multiple neurotoxic proteins, aiming to restore nerve cell health and improve cognitive and motor function in AD and PD patients.
• Robust Clinical Data: Phase II/III studies show significant improvements in cognitive function and biomarker levels in early AD patients.
• Groundbreaking Clinical Insights: Recent Phase III data in Parkinson’s Disease patients demonstrates significant improvements in motor and cognitive functions.
• Upcoming Phase III Trials: Plans are underway for an 18-month Phase III trial focusing on biomarker-positive early AD patients, designed to further validate buntanetap’s disease-modifying potential.
• Capital Efficiency: Annovis Bio is capital-efficient, with zero debt and multiple global patents extending into the 2040s.

Management Team

• Maria L. Maccecchini, Ph.D. – Founder, President, CEO, and Executive Board Member, founded Annovis Bio in May 2008 with the mission to develop better therapeutics for Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, and other neurodegenerative diseases. She has previously been a partner and director at two angel groups, Robin Hood Ventures and MidAtlantic Angel Group, and founded Symphony Pharmaceuticals/Annovis, which was sold to Transgenomic in 2001. Her extensive experience includes roles such as General Manager at Bachem Bioscience and Head of Molecular Biology at Mallinckrodt. Dr. Maccecchini holds a Ph.D. in biochemistry from the Biocenter of Basel, with postdoctoral work at Caltech and the Roche Institute of Immunology.
• Cheng Fang, Ph.D. – Senior VP of Research and Development, is an accomplished neuroscientist with two decades of experience in neurodegenerative diseases. She has a successful track record of scientific publications and contributions, coupled with extensive pre-clinical and clinical development experience. Dr. Fang has been instrumental in advancing the understanding of neurodegenerative disease mechanisms and developing therapeutic strategies.
• Michael Christie, Ph.D. – VP of Process Chemistry, has over 40 years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry, focusing on process chemistry R&D, pilot plant production, and GMP operations. He has held senior management positions at companies such as SmithKline, Rhodia, Teva, and Cephalon, and founded a contract process R&D service company, which was later acquired by ChiRex. Dr. Christie is co-author or co-inventor on several publications and patents. He earned his BS in chemistry from the University of Michigan and his doctorate from MIT.
• Melissa Gaines – Senior VP of Clinical Operations, is an accomplished clinical research professional with over 20 years of experience across academia, contract research organizations, and pharmaceutical companies. She has proven abilities in monitoring and managing Phase I to IV clinical trials, specializing in CNS disorders and extending to a broad range of therapeutic indications. Her CNS experience spans from small Phase I and II studies to large global Phase III trials in Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, sleep disorders, and various psychiatric diseases in both adult and pediatric populations. In her current role, she oversees and supports all clinical project activities, driving operational success and ensuring high-quality clinical outcomes.

Fresh2 Group Ltd. (NASDAQ: FRES)

Fresh2 Group Ltd. (NASDAQ: FRES) is a biotechnology company focused on early cancer screening and detection. The company develops, distributes and deploys accessible early disease detection devices with an aim of changing the way people approach cancer screening. Fresh2 Group is a highly innovative company and an early thought leader and developer of multi-cancer screening technology, which is gaining significant acceptance.

Fresh2 Group has clinical laboratories in the United States and China, with 142 issued patents as of March 31, 2021. Its corporate headquarters is located in Shanghai, China, while its U.S. headquarters is situated in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The company operates two certified clinical laboratories in China and one CLIA registered clinical laboratory in the United States.

The company is entering the business-to-business e-commerce food business with the formation of wholly owned subsidiary Fresh2 Technology Inc. and the acquisition of Fresh2 Ecommerce Inc.

Cancer Differentiation Analysis (CDA)

Cancer Differentiation Analysis (CDA) is Fresh2 Group’s approach to detecting cancer and pre-cancerous diseases. CDA uses the natural biophysical properties of blood and cellular proteins to discover cancerous environments before the tumors even form.

Most liquid-based cancer screening and detection technologies focus on biochemical signals, like conventional biomarkers and genomic signals, such as ct-DNAs and CTCs (circulating tumor cells in the blood). These typically only determine whether or not cancer has occurred at a fixed point in time.

CDA technology combines an assessment of existing biomarkers with the biophysical properties and cellular proteins that signal the lead-up to serious health conditions and cancer. It is also used to pinpoint where cancer is most likely located and predict where the risk is highest in the future – all through a standard blood test, at a competitive price point.

Fresh2 Group’s CDA is powered by a database of over 200,000 samples and cases and serves as a new way to approach disease and cancer screening. The device uses an integrated system of sensors to detect several biophysical signals at the cellular, protein and molecular levels. CDA leverages a proprietary algorithm to synthesize the data, effectively generating a personalized risk assessment for evaluated patients.

Through CDA technology, Fresh2 Group aims to address a number of goals, including:

• Innovate – Fresh2 Group is an innovator in the cancer screening industry, with CDA research ongoing since 2008, and commercial operations beginning in 2015. Fresh2 Group considers itself a thought leader in developing multi-cancer screening.
• Detect – Fresh2 Group detects early signals of threatening cancer and its location within the body.
• Identify – CDA identifies the risks of up to 26 different types of cancers with high sensitivity and specificity rates.
• Provide – The company’s platform provides multi-level, multi-parameter analysis using proprietary diagnostic algorithms, which results in accurate and easy-to-understand results.
• Proven – A fully operational analysis of over 200,000 test samples has been run to date. CDA technology has been shown to identify pre- and early-stage cancers in patients previously diagnosed as “cancer-free” through traditional methods.
• Biophysical Properties – CDA analyzes biophysical properties in human blood and the correlation between biophysical properties and cancer occurrence.

Market Outlook

Fresh2 Group is exploring detection of other types of cancers leveraging its innovative CDA technology and multi-cancer screening and detection tests, which could open significant opportunities on the global cancer diagnostics market.

According to a report by Grand View Research, the cancer diagnostics market is expected to reach $249.6 billion worldwide by 2026 (https://nnw.fm/L7css). The market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 7% during the forecast period.

Management Team

Dr. Chris Yu is the Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Fresh2 Group. He has enjoyed a successful career as an innovator in life sciences, technology and engineering. Dr. Yu has worked for three U.S. Fortune 500 companies and is the first/principal inventor of over 300 patent applications spanning semiconductors, materials and life science. He has a proven history of developing cutting-edge products with long-term profit and sustainability. Dr. Yu was born to a medical doctor’s family and went to medical school. He later switched his major to physics and received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in physics from the University of Missouri-Kansas City Campus and a doctoral degree in physics from Pennsylvania State University. Both of his dissertations addressed innovative detection techniques.

Dr. Herbert Yu is the Co-Founder and Chief Medical Officer of Fresh2 Group. He is a renowned expert in molecular epidemiology, with training in medicine and chemical biochemistry. Dr. Yu has a 20-year career in leading-edge cancer research, including breakthrough work in areas of carcinogenic factors. He is a professor and research director at the University of Hawaii and an adjunct professor at Yale University. He received his bachelor’s degree in medicine from Shanghai First Medical College. Dr. Yu also received a science degree in epidemiology and a Ph.D. in clinical biochemistry from the University of Toronto.

Jingiu (Edward) Tang is the company’s Chief Financial Officer. He previously served as a global internal auditor at Natuzzi S.p.A. Mr. Tang also worked at Beijing Dongshen CPA and Shanghai De’an CPA, providing external audits, finance and tax advisory services across different industries and sectors. He is a Certified Public Accountant in Australia. Mr. Tang received his bachelor’s degree in accounting from Charles Sturt University in Australia, his MBA from Charles Sturt University, and his bachelor’s degree in law from Southwest University of Science and Technology in China.

Weidong Dai is the company’s China General Manager. He previously served as a general partner at Stirrfir Investment Management Co. Mr. Dai has also served as the chairman of RTS Management (Shanghai) Co., and as managing director of Hong Kong Pro-Health Technology Co. and Shanghai Pro-Health Medical Devices Co. He has published a number of medical research papers and research articles in professional journals. Mr. Dai was awarded the Hong Kong Industrial Award for a medical device that he led in research and development. He earned his bachelor’s degree in medicine from Anhui Medical University, a master’s degree in medicine from the Sun Yat-San University of Medicine, and an Advanced Certificate of the EMBA CEO Program from Fudan University, School of Economics.

Arizona Metals Corp. (TSX: AMC) (OTCQX: AZMCF)

Arizona Metals Corp. (TSX: AMC) (OTCQX: AZMCF) is a mineral exploration company engaged in advancing precious and base metal deposits in the state of Arizona. Its flagship copper-gold-zinc-silver asset is the Kay Mine Project, located in Yavapai County. The company also owns Sugarloaf Peak gold project in La Paz County.

The company in October 2022 received permit approval from the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) for two new drill pads, located approximately 1,200 meters west of the Kay Mine Deposit. These new pads will allow for testing of the company’s Western Target, while also allowing for drilling of additional coincident anomalies located between the Central and Western Targets. Construction of the drill road for the Central Target (located 500 meters west of the Kay Mine Deposit) is currently underway, with drilling expected to begin in November 2022. Road construction for the Western Target will begin upon confirmation of BLM acceptance of the company’s posted bond, with drilling expected to commence in Q1 2023.

The company is fully funded, with $60 million in cash as of June 30, 2022, to complete the remaining 18,000 meters planned for the Phase 2 program at Kay, as well as an additional 76,000 meters in the Phase 3 program (budgeted at $27 million), which will be used to test the numerous parallel targets heading west of the Kay Deposit, as well as the northern and southern extensions of the Kay Deposit.

Arizona Metals Corp. is based in Toronto, Canada.

Projects

Arizona Metals Corp. owns 100% of the Kay Mine property in Yavapai County, which is located on a combination of patented and BLM claims totaling 1,300 acres that are not subject to any royalties. An historic estimate by Exxon Minerals in 1982 reported a “proven and probable reserve of 6.4 million short tons at a grade of 2.2% copper, 2.8 grams per ton gold, 3.03% zinc, and 55 grams per ton silver.” The historic estimate has not been verified as a current mineral resource. None of the key assumptions, parameters, and methods used to prepare the historic estimate were reported by Exxon, and no resource categories were used. Significant data compilation, re-drilling and data verification may be required by a “qualified person” (as defined in National Instrument 43-101 – Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects) before the historic estimate can be verified and upgraded to be a current mineral resource. A qualified person has not done sufficient work to classify it as a current mineral resource, and Arizona Metals is not treating the historic estimate as a current mineral resource.

The company also owns 100% of the Sugarloaf Peak Property in La Paz County, which is located on 4,400 acres of BLM claims. Sugarloaf is a heap-leach, open-pit target and has a historic estimate of “100 million tons containing 1.5 million ounces (of) gold” at a grade of 0.5 grams per ton. The historic estimate at the Sugarloaf Peak Property was reported by Westworld Resources in 1983. The historic estimate has not been verified as a current mineral resource. None of the key assumptions, parameters, and methods used to prepare the historic estimate were reported, and no resource categories were used. Significant data compilation, re-drilling and data verification may be required by a qualified person before the historic estimate can be verified and upgraded to a current mineral resource. A qualified person has not done sufficient work to classify it as a current mineral resource, and Arizona Metals is not treating the historic estimate as a current mineral resource.

Market Opportunity

The World Gold Council, an industry association representing gold producers with hundreds of mining operations in nearly 50 countries around the world, reports that global demand for gold during the first six months of 2022 was 2,189 tons, a 12% increase in demand over the same period in 2021. Demand came primarily from gold bar and coin investors, jewelry consumers, central bank purchases to bolster currency reserves and technology manufacturing.

The average price per ounce for the period was $1,871, marking a 1% year-over-year increase. The council reported gold mine production for the period was up 3% over 2021 at 1,764 tons. For the remainder of 2022 and into 2023, the council projects flat gold demand with possible slight increases in gold mine production. The council notes that unpredictable geopolitical factors, the Ukraine war for example, and likelihood of global economic slowdown could have significant near-term impact on gold demand and prices.

Management Team

Marc Pais is President and CEO of Arizona Metals. He previously founded and served as President of Telegraph Gold (listed as Castle Mountain Mining), which was acquired by Equinox Gold, a TSX-listed mining company. He has seven years of experience as a Mining Analyst, with a focus on precious metals development companies. He holds a B.Sc. in Geological Engineering (Mineral Exploration) from Queen’s University in Canada.

David Smith is the Vice President, Exploration of Arizona Metals. He has 30 years of global precious metals exploration experience, including codiscovery of the Solidaridad/La Sabila deposit in Mexico with deposits estimated at 1 million ounces of gold. His core areas of expertise are managing mineral projects from acquisition to exploration, resource modeling and mineral project development. He holds an M.Sc. from the University of Oregon and an MBA from Pinchot University/Presidio Graduate School.

Paul Reid is the Executive Chairman of Arizona Metals. He previously founded and served as Executive Chairman of Telegraph Gold (listed as Castle Mountain Mining), which was acquired by Equinox Gold, a TSX-listed mining company. Paul has extensive experience as an Investment Banking professional, involved in raising capital, go-public transactions, and advisory services.

Astiva Health

Astiva Health is a dynamic and innovative Medicare Advantage Prescription Drug (MAPD) health plan committed to reshaping the landscape of personalized and comprehensive healthcare. The company offers full medical, drugs, and supplemental benefits for Medicare enrollees, currently serving counties in California, including Orange, San Diego, Los Angeles, Riverside, and San Bernardino. This broad coverage reflects Astiva Health’s dedication to reaching a diverse demographic and addressing the healthcare needs of individuals across Southern California.

Astiva Health primarily serves a heretofore underserved Asian American and Pacific Islander population, which positions it in a critical and expanding market segment and offers substantial growth potential. The company recognizes the diverse needs within its served communities and strives to bridge healthcare gaps through proactive and culturally responsive solutions.

Astiva Health cares about its members and works to establish lifelong relationships with them by providing a tailored approach to healthcare, offering multilingual solutions for customer service, marketing materials and educational resources. Health is an essential key to living a good life, and Astiva Health makes it a priority to help members love the life they live.

The company’s mission is to deliver an unparalleled level of quality care to its members. Astiva Health’s Medicare Advantage plans provide lower costs and additional benefits beyond original Medicare coverage.

Founded in southern California, Astiva Health has strategically positioned itself in a region with a dynamic and diverse population. The organization’s extensive network and culturally responsive approach to healthcare make it well-suited to cater to the needs of the local community, creating a competitive advantage in the market.

The company is based in Orange, California.

Healthcare Model

Astiva Health is not just another health plan. The company considers the uniqueness of its members and, therefore, the means for delivering quality care to each one. To best serve its members, Astiva Health has developed one of the most diverse networks in southern California, offering a selection of medical, drugs, and supplemental benefits including dental, acupuncture, vision and hearing plans tailored to the specialized needs of individual members.

The company’s health plans provide increasing levels of benefits to members in the counties it serves. Astiva Health’s Customer Care Support and representatives are available to assist members with any issues.

The organization’s proactive approach to overcoming language barriers for the Vietnamese communities demonstrates a commitment to inclusivity and enhances accessibility – a key factor for future growth. The successful implementation of strategies for the Vietnamese community sets a precedent for Astiva Health’s ability to adapt and apply similar approaches to serve other ethnic groups in future expansions, broadening the potential impact of its services.

The company provides members access to experienced and dedicated providers and local pharmacies that work together with each member to pave a pathway toward better health. The company’s online directory provides members with a comprehensive list of providers to fit their specialized needs.

Astiva Health collaborates with a variety of partners who offer supplemental benefits to members beyond Medicare. Those benefits include transportation, vision, dental, hearing, fitness, tele-health, acupuncture and chiropractic. Astiva’s forward-thinking strategy not only fulfills a critical societal need but also ensures sustainable growth and transformative impact across diverse communities.

Market Opportunity

Medicare Advantage plans, since their establishment in 2008 as a lower-cost alternative for Medicare enrollees looking to save on monthly premiums, have been one of the fastest growing segments of the health insurance market.

According to a report by healthcare consultant Charts, nearly 31 million beneficiaries are enrolled in a Medicare Advantage plan in 2023, accounting for more than 48% of the total Medicare market. That represents 9.6% enrollment growth over 2022 totals, and the pace of growth is likely to continue, according to the Charts report.
Startup Medicare Advantage plans, a sector that includes Astiva Health, grew even faster for 2023, at a rate of 22% over 2022 totals.

Management Team

Dr. Tri T. Nguyen is co-founder and CEO of Astiva Health. He is a graduate of Stanford Medical School and is a board-certified expert in internal medicine, cardiovascular disease and interventional cardiology. As founder, CEO and owner/operator of Avanta IPA, he is a committed leader in healthcare. His visionary leadership, hands-on experience and deep industry knowledge uniquely position him to guide Astiva to success.

Chi Luong is CFO at Astiva Health. She founded and operates HADD Group LLC, a company managing medical clinic services, including business contracting, finance, staffing and ancillary support for several medical clinics in San Diego. She is responsible for the expansion and daily operation of the business functions of the medical clinics managed by HADD Group, and she has extensive knowledge and experience in healthcare business development.

Viet Tran has over 30 years of experience in engineering research, development and management. He has made numerous contributions to national network security and technology. He led the initial Naval Interoperability Profiles that set a solid foundation for future naval airborne network development. He also led a team of 50 engineers, doctorates and scientists delivering an airborne network system for the Navy’s first carrier-based unmanned aircraft. As Astiva Health’s Chief Operating and Technology Officer, member satisfaction has been his top priority. He is committed to protecting valuable data for Astiva members and providers. He constantly strives for leaner and more effective operations.

Tyler Diep is Vice President, Sales, Marketing and Provider Relations at Astiva Health. His responsibilities include handling special projects for the board of directors, as well as overseeing the sales, marketing and provider relations department. During his tenure, he tripled the membership of Astiva Health. He previously served as councilman and vice mayor of the City of Westminster, California. He immigrated to the U.S. with his parents and graduated from San Diego State with a bachelor’s degree in public administration.

Aston Bay Holdings Ltd. (TSX.V: BAY) (OTCQB: ATBHF)

Aston Bay Holdings Ltd. (TSX.V: BAY) (OTCQB: ATBHF) is a publicly traded Canadian minerals exploration company focused on exploring high-grade copper and gold deposits in North America. The company owns the Storm Copper Project and the Seal Zinc Deposit in Nunavut, Canada, and is currently exploring the Buckingham Gold Vein and critical metals prospects in central Virginia. Aston Bay is also in the advanced stages of negotiation on other properties with high-grade critical minerals potential in these areas.

The company believes in responsible exploration and carries out its work programs to the highest standards of social responsibility, environmental stewardship and health and safety. Aston Bay cares about leaving a net positive impact on the communities in which it works and engages with local representatives, Indigenous groups and government agencies to build respectful relationships through dialogue and collaborative processes. Depending on the stage of exploration, these efforts may include employment, contracting, training, community benefits and other agreements.

Aston Bay conducts exploration through safe, socially and environmentally responsible and sustainable work practices. The company embeds core values of health and safety throughout its operations by adhering to strict health and safety standards and practices that meet and/or exceed industry standards and government codes and regulations.

The company is headquartered in Toronto.

Projects

Storm Copper

The high-grade Storm Copper Deposit is located 112 kilometers south of the community of Resolute Bay, Nunavut, on western Somerset Island, just south of the past-producing Polaris Pb-Zn Mine. The property comprises 173 contiguous mining claims, including the Storm Copper and Seal Zinc projects, covering an area of approximately 541,795 acres.

The property has good access to established shipping lanes, and the landscape provides favorable conditions for development of roads and a protected deep-water port. Exploration is supported through excellent infrastructure in the nearby hamlet of Resolute Bay.

Aston Bay is partnered with American West Metals (ASX: AW1) at Storm. American West is responsible for all exploration expenditures, having aggressively advanced the project toward production and earned an 80% interest. This affords excellent optionality to the company’s shareholders, as Aston Bay is free carried with no required expenditures until the completion of a bankable feasibility study.

American West recently completed an Australian JORC-compliant Maiden Resource Estimate for Storm; the North American 43-101 compliant resource estimate is expected in Q1 2024. American West is cashed up and plans a multimillion-dollar resource expansion and new discovery drilling program for the summer of 2024.

The Buckingham County Gold Project

The gold-bearing system at the Buckingham County Gold Project in Virginia lies within a belt hosting past producing mines, current gold mines and advanced gold explorations, stretching through Georgia, the Carolinas, Virginia, Nova Scotia and Newfoundland.

Buckingham hosts a “Kirkland Lake-style” high grade gold vein returning values consistently over one ounce gold per ton and is underexplored both at depth and along almost one mile of strike length. These types of veins have excellent ESG qualities, as they are typically mined using a small footprint underground method, with gold extracted using simple and environmentally friendly gravity methods.

Market Opportunity

The World Gold Council, the industry association for the world’s gold producers, estimated in 2023 the physical financial gold market, which is made up of bars, coins, gold ETFs and central bank reserves, is worth nearly $5 trillion. The council reports that gold mine production adds approximately 3,500 tons of the precious metal to the world’s supply annually, equivalent to about 2% growth.

This historical scarcity and relatively slow production of new supply, as compared to other commodities, is a primary reason gold has retained its value for millennia, according to the council.

A report from Acumen Research and Consulting, a global provider of market intelligence and consulting services, valued the global copper market at $304.1 billion in 2022 and forecast that it will reach a market size of $496.8 billion by 2032, growing at a CAGR of 5.1% over the forecast period.

The report identifies a growing demand for copper in the electronics industry, as well as an expanding copper supply due to increasing production from existing mines and the rising number of mine development projects in developing nations, as driving factors in the rising value of the copper market.

Management Team

Thomas Ullrich is CEO and Director of Aston Bay. He has over 30 years of experience in mineral exploration and geoscience. Before joining Aston Bay, he was Chief Geologist North America for Antofagasta Minerals plc, investigating copper potential through extensive property evaluations and management of drill programs in the United States, Mexico and Canada. Prior to that, he was Senior Geologist for Almaden Minerals.

Sofia Harquail handles Investor Relations and Corporate Development at Aston Bay. She has over 15 years of experience in the private and public sectors of the mining industry. Before joining Aston Bay, she worked as a consultant for the Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada and for exempt market dealer Red Cloud Financial Services Inc. Ms. Harquail holds an M.A. from the University of Uppsala in Sweden and received her CPIR designation from the CIRI/Ivey Investor Relations Program. She also sits on the board of the Young Mining Professionals Toronto and is CSC Certified.

Aston Bay has a talented Board of Directors bringing broad experience from across the industry, encompassing resource expansion, mine development, mergers and acquisitions, and mining finance.

Ms. Jessie Liu-Ernsting has over 15 years of experience in the mining industry, spanning capital projects engineering, debt capital markets, private equity and corporate strategy at several firms, including Hudbay Minerals and Resource Capital Funds. She is currently VP Investor Relations and Communications at G Mining Ventures Corp.

Mr. Jeffrey R. Wilson has over 25 years’ experience in the mining industry, having served as a director, officer and advisor of multiple public and private companies in the mineral exploration and mining investment industries. Mr. Wilson is currently President & CEO of Precipitate Gold Corp.

Mr. Gary O’Connor has over 40 years of diverse experience as a mineral exploration and development professional in the management of successful resource projects as well as the evaluation, technical due diligence, and supervision of large mineral exploration and development projects through-out the world. While with Freeport, Mr. O’Connor worked on the due diligence and discovery of a major gold fraud on the Busang gold “deposit” in Kalimantan by Bre-X.

Mr. Mark J. Pryor is a geologist with a 40-year track record of successfully advancing multiple precious metal, copper, coal, REE and Li projects from discovery through to exploitation. He is currently Executive Vice President of the Exploration Division at The Electrum Group.

Astrotech Corp. (NASDAQ: ASTC)

Astrotech Corp. (NASDAQ: ASTC) is an instrumentation company that designs, manufactures and commercializes solutions. Its solutions include mass spectrometry, process controls, chemical detectors and medical disease detection.

The company was established in 1984 and, prior to 2009, was known as SPACEHAB Inc., a NASA contractor offering technology originally developed for NASA to monitor air quality on the International Space Station. When the Space Shuttle program ended, the company focused on its satellite processing and mass spectrometer instrumentation units and adopted the Astrotech name.

In 2014, Astrotech sold its satellite subsidiary to focus on its Astrotech Technology Inc. (ATi) mass spectrometry solutions, which offer a number of advantages over competing platforms. Notably, Astrotech’s ATi technology is ruggedized, rapid, simple to use and customizable, with hands-free calibration and tuning.

Between 2016 and 2019, the company secured U.S. patents for its technology and achieved European Union (ECAC) certification for the TRACER 1000™, the world’s first mass-spec Explosives Trace Detector (ETD) used in airports worldwide. Astrotech continues to innovate and add to its suite of products, including AgLAB-1000, a process control system, and the BreathTest 1000, a disease detection solution.

Astrotech is headquartered in Austin, Texas.

Subsidiaries

Astrotech Technologies Inc.

Astrotech Technologies Inc. (ATi) owns and licenses the platform mass spectrometry technology originally developed by 1st Detect. This technology is designed to be less expensive, smaller and easier to use than traditional mass spectrometers.

Unlike other technologies, ATi works under high vacuum, which eliminates competing molecules, yielding higher resolution and fewer false alarms. The company’s intellectual property includes 18 granted patents, along with extensive trade secrets.

ATi exclusively licenses the Astrotech Mass Spectrometer Technology to the three wholly owned subsidiaries of Astrotech.

1st Detect Corp.

1st Detect Corp. developed the TRACER 1000, the world’s first mass spectrometry-based explosives and narcotics trace detector. 1st Detect ETDs were developed for use at airports, cargo facilities and other secured locations and borders worldwide.

1st Detect’s commercial sales of the TRACER 1000 ETD, consumables and recurring maintenance services brought in $750,000 in total revenue during the fiscal year ended June 30, 2023. The Astrotech subsidiary recently secured two orders for a total of 24 Tracer 1000 units from two Romanian security and telecommunications companies, to be delivered during calendar 2023.

AgLAB Inc.

AgLAB Inc. is developing a series of mass spectrometers for use in the hemp and cannabis market, with an initial focus on optimizing yields in the distillation processes.

AgLAB, which uses the company’s proprietary AgLAB 1000-D2™ mass spectrometer, has been proven to improve distillation oil yields and bottom-line profits for hemp and cannabis producers. During field trials, AgLAB was able to improve ending-weight yields by an average of 24%.

BreathTech Corp.

BreathTech is developing the BreathTest-1000™, a breath analysis tool to screen for volatile organic compound (“VOC”) metabolites found in a person’s breath that could indicate they may have a compromised condition including but not limited to a bacterial or viral infection. The company believes that new tools to aid in the battle against COVID-19 and other diseases remain of the utmost importance to help more quickly identify that an infection may be present.

Market Opportunity

A report by Mordor Intelligence, a research and advisory firm, put the global mass spectrometry market at $6.37 billion in 2023. The market is forecast to grow to $8.63 billion by 2028, achieving a CAGR of 6.25% during the forecast period.

One of the major driving factors for the growth of the mass spectrometry market is technological advancements in mass spectrometer devices, the report states. Key market players are continuously working toward advancing their existing products and launching innovative and advanced mass spectrometer devices.

Another major factor that is expected to boost market growth is increasing research and development expenditure by both government and private entities, according to the report. Mass spectrometry devices are also being used in the detection and analysis of COVID-19 and other disease samples, which may have a positive impact on the market.

Management Team

The Astrotech leadership team includes management executives, as well as industry and technology experts. The company continues to actively expand its talent pool to meet evolving demands.

Thomas B. Pickens III is Chairman, CEO and Chief Technology Officer of Astrotech Corp. He also serves as CEO of Astrotech subsidiaries ATi, 1st Detect, AgLAB Inc. and BreathTech Corp. Previously, he was the founder and president of Beta Computer Systems Inc. and T.B. Pickens & Co. He was founder and general partner of Grace Pickens Acquisition Partners L.P and managing partner of Sumpter Partners. He also served as CEO of Catalyst Energy Corporation and United Thermal Corporation and as president of Golden Bear Corp., United Hydro Inc. and Slate Creek Corp. He received a B.A. in Economics, Computer Science and Engineering from Southern Methodist University.

Jaime Hinojosa, CPA, is CFO at Astrotech Corp. He joined the company in 2015 and has served as its Corporate Controller since 2019. His previous roles with the company include Director of Finance, from 2017 to 2019, and Assistant Controller, from 2015 to 2017. Prior to joining Astrotech, Mr. Hinojosa worked as an Accounting Manager for O’Reilly Auto Parts and gained public accounting experience as an Audit Manager at Burton McCumber & Cortez LLP.

Augmedix Inc. (NASDAQ: AUGX)

Augmedix Inc. (NASDAQ: AUGX), a leading provider of virtual medical documentation and live clinical support based in San Francisco, California, is on a mission to “rehumanize healthcare.” The company has set out to tackle the largest pain point in the U.S. healthcare system – the burden of documentation and administrative tasks on physicians.

Augmedix enables physicians to have natural interactions with patients without being distracted by taking notes during patient visits. When physicians are free to focus on just being physicians, they have been found to save up to 3 hours per day, improve productivity by as much as 20%, and increase satisfaction with work-life balance by over 40%. The time spent by physicians on documentation is estimated by management to cost the US healthcare industry as much as $100 billion annually and adversely impacts both physician and patient satisfaction.

By increasing physician satisfaction, Augmedix is also addressing a significant and growing problem in the U.S. healthcare industry – physician burnout – which costs the industry an estimated $4.8 billion every year. The cost to replace one physician can be as high as $1 million for a healthcare system.

Augmedix’s Platform and Technology

A physician’s exclusive focus on the patient is made possible by virtual medical documentation and live clinical support. Physicians are provided dedicated Google Glass units or smartphones with which they access the Augmedix service. As the physician and the patient interact naturally, the physician’s device enables the interaction to be observed remotely by trained medical documentation specialists who enter key inputs for the medical note. The company’s proprietary Ambient Automation Platform, incorporating structured data models, automatic speech recognition (ASR) and machine learning models, then takes those inputs and converts them into a medical note. This medical documentation is then uploaded into the patient’s electronic health record (EHR) for sign off by the physician.

Augmedix pioneered the concept of remote, real-time medical note documentation. Its approach to clinical documentation enables not only natural physician-patient conversations, which are very important for patients and physicians, but also physician mobility, given the mobile devices through which the service is accessed and the virtual nature of the company’s offering.

Augmedix’s Two Levels of Service

The company’s service is designed for ease of use by physicians. Entering a unique authentication code, physicians open a secure communication channel to the service platform through a dedicated smartphone or Google Glass unit supplied by Augmedix. Physicians have a choice of real-time service or non-real time service.

Augmedix LIVE – Real-Time Service

Under its real-time service offering, called “Live,” Augmedix’s highly-trained specialists observe the interaction between the physician and the patient, both visually and audibly, and make the appropriate contextual selections within the proprietary note creation application, “Notebuilder”. This then drives the company’s auto sentence generation models within the Notebuilder tool. The completed medical note is then supplied back to the physician for review and sign-off at the conclusion of the patient encounter.

Augmedix NOTES – Non-Real Time Service

Through its non-real time service, which the company calls “Notes,” the conversation between the physician and patient is recorded. It then passes through the Augmedix ASR software model. The text output is edited by specialists and further processed by Notebuilder into a comprehensive and accurate medical note. Medical notes in the non-real time service are supplied back to the physician prior to the next shift, typically the next day.

Utilizing either service, the administrative burden is lifted from physicians, who no longer need to type notes into their EHR system, allowing them to focus their energy on what they are trained to do – taking care of patients.

Specialties and Health Systems

Augmedix is compatible with more than 35 specialties and trusted by four of the top 10 and six of the top 20 enterprises, as measured by patient revenue, and many physician group practices supporting medical offices, clinics, hospitals, and telemedicine across the U.S.

Augmedix and Telemedicine

In recognition of the challenges imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic on in-person patient visits, Augmedix services are compatible with telemedicine, which will likely remain a meaningful healthcare delivery platform well after the pandemic has passed. Importantly, Augmedix is application-agnostic, meaning that it can accommodate any application used by physicians for remote patient encounters.

Market Outlook

Augmedix’s service is provided under a monthly subscription revenue model. As such, the company maintains high visibility into its future business outlook. Augmedix’s Net Promoter Score of 56 is more than twice that of the healthcare industry average of 27 and is yet another testament to its value proposition.

Over time, the company aims to increase the automation of clinical documentation, which represents a multi-billion-dollar market opportunity. As more data is collected and harvested through machine learning, Augmedix’s models will be able to automatically process an increasing portion of the medical note across an increasing number of patient visit types. Automation benefits the company’s business by reducing the time to create the note, as well as providing more uniform note quality, among other operational benefits.

Augmedix estimates its total addressable market to be about 300,000 physicians in the U.S., representing a potential annual revenue opportunity of about $6 billion. The company has a direct expansion path to about $1 billion among the healthcare enterprises already under contract. But Augmedix won’t stop there. It is continuing to sign up new major accounts through its “land and expand” sales and marketing strategy.

Management Team

Emmanuel “Manny” Krakaris is the President, Chief Executive Officer and Secretary of Augmedix. Mr. Krakaris has been a member of the Augmedix board of directors since October 2018. Prior to Augmedix, Mr. Krakaris served as the Chief Executive Officer of Streetline Inc., from August 2014 to February 2018, and as Chief Financial Officer and Chief Operating Officer, from 2011 to August 2014. Mr. Krakaris also served as Chief Financial Officer of Command Audio Corporation from 1996 to 2011. Mr. Krakaris received a Bachelor of Commerce in Marketing and International Business from McGill University and an M.B.A. from the University of California, Berkeley, Haas School of Business.

Paul Ginocchio joined Augmedix in July 2020 as Chief Financial Officer. Prior to joining Augmedix, Mr. Ginocchio served as an independent strategic advisor to multiple technology companies. Mr. Ginocchio previously served as Chief Financial Officer of Brightfield Strategies LLC, a workplace data and analytics company, from January 2017 to September 2019. From November 1998 to May 2016, Mr. Ginocchio was Lead Analyst, then Managing Director of Information & Business Services Equity Research at Deutsche Bank AG. Mr. Ginocchio holds a B.A. in Economics & Business Management from North Carolina State University, and an M.B.A. in Finance from Indiana University Kelley School of Business.

Sandra Breber has served as Chief Operating Officer of Augmedix since March 2019 and, prior to that, served as an advisor to the company from November 2018 to March 2019. Ms. Breber also served as President and Co-founder of Ziploop Inc. from April 2013 to November 2018. Prior to that, she was a management partner at Andersen, a global professional services firm. Ms. Breber holds a Bachelor of Commerce in Accounting and Finance from McGill University.

Saurav Chatterjee joined Augmedix in November of 2020 as Chief Technology Officer. Prior to joining Augmedix, Mr. Chatterjee served as Vice President of Engineering at Lumiata Inc. Mr. Chatterjee also served as the Senior Director and Head Conversational AI at Asurion Inc., from May 2014 to October 2019. Mr. Chatterjee holds a B.A in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from the University of California, Berkeley, and a PhD in Computer Engineering from Carnegie Mellon University.

Jonathan Hawkins joined Augmedix in April 2019 as its Chief Revenue Officer. Prior to joining Augmedix, Mr. Hawkins served as Senior Vice President of Business Development, Sales and Marketing for Spry Health Inc., a healthcare data analytics provider that identifies early signs of clinical deterioration in chronically ill patients. Mr. Hawkins was also a Founding Investor and Advisor to The Batchery, a startup incubator and accelerator. Prior to that, Mr. Hawkins was Vice President of Business Development and Sales for MedeAnalytics Inc. Mr. Hawkins holds a B.A. in International Relations from Stanford University and an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School.

Ian Shakil is the founder of Augmedix and has served as Chief Strategy Officer since October 2018. Mr. Shakil has been a member of the Augmedix board since April 2013. From April 2013 to October 2018, Mr. Shakil served as the Chief Executive Officer of Augmedix. Mr. Shakil has also served as Advisor to Edwards Lifesciences Corporation since May 2019, and as Advisor to Maya.com.bd since January 2018. Mr. Shakil has a B.S.E. in Biomedical Engineering from Duke University and an M.B.A. from Stanford University Graduate School of Business.

Battery Mineral Resources Corp. (TSX.V: BMR) (OTCQB: BTRMF)

Battery Mineral Resources Corp. (TSX.V: BMR) (OTCQB: BTRMF) is a battery minerals company providing shareholders exposure to the global mega-trend of electrification while being focused on growth through cash-flow, exploration and acquisitions in favorable mining jurisdictions.

The company’s mission is the discovery, acquisition and development of battery metals (namely copper, cobalt, lithium, and graphite) in North America, South America and South Korea. It aims to become a leading low-cost producer of high quality, ethically sourced battery metals from high-grade, low impact mines in stable jurisdictions that are close to major consumer industries.

BMR is headquartered in Vancouver, British Colombia, with a portfolio of projects spanning Canada, the U.S., Chile and South Korea.

Project Portfolio

BMR’s current focus is the restart of its Punitaqui copper mine in Chile, as well as the exploration and development of its cobalt, lithium and graphite assets in North America and South Korea. The company also continues to identify and evaluate new project opportunities in its operating jurisdictions.

Its current portfolio includes:

Chile – Copper

BMR’s 100%-owned Punitaqui copper mine, acquired in March 2021, has the potential to generate an annual EBITDA of up to $50 million at or above a copper price of $4.25/lb. The company’s flagship project, the Punitaqui mine has been the subject of numerous milestones in recent months, including:

• BMR funded and completed a successful 32,526m resource drill program in 2022. Metallurgical testwork has confirmed the ability to produce excellent copper concentrates from each of the five zones tested, including recoveries ranging from 81% on the low end at Cinabrio Norte up to 96.5% at the Dalmacia deposit.
• The company in August 2022 reported the results of its first ever NI 43-101-compliant resource estimate for the underground deposits at its Punitaqui copper mining complex of 6.2 million tonnes grading 1.14% Cu in indicated category, along with 3.1 million tonnes grading 0.93% Cu in the inferred category. This resource estimate greatly exceeded management goals.
• In September 2022, BMR announced the approval by the Chilean Environment Assessment Service for the Environmental Impact Declaration (“DIA”) pertaining to mining at the company’s Cinabrio mine and San Andres deposit. The approval of the DIA allows BMR to move forward with starting mining operations in 2023 and restarting the mill at its Punitaqui copper mining complex soon after.
• BMR is focused on securing the final funding for the restart of mining and resumption of copper concentrate production at Punitaqui. Once this funding is received, BMR aims to complete mine rehabilitation and development in four to six months, with the ramp up from first production to the full production rate of 20-25 million pounds of copper in concentrate per annum to require a further four to six months.

“From exploration, engineering, community and permitting successes to realizing several non-dilutive means of funding to allow BMR to advance the project, our team looks forward to taking advantage of the renewed positive market sentiment for near term copper pricing and placing ourselves in a strong position to participate in a robust copper sector in 2023,” CEO Martin Kostuik stated in a news release.

Canada – Cobalt/Silver

Between 2016 and April 2018, BMR acquired through claim staking, option, joint venture and direct purchase the largest regional land holding in the historic home of high-grade cobalt-silver veins in Canada known locally as the Cobalt Embayment.

As of February 2023, BMR controlled a land package totaling 9 properties with 4,086 tenements that encompass an area of 84,003.39Ha. The key projects within the land package include McAra, Gowganda, Elk Lake, Fabre and Wilder. From 2017-2022, a total of 412 holes/51,452.34m were drilled on eight projects/20 targets. In addition, a total of 26,709 Line-Km of airborne geophysical surveys & 1,324.84sqkm of LiDAR topography was flown. Follow-up ground geophysical surveys resulted in a total of 37 surveys (514.64 Line-Km) being completed.

Initial NI 43-101 compliant resource defined at McAra (M&I Resource of 1,124,000lbs Co) was detailed in a Technical Report on Cobalt Exploration Assets in Canada dated as of February 5, 2021, with an effective date of October 31, 2020, prepared by SRK Consulting – G Cole PGeo (APGO#1416).

Idaho – Cobalt

BMR holds the Bonanza and East Fork properties located in the historic cobalt-copper-gold Blackbird mining district (Blackbird Mine from 1902-1963 produced 17Mt grading 0.7% Co, 1.4% Cu, and 1 g/t Au) located about 30 kilometers west of Salmon, Idaho. The Bonanza project is immediately adjacent to Jervois Global’s Idaho Cobalt Operations, the United States’ only operating primary cobalt mine. At Bonanza, there are seven mineralized sites within an area over three kilometers wide that extends along a gabbro dyke striking continuously for over six kilometers northward from Noranda’s historic Blackbird Cobalt/Copper mine. The showings on the project are Bonanza Copper Tunnels, Tinker’s Pride, Bonanza Copper #25, Indian Creek, Gray Copper, Blackrock #4 and Papoose #’s 1-4.

From 2018-2021, BMR’s Bonanza Exploration included 550 line-km of airborne magnetics and radiometrics followed up by surface exploration that included rock sampling, soil sampling, channel sampling of historic workings and 3.6km of time domain induced polarization geophysics.

The two properties cover 12 significant cobalt-copper prospects within the known mineralized zone. Both of the BMR Idaho cobalt belt properties host excellent high-grade discovery potential.

South Korea – Graphite

BMR has 100% ownership of the Guemam and Taehwa graphite exploration projects containing high-purity flake graphite deposits. Both assets are past-producing mines with existing local infrastructure and near-term production potential.

Nevada – Lithium

The company’s Amargosa lithium project is in the southern Basin & Range province and central Mojave Desert of Nevada. It is an early-stage exploration opportunity in a favorable region that hosts numerous lithium occurrences, including the Clayton Valley lithium deposit owned by Cypress Development Corp., as well as a major nearby lithium brine mine currently in production called the Silver Peak mine held by Albermarle Corp., one of the world’s largest lithium producers.

Market Opportunity

Near-term forecasts for the copper sector are extremely bullish, with stalwart Wall Street firms such as Goldman Sachs and Bank of America projecting record highs in the coming months. A combination of short-term supply deficits and long-term energy transition demand are expected to buck the downward pressures that have impacted copper prices in recent years.

Goldman in December 2022 forecast a 178K metric ton deficit in the copper market in 2023, causing the firm to raise its 12-month target to $11K/ton and its average price for calendar 2023 to $9,750/ton.

With China likely to continue accelerating efforts to restock depleted inventories in the wake of its COVID-19 reopening and a sustained push toward electrification around the globe placing a strain on supply, BMR is uniquely positioned to capitalize through the anticipated restart of operations at its Punitaqui copper mine.

Management Team

JMartin Kostuik is CEO and a Director of BMR. He brings to the company nearly three decades of diversified experience in the mining industry as a mining engineer and senior executive. Prior to joining BMR, Mr. Kostuik served as president and director of Arizona Gold Corporation and as CEO and director of Rupert Resources Limited. He built a broad base of experience in operations, engineering, exploration and capital projects with various companies including Luna Gold (Equinox), Barrick Gold Corporation, Taseko Mines Limited and DMC Mining Services. Mr. Kostuik earned his B.S. in Mining Engineering from Queen’s University and his M.B.A. from the University of Tennessee.

JMax Satel is the company’s CFO. He has over 18 years of experience as a successful natural resources-focused executive, most recently serving as EVP Corporate Development & Investor Relations for Arrow Exploration Corp., a TSX Venture- and AIM-listed oil & gas company with operations in Colombia and Canada. Prior to joining Arrow, Mr. Satel was principal and co-founder of Bordeaux Capital Inc., a Toronto-based advisory firm focused on the capital needs of companies across the natural resources sector, where he led and executed project financing advisory mandates involving global financial institutions and private equity funds. He earned a Bachelor of Commerce in Finance and Economics from the University of Toronto.

Jacob Willoughby is VP Corporate Development & Strategy for BMR. He brings to the company nearly 17 years of diversified experience in mining capital markets, including over eight years as a mining analyst covering exploration and development companies globally in both precious and base metals. Mr. Willoughby was most recently Vice President of Research and Analyst at Red Cloud Securities in Toronto. He spent two years as President and Director of Aldridge Minerals, a former Canadian based public exploration and development company with assets in Turkey and Papua New Guinea. Mr. Willoughby earned both a B.S. in Geology and a Masters in Business Administration from the University of Windsor.

Bebuzee Inc. (OTC: BBUZ)

Bebuzee Inc. (OTC: BBUZ), formerly Engage Mobility Inc., is a social platform and streaming service focused on development and deployment of America’s first superapp. The superapp will allow members to watch a wide variety of content, such as movies, series, documentaries and talk shows, on any internet-connected device.

Bebuzee’s technology scans the world’s news, features and information-flow to give its dedicated readers the best of the internet in one place – a one-stop platform for breaking news, interesting and important blogs, videos and photos.

The core features of the superapp include video streaming; photo sharing; Bebuzee Messaging service, which allows users to send text and voice messages and make voice and video calls; Shortbuz, used to make a variety of short-form entertaining videos; Blogbuz, a resource for people without time to scavenge the internet and other sources for news and information; Properbuz global real estate search; global tradesmen search; location reviews of neighborhoods, cities and even regions to help others find their ideal rental or real estate purchase; ShoppingBuz, a unique technology-driven e-commerce platform which gives merchants incredible tools to sell their products; Bebuzee Pay, a mobile payment and digital wallet service that allows users to make mobile payments and online transactions; TravelBuz, an online travel booking service; EventBuz, a ticket exchange and resale platform; and FlightBuz, a flight search engine.

The company is headquartered in Miami.

Introducing the Superapp to Western Markets

A superapp is a mobile phone app that offers a wide range of services within a single platform. This technology allows users to access various services without downloading and switching between multiple apps.

While superapps are popular in many parts of the world, including Latin America, Africa, the Middle East, Asia and Russia, they have achieved little adoption in Western markets. Perhaps the most widely known superapp is WeChat, which is estimated to have as many as 1.24 billion users, mostly in China.

Bebuzee aims to be the first developer to introduce and grow to widespread popularity a superapp in the U.S. and Europe. It took a strong step toward achieving this goal during the COVID-19 pandemic, when Bebuzee’s user base surged by 78% with over 42 million new users.

Whereas most social platforms are generic and only local postings make them somewhat relevant to local communities, Bebuzee has localized its platform for most countries by providing local content, entertainment and information that is frequently updated and refreshed.

The company says the average age of its superapp users is 39, with female users making up 62.8% of its user base. Its monetization strategy includes sales of video advertising, sponsored posts, banner ads and premium listings, as well as promotion of featured brands and property listings.

Market Opportunity

A report from Allied Market Research, a global market research, consulting and advisory firm, estimated that the worldwide superapps market was valued at $58.6 billion in 2022. The report projects the market to expand to $722.4 billion by 2032, growing at a CAGR of 28.9% for the forecast period.

The report identifies a few of the most popular superapps as Rappi in Latin America, Snapp in Iran, Line in Japan and Yandex Go in Russia and Kazakhstan.

Increasing adoption of mobile services and growing advancements in digital technologies are driving the growth of this market. In addition, a rise in government support for promoting the use of superapps is lending to expansion, according to the report.

Integration of blockchain technology in superapps is likewise anticipated to provide numerous opportunities for the expansion of the market during the forecast period, the report states.

Management Team

Joseph Onyero is Founder and CEO of Bebuzee. He has a background of managing multiple products from ideation to market launch and profitable monetization and has been building commercial web presences since 2005. He has worked as a Chief Marketing Officer and in business development. He previously owned and operated a travel and tourism company. He began in 2005 working on the concept and features that have evolved into the Bebuzee suite. He has grown Bebuzee from a living room start-up into a U.S. publicly traded company.

Claudia S. Spagnuolo is Chief Operating Officer at Bebuzee. She began with the company in 2014 as a user experience manager before being promoted to CMO in 2017. She previously worked as an assistant marketing director at the National Secretariat of the union CISL in Italy. Prior to that, she also worked as a researcher at the Complutense University of Madrid on issues of corporate management. She speaks three languages and holds a bachelor’s in political science and a master’s in administration from the University of Perugia in Italy.

BevCanna Enterprises Inc. (CSE: BEV) (OTCQB: BVNNF) (FSE: 7BC)

BevCanna Enterprises Inc. (CSE: BEV) (OTCQB: BVNNF) (FSE: 7BC) is a diversified health & wellness beverage and natural products company focused on developing and manufacturing a range of plant-based and cannabinoid beverages and supplements for both in-house brands and white-label clients. The BevCanna team boasts decades of experience creating, manufacturing and distributing iconic brands that resonate with consumers on a global scale.

BevCanna’s distribution network features more than 3,000 points of retail distribution through the company’s market-leading TRACE brand, its Pure Therapy natural health and wellness e-commerce platform, its fully licensed Canadian cannabis manufacturing and distribution network and its partnership with #1 U.S. cannabis beverage company Keef Brands.

Based in British Columbia, Canada, BevCanna was founded in 2017.

End-to-End Turnkey Beverage Manufacturing Solutions

BevCanna is a manufacturer of traditional and cannabis-infused beverage brands serving a growing roster of white-label clients, in addition to operating a portfolio of in-house and partner brands. The company offers a full-service white label beverage manufacturing solution.

• Processing – At its state-of-the-art beverage manufacturing facility, BevCanna partners with industry leaders specializing in crude extraction, refinement, purification and solubility conversion to provide high-quality water-immiscible emulsions that maximize bioavailability, clarity and taste.
• Spring Water – BevCanna directly owns a pristine naturally alkaline spring water aquifer in British Columbia.
• Product Development – BevCanna leverages its expertise to develop captivating flavors based on category and consumer insights in order to enhance product positioning.
• Packaging – A variety of packaging options are offered by BevCanna, including beverage and nutraceutical formats such as PET, aluminum and glass, available in a variety of standard and custom sizes and shapes.
• Beverage Manufacturing: Traditional & Cannabis Facilities – The company’s 40,000-square-foot beverage manufacturing facility is HACCP (Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point) Certified. The facility’s capabilities include blow molding, dosing, carbonation options, filling and capping, pressure sensitive and shrink-sleeve label applications, flash pasteurization, QA testing and packing/palletizing for shipment.

Pure Therapy, TRACE and Partner Brands

BevCanna’s in-house brands include Pure Therapy and TRACE.

Pure Therapy is a direct-to-consumer e-commerce brand that markets a range of natural health products, including nutraceuticals and hemp-based cannabidiol (CBD) products, throughout North America and Western Europe.

Pure Therapy has secured orders from over 23,000 customers since its inception in 2017. BevCanna expects strong growth through Pure Therapy over the next 12 months driven by new product integration, accelerated growth of existing products and its marketing team’s e-commerce expertise.

TRACE products feature the Naturo Group’s proprietary plant-based fulvic and humic mineral formula, sourced from deep within the Rocky Mountains of interior British Columbia. These unique and ancient minerals provide wellness properties that include iron, magnesium, calcium, potassium and many other minerals no longer found in our food chain at adequate levels.

Research suggests that the proprietary fulvic and humic organic compounds found in TRACE products could offer a number of key benefits, including promoting gut health, immune function, cognitive performance and whole-body wellness.

TRACE products include Natural Alkaline Spring Water, Plant-Based Mineralized Spring Water, Natural Flavor Sparkling Spring Water, Plant-Based Mineral Concentrate with Vitamin D and Plant-Based Mineralized Immune Support Shots.

In addition to its in-house brands, BevCanna provides white-label services to a number of partners in its space. BevCanna’s current portfolio of brand partnerships includes #1 U.S. cannabis beverage brand Keef (cannabis-infused classic soda) and BLOOM (live resin & high-end extracts). BevCanna also has multiple white label agreements to co-manufacture branded beverages.

Market Outlook for Cannabis-Infused Beverages

In 2018, the cannabis-infused beverage market was valued at $901.8 million. The market is expected to grow during the forecast period of 2019 to 2025 at a CAGR of 17.8%, resulting in a market value in excess of $2.84 billion by 2025, according to Grand View Research (https://ibn.fm/VkJfH).

The projected growth is largely attributed to the legalization of recreational and medical marijuana in multiple jurisdictions. Cannabis-infused beverages are uniquely positioned to provide an alternative to a large portion of the edibles market, including items such as chocolates, cookies, gummies and other types of confectionery pieces.

Management Team

Marcello Leone is the CEO and Founder of BevCanna. He is also the founder of Naturo Group and the TRACE brand.

John Campbell is the CFO and CSO of BevCanna. He has over 30 years of experience in the investment industry, including time with TriView Capital Ltd.

Keith Dolo is the company’s Executive Management Advisor, having previously served as CEO and Executive Chairman of Sproutly Inc. Previously, he served for over 13 years with Robert Half (NYSE: RHI), an S&P 500 company, specifically in the role of Vice President for the last eight years.

Melise Panetta is the company’s President. She is an accomplished senior marketing and sales executive with extensive experience leading organizations such as SC Johnson, General Mills (NYSE: GIS) and PepsiCo (NASDAQ: PEP). Ms. Panetta has nearly 15 years of deep marketing and sales expertise.

Raffael Kapusty is the company’s Vice President of Sales & Insights. She is an accomplished CPG industry leader with more than 25 years of experience in both the Canadian and U.S. retail spaces. With a solid foundation at ACNielsen Canada (NYSE: NLSN), Ms. Kapusty has developed a deep understanding of the CPG space, working with over 100 leading Canadian & global CPG manufacturers. She has also held senior category and key account management roles at Kroger (NYSE: KR), SC Johnson and Unilever Canada (NYSE: UL).

Bill Niarchos is the company’s Vice President of Sales & Sales Operations. He has over 20 years of experience in the CPG goods industry/retail environment. In his most recent role as Director of Sales with Bayer Consumer Health, Mr. Niarchos managed the strategic direction and growth of Loblaw & SDM. Prior to his position with Bayer (ETR: BAYN), Mr. Niarchos held a number of progressive roles at Colgate Palmolive (NYSE: CL) for more than 14 years.

Japheth Noah is the company’s Head of Quality Assurance. He is an Oxford and MIT educated quality and regulatory manager with over 15 years of experience in the beverage, pharmaceutical, natural health and medical industries.

Keith Stride is the company’s Creative Director. He has 25 years of experience in marketing and advertising, including time in a CMO role with Hemptown USA. Mr. Stride is internationally recognized for building high-profile brands, including Rogers (NYSE: RCI), TD Bank (NYSE: TD), Best Buy (NYSE: BBY), Whistler-Blackcomb and RBC (NYSE: RY).

Scinai Immunotherapeutics Ltd. (NASDAQ: SCNI)

Scinai Immunotherapeutics Ltd. (NASDAQ: SCNI) is a biotechnology company focused on developing, manufacturing, and commercializing innovative immunotherapeutic products primarily for the treatment of infectious diseases and autoimmune diseases.

In collaboration with the prestigious Max Planck Institute for Multidisciplinary Sciences (MPG) and the University Medical Center Göttingen (UMG), both in Germany, Scinai is developing a pipeline of innovative nanosized antibody (NanoAb) therapies addressing diseases underserved by current treatments and with large and growing markets, such as COVID-19, asthma and psoriasis.

NanoAbs, also known as VHH-antibodies or Nanobodies, are alpaca-derived nanosized antibodies that exhibit multiple significant competitive advantages over existing antibody therapies, including stability at high temperatures, superior binding affinity, more effective and convenient routes of administration and efficient production. Scinai is uniquely positioned to advance nanosized antibody innovation from R&D through commercialization.

The company’s highly experienced and successful pharmaceutical industry leadership team includes former senior executives from Novartis, GSK and Bristol-Myers Squibb.

Since its founding, Scinai has executed eight clinical trials, including a seven-country, 12,400-participant Phase 3 trial of a prior influenza vaccine candidate, and it built, owns and operates a 20,000 sq. ft. state-of-the-art GMP biologics manufacturing facility housing its laboratories, production facilities and offices.

Lead Candidate: Inhaled COVID-19 NanoAb

In December 2021, Scinai signed definitive agreements with the Max Planck Society – parent organization of the Max Planck Institute for Multidisciplinary Sciences– and the UMG to enter a strategic collaboration for the development and commercialization of innovative COVID-19 NanoAbs.

The company is planning a rapid development path that leverages its expertise and capabilities in biological drug development and manufacturing. Scinai anticipates preclinical proof-of-concept results for an inhaled COVID-19 NanoAb by the end of 2022, with initial Phase 1/2a human clinical trial results expected in 2023.

The intended inhaled mechanism of delivery of Scinai’s COVID-19 NanoAb formulation may serve as a significant differentiator when compared to approved monoclonal antibodies, which are injected. Inhaled delivery has shown to be cheaper, more convenient and likely safer for patients and providers.

NanoAb Pipeline: Psoriasis, Asthma and More

The COVID-19 NanoAb development agreement is part of a broader five-year research collaboration agreement signed in March 2022 covering discovery, development and commercialization of NanoAbs for several other disease indications with large market medical needs, including asthma, psoriasis, macular degeneration and psoriatic arthritis.

Scinai has an exclusive worldwide license for development and commercialization of COVID-19 NanoAbs and exclusive options for similar worldwide licenses for NanoAbs for the above mentioned additional large market disorders currently underserved by approved therapeutic antibodies.

Academic research teams from MPG and UMG have verified strong affinity by the new NanoAbs to their biological target molecules and high thermostability. They have also demonstrated strong neutralization by several NanoAb candidates of their respective target molecules. Neutralization studies of the other NanoAbs are expected to begin later in 2022.

Based on the promising results, Scinai will focus development efforts beginning with the following NanoAbs:

• NanoAbs targeting IL-17 as drug candidates for the potential treatment of psoriasis and psoriatic arthritis
• NanoAbs targeting IL-13 and NanoAbs targeting TSLP as drug candidates for the potential treatment of asthma

These are conditions for which the antibody target is validated by existing treatments and the mechanism of action is well understood. Both represent large medical needs and growing markets. Scinai anticipates preclinical proof-of-concept for at least one of these NanoAbs in 2023. This is in addition to the aforementioned human clinical Phase 1/2a for the inhaled COVID-19 NanoAb therapy, which is also anticipated in 2023.

CDMO Services

While NanoAb pipeline development is Scinai’s core focus, the company also offers its cGMP manufacturing facility, aseptic fill and finish suite, laboratories and experienced professionals for contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO) services. This offering is designed to keep the Scinai team abreast of the latest industry developments and trends while building experience and generating revenue to support the company’s NanoAb pipeline development.

Market Opportunity

COVID-19 treatment, target of the company’s lead NanoAb therapy candidate, had an estimated market size of $22 billion in 2021.

Future Scinai drug candidates will target conditions with large markets growing at attractive CAGRs.

The global asthma treatment market was valued at $18.08 billion in 2019 and is projected to reach $26.01 billion by 2027, exhibiting a CAGR of 4.5% during the forecast period, according to Fortune Business Insights. The research firm predicts that the global psoriasis treatment market will grow from $26.37 billion in 2022 to $47.24 billion by 2029, exhibiting a CAGR of 8.7% over the forecast period.

Management Team

Amir Reichman is Scinai’s CEO. He previously was Head of Global Vaccines Engineering Core Technologies at GSK Vaccines in Belgium. Prior to that, he held leadership roles at Novartis Vaccines’ Global Vaccines Supply Chain Management organization. He was the first employee of NeuroDerm Ltd., a company focused on transdermal drug delivery, and served as Senior Scientist until his departure in 2009. He earned a M.Sc. in Biotechnology Engineering from Ben-Gurion University and an MBA in Finance and Health Care Management from the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School.

Tamar Ben-Yedidia, Ph.D., is Chief Science Officer at Scinai. She has more than 30 years of experience in immunology, with specific expertise in the development of vaccines. She began her career with Biotechnology General Ltd., working on development of a recombinant Hepatitis-B vaccine. She later joined the Weizmann Institute of Science, working on the design of a peptide-based vaccine against several pathogens. She is widely published, with numerous refereed articles and invited reviews in various scientific journals. She received her Ph.D. from the Weizmann Institute.

Elad Mark is COO at Scinai. He has over 15 years of biotechnology industry experience encompassing diverse project stages including feasibility studies, conceptual and detailed design, commissioning, qualification and process validation. Prior to joining Scinai, he led Novartis’s $800 million investment in a biologics facility in Singapore. With Biopharmax and Antero, both global pharmaceutical engineering companies, he successfully led projects in Israel, China and Singapore. He holds a BSc. in Engineering from the Afeka Tel Aviv Academic College of Engineering and an MBA from the Open University of Israel.

Uri Ben-Or is CFO at Scinai. He has served as CFO with public life science companies traded on the TASE, OTC and Nasdaq. Ben-Or provides his services to Scinai through CFO Direct, a company he founded and for which he serves as CEO. He served as the VP of Finance of Glycominds, a leading biotechnology company, and as CFO of a spin-off from Telrad Networks. He also served as a Corporate Controller at Menorah Capital Markets and as an Auditor at PWC. He holds a B.A. in Business from the College of Administration, an MBA from Bar-Ilan University, and is a CPA.

Bravo Multinational Inc. (OTC: BRVO)

Bravo Multinational Inc. (OTC: BRVO) actively explores opportunities in the entertainment, hospitality and technology sectors to generate long-term value for its shareholders through high-growth business ventures. Currently focused on pioneering innovative solutions in the digital content landscape, the company’s goal is to provide cutting-edge and diverse content experiences to a global audience.

In February 2024, Bravo finalized a deal to acquire Streaming TVEE Inc.’s assets, marking a pivotal step in establishing its flagship offering, aptly named TVee NOW™. The acquired assets provide the company with the technology and foundation to soon offer streaming services including Video-On-Demand (VOD) and linear TV, often referred to as traditional broadcast TV, which encompasses cable and satellite networks, through a joint venture with Pythia Experiences.

TVee NOW™ plans to offer a wide range of on-demand content, including movies, series, concerts and original programming, at minimal or no cost to viewers. The service, set for beta launch in Q1 2024, will be accessible across various devices, with dedicated apps available on platforms such as Roku, Apple and Google Play stores, reinforcing Bravo’s commitment to innovation and audience accessibility.

The company is based in Virginia Beach, Virginia, with a second office soon opening in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Products

TVee NOW’s streaming service will offer a portion of its content for free, catering to the growing demographic of cord-cutters and aligning with the dynamic landscape of advertising-based video on demand (AVOD) streaming. Bravo’s Over-The-Top (OTT) streaming platform is specifically crafted to deliver content directly to viewers via the internet, accessible through a browser or freely downloadable apps on smartphones, tablets and smart TVs.

Bravo’s planned strategic approach for content is to first integrate partnered Free Ad-Supported TV (FAST) channels, programmatic advertising and a tiered revenue sharing model. Additionally, the company plans to complete the deal with Pythia Experiences, enabling a hybrid model comprised of AVOD, utilizing programmatic advertising through ad servers, and Subscription-based Video-on-Demand (SVOD), which the company plans to offer at competitive rates compared to other services. With this model completed, Bravo can bridge the gap until the company can ultimately create its own original content.

Through the asset purchase agreement with Streaming TVEE, Inc., the company obtained exclusive rights, image and likeness, label waivers and exploitation rights for streaming of 117 high-definition music and comedy performances, each offering a director’s cut and multiple camera perspectives. Some of the music artists include Snoop Dogg, H.E.R., Kings of Leon, Alicia Keys and Bone Thugs-N-Harmony, along with comedic performances from Bill Burr, Jim Gaffigan, Kristen Schaal, Rob Delaney and others. This original footage will allow Bravo to recreate shows in diverse formats, which can showcase these concert films in a compelling full-feature format.

Market Opportunity

A report from Fortune Business Insights, a global market research and reporting firm, estimated the global video streaming market at $455.45 billion in 2022. It is projected to grow from $554.33 billion in 2023 to $1.9 trillion by 2030, achieving a CAGR of 19.3% during the forecast period.

Growth drivers, according to the report, include a rising number of users of Video-on-Demand services (YouTube, for example) worldwide and the growing adoption of OTT content providers (like Netflix and Hulu, among many others) by consumers, as well as consumers’ willingness to spend more for streaming video content.

Management Team

Grant Cramer is CEO and Director of Bravo. He has more than 30 years of experience as an actor, writer, director, producer and production executive. As founder and president of Landafar Entertainment and Global Pictures Media, he has overseen development and production of 14 feature films. He executive produced Lone Survivor, November Man and Arctic Dogs. He produced And So It Goes, directed by Rob Reiner and starring Michael Douglas and Diane Keaton. His short film Say Goodnight, Michael won several awards, including the Grand Jury Award at the New York International Independent Film Festival.

Frank Hagan is Bravo’s President and Director. He is an Emmy-nominated producer with over 30 years of experience in the entertainment industry. He is the former Programming Director and GM of QTN. He has produced shows for major networks and companies, including Discovery Channel, History Channel and Relativity Media. Most recently, he served as a consulting producer for Electric Entertainment’s ElectricNOW! and the Saturn Awards and worked as a regular weekly panelist for Outlaw Internet Radio.

Richard Kaiser is CFO and Director of Bravo. He is also CFO at BioForce Nanosciences Holdings Inc. and Gold Rock Holdings Inc. He serves on the board of Element Global Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of BioForce Nanosciences Holdings Inc. He previously directed investor relations for Royal Standard Minerals Inc. and Scorpio Mining Inc. He was also Head of Corporate Communication and Investor Relations at Air Packaging Technologies Inc. and Puff Pack Industries Inc.

Kayla Slick is COO and Director at Bravo. She has more than 15 years of experience in various industries, including finance, healthcare, technology, retail, hospitality and entertainment. She co-founded The PRIME Symposium and significantly increased revenues for INSIDE Public Accounting. She held positions at Interactive Digital Solutions, where she founded the Sales Development Program and was later promoted to Marketing Communications Director for IDS’ flagship virtual patient observation product.

BioNxt Solutions Inc. (CSE: BNXT) (OTCQB: BNXTF) (FSE: 4XT)

BioNxt Solutions Inc. (CSE: BNXT) (OTCQB: BNXTF) (FSE: 4XT) is a bioscience accelerator focused on next-generation drug delivery, diagnostic and new active pharmaceutical ingredient investment opportunities. This includes products that are being readied for commercialization within the coming weeks, such as a rapid COVID-19 PCR test kit that reduces turnaround times to less than 30 minutes.

The company has research and development operations in North America and Europe and an operational focus in Germany. Its regulatory approval and commercialization focus is currently on products for the European market.

BioNxt was founded in 2017 and is headquartered in Vancouver, British Columbia.

Business Strategy & Milestones for 2021

On January 18, 2021, BioNxt issued a news release detailing its business strategy for the coming year. The company noted that it is “on the cusp of transformational change as product development programs advance from the laboratory to the clinic.” In addition to continuing to leverage its scientific expertise and operations in North America and Europe for product development and optimization, BioNxt intends to pursue growth through the commercialization of existing products and adherence to a focused investment strategy targeting impact-driven innovation with “the potential for extreme value creation.”

In particular, BioNxt is well positioned to execute on opportunities across its current business divisions, including:

• Commercialization of infectious disease diagnostics
• Clinical validation of transdermal and sublingual drug formulations
• Continued investment and development in psychedelic medicine

“2020 was a very productive year for BioNxt. We made significant progress in all areas of our business,” Hugh Rogers, CEO & Director of BioNxt, stated in the update. “We have ambitious milestones for 2021 with multiple product launches on the horizon, multiple clinical drug programs underway, and an aggressive commitment to psychedelic medicine. I am extremely confident that our team can execute on the company’s business plan for 2021.”

Infectious Disease Diagnostics

BioNxt’s lead diagnostic product, secured through an exclusive global commercialization agreement with 3a-diagnostics GmbH (“3a”), is a rapid and highly portable PCR diagnostic test. Notably, PCR testing “has emerged as the only internationally recognized standard for COVID-19 testing” and is expected to play a key role in facilitating the recovery of the domestic and international travel industries, among others.

Successful validation of the PCR system was achieved in Q4 2020, and BioNxt has expressed confidence that it will achieve European commercial (CE-IVD) approval in Q1 2021. In preparation for this milestone and an anticipated Q1 product launch, the company is currently in discussion with manufacturing and distribution partners in Europe and the Middle East.

In addition to COVID-19 products, BioNxt and partner 3a are developing and commercializing a portfolio of low-cost oral biosensors. The company’s lead biosensor product is an oral health screening test for the detection of peri-implantitis for which BioNxt is targeting a late 2021 European commercial approval.

BioNxt does not make any express or implied claims that its product has the ability to eliminate, cure or contain the COVID-19 pandemic.

Drug Formulation & Delivery

In 2020, BioNxt’s German subsidiary, Vektor Pharma TF GmbH (“Vektor”), reported significant advancement in four therapeutic programs targeting neurological indications with significant market demand. Vektor also successfully developed a sublingual drug formulation on contract for a major generic drug manufacturer and distributor.

BioNxt will look to build on this progress in 2021, with plans to complete human pilot studies evaluating its four lead therapeutic products:

• Rotigotine transdermal patch for Parkinson’s disease
• CBD oral/sublingual strip for treatment resistant epilepsy
• THC oral/sublingual strip for anorexia/nausea
• CBD:THC (1:1) oral/sublingual strip for multiple sclerosis associated spasticity

Per its 2021 business update, the company is currently in “ongoing discussions with multiple potential commercial partners, licensors and distributors and will be reviewing monetization opportunities on a continued basis.”

Psychedelic Medicine

Psychedelic compounds are a highly promising new class of active pharmaceutical ingredient (“API”) demonstrating strong potential for a variety of mental health conditions. BioNxt is positioned to capitalize on this promise through two strategic initiatives:

• An agreement for the development of industrial scale biotechnology processes for the production of psilocybin
• An agreement for R&D related to multiple psychedelic compounds, including psilocybin, mescaline, LSD, MDMA and DMT, among others

BioNxt intends to advance and expand its programs focused on the industrial scale production of psychedelic API in 2021. The company also plans to launch new programs for the development of psychedelic drug formulations, with a focus on sublingual and transdermal therapeutics and the integration of these products into established clinical programs relating to mental health indications.

Management Team

Hugh Rogers is the CEO and Director of BioNxt Solutions Inc. He is an entrepreneur and lawyer with private and public start-up company experience in various industries and operational roles. His recent advisory work has focused on public listings and corporate restructuring. This restructuring has occurred in the life science (cell therapy and medical device) and natural resources (natural gas co-gen and conventional oil) industries. Mr. Rogers holds a bachelor’s degree in Cellular Biology and Genetics and a law degree. He is a member in good standing of the Law Society of British Colombia.

Christopher Ross is the CFO of BioNxt. He is a professional accountant with broad financial experience across numerous industries, including forestry, distribution, construction, mining and multi-family real estate. He has provided advisory services to private and public companies in the areas of financial accounting, strategic analysis, audit and taxation. Mr. Ross holds a bachelor’s degree in commerce. He is a member in good standing with the Chartered Professional Accountants Association of British Columbia.

Wolfgang Probst serves as Director of BioNxt and Managing Director of BUNKER Pflanzenextrakte GmbH. He is a seasoned management and financial consultant based in Bavaria, Germany. He has consulting experience as branch head working with private clients and corporations of high net worth. In 2017, Mr. Probst assumed the CFO role of BUNKER and continues to play a key role in its operational and financial development.

Professor Dr. Raimar Löbenberg serves as Director of BioNxt. He holds a Bachelor of Science in pharmacy from Johannes Gutenberg-University and a Ph.D. in pharmaceutics from the Johann Wolfgang Goethe-University. He is the co-founder of RS Therapeutics Inc., which concentrates on foam-based topical drug delivery systems.

Professor Dr. Thomas Beckert is the Founder and Managing Director of Vektor Pharma TF GmbH. His expertise includes the formulation and machine development of transdermal therapeutic systems and ODFs. Professor Beckert holds a Bachelor of Science in pharmacy from the University of Freiburg and a Ph.D. in pharmacy and economics from the University of Tubingen.

Blue Hat Interactive Entertainment Technology (NASDAQ: BHAT)

Blue Hat Interactive Entertainment Technology (NASDAQ: BHAT) is a cutting-edge creator, developer and operator of popular augmented reality (“AR”) interactive smart toys and educational games in China. Blue Hat’s mobile-connected entertainment platform connects physical items to mobile devices through wireless technologies, creating a unique interactive user experience in various mobile games, interactive educational materials and toys with mobile game features.

Blue Hat designs original toys and games that utilize augmented reality technology, motion capture technology, image recognition technology, voice control, light sense technology, infrared, levitation induction, and other trending scientific technologies to transverse the virtual with reality. Blue Hat creates a rich visual and interactive environment for users through the integration of real objects and virtual scenery. This combination provides users with a more natural form of human computer interaction, enhances a user’s perception of reality, and delivers a more immersive entertainment experience.

Proprietary Technology

Founded in 2010, Blue Hat’s proprietary technology, product research and development, marketing channels and brand operation are the cornerstones of the business. Blue Hat focuses on the combination of “online” and “offline” activity and the interaction between “entertainment” and “product” to create a high-tech entertainment platform combining mobile games and AR. With the help of computer graphics, motion capture technology, image recognition technology and visualization technologies, Blue Hat accurately “places” virtual objects into the physical world, creating a new and stimulating visual environment for users.

Blue Hat recently displayed a variety of its sci-tech products at the Guangzhou International Toy Exhibition in China including AR Racer, Elastic Bubbles, AR Space Track, AR Alloy Toy Car, AR Need a Spanking, 5D Animated Magic Aquarium, Bug Travelers, AR Picture Book and other interactive games and smart toys.

The company has multiple products in development including new generations of four primary product lines and two new product lines.

Patents and Copyrights

Blue Hat’s advanced AR technology in interactive entertainment is protected by 178 authorized patents with 44 patents in various stages of the application process.

Another 14 applications for Patent Cooperation Treaty, or PCT, have been filed for international patents. As of March 31, 2019, the company owns 645 copyrights for artwork, 71 registered trademarks and 27 software copyrights.

Sales and Marketing

There has been rapid growth in the toys and games industry in China over the last several years. Total retail sales of toys and games in China soared from RMB 111.8 billion in 2012 to RMB 276.5 billion in 2017 with an average annual growth rate of 19.9% in 2017. Blue Hat believes the company is well positioned with little competition as the toy industry rapidly shifts toward intelligent and interactive toys and games. Retail sales of electronic toys grew at 24% annually in 2017 while that of traditional toys grew at 7%.

In addition to a powerful ecommerce presence, Blue Hat has long-term relationships with partnered distributors that place the company’s AR interactive entertainment products into well-known international retail chains and retail outlets. Blue Hat’s integrated online and offline sales channels include e-commerce giants such as Amazon and Alibaba, retail chain stores and the company’s physical experience store located in Xiamen, China. Blue Hat plans to open or franchise approximately 100 additional stores in China by 2021.

Blue Hat’s community-based platform offers users a highly engaged and interactive community with online communication forums and offline social activities. The company advocates a new model of “teaching through lively activities” and combines AR technology with education, integrating its products into situational teaching, roleplaying and man-machine interaction. This novel educational experience helps realize optimal transformation of information, creating a knowledge and enhancing cognition.

Management

Director and CEO Xiaodong (Sean) Chen has over 20 years of experience creating, developing and producing toys and games related products. Chen earned his EMBA from Renmin University of China and has been chairman of the board of directors and general manager of Fujian Blue Hat Interactive Entertainment Technology Ltd. since August 2015.

CFO and Director Caifan, who has over 20 years of financial accounting and taxation experience, earned a degree in finance from Hunan University of Finance and Economics. He has served as director, deputy general manager and financial controller of Fujian Blue Hat Interactive Entertainment Technology Ltd. since August 2015.

Jianyong Cai, chief technology officer and director, has over 35 years of experience in data communication principles, communication network foundation, software engineering, communication network theory and technology and computer network architecture. He holds degrees in data communication principles, communication network foundation and software engineering from University of Science and Technology of China. He has been director, deputy general manager and chief engineer of Fujian Blue Hat Interactive Entertainment Technology Ltd. since January 2010.

BlockQuarry Corp. (OTC: BLQC)

BlockQuarry Corp. (OTC: BLQC), through its in-house initiatives and strategic partnerships, has invested in growing operations targeting the telehealth and cryptocurrency mining industries.

The company specializes in strategic brand development and early growth facilitation. Management maneuvers its proprietary companies through critical stages of market development, including conceptualization, go-to-market strategies, engineering, product integration and distribution efficiency.

Mission

The company’s core mission is to enhance these sectors by implementing innovative services and products that are ready to meet the demands of a changing world. To that end, ISW Holdings leverages its strategic expertise, resources and innovative software to establish market-leading companies and partnerships, thereby ensuring success in their chosen industries.

Cryptocurrency Mining

The start of 2021 saw a massive resurgence in interest surrounding bitcoin and cryptocurrency mining. In mid-February, bitcoin prices hit an all-time high of greater than $57,000, and heightened demand for cryptocurrency mining power has played a key role in exacerbating a global shortage of semiconductors and computer components.

With a foothold in the cryptocurrency mining space, ISW Holdings has placed significant focus on expanding its position and capitalizing on this momentum. Recent highlights include:

• February 9, 2021: The company announced that its revolutionary Pod5 Cryptocurrency Mining Pod will be powered up into full operational launch at the Bit5ive renewable energy cryptocurrency mining facility in Pennsylvania on February 12, 2021.
• February 11, 2021: The company announced that it is in negotiations to purchase a large number of miners (between 300 and 900) in preparation for its coming Phase 3 expansion in mining volume.
• February 23, 2021: The company announced its entry into a comprehensive Hosting and Maintenance Agreement prior to going online with its new ASIC s17 miners.
• March 2, 2021: The company announced that it has successfully tripled its active cryptocurrency mining fleet with the addition of two new POD5IVE datacenters.

“As we continue to bring our miners online, we want our shareholders to be able to track the expansion and profitability of the company’s mining activity given the sharp rising trend in bitcoin prices,” Alonzo Pierce, President and Chairman of ISW Holdings, stated in a news release. “It currently costs about $11K in computing power to mine a single bitcoin. Bitcoin is pricing at over five times that level, making this is an exceptional ROI opportunity, and our responsibility to our shareholders is clear: continue to invest, expand and execute.”

Business Innovations

ISW Holdings’ diverse portfolio reflects the growing demand for essential services in a dynamic modern operational landscape. Some of the company’s current holdings and partnerships include:

• Bit5ive LLC: ISW Holdings operates a joint venture with Bit5ive, a global leader in cryptocurrency mining. The joint-venture agreement enables ISW Holdings to collaborate with the experienced team at Bit5ive to innovate the infrastructure needed to run profitable and efficient crypto mining projects.
• Proceso LLC: ISW Holdings has partnered with Proceso LLC to create high-density processing and mobile data centers powered by renewable energy. These innovations will allow Proceso to offer lower-cost and diverse services to its clients, including hosting and colocation services to growing sectors such as the gaming industry and cryptocurrency mining.
• PHH Health: The company’s home health division answers the growing need for home care services in a world where health care delivery is changing and an increasingly large aging community is looking for efficient and effective ways of accessing health care.
• Volum: The company’s logistics and supply chain management division is designed with the core goal of increasing supply chain efficiency, which is recognized as one of the key aspects of successfully growing any business.

Market Opportunity

ISW Holdings’ recent activity in the cryptocurrency mining sector has positioned it to capitalize on the forecast expansion of the cryptocurrency market in the coming years. According to data from MarketsandMarkets, the cryptocurrency space was valued at $1.03 billion in 2019 and is projected to reach $1.40 billion in 2024, achieving a CAGR of 6.18% during the forecast period.

The report suggests that major drivers for this growth will be the transparency of the underlying blockchain technology, the high volume of remittances in developing countries, the high cost of international remittance, expected fluctuations in monetary regulations and sustained investment in the cryptocurrency space by venture capital firms.

Management Team

Terry Williams is the Chief Executive Officer and Director of ISW Holdings. Mr. Williams brings to the company more than 30 years of experience in accounting and information systems, logistics, insurance and transportation. With a Bachelor’s and Master’s degree in accounting and management information systems, he amassed considerable corporate experience at UPS (NYSE: UPS), where he took several logistical roles, managing more than 2,000 employees and a budget of more than $10 billion. Mr. Williams also serves as president of Airware Transportation and Logistics and Chief Financial Officer of AVI Insurance Caribbean. In 2013, he received the National Airport Minority Advisory Council Award for mastering skills in the aviation industry.

Alonzo Pierce is the company’s President and Chairman. He brings a wealth of business development and wealth management experience to the ISW team, having spent the past 20 years building recognizable brands in multiple industry sectors. Mr. Pierce has launched enterprises in life-styled brands which were delivered to high-profile, high-net worth families and individuals. He has worked in the adult beverage industry, establishing a formidable background in marketing and brand creation. Pierce has a B.A. from Baylor University and has received multiple awards in the adult beverage industry, including ‘Outstanding Sales Performance in the Southern Region’ for Sapphire Brands. Pierce also served as a national liaison to a Super-Regional Bank’s private wealth division. In addition to his for-profit endeavors, Pierce has served on multiple charitable boards, sourcing funding for JRA, food insecure families and housing insecure families.

Kristina Mahoney-Brown is Secretary, Treasurer and Director of ISW Holdings. With more than 20 years of experience providing tax and financial consulting to real estate companies, as well as investors, developers and construction companies, Ms. Mahoney-Brown has gained solid business expertise and market knowledge and prides herself on staying abreast of the latest industry trends. Her professionalism, impeccable work ethic and advanced marketing strategies have earned her the nickname ‘The Tax Diva’. Mahoney-Brown has a Bachelor’s in accounting, a Master’s in taxation and a Master’s in business administration, specializing in personal financial planning.

Brera Holdings PLC (NASDAQ: BREA)

Brera Holdings PLC (NASDAQ: BREA) is an Ireland-based, international holding company focused on expanding its global portfolio of men’s and women’s sports clubs through a multi-club ownership approach. The company capitalizes on opportunities to earn tournament prizes, secure sponsorships, collect transfer fees, provide professional sports consulting services, and enhance the valuation of its clubs.

Brera Holdings builds on the legacy of Brera FC, an international football club (referred to as soccer in the U.S.), that it acquired in July 2022. Established in 2000 and based in Milan, Italy, Brera FC has distinguished itself by cultivating an alternative football legacy. In October 2024, the Internet Marketing Association awarded Brera FC with the Social Impact Through Soccer accolade at its IMPACT 5050 Conference, recognizing the club’s global perspective and positive contributions to society.

The company’s growth strategy focuses on unlocking value from undervalued sports clubs and talent, driving innovation, and generating socially impactful outcomes. Brera Holdings is actively expanding its Global Sports Group, acquiring professional football and other sports clubs in emerging markets such as Africa, Asia, and Europe.

By targeting top-division teams in less mainstream markets, Brera Holdings aims to strengthen its competitive position in regional tournaments, including those organized by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA). These acquisitions are expected to enhance sponsorship revenues and create new growth opportunities.

Leveraging its expertise in capital raising and revenue generation, Brera Holdings also anticipates growing demand for its consulting services, providing advisory support to sports clubs, associations, investors, and others. Brera Holdings is headquartered in Dublin, Ireland, with additional offices in Milan, Italy.

Sporting Assets

Brera Holdings continues to grow its global sports portfolio with a series of strategic acquisitions and innovations, including the FENIX Trophy Tournament, a pan-European, non-professional football competition. Launched in September 2021 and organized by Brera FC, the tournament has been recognized by UEFA and described by BBC Sport as “the Champions League for amateurs.” In 2023, Brera FC hosted the tournament’s finals at Milan’s iconic San Siro Stadium.

In March 2023, Brera Holdings expanded into Africa by establishing Brera Tchumene FC in Mozambique. Starting in the country’s Second Division League, the team quickly earned promotion to Moçambola, Mozambique’s First Division League, by November 2023.

In April 2023, Brera Holdings further strengthened its European presence by acquiring a 90% stake in Fudbalski Klub Akademija Pandev, a first-division football team in North Macedonia. This acquisition provides access to two major UEFA competitions, solidifying the company’s position in European football.

Brera Holdings’ reach extends beyond football. In July 2023, it acquired majority ownership of UYBA Volley, an Italian Serie A1 women’s professional volleyball team, demonstrating its commitment to diversifying within top-tier sports.

In September 2023, Brera Holdings entered the Mongolian football market by acquiring Bayanzurkh Sporting Ilch FC, a Mongolian National Premier League team. For the 2024 season, the club was rebranded as Brera Ilch FC, further expanding Brera’s global footprint.

In January 2024, Brera Holdings initiated a proactive search for an Italian Serie B football club, aligning with its goal of bringing multi-club ownership opportunities to mass investors through its Nasdaq-listed shares.

In February 2024, the Brera Holdings Advisory Board was established with MLS founder and World Cup director Alan Rothenberg, luxury lifestyle executive Massimo Ferragamo, sports business leaders Paul Tosetti and Marshall Geller, and Italian football icon Giuseppe Rossi.

In June 2024, the North Macedonian women’s football club Tiverija Strumica officially became part of the Brera family with the establishment of a joint-stock company controlled by Brera Holdings called Women’s Football Club Tiverija Brera AD Strumica (“Brera Tiverija”). Brera Tiverija is now a wholly-owned subsidiary of Brera Strumica FC.

In September 2024 Brera announced that it signed an exclusive letter of intent to acquire an Italian Serie B club (the “LOI” and the “Club”). According to a CFA report published in June 2024, this expected strategic transaction, for an estimated purchase price of $21.6 million, would add first-year annual revenue of $10.8 million to Brera, and that revenue would likely increase by 25% each year for the next three years. The company’s capital valuation, projected the report, would also experience significant appreciation during this period.

In October 2024, Brera was recognized with the 2024 Social Impact Through Soccer Award at IMPACT 5050, an annual event honoring leaders and innovators who significantly impact their industries and communities. This is the second time Brera has won the award.

Market Opportunity

A report from IMARC Group, a global management consulting firm, reveals that the international football market generated approximately $3.3 billion in revenue in 2023, with projections to grow to $4.6 billion by 2032, reflecting a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 3.6%. Key drivers behind this growth include advancements in digitization, increasing sponsorship and partnership deals between brands and clubs, the rising interest in women’s professional soccer leagues, and the expansion of the e-sports and gaming sector.

In particular, Serie B Italian football clubs seem to present exceptionally attractive investment opportunities. As of September 2024, more than half of these clubs had appreciated between 80-100% in total market value, post-purchase.

As the world’s most-watched and most-played sport, soccer drives significant demand for football-related products and services, contributing to market growth. Broadcasting rights, sponsorships, and endorsement deals are also major revenue sources for clubs and organizations, with an expanding global fanbase generating new opportunities for financial growth, according to the report.

Management Team

With extensive experience in leadership and finance, Daniel McClory currently serves as the Executive Chairman and Director of Brera Holdings, PLC. He co-founded and held the position of Chief Executive Officer at Boustead & Company Limited, and previously served as the Managing Director, Head of Equity Capital Markets, and Head of China at Boustead Securities, LLC. Mr. McClory’s governance experience includes being a Board Director for USA Track & Field and a member of the Eastern Michigan University Champions Advisory Board. Mr. McClory’s expertise encompasses founding and financing equity capital markets, as well as navigating merger and acquisition transactions and initial public offerings. He holds a BS and MS from Eastern Michigan University, where he also received an honorary Doctor of Public Service. In addition to his professional qualifications, he is fluent in both English and Italian.

Pierre Galoppi serves as the CEO, Interim CFO, and director of Brera Holdings. With over 30 years of experience in strategic business and financial services, his career spans a variety of industries, including natural resources, aviation, cybersecurity, telecommunications, tourism, and international marketing. He has worked extensively across Latin America, the Caribbean, Canada, Europe, and the United States. Mr. Galoppi holds dual citizenship in Canada and Italy and is fluent in English, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, and French. He earned a Bachelor of Commerce degree and an MBA from Concordia University in Montreal.

Maria Xing serves as the Head of Investments and Corporate Development. She is an executive who has specialized in MCO football (soccer) group investments for 777 Partners, where she was involved in sourcing, direct negotiations, due diligence, and closing deals, including acquiring a controlling stake in Brazilian Serie A football club, Vasco da Gama, and investing in Australian Premier League (“A-League”) side, Melbourne Victory FC. She also played a role in other professional sports franchise portfolio management, including topflight professional football clubs in Italy, France, Germany, and Belgium. Her background is in private equity, investment banking, and finance, with prior experience at The Raine Group, Credit Suisse, and EY (Ernst & Young), as well as previous sports industry experience at Liverpool Football Club in international business development. Ms. Xing earned an MBA from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and a B.S. from the New York University, Stern School of Business.

Btab Ecommerce Group Inc. (OTC: BBTT)

Btab Ecommerce Group Inc. (OTC: BBTT) is a next-generation e-commerce company with significant social impact. The company believes that every business deserves an equal opportunity to succeed in the modern retail market, so it provides e-commerce and social commerce solutions to help small businesses excel in both online and offline environments.

The company’s long-term plan is to become the world’s largest product supplier for small businesses using e-commerce technology as a distribution tool. Btab operates through its network in Australia, Asia, the United States and the United Kingdom.

Btab offers comprehensive solutions including product supply, commerce platforms for selling and marketing, physical showrooms that allow customers to touch and feel products, goods storage, marketing management, delivery and pick-up direction and after-sales support including arranging exchanges and returns. The company takes all of these concerns off of its clients’ plates, allowing them to focus on running successful retail businesses.

Btab supplies products to resellers, either from its own manufacturing facility or from third-party manufacturers and wholesalers. The company also connects resellers with manufacturers and wholesalers around the world, allowing them to access better deals and a greater product range by leveraging Btab’s buying power.

In February 2024, Btab and Integrated Wellness Acquisition Corp (NYSE: WEL), a special purpose acquisition company, announced their entry into a letter of intent providing for a proposed business combination that will result in Btab acquiring control of WEL. The transaction would value Btab at $250 million.

Btab is headquartered in Sydney and Perth, Australia, and the company is expanding its headquarters into the U.S.

Platforms

Btab provides affordable ecommerce services and supplies technology and products to small businesses to allow them to compete in an underserved market segment. The company seeks to expand its reach into Europe and the Americas, where it intends to provide small businesses with products and services not currently commercially available to them.

Btab believes growth of the e-commerce segment in Asia alone will be significant well into the next decade and beyond as rising numbers of internet users take advantage of online shopping and increasing spending power. The company’s vision is to provide all small and medium businesses with an equal opportunity to improve using the same online technology that’s utilized by large multinationals.

Btab’s mission is to make online technology affordable to all small- and medium-sized businesses and use the Btab Network to assist as many businesses as possible to succeed. Some of its platform offerings include:

• Btab Commerce provides ecommerce management services to manufacturers, wholesalers and retailers in the Btab Network.
• Social3 is a next generation platform for all things social and commerce.
• Marketplace Australia is a social commerce site for all products and services in Australia. It is a combination of a social platform, a products marketplace platform and an online stores platform.
• Aussie Markets is an online marketplace focusing on Australian-made products.
• Marketplace Deals is a social commerce site for products and services around the world. It is a combination of a social platform, a products marketplace platform and an online stores platform.
• Chemist Deals is a social commerce site for health and beauty products. It is a combination of a social platform, a products marketplace and an online stores platform.
• Global Manufacturers Network is a social commerce platform for manufacturers around the world.
• InterestPin is a social commerce platform for all products and services around the world. It is also a tool to help users collect, organize and share all the beautiful things they find on the web.
• Btab Domains offers domain name registration, hosting, email, SSL certificates, a website builder and related services.

Market Opportunity

A report from Mordor Intelligence, a global research and intelligence firm, estimates the worldwide e-commerce market at $8.8 trillion in 2024 and projects growth to $18.81 trillion by 2029, expanding at a CAGR of 15.8% during the forecast period.

Increasing global internet penetration and the continued growth of smartphone usage around the world are projected to positively impact market growth, according to the report. Other growth drivers include a trend toward established businesses and corporations moving retail operations online or upgrading online operations, the ease for retailers of using online marketing tools such as Google advertisements and Facebook ads and the ease of access for small- and medium-sized businesses to start up or expand online businesses, the report states.

Key Management Team

Binson Lau is, CEO and Director at Btab Ecommerce Group.

Ronald A. Woessner is the company’s Seniorr Vice President and General Counsel.

Calidi Biotherapeutics Inc. (NYSE American: CLDI)

Calidi Biotherapeutics Inc. (NYSE American: CLDI) is a clinical-stage immuno-oncology company pioneering proprietary technology that empowers the immune system to combat cancer. Calidi’s innovative, off-the-shelf cell-based platforms use allogeneic stem cells to deliver potent oncolytic viruses (OVs) across multiple oncology indications, including high-grade glioma (brain cancers) and solid tumors. In addition, Calidi has presented a breakthrough systemic technology, RTNova, which utilizes an exteracellular enveloped virotherapy. RTNova is pre-clinical and has been extremely well-received by market analysts and large-cap biopharma – opening the door for potential collaboration.

These cell-based platforms are engineered to protect, amplify, and enhance the efficacy of oncolytic viruses, resulting in improved patient safety and potentially advancing treatment outcomes for metastatic disease. By employing a dual approach that combines OV delivery with immune activation, Calidi’s therapies aim to not only treat but potentially prevent the spread of metastatic cancers.

The company’s development pipeline leverages this technology to address pressing needs in cancers such as glioblastoma (brain cancer), metastatic melanoma, triple-negative breast cancer, head & neck cancer, and lung cancer. Calidi’s approach has shown early signals of efficacy and safety, establishing it as a distinctive player in the growing OV market, which is projected to increase significantly in value over the next decade.

Calidi is headquartered in San Diego, California.

Products

Calidi’s product pipeline includes advanced cell-based platforms targeting a variety of oncology indications, each designed to harness the power of oncolytic virotherapy for improved cancer treatment outcomes.

• NeuroNova (CLD-101): A platform designed for treating high-grade gliomas (HGG), NeuroNova employs neuronal stem cells combined with an engineered adenovirus (CRAD-s-Pk7) to selectively target glioma cells. After a successful Phase 1 safety study in newly diagnosed HGG, NeuroNova has now progressed into Phase 1/1b trials for recurrent cases. FDA clearance for a Phase 1b/2 trial at Northwestern University was received in September 2024, with patient enrollment expected to begin in Q1 2025. This trial will utilize multiple-dose intracerebral administration to maximize safety and efficacy in newly diagnosed HGG patients.
• SuperNova (CLD-201): Built on Calidi’s foundational technology, SuperNova utilizes an engineered Vaccinia virus (CAL1) delivered via allogeneic adipose-derived mesenchymal stem cells to target advanced solid tumors, including head & neck, triple-negative breast cancer, and soft tissue sarcomas. Early studies with autologous stem cells demonstrated both safety and promising efficacy, and Calidi plans to begin a Phase 1 trial with multiple dose regimens for SuperNova in the coming months.
• RTNova (CLD-400): Calidi’s systemic delivery platform for lung and metastatic cancers, RTNova employs an extracellular enveloped virotherapy (envRT-01) technology for intravenous (IV) administration, simplifying the treatment process and expanding its potential applications. Currently in preclinical stages, RTNova focuses on demonstrating efficacy and safety through systemic administration. A clinical trial targeting metastatic lung cancer is anticipated for Q2 2026, using a single-arm monotherapy with dose escalation. Calidi has partnered with SIGA Technologies (NASDAQ: SIGA) to support the development of this program.

Market Opportunity

The global oncology drugs market was valued at $201.75 billion in 2023 and is projected to grow to $518.25 billion by 2032, with a CAGR of 11.3%. The oncolytic virotherapy market in particular is growing rapidly, driven by increasing approval rates and significant unmet needs.

The market for OV treatments is expected to expand from one approved product generating $150 million in the U.S. in 2021 to 6-8 approved therapies generating $2.4 billion by 2030. As a leader in OV technology, Calidi is well-positioned to address these high-demand areas in oncology.

Alongside global trends, the American Cancer Society projects nearly two million new cancer diagnoses in the U.S. in 2024, reflecting a 28% increase since 2010. This underscores the urgent need for novel therapies that not only treat disease progression but also enhance patient quality of life, reinforcing the demand for Calidi’s innovative approaches.

Management Team

Allan Camaisa, CEO, Chairman, and co-founder, is a seasoned leader with extensive experience in scaling businesses to successful exits. Mr. Camaisa previously led High Technology Solutions, growing it from two employees to over 500 with $50 million in revenue. He also served as CEO of Parallel6 Inc. and is a U.S. Naval Academy graduate with further studies at Harvard Business School.

Antonio Santidrian, Ph.D., Chief Scientific Officer, leads all research and development initiatives at Calidi and is the coinventor of the company’s CLD-201 (Supernova) and CLD-400 (RTNova) platforms. Since joining Calidi in 2015, he has applied his 20+ years of expertise in academia and biotech, focusing on anti-cancer translational research, to drive the company’s innovative drug pipeline. Before Calidi, Dr. Santidrian led translational studies at The Scripps Research Institute, advancing treatments for breast cancer metastasis, and contributed to the development of ACADRA for chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) at the University of Barcelona, Spain.

Boris Minev, M.D., President of Medical and Scientific Affairs, is a renowned physician-scientist with expertise in Immuno-Oncology, stem cell biology, and oncolytic viruses. Previously, Dr. Minev served as Director of Immunotherapy and Translational Oncology at Genelux Corporation and remains an adjunct professor at the Moores UCSD Cancer Center. His background includes research at the National Cancer Institute.

Andrew Jackson, CFO, has held executive finance roles with experience in biotech and clinical-stage companies, including Eterna Therapeutics and Ra Medical Systems. Mr. Jackson holds an MSBA in Finance from San Diego State University and a BSB in Accounting from the University of Minnesota.

Canada Nickel Company Inc. (TSX.V: CNC) (OTCQX: CNIKF)

Canada Nickel Company Inc. (TSX.V: CNC) (OTCQX: CNIKF) is advancing the next generation of nickel-cobalt sulfide projects to deliver the metals needed to power the electric vehicle (EV) revolution and feed the high growth stainless steel market. The company is one of only a few new sources of potential supply outside Indonesia and China.

Canada Nickel possesses industry leading nickel expertise and is focused on low risk, well established mining jurisdictions. The company has launched wholly owned subsidiary NetZero Metals Inc. to develop zero-carbon production of nickel, cobalt and iron and has applied in multiple jurisdictions to trademark the terms NetZero Nickel, NetZero Cobalt and NetZero Iron. Canada Nickel is also pursuing development of processes to allow net zero carbon production of these elements.

Canada Nickel is currently anchored by its 100% owned flagship Crawford Nickel-Cobalt Sulfide Project with large-scale potential located in the heart of Ontario’s prolific Timmins-Cochrane mining camp, adjacent to major infrastructure.

The company believes the EV industry and many other consumer sectors have an urgent need for zero-carbon metal this decade, not in 20-25 years as contemplated by some resource companies. Canada Nickel also believes that nickel supplies from Indonesia and other Pacific island nations, typically controlled by Chinese-owned companies, are not the answer for batteries needed by GM, Ford and the European automakers working to develop and manufacture EV models.

The company is headquartered in Toronto.

Crawford Nickel-Cobalt Sulfide Project

The Crawford Nickel-Cobalt Sulfide Project is the largest sulfide discovery since the early 1970s and contains the fifth-largest nickel sulfide resource in the world, based on Measured & Indicated resources, according to the latest update. The Crawford project is expected to be one of the largest base metal mines in Canada based on results of a Preliminary Economic Assessment. Early projections by Canada Nickel estimate that the project has the potential to produce 50,000 tons of nickel per year. The company is now in the final stages of completing the project’s feasibility study.

The project is projected to produce 2.8 tons of CO2 per ton of nickel equivalent production, which is 89% lower than the industry average of 34 tons of CO2 per ton of nickel equivalent production.

The company is taking significant steps toward developing the Crawford project as a net zero carbon producer. In addition to harnessing the natural ability of the project’s geology to act as a carbon sink through spontaneous reaction of the host rock once exposed to atmospheric conditions called mineral carbonation, Canada Nickel has discovered a new way to enhance carbon capture, termed In Process Tailings (IPT) Carbonation. This act of conditioning the tailings with a concentrated stream of carbon dioxide before deposition has been demonstrated at lab scale to achieve carbon capture at a rate 8-12 times faster than naturally occurring sequestration, achieving more than 60% of the capture that had previously taken six days.

These latest results move the company further toward production of Net Zero Nickel™ and generation of 21 tonnes of CO2 credits per tonne of nickel, which would produce an estimated average of 710,000 tonnes of CO2 credits annually and 18 million total tonnes of CO2 credits over the expected life of mine. IPT Carbonation does not require complex new technologies and major process modifications and could encourage the development of a net zero carbon industrial cluster centered around the Crawford project.

Canada Nickel in January 2023 announced that its latest test work results support the incorporation of carbon capture and storage into the Crawford project. The company believes that utilization of existing process streams should allow IPT to be efficiently engineered and incorporated into the project’s flowsheet, with an integrated feasibility study for the project expected in the second quarter of 2023.

In December 2022, Canada Nickel announced its engagement on Deutsche Bank Securities Inc. (“Deutsche Bank”) and Scotiabank – two of the world’s leading investment banks with a broad base of mining and industrial expertise – as financial advisors for the equity component of the project financing for the Crawford project. In the same release, the company announced the completion of another significant permitting milestone by filing the detailed project description with the Impact Assessment Agency of Canada. Canada Nickel targets receipt of permits by mid-2025, with construction to immediately follow.

Additional Projects

The Reid Nickel Property is located just 16 kilometers southwest of Crawford, or 37 kilometers northwest of Timmins, and contains an ultramafic body with a target geophysical footprint of 3.9 square kilometers. Preliminary assay results from Canada Nickel’s summer/fall drilling program confirm the presence of mineralized dunite, as well as currently undefined higher-grade sections. Partial assay results confirm expected nickel grades. Nickel mineralization in serpentinized dunite was found in all 16 holes drilled to date.

The Sothman Nickel Property is located 70 kilometers south of Timmins. Five drill holes on the eastern half of the target anomaly confirmed the continuation of ultramafic lithologies, primarily peridotite, with moderate to strong serpentinization and variable amounts of mineralization throughout.

The company in December 2022 announced positive drilling results from its ongoing regional exploration campaign at its Reid and Sothman properties. These latest results continue to reinforce the success of Canada Nickel’s geophysical targeting approach and increase the probability of success at the company’s other 20-plus properties within its 42 square kilometers of geophysical targets.

Building on this momentum, Canada Nickel in December 2022 announced its entry into a deal to acquire a 100% interest in the past producing Texmont property situated between the company’s properties south of Timmins. As noted in the news release, the acquisition of the Texmont property provides near-term smaller scale production potential and is highly complementary to the company’s large-scale Crawford and regional nickel sulphide projects.

Market Opportunity

Global demand leaves the market fundamentally short of nickel in the medium- and long-term. Global primary nickel demand will likely reach 3 million tons in 2022, up from 2.4 million tons in 2020, according to the International Nickel Study Group (INSG).

The INSG says primary nickel production is forecast to hit 3.1 million tons in 2022. Indonesia, the world’s largest nickel miner, halted exports of unprocessed nickel ore in January 2020, due to a government-imposed ban. Indonesia has floated the concept of a nickel cartel whose member nations would exert influence over world nickel supply and prices, similar to OPEC’s pricing power over oil.

Benchmark Minerals, a leading EV supply chain research firm, projects that, by 2035, world demand for nickel will double from current levels to 6 million tons annually. That growing demand represents a need for new nickel production equivalent to 70 mines the size of Canada Nickel’s Crawford Project.

Management Team

Mark Selby is CEO and Director of Canada Nickel. He was formerly President and CEO of RNC Minerals, where he led a team that successfully raised over $100 million and advanced the Dumont nickel-cobalt project from initial resource to a fully permitted, construction-ready project. He has held senior management roles with Quadra Mining, Inco and Purolator Courier, and was a partner at Mercer Management Consulting. Since 2001, he has been recognized as one of the leading authorities on the nickel market. He graduated from Queen’s University with a Bachelor of Commerce.

Wendy Kaufman is CFO of Canada Nickel. She has 25 years of experience leading publicly listed mining companies in project financing, capital structuring, capital markets, accounting and internal controls, tax, and financial reporting and public disclosure. She was also previously CFO at Khiron Life Sciences Corp. and held CFO and senior finance positions at Pasinex Resources Limited, Primero Mining Corporation and Inmet Mining Corporation. She holds a Bachelor of Business Administration from Wilfrid Laurier University and is a Chartered Professional Accountant.

Steve Balch is VP Exploration at Canada Nickel. He is an Ontario registered geoscientist with 32 years of experience in geophysics, specializing in magnetic and electromagnetic methods. He founded Triumph Instruments and developed the AirTEM system, a multi-coil helicopter-borne EM system that is in use worldwide. He has also been active in borehole geophysics and helped develop new technologies including north-seeking gyros, temperature compensated induction conductivity probes, UAV-based magnetometers and high sensitivity magnetic gradiometers.

Christian Brousseau is VP Capital Projects at Canada Nickel. He is a professional engineer (P.Eng) with over 30 years of experience in engineering, design and construction in the Canadian mining industry, including six years as Project Director for the Dumont Project and three years as the Engineering and Construction Manager for Detour Gold. Prior to Detour, he held various construction management positions at Osisko’s Malartic Project and at Goldcorp’s Éléonore Project. He also spent eight years at Falconbridge supervising and managing various capital projects.

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. CISO Global 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 CISO Global, 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.

Clene Inc. (NASDAQ: CLNN)

Clene Inc. (NASDAQ: CLNN) is a late clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on improving mitochondrial health and protecting neuronal function to treat neurodegenerative diseases, including amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), Parkinson’s disease, and multiple sclerosis (MS).

Its lead drug candidate is CNM-Au8®, an oral suspension developed to restore neuronal health and function by increasing energy production and utilization by driving critical cellular energy producing reactions that enable neuroprotection and remyelination to increase neuronal and glial resilience to disease-relevant stressors. CNM-Au8 is being studied in various clinical trials, including the Harvard/MGH Healey ALS Platform clinical trial for patients with ALS; RESCUE-ALS, a completed proof-of-concept clinical trial in patients with early symptomatic ALS; the REPAIR trials, completed target engagement clinical trials showing brain energy metabolite change with CNM-Au8; and a completed MS clinical trial for the treatment of visual pathway deficits in chronic optic neuropathy for remyelination in stable relapsing MS. The company also has a nanotherapeutic platform of drug discovery.

CNM-Au8

CNM-Au8, Clene’s lead asset, is a highly concentrated aqueous suspension of catalytically active, clean-surfaced, faceted gold nanocrystals. Multiple pathogenic insults contribute to neuronal death. Mitochondrial dysfunction and NAD+ decline is a common final pathway in neurodegeneration, with NAD+ as a critical determinant of cell survival and function. CNM-Au8’s catalytic mechanisms target the energetic deficits, oxidative stress and accumulation of misfolded proteins that are common to many neurodegenerative diseases.

The unique catalytic mechanism of action of CNM-Au8 is hypothesized to act as a neuroprotective and remyelinating therapy in neurodegenerative disease states in order to: (1) drive, support and maintain beneficial metabolic and energetic cellular reactions within diseased, stressed and/or damaged cells, (2) directly catalyze the reduction of harmful, reactive oxygen species (“ROS”) and (3) promote protein homeostasis via activation of the heat shock factor-1 pathway, recognized to dampen the cytotoxicity caused by misfolded and denatured proteins, which are known to occur ubiquitously in neurodegenerative diseases.

CNM-Au8 is used in combination with other agents, has no known drug-drug interactions, and is designed to improve function and survival. The clinical effects of both function and survival were seen in its clinical ALS trials, as earlier announced.

More than 500 estimated years of collective exposure across ALS, MS, and Parkinson’s disease participants in CNM-Au8 clinical trials and Expanded Access Protocol (compassionate use) programs have been recorded without any observed safety signals.

CNM-Au8 is a federally registered trademark of Clene Inc. Clene, based in Salt Lake City, Utah, with R&D and manufacturing operations in Maryland, began in 2013.

Market Opportunity

ALS is the most prevalent adult-onset progressive motor neuron disease, affecting approximately 30,000 people in the U.S. and an estimated 500,000 people worldwide, with a life expectancy of typically three to five years. Clene estimates that global ALS treatment sales will be greater than $1 billion annually within the coming few years. Additional treatments affecting daily function and survival remain the market need.

Additionally, there are more than 2 million MS patients globally, and Clene estimates the market size to be worth more than $23 billion annually. While the MS community has been successful at limiting relapses, non-relapsing MS patients continue to clinically deteriorate even while receiving effective immunomodulatory disease-modifying therapies (“DMTs”). A critical unmet medical need remains for therapeutic interventions that protect neuronal function and myelin health independent of immunomodulation to address progression independent of relapse activity.

Management Team

Robert Etherington is President, Director and CEO of Clene. He has more than 30 years of sales, marketing and leadership experience in the pharmaceutical industry. Prior to joining Clene, he worked at Actelion Pharmaceuticals, the largest biopharma company in the European Union prior to its acquisition by Johnson & Johnson in 2017, where he led that company’s U.S. commercial operations. He began his pharmaceutical sales and marketing career at Parke-Davis, a division of Pfizer, where he rose to the position of Team Leader overseeing the drug Lipitor.

Mark Mortenson is Chief Science Officer at Clene. He is co-inventor of the technology platform developed to produce the company’s therapeutics. He is the inventor or co-inventor on 32 other U.S. patents and hundreds of corresponding international patents. He is a former chief patent counsel responsible for 5,500 U.S. and international patents and patent applications. He holds bachelor’s degrees in physics and ceramic engineering from Alfred University, a master’s degree in materials science from Penn State University and a J.D. from George Washington University.

Benjamin Greenberg, M.D., MHS, FAAN, is Head of Medical at Clene. He is an internationally recognized expert in disorders of the central nervous system. He is currently professor of neurology and Vice Chair of Clinical and Translational Research in the department of Neurology at University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas. He holds a bachelor’s degree from Johns Hopkins, a master’s degree in molecular microbiology and immunology from the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health and graduated from Baylor College of Medicine. He served residency in neurology at The Johns Hopkins Hospital.

Morgan R. Brown is CFO at Clene. He has more than 30 years of finance and accounting experience, with 23 years at biotech, pharmaceutical and medical device companies. He has served in similar roles at Lipocine Inc., Innovus Pharmaceuticals, World Heart Corp., Lifetree Clinical Research and NPS Pharmaceuticals Inc. He previously worked at accounting firm KPMG. He is a CPA with a bachelor’s degree in accounting from Utah State University and an M.S. in business administration from the University of Utah.

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.

Correlate Energy Corp. (OTCQB: CIPI)

Correlate Energy Corp. (OTCQB: CIPI) is a publicly-traded company strategically positioned to capitalize on America’s unstoppable trend toward decentralized energy generation.

The energy grid in the U.S. is insufficient for the booming clean energy trend, and current infrastructure is limiting green energy distribution. Constructing the needed infrastructure to address this demand imbalance will cost billions and be far too slow, positioning decentralized systems, like those on offer from Correlate, in a key position for heightened demand.

Correlate has identified several key economic drivers powering the decentralized energy trend, including:

1. Real Cost Savings – Customer pays zero money down and gets an instant electrical price discount to current rates.
2. Massive Project Investment Funding – The International Energy Agency estimates that over one billion dollars per day will be invested in solar energy in 2023.
3. Consistent Long-Term Incentives – The Inflation Reduction Act is a game-changer, supercharging renewables with $1.2 trillion in tax credits for 10 years of market support.
4. Robust Customer Demand – Wood Mackenzie expects the U.S. solar industry to nearly triple in size over the next five years.

Correlate’s team of multi-decade experts who have worked with renowned global brands are positioning the company to make the most of this opportunity while consolidating a fragmented industry. Collectively, the team has developed, financed and deployed over $2 billion in clean energy projects to date.

Three-Pronged Strategy

Correlate is leveraging a three-pronged strategy aimed at driving shareholder value:

1. Sell – Correlate seeks to finance, develop and profitably sell localized clean energy solutions and microgrids to industrial, commercial and residential customers.
2. Retain – Correlate plans to retain ownership of some of these energy systems and thereby realize ongoing, reliable cash flow.
3. Acquire – Correlate seeks to acquire proven renewable energy companies in order to exponentially grow earnings per share for investors.

This strategy is enhanced by current investment trends. Clean energy earnings are being sought after by investors. In Q4 2022, the median EBITDA multiple for green energy companies was 12.3x, according to Finerva.

Market Outlook

Over the next decade and beyond, renewable energy growth is expected to come primarily via decentralized systems like those offered by Correlate.
The Inflation Reduction Act enacted in late August 2022 is likewise expected to drive growth for the company by providing new tax incentives that reduce costs for clients and/or elevate returns to investors.

Commercial buildings consume more than 35% of the generated electricity in the U.S. and are underperforming in energy efficiency at every level. These buildings waste energy, emit too much carbon and are too costly for owners and occupants, but retrofits are not happening at the rate or scale needed.

In today’s real estate market, portfolio property owners own most commercial buildings, yet most building efficiency work is focused on single buildings, thereby missing the distinct needs of this owner class which are very different from traditional owner-occupiers. The diverse nature of commercial buildings, combined with technology and performance uncertainty, make simple energy optimization initiatives – which could greatly reduce energy use and improve building value – financially unattractive, resulting in slow adoption rates. CIPI’s financial instruments and software breakdown this issue, known as the ‘split incentive’, unlocking the majority of the addressable market.

A key portion of Correlate’s strategy relates to consolidation of what has been a fragmented industry. By uncovering opportunities to improve efficiencies through strategic M&A activities, the company intends to enhance profitability throughout its operations.

Management Team

Todd Michaels is President and CEO of CIPI and founder of Correlate. He formerly served as Vice President for Innovation at SunEdison and Senior Director Distributed Solar at NRG Energy. He founded Correlate in 2015 and has 16 years of experience in the energy industry. He graduated from Indiana University with a B.S. in Computer Information Systems.

Channing Chen is CFO at CIPI and Correlate Inc. and brings over 16 years of experience in the solar industry as a developer, financier, and business unit leader. He has held executive management roles at Solar Power Partners (acquired by NRG Energy), where he was a founding employee, SunEdison, and NRG Energy (NYSE: NRG). Most recently, Mr. Chen was founder and Managing Partner at Breakaway Energy Partners LLC – a distributed energy financing and market-making platform. To date, Mr. Chen and his teams have raised over $1.5 billion in financing across residential, commercial, and utility scale solar and energy storage projects representing over 400 MWs. He holds a B.A. in Environmental Chemistry from the University of California at San Diego and an MBA from the University of Southern California. He is also an advisor and early-stage investor to several startup companies in the renewable energy space.

Dave Bailey is Chief Revenue Officer of Correlate Inc. With over 15 years of executive sales, supply chain management, and energy efficiency experience, he is responsible for ensuring the success of the National Commercial Sales Unit across multiple regional project teams. Mr. Bailey created and launched the Transformation Services team while at Wesco for its multibillion-dollar Distributed Energy Resource division, formerly Westinghouse. His focus was on IoT-enabled efficiency and plant floor automation-based services. Before that, he spent several years in Global Account Sales Management, with GE Supply as a Program Manager, and is a Commercial Leadership Program graduate. Mr. Bailey received his B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Kentucky.

Jed Freedlander is the company’s Chief Development Officer. He has a background in infrastructure development and investment and a strong legal, commercial and finance acumen. Mr. Freedlander has a proven track record in leading complex public-private partnership (P3) and energy transactions and is instrumental in driving Correlate’s strategic development initiatives.

Roger Baum is Executive VP Operations at Correlate. With over 20 years of experience at Core Construction, he brings to the company a wealth of knowledge and a strong track record in delivering successful commercial construction projects.

Jason Loyet is Director of Solar Energy for Correlate Inc. He is a cleantech executive with over 20 years of experience leading high growth solar energy and software start-ups. Mr. Loyet is a U.S. Department of Energy SunShot Catalyst award winner for his work building the Solar Site Design technology platform. Before joining the solar energy industry in 2005, he founded and sold two software companies in the streaming media (GlobalStreams) and newspaper publishing (MyCapture) industries. Mr. Loyet currently serves as a Member of the Board of Directors for the Tennessee Solar Energy Industry Association (TenneSEIA).

Coyuchi Inc.

Coyuchi is the gold standard in sustainable luxury home goods. The company offers sustainably produced luxury organic bedding, sheets, towels, apparel, and other home goods for the environmentally conscious home. With a timeless, coastal-inspired aesthetic, Coyuchi uses only 100% organic cotton materials to manufacture all of its textiles.

The Company was built upon four foundational pillars: protect the planet, innovate circular design, live sustainably, and enrich the community. These guiding principles have proven an effective market strategy. In 2021, Coyuchi earned $33.3 million in net sales, amounting to 26% YoY growth (the industry average is only 5%). It also experienced 2x customer growth to 200,000 active customers, averaging a 35% customer repeat purchase rate.

With a seasoned leadership team, a robust e-commerce shopping experience, and a healthy customer base that drives the fast-growing organic luxury market, Coyuchi is prepared to propel a new phase of growth as the rest of the world finally awakens to sustainability at scale.

A Lucrative Market Ripe for the Taking

The global market for organic bedding, which was estimated at $814.3 million in 2020, is projected to reach $1.1 billion by 2027, growing at a CAGR of 4.9% over that period, according to Research and Markets. More specifically, the domestic organic bedding market is estimated at $240.1 million in 2020, according to Statista. Overall, the U.S. market for home textiles is currently valued at $25 billion annually, and, with a forecast annual growth rate of 5%, it is expected to reach $30 billion by the end of 2025.

Grand View Research reported in 2020 that shifting consumer preference toward high-end lifestyle products is a key factor driving the growth of the organic bedding market. Seventy-four percent of consumers are willing to pay more for sustainable products – a consumer preference that has steadily increased over the last few decades. Millennials especially favor ethical consumption over price when purchasing goods and services, with 83% of millennials reporting that they want the brands they purchase from to align with their beliefs and values (https://ibn.fm/PANNV). With a majority millennial customer base, Coyuchi is poised to capitalize on this trend.

Industry Defining Sustainability Practices

For 30 years, Coyuchi has explored organic farming and sustainable textiles and guarantees the highest environmental and ethical standards through a number of certifications such as The Global Organic Textile Standard (GOTS), Fair Trade Certified, and MADE SAFE®.

Coyuchi continues to push the organic textile market forward through its circularity initiatives and by supporting cross-industry sustainability advocates. Coyuchi’s mission to bring beauty and comfort to every home without sacrificing the health of our planet has resulted in a number of important sustainability checks and balances.

• A Circular Business Model: Coyuchi has cultivated a holistic 360-degree approach that contributes to the fight against climate change with its take back and recycling program, 2nd Home™. In 2017, it became the first luxury home brand to implement such an initiative, and, since then, the company has eliminated 68,758 lbs. of toxic chemicals from homes and renewed 6,000 lbs. of textiles.
• The Coyuchi Climate Council: In early 2022, Coyuchi introduced a cross-disciplinary council with a goal of Net Zero Emissions by 2025 and Net Positive Emissions by 2030. The Coyuchi Climate Council brings together influential minds across fashion, regenerative farming, and sustainability who have the knowledge and experience necessary to achieve climate change.
• C4: The California Cotton & Climate Coalition: Most recently, Coyuchi announced it is a founding member of C4, which includes innovative, sustainable fashion, apparel, and personal care brands like MATE the Label, Outerknown, Reformation, and Trace. Working together pre-competitively, C4 creates a structure for investing in regionally grown, Climate Beneficial™ cotton and directly supports the livelihoods of the farmers that grew it. Coyuchi is the only home industry brand currently involved in the project.

Omnichannel Business Model

Coyuchi differentiates itself through an omnichannel and circular business model, both of which have proven a clear draw for customers. It was an early adopter of an e-commerce sales and marketing approach (over 80% of its sales are directly through coyuchi.com), creating a distinct advantage over incumbents and start-up newcomers in the luxury space. This has resulted in a high lifetime value customer, luxury retail partners such as Nordstrom, and a flagship store in Marin County.

Coyuchi’s Organic Textile Products

Coyuchi’s product assortment consists of consciously designed bedding, bath, apparel, and lifestyle products spread across about 1,400 SKUs. The company believes that its product assortment, produced from 100% organic cotton with Global Organic Textile Standard (GOTS) certification, provides it with a significant competitive advantage. GOTS is the world’s leading textile processing standard for organic fibers, ensuring the organic status of textiles after harvesting raw materials through environmentally and socially responsible manufacturing all the way to labeling, a major environmental and social benefit over conventional cotton product production.

Coyuchi’s focused product assortment consists of four core categories:

• Bedding – A full suite of sustainable, organic, and high-quality sheets, duvet covers, blankets, and throws.
• Bath – A luxurious line of towels, bath rugs, and mats.
• Apparel – Premium apparel for men and women, including robes, sweaters, pants, and pajamas.
• Lifestyle – The lifestyle category offers 135 SKUs, from organic napkins to crossbody totes.

Management Team

Eileen Mockus is President and CEO at Coyuchi. She has more than 25 years of experience in retail, having held positions in textile development at Patagonia, Pottery Barn Teen, and The North Face. She earned a bachelor’s degree in textiles and clothing from UC Davis and an MSBA from San Francisco State University.
Sejal Solanki is Chief Marketing Officer at Coyuchi. She previously served as the company’s Vice President of E-Commerce. Before joining Coyuchi, she worked at teen clothing giant Charlotte Russe. She oversees the company’s digital marketing, site experience, brand marketing, and e-commerce strategy.

Marcus Chung is Coyuchi’s COO, overseeing supply chain, sourcing strategy, sustainability, and IT. He previously held positions at notable direct-to-consumer brands Third Love and Stitch Fix, as well as national retailer The Children’s Place. He holds a bachelor’s degree from Wesleyan University and an MBA from UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business.

Margot Lyons is Director of Sustainability and Sourcing at Coyuchi, where she works with strategic partners to ensure all the company’s product sustainability standards are met. She received a master’s degree in textiles and clothing from UC Davis.

Use of Proceeds

This round of funding will be used to increase Coyuchi’s enterprise value through expanded marketing, product category expansion, continued physical presence, and B2B strategic partnerships with wholesalers, and online marketplaces.

Cub Crafters Inc.

Cub Crafters Inc. (typically styled CubCrafters) is an OEM aircraft manufacturer based at McAllister Field Airport in Yakima, Washington. The company was founded in 1980 to build parts and supplementary type certificate (STC) improvement modifications, which were used to establish it as the preeminent center for rebuilding the classic Piper PA-18 Super Cub light aircraft. CubCrafters went on to advance the market with its own, newly manufactured aircraft models and holds an approved Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Production Certificate. Yakima-based operations include an engineering design-test-certification center, aircraft parts and assembly production facilities, and an MRO maintenance service and overhaul facility.

The first newly manufactured aircraft by the company, the CC18-180 Top Cub, was Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) type certified in December 2004. The Top Cub was also granted type certificates (TC) by Transport Canada in July 2008, followed by Australian certification in August of that same year. With the FAA’s release of the new Light Sport Aircraft (LSA) class, CubCrafters created a brand-new model in 2008, the CC11-100 Sport Cub, similarly based on the original Piper J-3 Cub’s appearance, which it validated to ASTM international standards as an LSA. This model advanced to become known as the Carbon Cub, the bestselling LSA of all time in the U.S.

CubCrafters focuses on four main product lines, including the Carbon Cub SS, Carbon Cub FX, XCub, and the Top Cub under license. Some models are built to be lightweight and powerful for quicker flights, while others are built for longer missions in unforgiving backcountry environments.

CubCrafters has a service and overhaul facility for PA-18 Super Cubs and other Cub derivative designs at its Yakima headquarters. The company sells aircraft kits as well as finished aircraft.

Aircraft

The Carbon Cub is available in three variants: Carbon Cub SS (production Light Sport Aircraft), Carbon Cub FX (an innovative Builder Assist E/A-B aircraft) and Carbon Cub EX (E/A-B aircraft kit). Carbon Cub has been designed for off-airport operation with a powerful engine, strong lightweight airframe and nimble low-speed manners. The Carbon Cub has taken the fundamentally superior design of the Piper Super Cub and reinvented it using 21st century materials and computer-aided design. Superior engineering results include the Carbon Cub having 50% fewer parts and weighing more than 300 pounds less than a similarly equipped Super Cub. Now in its third generation of innovation advancements, there are over 1,000 Carbon Cubs flying.

The CubCrafters CC19-180 XCub, FAA Certified and introduced in June 2016, is supplied complete and ready-to-fly. The XCub is a further scaled development of the CubCrafters Carbon Cub, which the company continues to supply, but with higher performance and incorporating more structural carbon fiber. The XCub was developed over a six-year period and not publicly announced until FAA TC had been completed and issued. The process was completed organically using company resources and did not involve any venture capital, loans nor any advanced customer deposits. XCub is built on a wholly original fuselage design. The CNC-milled 4130 chromoly steel frame meets the latest FAA Part 23 certification standards for 2,300-pound gross weight aircraft. XCub’s useful load is as high as 1,084 pounds. Current Part 23 certification requirements ensure this is the strongest Cub ever produced. It can fly farther, providing greater comfort. It is an airplane that has taken the best from the past and, using the very latest in design, material and manufacturing technology, has established a new standard.

The XCub was approved by the FAA for seaplane operations in December 2017. That same month, EASA approved the XCub design and issued a new type certificate. Four international type certificates have been gained: EASA Dec-2017, Canada Feb-2018, Japan April-2018, and Australia Aug-2018.

CubCrafters increased the horsepower of the XCub line in 2019, offering two new models: the CC19-215 FAA Certified version and the CCX-2300 Builder Assist, both powered by the new CC393i 215 HP engine built by Lycoming.

In December 2021, CubCrafters gained FAA Certification of a new nose wheel version of the XCub, branded the NXCub.

Market Overview

According to a 2022 analysis by research firm Expert Market Research (“EMR”), the global ultralight and light aircraft market was valued at $7.63 billion in 2021. The EMR report says the market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 4.5% in the forecast period of 2022-2027 to reach a value of $9.93 billion. Ultralight and light aircraft are small aircraft with on-board pilot (and perhaps passengers) designed for use in recreation, sports, pilot training, aerial surveys, mapping, research and agriculture, humanitarian backcountry access, and special military missions, as well as business and personal travel.

CubCrafters currently enjoys a dominant market share of the rugged adventure airplane market.

Management Team

Patrick Horgan is President and CEO at CubCrafters. Before he assumed that role, he was the company’s Vice President/Director of Engineering & Product Development for three years, when he led the FAA Part 23 type certificate approval and production certificate approval of CubCrafters’ newest flagship, the XCub. Mr. Horgan also directed the breakthrough certification that authorized the use of experimental avionics in FAA-certified production aircraft, a first in aviation history. He brings over 30 years’ aircraft development and manufacturing experience in general aviation, commercial, and military industries. Prior to service at the company, he was the General Manager at WACO Classic Aircraft Corporation in Battle Creek, Michigan, and was the commercial aircraft manager of the Boeing 777 wheel and brake program for Goodrich Aerospace in Troy, Ohio. He was also a designer on the F/A-18 Super Hornet at McDonnell Douglas (now Boeing) in St. Louis, Missouri. Mr. Horgan holds degrees in aeronautical and astronautical engineering from the University of Illinois, and a certificate in Disruptive Strategy from Harvard Business School. He serves as a member of the Board of Directors of the General Aviation Manufacturers Association and on ASTM aircraft standards committees.

Brad Damm is Vice President at CubCrafters. He has overseen CubCrafters’ sales, marketing, and brand management operations since 2018. Since first joining CubCrafters in 2013, Mr. Damm has served as Factory Direct Sales Manager, the Director of Sales Support, the Global Director of Sales, and the Vice President of Sales and Marketing. During his tenure, the company has seen new sales records year after year across all of CubCrafters new aircraft and kit product lines, and the CubCrafters brand has risen to new levels of awareness and respect with aviation consumers worldwide. Prior to joining the company, he served for over 10 years as the Business Development Manager for one of the largest commercial concrete contractors in the Pacific Northwest, driving the sales and revenue growth that allowed the company to expand from a few dozen to hundreds of employees.

Rick Johnson is the Director of Finance at CubCrafters and has been with the company since 2017. He has 27 years of previous experience as controller and CFO for fruit packing and timber operations in the Pacific Northwest. He holds a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from Central Washington University.

Christopher Matus is Production Manager at CubCrafters and joined the company in 2011. Before taking that post, he held positions as Fabrication Plant Manager, Machine Shop Manager and CNC Machinist for the company. He has also served as a Combat Engineer in the Washington Army National Guard, deploying to Afghanistan and to natural disasters including the 2014 Oso Mudslide.

Justin Jansky is the Administrative Manager at CubCrafters. He joined the company in 2015 and has a demonstrated history of successful collaboration on major FAA type certification projects in the general aviation industry, specifically under 14 CFR Parts 21 and 23. He is responsible for process management, document control, facilitating FAA certification processes, coordination with FAA delegates and documenting compliance testing. He holds a bachelor’s degree in technology and applied design.

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

Cybin Inc. (NEO: CYBN) (NYSE American: CYBN) is a Canada-based life sciences company focused on the pharmaceutical development of psychedelic products, as well as the functional mushroom market.

The early-stage company boasts an experienced management team featuring industry veterans from pharmaceutical and consumer product backgrounds who have run multiple clinical trials and collectively helped facilitate billions of dollars in product revenues. The team is dedicated to the development of products and protocols within the psychedelic, pharmaceutical and nutraceutical industries.

In particular, Cybin aims to further build upon and expand its intellectual property (IP) portfolio, which is structured around unique psilocybin delivery mechanisms that target a number of different therapeutic indications. In addition, the company has dedicated itself toward furthering its research and IP within the fields of synthetic compounds, extraction methods, the isolation of chemical compounds, new drug formulations and protocol regimes.

Serenity Life Sciences & Natures Journey Inc.

The company’s business model is centered around its two core subsidiaries, Serenity Life Sciences and Natures Journey Inc., which comprise Cybin’s two-pronged approach toward delivering fungi-derived psychedelic and medicinal products.

Serenity Life Sciences is focused on furthering research and development of psilocybin-based medications. Psilocybin is found in certain species of mushrooms and is a non-habit forming, naturally occurring psychedelic compound. Research into psilocybin has shown positive results for the treatment of depression, anxiety, PTSD, addiction, eating disorders, ADHD and other indications.

Natures Journey Inc. operates the Journey brand, which specializes in developing proprietary medicinal mushroom products that target and promote mental wellness, immune boosting detoxification and overall general health and wellbeing.

Partnership with the Toronto Centre for Psychedelic Science (TCPS)

Staying true to its axiom of being a research-first medicinal mushroom life sciences company, Cybin recently announced its entry into a strategic partnership with the Toronto Centre for Psychedelic Science (TCPS), with the goal of furthering its ongoing psilocybin research efforts and expanding Cybin’s psilocybin IP portfolio (http://nnw.fm/9EUkI).

“While there is evidence to support psilocybin as a treatment for certain indications, the Toronto Centre for Psychedelic Science is taking a clinical approach to prove or disprove the safety and efficacy of psilocybin-based microdosing through an open science approach,” Paul Glavine, CEO of Cybin, stated in a news release.

“We are excited to join forces with Cybin and to offer our expertise. A number of firms had approached TCPS, but Cybin demonstrated a superior commitment to high-quality research and integrity in product development. Our high standards for scientific rigor and transparency will find a fitting home within the culture Cybin is cultivating in Canada and abroad,” Thomas Anderson, co-founder of the Toronto Centre for Psychedelic Science, added.

Journey’s Product Monetization & Market Potential for Nutraceutical Supplements

Although Cybin is at the forefront of companies seeking to conduct clinical trials aimed at gaining regulatory approval for psilocybin and other psychedelic products, the company has also placed a great deal of emphasis on generating meaningful revenue from its very outset.

Cybin’s Journey brand has is launching a range of supplements comprised of popular fungi-derived ingredients such as Reishi, Lion’s Mane and Cordyceps. Purported to aid focus and concentration while promoting neurogenesis, Journey’s range of nutraceutical products provides Cybin with a crucial foothold within the non-psychedelic legal supplement market, which is valued at over $25 billion globally and growing at a 9% year-over-year rate.

Pharmaceutical Psychedelics

In addition to the company’s range of non-psychedelic supplements, Cybin has plans to carry out a clinical trial with a new delivery system for its psilocybin-based medications later this year. Ultimately, the company aims to enter into technology transfer agreements with global pharmaceutical companies after phase 1 & phase 2 clinical trials are complete in order to accelerate regulatory approvals in major indications in global markets with entire lifecycle product management.

With products such as psilocybin truffles already legal in nations such as the Netherlands, Jamaica and Bulgaria, Cybin has positioned itself to capitalize on an eventual legalization of psychedelic mushroom-derived products in the future. Working within a regulatory environment with strong similarities to that which dealt with cannabis prior to the industry’s eventual legalization by the Canadian government in 2018, Cybin is laying the groundwork for the moment pharmaceutical psychedelics gain acceptance in North America and abroad.

Amalgamation Agreement and Financing

Cybin recently announced its entry into an amalgamation agreement dated June 26, 2020, with Clarmin Explorations Inc. (TSX.V: CX) and 2762898 Ontario Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Clarmin (http://nnw.fm/w04LH). Completion of the transactions contemplated in the amalgamation agreement will result in the reverse takeover of Clarmin by Cybin.

In connection with the proposed transaction, Cybin plans to complete a “best-efforts” brokered private placement of subscription receipts of Cybin, with a syndicate of agents co-led by Stifel Nicolaus Canada Inc. (Stifel GMP) and Eight Capital, to raise a minimum of C$14 million ($10 million) and a maximum of C$21 million ($15 million), with a 15% agents’ option.

To date, Cybin has raised approximately C$10,400,000 through an initial financing round and its series A financing round.

DarioHealth Corp. (NASDAQ: DRIO)

New York and Israel-based DarioHealth Corp. (NASDAQ: DRIO) leads global digital therapeutics (DTx) with its popular, smartphone-centered personalized chronic illness management software-as-a-service (SaaS). The company’s strategic advantages include:

• AI-powered digital solutions that drive durable behavior change in chronic disease patients, and
• Personalized user experience at scale to make behavior change the path of least resistance.

Approximately $3 trillion in annual U.S. costs associated with chronic illnesses like diabetes, hypertension and obesity are largely preventable with behavioral therapies. Formerly limited to periodic office visits, these therapies can now scale to millions with tech-enabled, continual and remote health monitoring, as well as AI-driven digital and live coaching. This is all possible while still maintaining the personalization required for success in reducing illness and its related effects and costs.

Roughly 51,000 active, paying users manage their health with Dario’s platform that combines smartphone-connected vitals measurement, remote patient monitoring (RPM), lifestyle management tools, and AI-driven and human coaching to deliver improved clinical outcomes.

Among the most downloaded medical apps, the Dario platform is rated at 4.9 stars on the Apple App Store and features 11,000 reviews, along with a Net Promoter Score (a measurement of consumers’ willingness to recommend the product to others) that’s the highest in its field.

Company Strategy

Clinical studies demonstrate Dario’s direct improvement on users’ health measures like H1AC scores (diabetes) and blood pressure (hypertension).

Patient engagement in therapies leads to health success. Dario’s platform centers on continual maximization of patient engagement through personalization, including ‘nudges’ and live, AI-generated responses to health measures provided by Dario’s smartphone-connected medical devices.

Proprietary data analysis provides valuable insights that not only improve health care providers’ medical capabilities but, through artificial intelligence, encourage patients to take evidence-based and highly personalized preventative measures that reduce risk, emergency room visits and preventable hospitalization.

Dario is now deploying its successful B2C platform in B2B2C, targeting employers and health plans with competitive advantages in cost, software and hardware.

The company estimates an annual addressable U.S. market of $72 billion, only 1% of which has been penetrated with digital therapeutics.

The strategic transition to B2B2C (from exclusively B2B) is intended to accelerate revenue growth by reducing Dario’s cost per acquisition per user and expanding margins.

Dario’s commitment to aggressive growth is also shown by its appointment of a new president, chief medical officer and head of sales for North America, all from a highflyer behavioral health company.

Key growth drivers planned include expansion of the company’s paying B2C subscriber base; lateral expansion into other chronic conditions that overlap with its core diabetes populations, such as hypertension, obesity and depression; and increased B2B2C penetration.

Financial Highlights

The company plans to leverage a massive opportunity for growth, with a global addressable market for digital therapeutics of roughly $108 billion. In the U.S. alone, that number is estimated at $72 billion, and only about 1% of that market has been penetrated.

Dario’s strategic transition to an SaaS membership business model increased gross profit by 87% in Q1 2020, as compared to the prior year. Membership revenue increased from 27.1% to 46.7% in the same period. The company is seeing improved operating efficiencies as it shifts focus to the B2B2C business model, and it expects average revenue per user per month (ARPU), which was $6 and $25 in 2019 and 2020, respectively, to reach $70.

Value to Consumers and Businesses

Dario continually evaluates and optimizes the value and return its platform delivers to consumers and businesses.

Consumers seeking to understand how their everyday behavior impacts their personal health and chronic conditions benefit from actionable feedback on how to improve health and better collaborate with health care providers.

Businesses looking to increase employee satisfaction, loyalty and productivity with fewer health-related absences take advantage of Dario’s services for employers.

Health care providers improve patient compliance using the platform’s interactive services that allow for greater monitoring, which improve engagement with patients at the right times and with the right treatments.

Health plans can leverage DarioHealth’s solutions to improve patient outcomes and lower costs.

Recent Studies

The company recently presented the results of two new studies at the American Diabetes Association’s 80th Scientific Sessions, which showed sustained improvements in blood glucose levels and blood pressure among users of its digital therapeutic platform for chronic diseases. The results of these two studies demonstrate that the use of Dario’s therapeutic platform promotes behavioral modification, enhanced individual engagement and improved clinical outcomes.

Remote Patient Monitoring (RPM) Agreements

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services recently approved RPM codes for Medicare patients, which enables physicians to bill for between-visit patient care.

This simplifies implementation of the company’s open and scalable AI-driven platform and further supports transition to the company’s high-margin, recurring SaaS model targeting B2B2C revenue channels.

Emergency COVID-19 FDA Guidelines Allow Self-Test Blood Glucose Meters

In an effort to preserve personal protective equipment (PPE) and reduce contact between health care providers and patients in hospital settings due to COVID-19, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has recognized that home-use blood glucose meters, including Dario’s smartphone-connected metering device, may be used by patients with diabetes who are hospitalized due to COVID-19 to check their own blood glucose levels and provide the readings to the health care personnel caring for them.

As a result, hospitals can now allow patients to self-test using their Dario blood glucose testing strips and smartphone-connected devices, or hospitals can issue patients Dario devices upon admission for COVID-19-related conditions.

Irregularities in blood glucose levels are suspected as a factor in the increased severity of potentially deadly COVID-19 complications. As such, a high priority is being placed on stabilization of patients’ blood glucose levels.

Awards and Recognition

DarioHealth’s Blood Glucose Monitoring System was voted as the ‘Best Glucometer for Data Management’ by Top Ten Reviews. Jeph Preece, senior editor at Top Ten Reviews, said, “The Dario app is the best data management system that I’ve seen. Compared to apps by popular brands, Dario’s system looks and feels like it’s years ahead of the curve.”

‘The Global Digital Health 100’, an annual award sponsored by the reputable Journal of Health, recognized DarioHealth as a leader among health technology companies demonstrating the greatest potential to change the way that health care is delivered.

Diamond Lake Minerals Inc. (OTC: DLMI)

Diamond Lake Minerals Inc. (OTC: DLMI) is a multi-strategy operating company offering traditional investors an entry point to the future of digital securities. The company’s goal, through its established M&A roadmap, is to responsibly innovate and develop promising businesses that are likely to benefit from the ongoing shift toward digital assets. Through this approach, Diamond Lake Minerals provides traditional investors an opportunity to gain exposure to the emergence of regulated digital securities through a more familiar investment vehicle – the purchase of stock.

Founded in 1954 and headquartered in Salt Lake City, Diamond Lake Minerals is positioning itself as a leader in the digital asset and security token space. The company’s mission is to bring back to the public markets timeless business principles focused on healthy, sustainable growth and strong earnings with a goal of creating value for stakeholders in the modern digital world.

Diamond Lake Minerals believes the future of financial markets is set to be revolutionized by tokenization. Tokenization refers to the use of digital assets that can be traded via protocols with instantaneous settlement and reduced fees, eliminating the need for traditional clearing or settlement processes. Beyond efficiency, the emerging landscape emphasizes transparency, liquidity and security in asset management and investment.

With the backing of Esposito Intellectual Enterprises and its 20+ years of experience, Diamond Lake Minerals has access to the expertise of 110+ companies and 200+ joint ventures, along with knowledge spanning 25+ industries. The company is creating a vertically integrated ecosystem that encompasses various high-growth sectors. This integration aims to maximize operational efficiencies and profitability across all business units.

Products & Services Portfolio

Diamond Lake Minerals, guided by its strategic partnerships and future roadmap, envisions a diverse portfolio across multiple industries, as shown in the overview below. The company is poised to redefine the conglomerate model for the 21st century, with a focus on vertical integration, digital securities and sustainable growth.

Its target market segments include:

• Fashion: DLMI seeks stakes in brands blending timeless aesthetics with tech influences.
• Beauty: DLMI eyes partnerships with innovators elevating beauty through sustainable practices.
• Real Estate: DLMI aims for interests in ventures modernizing property transactions via blockchain.
• Hospitality: DLMI’s vision includes associations with enterprises enhancing guest experiences via tech integration.
• Liquor: DLMI aspires to collaborate with unique distillers merging tradition and innovation.
• IoT: DLMI intends to invest in solutions seamlessly connecting the digital and physical worlds.
• Wireless: DLMI envisions stakes in wireless tech optimizing global communication.
• Technology: DLMI plans to back pioneers driving the next tech revolution.
• Maritime: DLMI seeks partnerships in maritime solutions emphasizing green initiatives.
• Aviation: DLMI’s strategy includes holdings in aviation innovators focusing on efficiency.
• Aerospace: DLMI aims to support ventures pushing boundaries in space exploration.
• Education: DLMI collaborates with platforms revolutionizing learning through tech.
• Charity: DLMI eyes alliances with charitable entities leveraging transparency via blockchain.
• Healthcare: DLMI foresees investments in healthcare tech personalizing patient care.
• TV: DLMI intends stakes in TV platforms innovating content delivery.
• Film: DLMI aspires to support filmmakers merging storytelling with immersive tech.
• Music: DLMI plans interests in music ventures amplifying artists through digital platforms.
• Entertainment: DLMI targets stakes in platforms redefining entertainment paradigms.
• IP: DLMI envisions collaborations safeguarding intellectual properties via tech solutions.
• Data Management: DLMI seeks ventures optimizing data utilization and insights.
• Data Storage: DLMI’s roadmap includes alliances with secure data storage solutions.
• Streaming: DLMI intends to back streaming platforms prioritizing user experience.
• Real World Assets: DLMI eyes investments translating tangible assets into digital value.
• Gold & Silver: DLMI aims for stakes in platforms digitizing precious metal trading.
• Sports: DLMI envisions collaborations enhancing sports experiences via tech integration.
• Sports Technology: DLMI seeks ventures revolutionizing athlete performance and fan engagement.
• Water: DLMI plans to back solutions ensuring water sustainability and accessibility.
• Water Treatment: DLMI targets investments in eco-friendly water purification technologies.
• Animation: DLMI eyes stakes in animation houses blending art with cutting-edge tech.
• Studio Production: DLMI’s vision includes support for studios transforming content creation.
• Consumer Products: DLMI seeks partnerships with brands prioritizing consumer-centric innovations.
• Collectables: DLMI envisions collaborations with platforms digitizing unique collectibles.
• Digital Assets: DLMI aims to invest in ventures maximizing the potential of digital ownership.
• Web3: DLMI aspires to back pioneers ushering in the decentralized web era.
• Identity Management: DLMI eyes solutions prioritizing user identity security in the digital space.
• Media & Journalists: DLMI seeks alliances promoting unbiased reporting and content democratization.
• Metaverse: DLMI envisions stakes in ventures crafting immersive virtual universes.
• Space Economy: DLMI targets investments in ventures monetizing space exploration.
• Modular Homes: DLMI plans interests in solutions revolutionizing home construction.
• Financial Technology: DLMI seeks partnerships modernizing financial transactions.
• Gaming: DLMI aims to back game developers enhancing user immersion.
• Travel: DLMI eyes collaborations transforming travel experiences through tech.
• Health & Wellness: DLMI’s strategy includes investments in holistic health tech solutions.
• Augmented Reality: DLMI envisions stakes in AR platforms blurring reality and digital.
• AI: DLMI seeks to support AI innovations humanizing tech interactions.
• Esports: DLMI targets investments in platforms amplifying esports experiences.
• Construction: DLMI plans to back ventures modernizing construction practices.
• Virtual Reality: DLMI intends stakes in VR platforms offering alternate realities.
• Retail Tech: DLMI envisions collaborations digitizing retail experiences.
• Biotechnology: DLMI seeks ventures pushing boundaries in biotech innovations.

Market Opportunity

According to Diamond Lake Minerals’ business plan executive summary, the market for digital securities is projected to grow from $10 billion in 2022 to $1 trillion by 2028, a CAGR of 45% for the forecast period.

The global blockchain market value is expected to grow from an estimated $3 billion in 2020 to $39.7 billion by 2025, marking a CAGR of 67.3% for the period. Valued at $2.28 billion in 2021, the Security Token Offerings market is projected to grow at a CAGR of 19%. This growth is expected to be driven by the rising adoption of tokenization and the increasing prominence of STOs, especially in North America.

In addition, the global investment management market is projected to grow from a value of $100 trillion in 2020 to $178 trillion by 2025, recording a CAGR of 7.2% over the period.

Management Team

Brian J. Esposito is CEO of Diamond Lake Minerals. As founder and CEO of Esposito Intellectual Enterprises LLC, he brings over 20 years of diverse experience in sectors like manufacturing, technology, music and real estate, and is known for his global executive networking and balance sheet optimization skills.

Michael Reynolds is President and Director of Diamond Lake Minerals. With 35 years in private finance and M&A, he has been instrumental in growing companies like Herbalife through reverse acquisition, as well as elevating JB Oxford to $120 million in revenue. His expertise in operational management and business development ensures professional solutions for clients’ business interests.

Jon Karas is DLMI’s senior transaction and investment executive. As the CEO and co-founder of Akon Legacy Ventures, he structured, negotiated and closed numerous transactions focused on innovation and social impact in smart cities, blockchain, agriculture, mining and technology. He co-founded and led multiple companies in media and entertainment and was the driving force behind the development, financing and production of a broad range of film and television content.

Advisory Board

Anthony Scaramucci, Founder and Managing Partner of SkyBridge Capital and Chairman of SALT, brings to Diamond Lake Minerals unparalleled expertise in finance, technology and business strategy. He is expected to be instrumental in shaping DLMI’s strategic direction as the company continues to redefine the future of traditional and digital securities.

Larry Namer, Founder of E! Entertainment TV and President of Metan Global, boasts a remarkable career spanning more than half a century. He is an esteemed veteran of the entertainment industry, renowned for his influential contributions to cable television, live events, music and new media. He also leads LJN Media, a consulting firm known for its cross-industry expertise in technology, business and finance.

Andrew Fromm is a seasoned CEO and consultant with a focus on music publishing. He is known for his expertise in asset sales, songwriting and artist development. His extensive network extends beyond the music industry, showcasing his versatility and authority in the field.

Brandon Fugal is the Chairman of Colliers International in Utah and a former EY Entrepreneur of the Year. He has co-founded multiple ventures, including Coldwell Banker Commercial Advisors, Cypher, Axcend and Texas Growth Fund, and he is a recognized authority in real estate and entrepreneurship.

Michael Malik Sr. is a Detroit-based entrepreneur with a $750 million net worth, known for his pivotal role in legalizing gambling and developing major casino projects across the U.S., including Detroit’s MotorCity Casino and various Native American gaming ventures. He brings to Diamond Lake Minerals a wealth of experience and a proven track record in the gaming, sporting and entertainment industries spanning over five decades.

Raul Leal is an experienced CEO in the hospitality sector, known for his visionary leadership at SH Hotels & Resorts and former role at Virgin Hotels, where he secured over $500 million in funding and revolutionized guest experiences.

Agnes Budzyn, an accomplished entrepreneur and CEO of Bluedge Ventures, brings to the company a rich history in traditional finance and blockchain technology, serving on various global boards and committees. She has been recognized by the World Economic Forum and numerous institutions for her expertise and contributions to bridging legacy finance with emerging digital asset infrastructure.

Data443 Risk Mitigation Inc. (OTC: ATDS)

Data443 Risk Mitigation Inc. (OTC: ATDS) is a data security and privacy software company for ALL THINGS DATA SECURITY™. The company is committed to organizing the world’s information by identifying and protecting all sensitive data regardless of location, platform or format.

Data443 provides software and services to enable secure data across devices and databases – at rest and in transit – locally, on a network, or in the cloud. With over 10,000 customers in more than 100 countries, Data443 provides a modern approach to data governance and security. The company’s framework helps customers prioritize risk, identify security gaps, and implement effective data protection and privacy management strategies.

Data443 derives revenue primarily from contracts for subscriptions to access its SaaS platforms, and ancillary services provided in connection with its subscription services. In today’s ever-changing environment with unique and complex requirements for data privacy, governance and hybrid workforces, every organization needs to know where all their data is, who has access to it and how sensitive it is. Data443 provides the tools needed to give companies control over their data processing activities, with capabilities for identifying, reporting and migrating or deleting sensitive data.

The company is headquartered in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina.

Products

Focused on data security with a privacy-forward methodology, the Data443 product suite delivers solutions designed to securely manage data and data privacy needs on-premises, in the cloud and in hybrid environments. Offerings include:

• Data Identification Manager reduces risk by shining a light on dark data across cloud, on-premises and hybrid environments. From a centralized dashboard, Data Identification Manager provides the ability to automatically inventory all data repositories, classify and tag all data, and enable global search and discovery – all through an agentless deployment.
• Data Placement Manager quickly and securely transfers sensitive data over any public or private network. Available as an HP Nonstop server-based application and for Windows, Linux or any public cloud provider, Data Placement Manager enables the scheduling, routing, formatting and transfer of business-critical data.
• Data Archive Manager is an “all information, anywhere” archiving solution designed to handle and manage all types of privacy requests across cloud, on-premises and hybrid environments. With over 15 years operational history and hundreds of clients managing millions of mailboxes, the platform is purpose-built for information archiving, retention and privacy request management.
• Data Hound™ is a data discovery, classification and capture toolset that enables organizations to perform quick scans, detailed reporting and subsequent data actions based on policy.
• Ransomware Recovery Manager is the only industry solution that actively recovers the device, operating system and data with a simple reboot. Using patented, proven technology, the product produces 100% effectiveness for the whole device and datasets.
• Access Control Manager provides user ID and passwordless access to quickly enable trust across an organization’s entire ecosystem. Its unique architecture allows it to leverage multiple distributed authoritative sources to understand and resolve a typical access request – with the ability to enable or deny the action on the fly.
• Global Privacy Manager provides organizations one comprehensive view, for all privacy requirements, across all enterprise data, all at once. This unmatched visibility into an organization’s data assets ensures that all private and sensitive data can be identified and protected and that enterprises can obey all relevant privacy laws in any jurisdiction.
• Sensitive Content Manager is a security-centric collaboration service designed to give organizations the tools needed for successful content sharing, collaboration and safe distribution with full enterprise management in mind. With a continuous sync feature, encrypted data is automatically downloaded and updated in real time – regardless of location – ensuring that users have the most accurate data available.

Market Outlook

A report from Allied Market Research estimates that the global data security market was worth about $19 billion in 2021 and is projected to reach a value of $54.23 billion by 2027. That represents a CAGR of more than 18% for the forecast period, making data security one of the hottest areas within IT.

Separately, Fortune Business Insights estimates the global data privacy software market is valued at $2.36 billion in 2022 and projects it will grow to $25.85 billion by 2029. That represents a CAGR of 40.8% over the forecast period.

Management Team

Jason Remillard is President, CEO and Founder of Data443. He is responsible for overseeing global expansion, management, execution and corporate development. With over 25 years in global enterprise and B2C software sales and marketing, he brings deep leadership and technical experience, having spent previous time at Fortune 500 companies such as Deutsche Bank, TD Bank, IBM & Merrill Lynch.

Greg McCraw is CFO at Data443. He has over 25 years of experience helping businesses strengthen their accounting and finance operations. He previously served as Vice President of Finance for a dental services organization active in acquisitions, and, prior to that, he was managing director of a boutique accounting and finance consulting firm advising Fortune 500 clients in pharmaceutical, financial services, and private equity sectors on how to execute on regulatory and compliance solutions.

Bennett Pursell is Data443’s Chief Technology Officer. He has over 20 years of experience in IT architecture, security governance and systems integration. Prior to his role at Data443, he served as Head of Technology Architecture at Moody’s Investor Services and was Vice President and Technical Architect of Cloud Computing at Deutsche Bank, along with a host of technical and project management roles dating back to 2006, after starting his career as a web developer with a few startups and running research labs.

Kirill Kashigin is Chief Software Architect at Data443. He leads the development and quality teams, and serves as technical adviser and subject matter expert, bringing vast technical knowledge on privacy management and data security. Formerly the CTO of FileFacets, he has nearly 20 years in development of high-performance systems and deployment.

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.

Electronic Servitor Publication Network Inc. (OTCQB: XESP)

Electronic Servitor Publication Network Inc. (OTCQB: XESP) is a digital engagement company offering a managed service which provides digital activation and engagement solutions to companies that seek to optimize their growth. Its managed service is powered by a proven, proprietary technology – the Digital Engagement Engine™. This technology provides intelligent interaction management, dynamic content provisioning, and a logic-driven workflow, which creates digital experiences that accelerate an audience from awareness to action – driving growth.

Electronic Servitor Publication Network’s services are designed to drive growth for both established and developing organizations. Through the optimization of digital interactions within current and new communities, the Digital Engagement Engine™ ensures that client content is relevant, reaches the right audience, and connects with the intended person at the right time.

The company calls it ‘Growth as a Service’.

Client implementation is nearly effortless, since the solution is completely managed by the Electronic Servitor Publication Network team. This business model allows clients to focus on their brands, core product offerings, and content creation, while the company manages the technology and outcome.

The company is headquartered in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Technology

Electronic Servitor Publication Network’s Digital Engagement Engine™ utilizes a combination of automation, unique data management, and a modern workflow built on a microservices architecture to achieve greater reach and lift. Using sophisticated data analysis and smart technology, the Digital Engagement Engine™ provides companies with the ability to maintain complete control of their content while creating meaningful relationships with new customers and revenue streams.

The Digital Engagement Engine™ isn’t just another marketing or technology tool; it’s a way to develop real connections with target markets.

Market Outlook

According to a report by ReportLinker.com, an award-winning market research firm, the global customer engagement solutions market was estimated at $19.3 billion in 2022 and is forecast to grow to $32.2 billion by 2027, achieving a CAGR of 10.8% during the forecast period.

The report notes that these engagement solutions are vital to companies seeking to widen their customer bases, reduce customer churn rates and increase customer retention. These perceived benefits of customer engagement solutions are likely to drive their growing adoption around the globe during the forecast period, according to the report.

Management Team

Peter Hager is President and CEO of Electronic Servitor. He joined the company from Pointward Inc., a medtech customer engagement agency that provided solutions to drive market entry, growth, and commercialization for Fortune 500 health care brands and medtech startups. He has founded and managed multiple technology, professional services and medtech organizations throughout his career. Mr. Hager holds a bachelor’s degree from Macalester College in St. Paul, Minnesota, with concentrations in economics and psychology.

Jim Kellogg is CFO of Electronic Servitor. He has served as the principal of J. Kellogg & Company Inc., a business and tax consultant, since 2005. He has provided legal support to clients’ business valuations, business interruption and divorce property valuations. He has worked as a professional tax adviser since 1983. Mr. Kellogg obtained his JD with emphasis on taxation from Western State University College of Law and was certified as a financial planner by the College for Financial Planning in 1990.

Thomas (Denny) Spruce, RPh, is COO of Electronic Servitor. He oversees company infrastructure, regulatory reporting, and strategic partner relationships, among other roles and responsibilities. He joined the company in March 2022 and, since that time, has implemented foundational support processes, developed contractual relationships with service providers, managed financial and regulatory reporting and overseen contract development and management with the legal team. Mr. Spruce obtained a BS in Pharmacy from the University of Arkansas.

ECGI Holdings Inc. (OTC: ECGI)

ECGI Holdings Inc. (OTC: ECGI) is a diversified holding company with a distinctive portfolio encompassing viticulture and luxury fashion. The company owns and manages a five-acre vineyard in Lake County, California, specializing in cultivating the Petite Sirah varietal, known for its bold and rich character, aligning with the growing demand for unique and high-quality wine experiences.

In the fashion sector, ECGI has strategically invested in Pacific Saddlery, a premier manufacturer and retailer of luxury equestrian tack, apparel and accessories. This unique blend of wine and fashion investments reflects ECGI Holdings’ commitment to delivering sophistication and innovation across diverse markets, positioning the company as a distinctive player in the intersection of technology, viticulture and luxury lifestyle.

Moving forward, ECGI Holdings is focused on identifying and capitalizing on growth opportunities that align with the company’s business objectives and continuing to improve its financial structure. In 2024, ECGI Holdings was approved by Evolve — a distinguished name in vacation rental management. This partnership will transform the company’s 40-acre Lake County property into a luxurious short-term rental destination aptly named Vintner’s Caldera Ranch.

ECGI Holdings is excited about the possibilities that Vintner’s Caldera Ranch creates for shareholders and looks forward to further developments poised to unlock the value of other underutilized assets. The company believes that it is laying a solid foundation for sustained success and profitability in the years to come.

ECGI Holdings is headquartered in Irvine, California.

Operational Philosophy

ECGI Holdings has embarked on an ambitious new vision and strategic direction to build and nurture luxury brands that resonate with its core values and market aspirations. Its joint venture with Pacific Saddlery epitomizes ECGI Holdings’ strategic shift toward luxury branding, leveraging Pacific Saddlery’s tangible and established market presence in equestrian products.

This transition will also allow ECGI Holdings to explore new pathways to monetize its underutilized assets, including the company’s vineyard. A key highlight of the company’s future outlook is the debut of Pacific Saddlery’s new mobile retail boutique at specific equestrian events in 2024. This innovative venture represents a significant step in ECGI Holdings’ strategy to enhance brand visibility and engage directly with the company’s target market.

In addition, the Vintner’s Caldera Ranch development marks a significant step in advancing the company’s strategy to revitalize and leverage underutilized assets. Vintner’s Caldera Ranch is set against the backdrop of Lake County’s breathtaking scenery, offering an exclusive getaway experience that blends natural beauty with luxury. Choosing Evolve is a strategic move to ensure that Vintner’s Caldera Ranch not only meets but exceeds the high standards of service that luxury guests expect.

Evolve’s expertise in maximizing rental potential and delivering exceptional guest experiences is crucial to the company’s vision of making Vintner’s Caldera Ranch a preferred choice for discerning travelers. With this venture, ECGI Holdings is not only expanding its footprint within the luxury rental marketplace, but also contributing to the local economy and enhancing the appeal of Lake County as a tourist destination.

The company’s focus remains steadfast on strategic growth, operational excellence and customer satisfaction.

Market Outlook

A report from Grand View Research, a global market research and consulting company, estimated the value of the worldwide luxury brands market at $366.23 billion in 2023 and projects the market to grow to a value of $580.43 billion by 2030, achieving a CAGR of 6.8% over the forecast period.

Rising disposable income and wealth in various regions of the world, particularly in emerging markets such as China and India, have propelled the growth of the market, according to the report.

Younger consumers, such as millennials and Generation Z, are increasingly entering the luxury market, driving demand for more contemporary and experiential luxury offerings. The rise of social media and influencer marketing has greatly impacted the visibility and desirability of luxury products, the report states.

Management Team

Jamie Steigerwald is CEO of ECGI Holdings, Inc. He is a successful entrepreneur with over 30 years of experience. Most recently, he was COO of Sugarmade Inc. (OTC: SGMD), a California cannabis real estate, cultivation, manufacturing and services company. He is the owner of SwiftLead, an Orange County web marketing, design and development company. He previously was COO for First USA Home Loans, a retail mortgage lender, and co-founder and President of SwiftLead Software, a mortgage lead tracking system.

Nick Collins is CEO at Pacific Saddlery. He brings over 25 years of expertise in equestrian luxury goods. He previously founded Rolling Meadows and created the Allon Equestrian and Renard et Cheval apparel brands. He was instrumental in creating and launching Kaval.com, an online equestrian apparel and accessories site.

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.

Emperor Metals Inc. (CSE: AUOZ) (FRA:9NH) (OTCQB: EMAUF)

Emperor Metals Inc. (CSE: AUOZ) (FRA:9NH) (OTCQB: EMAUF) is an advanced stage gold exploration company focused on proving and developing the substantial resource potential of its flagship Duquesne West Gold Project located in the Tier 1 district of the Southern Abitibi Greenstone belt of Rouyn-Noranda, Quebec. The Project has a 2011 historical mineral resource estimate of 727,000 ounces of Au at 5.42 g/t and an average thickness of 5.71 m*.

In 2023, with the use of AI (Artificial Intelligence), Emperor Metals created the first ever 3D mineralized and geological model, which illuminated the potential to add significant ounces to this deposit. Using these models, Emperor’s had a very successful 2023 drilling campaign of 8,579 m. In addition to laterally extending high grade zones by intercepting grades of 15.8 g/t Au over 10.8 meters, Emperor encountered intercepts of lower grade bulk tonnage in the host rocks (1.69 g/t Au over 25 m). This led to envisioning a different strategy of exploration and the revelation that a conceptual open-pit potentially overlies this high-grade gold deposit. Historic core sampling began (2,500 m) for discovering overlooked lower grade gold in the host rock around the high-grade lenses. Lower grade bulk tonnage gold improves the open-pit economics by reducing stripping ratios and adding overlooked incremental ounces for open pit mining.

Emperor Metals is set to begin a fully funded Phase II 8,000 m drilling program in May 2024. The company also plans on assaying an additional 8,000 m of historic core within the open pit model. Emperor is working toward producing an updated NI 43-101 Mineral Resource Estimate by Q1 2025.

The company is led by a dynamic group of resource sector professionals who have a strong record of success in evaluating and advancing mining projects from exploration through to production, attracting capital and overcoming adversity to deliver exceptional shareholder value.

Project

Emperor Metals has an option to earn 100% ownership of the Duquesne West Gold Project, a mineral claim package comprising 38 claims covering approximately 1,389 ha (3,432 acres) in Quebec.

The Duquesne West Gold Property is located 32 kilometers northwest of the city of Rouyn-Noranda and 10 kilometers east of the town of Duparquet. The property lies within the historic Duparquet gold mining camp in the southern portion of the Abitibi Greenstone Belt in the Superior Province.

Emperor is targeting the potential multimillion-ounce resource in a combination of conceptual open pit and underground mining scenarios. A Phase I drill campaign and historical core sampling program was completed in 2023, which included resource confirmation and exploration drilling, focusing on delineating and growing the resource toward development.

The property hosts a historical inferred mineral resource estimate of 727,000 ounces of gold at a grade of 5.42 grams per ton (g/t) and average stope thickness of 5.71 m. The mineral resource estimate predates modern Canadian Institute of Mining guidelines, and a Qualified Person on behalf of Emperor Metals has not reviewed or verified the mineral resource estimate. Therefore, it is considered historical in nature and is reported solely to provide an indication of the magnitude of mineralization that could be present on the property. The gold system remains open for resource identification and expansion.

Reinterpretation of the existing geological model was created using artificial intelligence and machine learning. This AI model shows the opportunity for additional discovery of ounces by revealing gold trends unknown to previous workers and the potential to expand the resource along significant gold-endowed structural zones. Multiple scenarios exist to expand additional resources, which include:

• Underground High-Grade Gold
• Open Pit Bulk Tonnage Gold
• Underground Bulk Tonnage Gold

The Duquesne West-Ottoman property straddles the Porcupine-Destor gold localizing fault several kilometers east of the town of Duparquet. A number of previous drill campaigns have outlined an inferred resource of 4.17 million tons grading 5.42 g/t of gold (cut) or 6.36 g/t (uncut), as reported in the NI 43-101 report titled “Technical Report and Mineral Resource Estimate Update for the Duquesne-Ottoman Property, Quebec, Canada.”

Emperor Metals is funded for an 8,000-meter drilling program focusing primarily on adding ounces to the current resource within and lateral to the open pit model. An additional 8,000 m of historical core sampling and assaying is included in the budget to help build incremental ounces in the open-pit environment.

Market Opportunity

The World Gold Council, the industry association for the world’s gold producers, estimated in 2023 the physical financial gold market, which is made up of bars, coins, gold ETFs and central bank reserves, to be worth nearly $5 trillion.

The council reports that gold mine production adds approximately 3,500 tons of the precious metal to the world’s supply annually, equivalent to about 2% growth. This historical scarcity and relatively slow production of new supply, as compared to other commodities, is a primary reason gold has retained its value for millennia, according to the council.

In May 2024, the market price of gold was approximately $2,340 per ounce.

Management Team

John Florek, P.Geol., is President, CEO and Director of Emperor Metals. He has more than 35 years of technical and senior management experience with major and junior mining companies, including roles as founder, vice president and director. He has helped identify and develop significant asset value for mines and exploration projects from grass roots through development. He has worked for several major mineral producers, including BHP, Placer Dome, Barrick, Teck and Detour Gold/Kirkland Lake Gold/Agnico Eagle.

Sean Mager is CFO and Director of Emperor Metals. He has worked more than 30 years in the mining sector, including extensive experience in corporate development, stakeholder relations, regulatory, financial and operations.

Alex Horsley is Head of Corporate Development and Director of Emperor Metals. He has more than 20 years of experience in the mining sector and capital markets with a focus on finance, marketing, management, corporate development and communications. He is founder and former CEO of Emperor Metals. He has assisted in raising more than C$40 million for exploration and development mining companies.

*Power-Fardy and Breede, 2011. The Mineral Resource Estimate (MRE) constructed in 2011 is considered historical in nature as it was constructed prior to the most recent Canadian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy (CIM) standards (2014) and guidelines (2019) for mineral resources. In addition, the economic factors used to demonstrate reasonable prospects of eventual economic extraction for the MRE have changed since 2011. A qualified person has not done sufficient work to consider the MRE as current. Emperor is not treating the historical MRE as current. The reader is cautioned not to treat it, or any part of it, as a current MRE.

Energy and Water Development Corp. (OTCQB: EAWD)

Energy and Water Development Corp. (OTCQB: EAWD) is a green-tech engineering solutions company focused on delivering water and energy to extreme environments. The company builds water and energy systems out of already existing, proven technologies, utilizing its patent-pending systems configuration and technical know-how to customize solutions to meet clients’ needs. To date, two water systems have been sold and deployed in Mexico and Germany, and the company is working to fulfill additional orders.

Using its patent-pending design, EAWD is working to build and operate off-grid EV charging stations in Germany. The company is a United Nations-accredited vendor and offers design, construction, maintenance and specialty consulting services to private companies, government entities and non-government organizations for the sustainable supply of energy and water.

EAWD focuses on three main aspects of the water and energy business: (1) generation, (2) supply and (3) maintenance. The green tech industry is constantly evolving due to ongoing and increasing water scarcity, as well as increased energy needs in the world. Therefore, the company believes that by designing sustainable and renewable solutions to these problems, EAWD will become an essential component of a rapidly growing industry with many new markets.

EAWD’s approach seeks to assist businesses with the growth and development of their general operations by ensuring the efficient, profitable and sustainable supply and generation of water and energy, allowing its potential customers to focus on their business while adopting strategies of sustainability.

By using the state-of-the-art technological solutions and technologies identified, designed and provided by EAWD and its collaborators, the company believes that its potential clients will be free to focus on the performance of their operations, as well as with the water and energy consumption or generation regulations within their industries.

EAWD is headquartered in Saint Petersburg, Florida, with operations in Germany and Mexico.

Products

In view of the increased worldwide demand for water and energy, EAWD’s business goals are focused on self-sufficient energy-supplied water generation and green energy production. To accomplish this, the company set out to establish an outsourcing green tech platform to commercialize its state-of-the-art technologies while providing engineering and technical consultation services to design the most sustainable technological solutions that can provide water and energy.

The company has sought potential collaboration with green tech research and development centers in Europe and has established its operating subsidiaries in Hamburg, Germany, where EAWD has started to assemble its patent-pending innovative off-grid, self-sufficient energy supply atmosphere water generation (AWG) systems.

EAWD Deutschland and EAWD Logistik operate in Hamburg, Germany, to meet the increasing demands of water and energy generation projects around the world, as well as to operate the solar-powered EAWD Off-Grid EV Charging Stations, EAWD’s newest product.

The company expects to offer sustainable added value to each project it takes on, while generating revenue from the sale of EAWD Off-Grid AWG Systems, EAWD Off-Grid EV Charging Stations, EAWD Off-Grid Power Systems and EAWD Off-Grid Water Purification Systems; royalties from the commercialization of energy and water in certain cases; and licensing of its innovated technologies, along with its engineering, technical consulting and project management services.

EAWD continues to be a development stage company. It presently assembles its EAWD Off-Grid AWG Systems and EAWD Off-Grid EV Charging Stations at its workshop in Germany and outsources most of its engineering and technical services, as well as services relating to the promotion, sale and distribution of its products.

Market Opportunity

According to a report by Allied Market Research, a global market research, consulting and advisory firm, the worldwide green technology and sustainability market was valued at $10.32 billion in 2020 and is projected to reach a value of $74.64 billion by 2030, growing at a CAGR of 21.9% during the forecast period.

A surge in environmental awareness and increasing concerns among organizations and individuals about climate change drive the growth of the market. Furthermore, an increase in consumer and industrial interest for the use of clean energy resources are among some of the major factors expected to boost growth of the market in the coming years, according to the report.

The expected rise in favorable government and private initiatives to tackle climate change and air pollution represent an opportunistic factor of the market. An increase in energy consumption and rise in greenhouse gas emissions are major factors that drive the development of green technology innovations, the report states.

Management Team

Irma Velazquez is CEO and Vice Chair at EAWD. She brings certified expertise in sustainable development and large-scale project management to the company. She formerly worked for United Nations agencies including the World Health Organization, Farmaciens Sans Frontieres, Red Cross and Crescent Societies, where she served in the positions of Information Technology Manager, Sustainable Development Manager, Programme Manager and Disaster and Crisis Management Coordinator. She has a master’s in sciences from the Erasmus University of Rotterdam. She speaks French, English and Spanish.

Ralph Hofmeier is Chief Technology Officer and Chairman at EAWD. He brings a mechanical engineering background to the company and previously served as President of Powermax Energy & Business Solutions Inc. When that company merged with EAWD, he served as President and CEO of Directors of EAWD. Over the last 20 years, he has established and developed several multinational companies in green tech distribution and commercialization. He speaks German and English.

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) (OTCQX: EVGIF)

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

Exro Technologies Inc. (TSX: XRO) (OTCQB: EXROF)

Exro Technologies Inc. (TSX: XRO) (OTCQB: EXROF), a Canadian technology company, is an innovative pioneer in the energy sector. Exro has developed and commercialized an electric power module (EPM) that integrates into existing motor systems to make them smarter. Exro’s patented technology optimizes existing motor performance by automatically sensing and adapting operating parameters to an optimized state, creating measurable efficiency gains, reduced mechanical components and increased system availability.

Applications

Exro’s technology and efficiency optimization algorithms improve the performance and efficiency of electric motors by manipulating power delivery to individual coils, thereby enabling the ability to expand operating parameters. This novel approach is scalable and can be utilized in most variable torque applications.

The widespread applications of Exro’s technology apply to optimizing the performance of electric vehicles, locomotive traction applications, industrial motors, and other variable torque applications that benefit from smart energy conversion.

Intellectual Property

Exro’s proprietary, patented software controls electric motor coils through individual coil switching. This introduction of intelligence into energy conversion at the level of individual coils results in expanded speed/torque capability, improved machine efficiency, reliability, safety and maintenance across a wider operating range. Exro’s advanced control algorithms create smart, real-time optimized power management.

Exro currently holds 15 patents, with 8 patents pending and additional patents under development. The company continues to expand its IP portfolio to support its goal of becoming a globally recognized leader in leveraging advanced control algorithms to improve the performance, efficiency and longevity of electric motors and generators.

Market Opportunity

Electric motors are the single biggest consumer of electricity. They account for about two-thirds of industrial power consumption and about 45% of global power consumption, according to an analysis by the International Energy Agency. Exro’s technology seeks to give industries a new way to look at energy—from electric vehicles, to industrial equipment, to renewable applications like wind farms; we are improving the way energy is consumed.

Laboratory Expansion

The 6,500-square-foot Exro Innovation Center (EIC), scheduled to open spring of 2020 in Calgary, will transition the current Victoria lab into one Calgary based center. The company’s new laboratory space will expand its service capabilities to customers, provide larger test capabilities, and showcase how Exro’s technology can be applied to dramatically improve the performance of electrical motors.

The EIC will also host collaborative events to explore advances in energy consumption and electric motor innovations, with participants from across Canada and around the world.

Strategic Partnerships

• A strategic agreement with Finland’s Aurora Powertrains Oy, which in 2019 released an all-electric production snowmobile called the “eSled,” will see Exro’s technology added to the Aurora electric powertrain. The snowmobile sector’s economic footprint is estimated at $26 billion in the U.S., $8 billion in Canada, and $5 billion in Europe and Asia.
• An agreement with Potencia in Mexico serving the last mile vehicle segment will integrate Exro’s custom drive and EPM module into small passenger commercial vehicles (taxis) and fleet delivery trucks
• A licensing agreement with Motorino Electric, a leader in the Canadian electric transportation industry, will integrate Exro’s Electric Power Module technology into Motorino’s CTi electric bicycle.

Management

Chief Executive Officer Sue Ozdemir is a proven leader in the innovation and manufacturing of electric motors. She has nine years of accomplishments at General Electric, acting as CCO and the CEO of GE’s Small Industrial Motors Division, overseeing the division’s North American and international markets – ultimately building the division into a $160 million enterprise.

Chief Commercial Officer Josh Sobil is leading the seamless adoption of Exro’s growing product portfolio focused on the mobility segment and opening doors in all segments including agriculture, heavy industry, energy, construction, among others.

Executive Chairman Mark Godsy is a serial technology entrepreneur who has been involved in many top tier ventures, including two of Canada’s most successful biotech companies.

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.

First Tellurium Corp. (CSE: FTEL) (OTCQB: FSTTF)

First Tellurium Corp. (CSE: FTEL) (OTCQB: FSTTF) is committed to exploring for and providing essential and critical metals, including tellurium, gold, silver, copper and tungsten, for North American markets. This objective is anchored by the company’s Deer Horn tellurium-gold-silver-copper project in British Columbia, Canada, and further enhanced by its property option on the Klondike tellurium-gold prospect located in Colorado, USA.

First Tellurium’s unique business model is to generate revenue and value through mineral discovery, project development, project generation and cooperative access to untapped mineral regions in indigenous territory with sustainable exploration potential.

The company is headquartered in Vancouver, British Columbia.

Tellurium and the Green Energy Revolution

Tellurium has a key role to play in the ongoing green energy revolution. It is widely used in the manufacturing of photovoltaic cells for solar panels.

Despite this utility, ongoing trade tensions between China and the U.S. create implications for both tellurium and the production of cadmium-tellurium solar cells. Earlier this year, China announced plans to restrict exports of critical metals gallium and germanium, both essential for the production of semiconductors. For reference, China produces around 80% of the world’s gallium and approximately 60% of the world’s germanium.

China’s recent trade restrictions amplify the fragility of the North American tellurium supply, as the Asian nation currently produces about 60% of the world’s tellurium. This sustained supply vulnerability is why First Solar, the United States’ largest solar panel producer, set up a worldwide search for tellurium deposits in the mid-2000s.

“In North America alone, our understanding is that First Solar looked at over a hundred tellurium properties,” First Tellurium CEO Tyrone Docherty stated in a news release. “Their number one property by far, which they acquired, was the Colorado Klondike which we now control.”

The U.S. is now looking to secure safe, domestic sources of tellurium and many other critical metals to pre-empt potential shortages. The Biden administration has instituted a stream of policies, particularly the U.S. Inflation Reduction Act, to source solar components from North America and other “friendly” jurisdictions.

As the only junior mining company in the world focused on tellurium exploration, First Tellurium is ahead of the curve in capitalizing on these initiatives to establish strategic, domestic supplies of key resources for solar panel manufacturers.

First Tellurium’s ESG Initiatives

Through its exploration and partnerships with Fenix Advanced Materials, Cheona Metals and IRMA, First Tellurium strives to generate a measurable, beneficial social or environmental impact alongside a financial return. The company conducts a diversified search for metals, working in alliance with indigenous peoples, NGOs, governments and leading metals buyers. First Tellurium believes this is the future of mineral exploration — generating revenue by exploring responsibly and leveraging diverse partnerships.

First Tellurium proudly adheres to, and supports, the principles and rights set out in the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and, in particular, the fundamental proposition of free, prior and informed consent.

Projects

Deer Horn Tellurium-Gold-Silver-Copper Project

Deer Horn is located on 51.33 square kilometers (km) in west-central British Columbia, 36 km south of the prolific Huckleberry copper-molybdenum mine and 135 km southwest of the community of Burns Lake. It is one of few significant tellurium discoveries outside Asia and includes a 2.4 km-long vein system of high-grade gold, silver and tellurium, as well as broader zones of bulk-tonnage gold, silver and tellurium mineralization. The company completed a positive Preliminary Economic Estimate and has begun permitting for a 10,000-tonne bulk sample program to advance the project toward mine feasibility. It is North America’s only silver-gold-tellurium property with an NI 43-101 compliant tellurium resource, and it hosts a number of other mineralized targets and zone containing critical metals such as copper, tungsten and zinc.

First Tellurium owns 50% of the property, with an option to acquire up to a 75% interest. The company has engaged Dias Geophysical of Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, to conduct induced polarization (IP) geophysics on the Deer Horn Project in summer 2023. The program is designed to help develop drill targets for a subsequent drilling program.

Klondike Gold-Tellurium Project

The Klondike property is located in Saguache County, Colorado, southwest of Buena Vista in the state’s historical mining district. The company reports it has engaged Burgex Mining Consultants of Sandy, Utah, to stake additional claims around the Klondike property. The claims have been filed with the Bureau of Land Management.

Klondike demonstrates exceptional tellurium grades. Tellurium, used in high-efficiency cadmium telluride (Cd-Te) solar panels, next-generation lithium-ion batteries and thermoelectric devices to change heat into energy, is an essential element for the world’s transition to green energy.

The Klondike property was a top tellurium prospect owned previously by First Solar Inc., one of the world’s largest solar panel producers. First Solar terminated its worldwide raw materials exploration program in 2012 and sold the property to Colorado Klondike LLC, which optioned the project to First Tellurium. Colorado Klondike, led by First Solar’s former Exploration Manager in North America, is managing the upcoming exploration program.

The Colorado Geological Survey (CGS), in partnership with the Colorado School of Mines, reported on First Solar’s exploration at Klondike in 2015, noting: “Surface sampling by First Solar, Inc. in 2006 found very high tellurium grades of up to 3.3% (33,000 ppm), along with locally high gold grades. Tellurium grades at Klondike were the highest encountered in the company’s nationwide exploration program.”

Market Outlook

First Tellurium in spring 2023 referenced recent forecasts by the International Energy Agency (IEA) pointing to rapid growth in solar photovoltaic (solar PV) deployment worldwide. According to the agency, solar PV installations will generate more power by 2027 than any other energy source, including coal, natural gas and hydro. To meet this demand, consumption of both silver and tellurium, key components of solar panels, is expected to surge in coming years.

Chen Lin, founder of Lin Asset Management, has written in his investment newsletter for clients that solar PV is now the largest industrial usage of silver. He said that in 2022 solar PV production used about 12% of total silver demand, or about 120 million ounces of silver. Lin expects this number to rise dramatically in the coming years, and that is likely to lead to silver supply deficits for decades to come.

Lin points out that solar power is now the cheapest source of energy in many parts of the world and that all forecasts point to dramatic expansion of solar PV in the coming two decades. Conservative estimates forecast 300 gigawatts of solar PV production by 2027, up from the current level of about 200 gigawatts.

Management Team

Tyrone Docherty is President, Director and CEO of First Tellurium Corp. He previously served as President and CEO of Quinto Mining Inc., taking over when it had a market cap of $4 million. With limited resources in a difficult market environment, he raised more than $30 million and advanced Quinto’s Quebec iron ore property to a viable project. Quinto later sold for $175 million, with Quinto management taking shares of the purchaser, Consolidated Thompson Iron Mines, amounting to approximately 20-21% of that company. Consolidated Thompson Iron Mines sold two years later for $4.9 billion, giving the former Quinto team an enterprise value of approximately $1 billion. From 2012 to 2018, Mr. Docherty was Director and Chairman of Mason Graphite Inc. He has worked in the financial and minerals markets for more than 30 years.

Tony Fogarassy, M.Sc. LL.M., is Chairman of First Tellurium Corp. He is a lawyer and a geologist. His extensive legal and technical expertise includes minerals, oil and gas, coal and renewable energy projects and environmental and aboriginal/indigenous law in North America, Africa and Asia. He graduated as gold medalist in geological sciences from the University of British Columbia and in law from the London School of Economics.

Fathom Nickel Inc. (CSE: FNI) (FSE: 6Q5) (OTCQB: FNICF)

Fathom Nickel Inc. (CSE: FNI) (FSE: 6Q5) (OTCQB: FNICF) is a Canadian natural resource development and exploration company that targets high-grade nickel sulfide discoveries for use in the rapidly growing global electric vehicle (EV) market. The company has a portfolio of two high-quality exploration projects located in the prolific Trans Hudson Corridor in Saskatchewan.

Led by a management team with more than 100 years of combined mining and exploration experience, Fathom believes in a continuing bright outlook for nickel and its increasing use in the manufacturing of batteries needed for energy storage in the high-growth renewable energy and EV industries. The company’s modern approach to exploration has yielded significant new nickel discoveries.

Fathom is headquartered in Calgary, Alberta.

Projects

The Albert Lake Project

The Albert Lake Project comprises 90,460 hectares of lands located in north-central Saskatchewan, with over 80,000 hectares currently unexplored. The project is host to the historic Rottenstone Mine, a high-grade, open pit nickel sulfide past producer that was active from 1965 to 1969 and yielded ~26,000 tonnes of 3.3% Ni, 1.8% Cu, and >9 g/t Pd-Pt+Au.

The geological setting of the Albert Lake Project is within the Trans Hudson Orogeny (Corridor), which is host to numerous world-class nickel mining camps including the Thompson Nickel Belt (currently operating with more than 5 billion pounds of nickel produced since 1959), Lynn Lake (past producer) and Raglan Nickel Belt (currently operating with more than 39,000 tons of nickel produced in 2020).

The project is fully permitted. Exploration plans for 2024 include drilling a high-priority target located approximately 2km south of the historic Rottenstone Mine along with drilling other high-priority targets. Additional soil geochemistry, surface geophysical programs and geological mapping and prospecting will be performed during the summer field season.

The Gochager Lake Project

The Gochager Lake Project in northern Saskatchewan, also in the prolific Trans Hudson Corridor, was recently expanded through the addition of the contiguous Watt’s Lake property and direct staking, bringing its total land area to 22,620 hectares.

The Gochager Lake property is host to a historic resource defined by drilling in 1966-1967 consisting of 4.2 M tons grading 0.29% Ni and 0.08% Cu. Recent drilling by Fathom has defined multiple very robust off-hole borehole electromagnetic (BHEM) responses in eight of nine holes drilled in 2023 and three historic drill holes probed. There is very strong evidence of multiple, high-grade nickel-copper-cobalt steeply oriented chutes within the historic Gochager Lake Deposit.

Prior to Fathom exploration in 2023 and since 1970, exploration at the property has been limited to small drill programs in 1989-1990 and 2018. Exploration plans for 2024 include expanded surface geophysical programs, drilling and continued BHEM surveys to expand tons and increase the grade of the historic Gochager Lake deposit. Summer exploration will consist of soil geochemistry, mapping, prospecting and additional surface geophysical programs focused on identifying other Gochager-like deposits within the current land package.

Market Opportunity

Nickel plays a crucial role in clean energy technologies, and that is expected to cause demand to well outstrip supply for the foreseeable future.

With an annual market value of around $35 billion, nickel demand is projected to rise due to its intensive use in lithium-ion batteries used to power EVs. However, new discoveries of nickel sulfide deposits (currently the most reliable source for battery-grade class 1 nickel) have been rare, which could constrain class 1 nickel supply in the coming years.

According to Deloitte’s global EV forecast, total EV sales will grow from 2.5 million in 2020 to 11.2 million in 2025, reaching 31.1 million by 2030 and representing approximately 32% of the total market share for new car sales. Over the next 10 years, the EV market is projected to see a CAGR of 29%, with increased demand for nickel expected to be comparable.

Management Team

Fathom Nickel has assembled a best-in-class leadership team consisting of highly qualified industry professionals with deep knowledge and understanding of the mineral exploration industry and capital markets.

Ian Fraser, P.Geo., is CEO, VP Exploration and Co-Founder of Fathom Nickel. He has more than 35 years of experience in mineral exploration, as well as managing and implementing exploration projects in Canada and internationally. His experience includes resource interpretation and development of the Casa Berardi Gold Mine and Komis Gold Mine, as well as the Cisneros Gold Mine in Colombia.

Doug Porter, CPA, CA, CBV, is President, CFO and Director of Fathom Nickel. He is a senior financial and accounting executive with specific emphasis in resource company management. His career includes positions with Elan Coal Ltd., Altitude Resources Ltd. and StimWrx Oilfield Services Ltd.

First Energy Metals Ltd. (CSE: FE) (OTCQB: FEMFF)

First Energy Metals Ltd. (CSE: FE) (OTCQB: FEMFF) is a publicly traded Canadian mineral exploration company. Its primary focus is on developing a multi-commodity mineral property portfolio by identifying, acquiring and exploring North American mineral prospects in the precious metal, base metal and industrial metals sectors.

Headquartered in Vancouver, the company (formerly known as “Agave Silver”) was first incorporated on October 12, 1966.

Core Properties – Augustus Lithium and Titan Gold

Located in Landrienne & Lacorne-Townships, Quebec, Canada, in an active lithium exploration/mining area, the Augustus Lithium Property and surrounding claims total 14,367.71 hectares . It is equipped with excellent infrastructure support, including a road network, railway, electricity, water and trained manpower available locally.

Other highlights of the Augustus Lithium Property include:

• Geologically similar to Sayona Mining’s Authier Lithium project and Mine Quebec Lithium project located 6-12 km away.
• Documented historical drilling over 10,000m in 62 drill holes, worth over $2 million in present day exploration expenditures.
• Two prominent lithium and one silver prospects located on the property.
• A potential high grade lithium resource target of 4 million tonnes at 1% lithium oxide (Li2O).
• Potential for large volume low grade bulk tonnage near surface.
• Two phase exploration work program includes: data compilation, geological mapping, trenching and sampling in Phase 1 (estimated cost $191,418) and diamond drilling, metallurgical testing and resource estimation in Phase 2 (estimated cost $1,166,963).

The Titan Gold Property is located in the Detour-Fenlon Greenstone Belt of east-central Quebec and is comprised of 80 mining claims totaling 4,334 hectares.

Other highlights of the Titan Gold Property include:

• The Detour-Fenlon Greenstone Belt is host to the Detour Mine containing 20 million ounces of gold. The Fenlon Project of Wallbridge Mining has also reported strong high-grade gold intercepts and a successful high-grade (18.49 g/t Au) bulk sample.
• Hosted within a structurally active geological environment with several northwest trending deformation zones which are splays off the Sunday Lake Deformation Zone – all key ingredients to the gold mineralization in the area.
• The property has seen little historical exploration yet sits within what is becoming a prolific recognized gold camp.

Non-Core Properties – Kokanee Creek Gold and Scramble Mine Properties

The Kokanee Creek Gold Property consists of three mineral claims covering approximately 1,590.29 hectares in the Nelson Mining Division in British Columbia.

Other highlights of the Kokanee Creek Gold Property include:

• Gold mineralization indicated in surface samples from historical work since 1979.
• Subsurface gold mineralization discovered in drill holes.
• Continuity of mineralized zones indicated through geological mapping, geochemical and geophysical survey.
• Past producing mines in the vicinity, including the Molly Gibson and the Alpine deposits.
• Historical production reported for the Molly Gibson Mine from 1909-1940 was at an average grade of 36.1 g/t Au and 15.3 g/t silver, with recent exploration returning samples running up to 270 g/t Au.
• Revived exploration on the Alpine deposit area has reported a 2018 inferred resource of 142,000 oz at 16.52 g/t Au using a cut-off grade of 5.0 g/t.

First Energy Metals also holds an option to acquire a 100% interest in the Scramble Mine Gold property, located approximately 8 km east of the town of Kenora in Northwestern Ontario. The mine was discovered in 1894 but remained essentially dormant until 1984, when Boise Cascade Canada Ltd. commenced an evaluation of the property. Since 1984, approximately 5,200 meters of diamond drilling, 250 meters of surface stripping with sampling and 450 meters of underground development have taken place at the property.

Other highlights of the Scramble Mine Property uncovered as part of the company’s 2020 prospecting and sampling programs include:

• Average value of gold in surface samples is 29.34 grams per tonne (1.03 ounces per tonne).
• Gold assays ranged from 5.03 grams per tonne (0.18 oz/t) to 82.30 grams per tonne (2.90 oz/t), with two samples assayed over 2 oz/t.
• All samples assayed over 5 grams per tonne gold.

Market Outlook

The global precious metals market was valued at $193.3 billion in 2020 and is expected to grow at a CAGR of 9%, resulting in a market valuation of $362.1 billion by 2027 (https://ibn.fm/WvN9Z).

The global lithium metal market was valued at $534.6 million in 2020. Through 2027, it is expected to grow at a CAGR of 9.6%, resulting in a forecast valuation of $926.6 million (https://ibn.fm/xBXcx).

First Energy Metals is well positioned to leverage growth opportunities in these expanding sectors through exploration of both its core and non-core properties.

Management Team

Gurminder Sangha is the Chief Executive Officer and Director of First Energy Metals Ltd. He is experienced in the financial industry, focusing on providing advisory-level services to privately and publicly traded companies. Mr. Sangha brings over 18 years of diverse experience related to financial management, business leadership and corporate strategy to his role with First Energy Metals. During his tenure as a board member for various publicly traded companies, he has led initiatives related to corporate finance, business development and corporate governance. Mr. Sangha has an MBA from both Queens University and Cornell University.

Jurgen Wolf is the Chief Financial Officer and Corporate Secretary for First Energy Metals Ltd. He has been involved in the oil and gas industries for over 15 years, assisting public companies with administration and investor relations. Mr. Wolf was educated in Germany and immigrated to Canada in 1953. From 1958 to 1982, he owned and operated pre-cast concrete factories in Calgary and Vancouver. From 1982 to 2002, Mr. Wolf owned and operated J.A. Wolf Projects Ltd., a commercial construction company. He is the previous President and Director of the former US Oil and Gas Resources Inc., which amalgamated to form Petrichor Energy Inc. in 2005. Mr. Wolf retains director roles with several public 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.

Foresight Autonomous Holdings Ltd. (NASDAQ: FRSX) (TASE: FRSX)

Foresight Autonomous Holdings Ltd. (NASDAQ: FRSX) (TASE: FRSX), founded in 2015 and headquartered in Israel, is a technological innovator in automotive vision systems and driver assistance technology. Through its wholly owned subsidiary, Foresight Automotive Ltd., Foresight is engaged in the design, development and commercialization of stereo/quad-camera vision systems and V2X cellular-based solutions for the automotive industry based on 3D video analysis, advanced algorithms for image processing and sensor fusion. The company’s powerful and patented stereoscopic technology is derived from field-proven technology that has been deployed throughout the world for almost two decades.

Foresight’s innovative autonomous driving solutions are based on mature, proprietary stereoscopic image technology that uses two synchronized cameras to mimic human depth perception and produce a three-dimensional image. This 3D image can anticipate possible collisions with other vehicles, cyclists, pedestrians and other obstacles. The technology provides highly accurate real-time alerts about the vehicle’s surroundings while in motion. The systems are designed to improve driving safety by enabling highly accurate and reliable threat detection while ensuring the lowest rates of false alerts.

The company’s patents provide IP protection for its robust and proven proprietary stereoscopic technology, which was developed using the security technology of Foresight’s major shareholder, Magna B.S.P.

Foresight has developed three main products:

• QuadSight™. This breakthrough detection system sets the bar for autonomous vehicle vision. It features nearly 100 percent obstacle detection with almost zero false alerts and operates optimally under all weather and lighting conditions, including darkness, rain, fog, haze and glare. QuadSight™ is the first quad-camera multi-spectral vision solution of its kind, driven by advanced and proven image processing algorithms. The system consists of two sets of stereoscopic infra-red and visible-light cameras that enable highly accurate and reliable obstacle detection for seamless 24/7 vision.
• Eyes-On™. This solution uses advanced algorithms for accurate depth analysis and obstacle detection to provide a unique stereo vision Advanced Driver Assistance System (ADAS). It can detect all potential obstacles regardless of shape, form or material, including other vehicles, cyclists, pedestrians and animals. It has an accuracy and reliability of almost 100 percent and near zero false alerts.
• Eye-Net™. This is a cellular-based accident prevention solution that is designed to provide real-time pre-collision alerts to vehicles and pedestrians. This proprietary system is deployed on smartphones and cloud-based servers operating on existing cellular networks, and it eliminates the need for additional designated hardware. Eye-Net™ is designed to provide a complementary layer of protection to advanced driver assistance systems and extends this protection to road users who are not in direct line of sight. It is optimally designed for both urban environments and high-speed scenarios to provide protection for the most vulnerable road users. On March 28, 2018, Foresight announced that it had completed a successful feasibility study of its Eye-Net™ accident prevention solution involving 120 users of Android and iOS cell phones located across Israel.

In 2017, Foresight sought more opportunities within the international market. The Company signed pilot agreements with three leading car manufacturers in China and completed pilot projects meeting all pre-defined requirements and criteria. In addition, FRSX completed a pilot project with Uniti Sweden.

Studies by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety continue to emphasize the dramatic reduction in accidents and injury-related crashes reported when vehicles are equipped with collision avoidance systems. A recent study by the Institute states that the rate of single-vehicle, sideswipe and head-on crashes was 11 percent lower in vehicles with the warning systems. More importantly, the study shows collision avoidance technology cut the rates of injury crashes of the same type by 21 percent.

Foresight Autonomous Holdings, Inc. also holds a 32 percent interest in RailVision, a company that develops advanced systems for railway safety and maintenance. RailVision has successfully completed 13 tests in Israel, Germany, Italy and Switzerland in addition to a real-time system test with a European railway operator. Over the course of 2017, RailVision successfully completed rounds of financing totaling $5.8 million and started the process of licensing the system according to European standards.

Haim Siboni is the founder of Foresight and has served as the company’s chief executive officer and director since 2015. Siboni, a passionate entrepreneur, has an extensive background in the marketing and business management sectors in the fields of electronics, video, TV, multimedia, computerized systems, line and wireless telecommunication, design and development of systems and devices, including electro-optic radar systems. He is the founder and CEO of Magna B.S.P., Foresight’s major shareholder and a leading innovator in the field of homeland security surveillance solutions.

Freight Technologies Inc. (NASDAQ: FRGT)

Freight Technologies Inc. (NASDAQ: FRGT) (“Fr8Tech”) is a technology company developing solutions to optimize and automate the supply chain process, providing a platform for B2B cross-border shipping in the NAFTA region. The company’s mission is to revolutionize cross-border shipping by providing carriers with increased growth opportunities and shippers with flexibility, visibility and simplicity for the once-complex process of international over-the-road shipping.

Freight Technologies, formerly known as Hudson Capital Inc., assumed its current name and ticker symbol on May 27, 2022. Its primary operating subsidiary and its marketplace are known as Fr8App, and it conducts operations throughout North America under the names of Fr8App and/or Freight App. The company is headquartered in Houston, Texas, with multiple locations across the U.S. and Mexico.

The Fr8Tech Solutions Suite

Fr8Tech leverages artificial intelligence to provide cloud-based platforms aimed at automating the over-the-road transportation process, effectively reducing human touch points and expediting load booking times. The company’s suite of solutions includes:

• Fr8app – A B2B marketplace powered by AI and Machine Learning offering a real-time broker portal to connect shippers with qualified carriers
• Fr8Radar – A tracking solution providing shippers and carriers real-time locational data via Fr8app’s mobile solution or through integration with third-party GPS alternatives
• Fr8TMS – A transportation management system designed to help shippers manage their freight and all of the documents involved in shipping transactions, including invoices, customs documents, confirmation rates and proof of deliveries
• Fr8FMS – A fleet management system allowing transportation companies to better manage their fleets, reduce operational costs and provide better service to their customers
• Fr8Data – A data solution offering real-time dashboards and reports to shippers and carriers in an effort to increase visibility and control while supporting better business decisions
• Fr8Fleet – A platform that provides private fleet management, enabling large corporate shippers to purchase dedicated capacity secured by Fr8app in exchange for a fixed fee

Commitment to the Environment

Through its core focus on technology, Fr8Tech seeks to reduce the carbon footprint of the logistics industry. Its solutions aim to minimize empty miles for transportation firms and reduce overall paper consumption.

Fr8University

Fr8University is an educational program offering classroom and on-the-job training for Fr8Tech team members. Through the program, employees learn in-depth business fundamentals and applications along the truckload freight industry value chain.

Led by corporate educator Mario Mena, Fr8University is designed as an investment in the company’s human capital, providing an opportunity to communicate Fr8Tech’s corporate culture while accelerating operational growth.

Market Outlook

Fr8Tech’s established foothold in Mexico is key to its current efforts to promote sustainable growth in the cross-border shipping industry. Ongoing disruption in U.S.-Chinese trade relations have strengthened Mexico’s status as the largest trading partner of the U.S., with cross-border annual freight spending estimated at $385 billion according to data from the U.S. Department of Transportation. Annual domestic shipping in Mexico is estimated at $34 billion, while annual domestic shipping in the U.S. is estimated to total $732 billion.

Despite the size of this industry, fragmentation and inefficiencies prevail in the space. Thousands of legacy brokers, tens of thousands of shippers and hundreds of thousands of carriers still rely on outdated systems to arrange transport, spending hours on the phone negotiating pricing, waiting days to find trucks and drivers, preparing and printing forms, and operating without tracking or visibility. Add in cross-border complexity relating to customs and additional paperwork, and you have an industry ripe for technological disruption.

Fr8Tech’s recent revenue growth trends have highlighted the company’s efforts to capitalize on this opportunity. In 2021, Fr8Tech achieved revenues of $21.5 million, marking a year-over-year increase of 134%. The company issued revenue guidance for fiscal 2022 of $40 million in a February 9, 2022, press release, which would account for a further 86% year-over-year increase.

Management Team

Javier Selgas is CEO and a Director of Freight Technologies Inc. and Freight App Inc. He brings to the company over 15 years of experience developing technology and digital marketing strategies, including serving as Country Manager for Osigu, Spain, and as head of AJEgroup’s IT division for the Asia-Pacific region. Prior to joining Fr8Tech, Mr. Selgas founded digital marketing agency Lanzadera Online. He has also served as an IT consultant to major corporations, including Endesa and Ibermatica.

Mike Flinker is President of Fr8Tech. He has over four decades of experience in the transportation industry, with 30+ years focused on cross-border logistics. Prior to joining Fr8Tech, Mr. Flinker founded FLS Transportation, the largest cross-border logistics company in Canada. He also previously held positions with Clarke Transport Inc., Canadian Pacific and Reimer Express Inc. (a division of Roadway Express).

Paul Freudenthaler is the company’s CFO and Secretary to the company Board. He has over 30 years of financial expertise, having previously served as CFO for several leading companies across multiple countries, including Macquarie in Mexico, Old Mutual in Latin America and Ascentium Capital in the U.S. Mr. Freudenthaler’s experience include leadership roles from which he guided IPOs and M&A transactions.

Luisa Lopez is COO of Fr8Tech. She brings to the company 25+ years of management experience in logistics, supply chain, operations and customer service. Ms. Lopez previously served as a Director of Landstar, where she was responsible for commercial and client development strategies in the Mexican market. Additionally, she managed more than 2,000 transport units specialized in staff and school mobility while with Traxion in Mexico.

Gaxos.ai Inc. (NASDAQ: GXAI)

Gaxos.ai Inc. (NASDAQ: GXAI) is revolutionizing the human-AI relationship, pushing the boundaries of artificial intelligence to offer solutions that resonate on a human level. The company’s mission extends beyond application development; it aims to integrate AI into various aspects of human existence, transforming how people interact with technology. With a strong commitment to enhancing quality of life, Gaxos.ai focuses on creating AI-driven solutions that address health, longevity, and entertainment, making advanced technology accessible and beneficial to all.

Gaxos.ai’s ventures into the health and wellness sectors utilize AI to promote better health outcomes and improve overall well-being. The company is developing innovative tools that harness AI to monitor, manage, and enhance physical and mental health, with a focus on extending human longevity and optimizing lifestyle choices. These solutions aim to provide personalized recommendations and insights, empowering individuals to take control of their health in a more informed and effective way.

In addition to its health and wellness initiatives, Gaxos.ai is entering the gaming industry with the goal of redefining entertainment through AI. Leveraging cutting-edge technology, the company creates immersive, adaptive gaming experiences that respond to players’ needs and preferences in real-time. Gaxos.ai’s approach not only enhances entertainment value but also explores the intersection of gaming and wellness, offering new ways for users to engage in fun and fulfilling activities. Through its diverse and innovative offerings, Gaxos.ai is poised to positively impact how people live, play, and interact with AI.

Gaxos Health

Gaxos.ai has officially launched Gaxos Health, marking a significant milestone in the company’s expansion into the health and wellness sector. The new division aims to optimize human performance by offering personalized health and wellness plans that leverage advanced science and technology. Gaxos Health provides a range of services, including biomarker testing, personalized nutrition plans, fitness and lifestyle routines, supplement plans, and live coaching. This comprehensive approach empowers individuals to take control of their health, with tailored recommendations designed to meet their specific needs and goals.

The launch of Gaxos Health not only aligns with the growing demand for personalized health services but also underscores the company’s commitment to innovation and excellence in the AI-driven health sector. By integrating AI-enabled applications with expert insights, Gaxos Health is poised to become a leader in the industry, continually expanding its offerings to include cutting-edge solutions that enhance overall well-being. As Gaxos.ai records its initial revenue from this division, it signals the company’s dedication to delivering value to both its customers and shareholders while revolutionizing the way people approach health and wellness.

Market Opportunity

From an investment perspective, Gaxos.ai is strategically positioned to capitalize on the rapidly growing AI market, particularly in the health and wellness sectors, which are experiencing significant demand for personalized, technology-driven solutions. As consumers increasingly seek tailored health services that leverage the latest scientific advancements, Gaxos.ai’s innovative approach with Gaxos Health places it at the forefront of this trend. The company’s ability to combine AI with expert-driven health insights gives it a competitive edge in a market projected to expand substantially in the coming years, offering investors a compelling opportunity for growth.

Moreover, Gaxos.ai’s expansion into the gaming industry further diversifies its market opportunities, allowing the company to tap into multiple high-growth sectors. The integration of AI in gaming not only enhances user experiences but also opens up new revenue streams through the development of adaptive and immersive entertainment products. This diversification strategy reduces the company’s risk while positioning it to benefit from advancements in both the health and entertainment industries. As Gaxos.ai continues to innovate and expand its offerings, it is well-poised to attract investor interest, offering the potential for substantial returns in a dynamic and evolving market.

Leadership Team

Vadim Mats is the Chairman and CEO of Gaxos.ai, where he leads the company’s strategic vision and growth across multiple sectors, including health, wellness, and gaming. With a background in technology and innovation, Mats has a track record of successfully launching and scaling AI-driven businesses. Under his leadership, Gaxos.ai is redefining the human-AI relationship through cutting-edge solutions that enhance everyday life.

Steven A. Shorr serves as the Chief Financial Officer of Gaxos.ai, bringing extensive experience in financial management and strategic planning. With a career spanning multiple industries, Shorr is responsible for overseeing the company’s financial operations and ensuring its long-term fiscal health. His expertise in financial strategy is instrumental in supporting Gaxos.ai’s ambitious growth initiatives and expanding its market presence.

GEMXX Corp. (OTC: GEMZ)

GEMXX Corp. (OTC: GEMZ) is a mine-to-market enterprise specializing in gold, gemstone, and jewelry production. With ownership of mining resources, production facilities, and operational assets, the company maintains control over every aspect of its production process, from gold mining and gemstone extraction to jewelry manufacturing and global distribution.

As a prominent player in the industry, GEMXX stands out as a leading producer of high-quality finished Ammolite jewelry. Notably, it holds the distinction of being the sole public company engaged in Ammolite mining worldwide. In addition to its Ammolite operations, the company is actively involved in gold mining and prides itself on its ability to design and manufacture exquisite jewelry pieces and exceptionally rare, natural fossil decor items for clientele around the globe.

One of GEMXX’s key advantages lies in mining its own gold reserves to be utilized in its jewelry production. This strategic approach provides the company with a cost-saving edge over other producers in the market.

Ammolite is similar to black opal and is a biogenic gem like amber and pearl. It is derived from the fossilized shells of ammonites, a group of extinct marine nautiluses.

GEMXX’s world class gemstone cutters and jewelry designers are continuously leading the Ammolite industry. Its team believes in the company’s philosophy, vision and goals, and works every day to continue to drive the Ammolite industry to the forefront of the gem world.

The company has offices in Las Vegas and Hong Kong.

Projects and Operations

GEMXX has formulated an ambitious growth plan that, while challenging, is deemed attainable. The company’s strategy revolves around bolstering its market share through several key initiatives. Firstly, GEMXX aims to strengthen its position in current markets by nurturing and expanding existing relationships with customers and partners.

Secondly, the company plans to venture into untapped markets strategically. By identifying and targeting new areas, GEMXX seeks to establish a presence in regions that present promising opportunities for growth.

Additionally, GEMXX envisions growth through acquisitions. By considering and integrating key services, distribution networks and retail outlets into its fold, the company aims to consolidate its market position and capitalize on synergies for enhanced success.

To cater to the rising demand for its products, GEMXX has placed a primary focus on increasing gemstone production. The company’s southern properties, situated in Alberta, Canada, hold valuable deposits of rough Ammolite gemstone. By tapping into these resources, GEMXX is poised to meet the demand for its exquisite gemstone products and further fuel its expansion plans.

GEMXX possesses significant mineral assets in the form of a Mineral Work Permit covering an 800-acre area and two Ammonite Shell Mineral agreements encompassing 217 acres within the same region. The company’s management effectively operated mines in close proximity to these properties. Moreover, core sampling, along with fossil outcroppings on the riverbanks, confirms a substantial Ammolite resource present in these designated areas.

Both the Mineral Work Permit and the Ammonite Shell Mineral agreements grant GEMXX unrestricted access to all Ammolite resources within their respective demarcations. Notably, the company is not obligated to pay any royalties to third parties, thereby enabling GEMXX to fully capitalize on the potential of these valuable resources.

Furthermore, there are no stringent regulatory conditions that GEMXX must fulfill to gain or retain access to the Ammolite deposits. This freedom of access allows the company to proceed with its mining and production operations unimpeded, providing an advantageous position for future growth and success.

In March 2023, GEMXX made a significant announcement, revealing its acquisition of a 50% ownership stake in Crazy Horse Mining Inc., a Canadian gold mining company with assets situated in the province of British Columbia. As part of this deal, Crazy Horse’s assets, which encompass a 100% interest in two gold projects, called Snow Creek and Rosella Creek, spread across a substantial area exceeding 700 acres, now become part of GEMXX’s portfolio.

Under the terms of this strategic partnership, GEMXX and Crazy Horse will jointly share the expenses related to mining operations on these projects. Additionally, the two companies will share the gold produced from these ventures, leading to a collaborative and mutually beneficial arrangement.

Initial tests conducted on the property, combined with gold already recovered this season, confirm all expectations for the claims and substantiate the company’s estimated extraction target of over 100,000 ounces of easily recoverable gold. To validate and provide a more comprehensive assessment of this estimate, an S-K 1300-compliant Resource Report is scheduled to be conducted during the summer of 2023.

By acquiring this stake in Crazy Horse Mining Inc., GEMXX has positioned itself for further growth in the gold mining sector and is poised to capitalize on cost of goods savings in its jewelry business.

Market Opportunity

Leading independent market research companies such as Data Monitor and GIA estimate the worldwide market for luxury or premium lifestyle products, which include gems and jewelry, at over $90 billion annually and growing. Ammolite sales around the world have seen unprecedented growth over the past 20 years. Worldwide retail sales are now estimated to be over $100 million.

Ammolite jewelry and fossils are featured aboard cruise ships and can be found in specialty shops in almost every cruise port in North America. Asian markets have grown since feng shui master Edward Li called Ammolite the most influential stone of the new millennium, referring to it as the “Seven Color Prosperity Stone.” Home shopping channels in Japan, Australia, France, Germany, the UK, Canada and the U.S. have all featured Ammolite jewelry.

Ammolite and ammonites can also be found on many ecommerce sales platforms, including Amazon, eBay and Etsy. Ammolite is sold around the world in tourist and traditional jewelry markets. The company has established customers in home shopping channels, cruise tourism, jewelry retailers, Asian feng shui markets, Asian retail markets and ecommerce platforms.

Management Team

With over 160 years in Ammolite management, operations, and sales, GEMXX possesses an unparalleled wealth of knowledge and expertise. Its team members have extensive backgrounds in every facet of the Ammolite business, allowing the company to excel in product development, maintain rigorous quality control measures, and maximize profitability. The breadth and depth of the GEMXX team’s experience enable the company to navigate the industry with precision, ensuring that GEMXX remains at the forefront of the Ammolite market. GEMXX leverages its collective wisdom to drive innovation, deliver exceptional products, and optimize business strategies to achieve long-term success.

Jay Maull is Founder, CEO and Chairman of GEMXX. With a career spanning more than three decades, he has been deeply involved in the Ammolite industry, from mining and production to marketing. He has owned and operated the world’s largest Ammolite mine and has delivered exceptional Ammolite products to customers across all continents. He has also established the world’s largest Ammolite ecommerce platform.

Richard Clowater is President of GEMXX. He is a skilled sales and marketing professional with a focus on research, data analysis and strategic planning. He has successfully implemented initiatives to expand markets, boost profits and foster customer loyalty. He has an impressive track record of negotiating sales and contracts worth over $250 million with influential stakeholders, including key purchasing personnel, C-suite executives and government entities at all levels.

Tom Dryden is a Vice President of GEMXX and brings a wealth of experience and expertise to the production and marketing of Ammolite, spanning over 30 years. His extensive involvement in the industry has granted him unparalleled knowledge of the Bearpaw Ammonite bearing formations. As a recognized authority in the field, Mr. Dryden’s research and papers on Canadian Ammonites have garnered global recognition, being published worldwide. In his role at GEMXX, Mr. Dryden assumes the responsibility of overseeing the company’s Canadian-based production facilities. 

P. K. Chung is Business Manager Asia at GEMXX. With a track record of over 25 years in Ammolite business management, production and marketing in Asia, she is a recognized authority in the industry. Based in the Hong Kong gem district, she possesses an intricate understanding of the Asian gem and jewelry markets, including market dynamics, consumer preferences and industry trends specific to the region. Her strategic insights and deep connections enable GEMXX to thrive in this influential market.

GeoSolar Technologies Inc.

GeoSolar Technologies Inc. (“GST”) is a Colorado-based climate technology company and the creator of the Smart Green Home® system for newly built and existing residences and commercial buildings. The company is focused on revolutionizing the way we heat, cool and power homes with 100% natural energy sources. Its patent-pending integrated system harnesses energy from the earth and sun to power and purify homes and automobiles without the use of fossil fuels.

In a GST home, the sun’s energy is captured on the roof to generate all of the electricity required. Additionally, the consistent climate of the earth is used to keep the home at a perfect temperature year-round, and the company’s proprietary air purifying unit ensures that the air inside the home is safe and healthy.

GST’s home technology has been installed in multiple test homes in Colorado and achieved exceptional results, including some of the most impressive energy efficiency ratings (HERS) in the industry.

GeoSolar Technologies is currently accepting investment as part of a Regulation A+ offering. Everyone* can invest now for as little as $300. For more information, visit the company’s profile on Manhattan Street Capital and review its Offering Circular.

GeoSolar Technologies Inc. (“GST”) has been qualified by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to conduct a Regulation A+ capital raise. GST is already a publicly traded company who makes quarterly and annual filings with the SEC and is subject to quarterly PCAOB audits. This is the first time shares of GeoSolar Technologies are being made available for public purchase. Upon completion of this Regulation A+ offering, the company intends to seek a listing of its stock.

The Decarbonization Movement

Soaring and unstable energy/fuel costs continue to highlight the importance of rethinking the traditional approach to powering homes, from top to bottom. While most everyone is well aware of the remarkable, multi-trillion-dollar opportunity the electric vehicle transformation offers to investors (in addition to the benefits to the climate problem), few recognize that the all-electric home market is as large as electric vehicles and equally important to reducing carbon emissions.

U.S. energy expenditures clocked in at $3,891 per person in 2018, leading to estimated spending of $1.3 trillion on energy that year alone. Despite this, fewer than 3% of U.S. homes are currently powered by solar. This number is poised to increase exponentially as both new and existing residences transition to zero carbon models.

GST estimates that if all the homes in America were powered by its technology, carbon pollution could be reduced by an estimated 1.9 trillion pounds per year, greatly reducing the negative impacts on our climate.

GeoSolarPlus®

The GeoSolarPlus (“GSP”) system combines solar power, geothermal ground-sourced energy and other clean energy technologies into one fully integrated system.
Key benefits of the GSP system include:

• Making a real planet-changing difference in reducing air pollution
• Eliminating or significantly reducing homeowners’ future utility bills
• Enjoying lifetime energy independence and protection from price escalation and energy shortages
• Eliminating greenhouse gas emissions from operation of home and daily life
• Increasing home value
• An integrated design for seamless operation of renewable energy systems
• Maintaining a significantly healthier living environment
• Leveraging existing renewable energy tax credits and electrification incentives
• Creating stable jobs capable of supporting families in the decarbonized future

Click here to learn more about how GeoSolarPlus works.

Management Team

The GST leadership and management team includes some of the world’s most experienced and respected leaders in the fields of decarbonization and sustainable homes.

Stone Douglass is the Chairman and CEO of GST. He is a seasoned, 30-year public company executive and former Chairman and CEO of the Piper Aircraft Company.

Brent Mosbarger is the company’s Co-Founder and leads its commercial operations. He is a highly respected solar engineer whose experience includes roles with Chevron Energy’s green operations and serving as project manager and executive for a $400 million solar/geothermal innovation project.

Peter Romenesko is a Senior Strategic Advisor with GST. He brings to the company considerable experience as an engineer and large-scale project manager for Johnson Controls and Siemens.

Dr. Norbert Klebl is the company’s Co-Founder and Development Director. Recognized as one of the world’s leading experts in the field of zero-carbon innovation, he is a former McKinsey partner of 16 years with an MBA from Columbia.

Dar-Lon Chang is GST’s Director of New Product Development. Prior to joining GST, he had a 16-year career with ExxonMobil Energy Research. He received his PhD in engineering from the University of Illinois.

* Must be over 18, certain states are not currently available and will be added soon.

GivBux Inc. (OTC: GBUX)

GivBux Inc. (OTC: GBUX) is a publicly traded super app and charitable giving platform. The company is creating a sharing economic community of brands and consumers in which consumers have an easier and more convenient way to shop and buy, merchants have a more efficient and profitable way to advertise, and charities receive built-in contributions from the community’s transactions.

The GivBux Super App revolutionizes shopping by offering a user-friendly tool to make purchases swiftly at over 100 national retailers, along with an expanding roster of local merchants. Users earn cash back on every purchase, a portion of which can be directed toward a charity of their choice, embodying GivBux’s commitment to giving back. Additionally, the app is evolving to include numerous functionalities like social networking, e-commerce, banking, messaging, food delivery and transportation, following the super app model.

GivBux is forging a new path in charitable giving, with aspirations to build the largest community of givers in the United States, and eventually globally. The company believes it is uniquely positioned to make a major contribution to society by overlapping the worlds of commerce and philanthropy.

The GivBux Super App is currently available for free on the Google Play Store and the Apple App Store.

The company is headquartered in Newport Beach, California.

Products

The company, through wholly owned subsidiary GivBux Global Partners Inc., is engaged in the fintech mobile wallet sector, specifically as a point-of-sale payment system by means of a consumer mobile wallet. GivBux uses smartphone technology to bridge consumers and merchants together without the need for traditional plastic cards or paper cash.

The GivBux mobile app has been designed to store, send and receive funds; donate; and make real-time purchases at top retail brands, restaurants and other venues. The brands benefit, because they are empowered with a data-rich marketing tool to reach and retain consumers through their mobile phones.

With GivBux, recipients can use funds instantly by paying with their mobile phones at thousands of locations. GivBux rewards all users for using the app every time they make a purchase and every time their friends, friends of friends and stranger friends make purchases with the GivBux mobile wallet. These rewards can be redeemed for cash to pay at participating retail stores, restaurants, cinemas, entertainment venues and more.

Moreover, GivBux allows users to contribute to a charity or worthy cause of their choice. To encourage giving and recommendations, a trending ‘Top 10 List’ of all charities will be generated and displayed on the mobile wallet based on ongoing contributions by GivBux users.

Market Opportunity

A report from Future Market Insights, a New York-based market research organization, estimated the worldwide mobile wallet market at $9.5 billion in 2023. The report projects that in 2024 the industry is likely to reach a valuation of $11.9 billion, and, by 2034, the mobile wallet market is forecast to grow to a value of $138.5 billion, achieving a CAGR of 27.8% over the forecast period.

Key market growth drivers include payment convenience, transaction security and continuing technological innovation. The report points out that mobile wallet payments are widely accepted worldwide, fueled by a rise in digital transactions and a growing use of mobile phones for simple and effective payment options. Innovations like blockchain integration, contactless payments and artificial intelligence are improving functionality and user experience while staying ahead of rapidly evolving digital payment trends, according to the report.

Management Team

Umesh Singh is President and Director at GivBux. He is a Certified Professional Accountant (Canada) with more than 25 years of experience in accounting and finance. He began his career at PwC before joining Hayes Stuart Little & Company (now Grant Thornton), where he was Senior Accountant-Manager and later Partner. Prior to being named GivBux president, he was a member of the GivBux Advisory Board for more than three years.

Michael Arnkvarn is Vice President of International Business Development at GivBux. He has over 30 years of experience in management, sales and marketing. He managed several medium and large agribusiness and environmental businesses before founding Collagenna Skin Care Products, a natural health products and cosmetics company, in 2004. He has been CEO of multiple public small-cap companies and co-founder of a start-up cannabis company that eventually sold for more than $800 million.

Global Compliance Applications Corp. (CSE: APP) (OTCQB: FUAPF)

Global Compliance Applications Corp. (CSE: APP) (OTCQB: FUAPF) is committed to improving the lives of medical cannabis patients, particularly veterans, through a blockchain-powered technology model. The Efixii Uplift platform provides an end-to-end data chain ensuring transparency and efficacy in cannabis products from cultivation to consumption. This Layer -2 Ethereum blockchain platform strengthens the relationship between cannabis brands, retailers, and consumers, driving trust and better health outcomes for veterans.

As the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq become part of history, over 16 million veterans remain central to GCAC’s mission. GCAC partners with leading veteran nonprofits in the U.S. and Canada, building trust within both the veteran community and the cannabis industry. Veterans are directed to Citizen Green TV (CGTV), GCAC’s health and wellness streaming service, which connects them with cannabis/CBD product providers, further amplifying GCAC’s impact.

Market Opportunity

The global medical cannabis market, valued at $13.8 billion in 2022, is projected to grow to $66.8 billion by 2030. With over 18.6 million U.S. and Canadian veterans, nearly 20% of whom already use cannabis and spend an average of $300 monthly, GCAC’s work with veterans serves as a powerful proof of concept. This success showcases the potential for GCAC’s blockchain platform to expand into other sectors, such as agriculture and organic farming, further demonstrating its scalability and broad market applicability.

Key Products & Initiatives

• Efixii Uplift is GCAC’s decentralized app that connects cannabis brands, retailers, and consumers. The platform uses NFT coupons stored on a consumer’s smartphone and powered by an Ethereum wallet, ensuring both privacy and security. By leveraging blockchain technology, Efixii Uplift promotes transparency across the supply chain, enhances brand loyalty, and strengthens consumer trust.
• Citizen Green TV (CGTV) is the first streaming service dedicated to veterans’ health, offering content focused on alternative therapies like cannabis. Cannabis companies legally advertise using Uplift NFT Coupons, reaching this targeted audience. CGTV is available on Roku, Google TV, and Apple TV, with a potential reach of 168 million viewers in North America.
• Citizen Green Ventures, GCAC’s joint venture with Sana’a Cannabis, provides legal medical cannabis to Canadian veterans under the Veterans Affairs Canada program. VAC covers $8.50 per gram for up to three grams per day. In 2022-23 VAC reimbursed 21,108 people a total of $167.6 million.

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.

SportLync Inc.

SportLync Inc. matches golfers looking for a game through the company’s smartphone app, GolfLync. The company bills GolfLync as the “Tinder for Golf,” matching golf games and players similar to the way a dating app matches those looking for romance.

The app allows like-minded golfers to connect for a game simply by logging in. GolfLync helps golfers who are looking to grow their golf network find other players with similar interests and on course preferences. Whether you have recently moved to a new area and are looking for new golfing buddies, travel frequently and would like to play a round of golf while on the road, or just want to meet new golfers in your area, GolfLync is your answer. Spouses who enjoy golfing together can find other golfing couples to tee it up with. For a regular group that finds itself unexpectedly down a player, GolfLync can help find that last-minute addition to complete the foursome.

The company is based in Scottsdale, Arizona.

GolfLync App

GolfLync was created for golfers of all skill levels and preferences to connect with compatible players of similar skill and interests. Golfers can find a tee time through GolfLync, join existing tee times and create new leagues. The app allows golfers to meet fellow players before committing to spend four hours on the course with them. GolfLync allows users to find new golf friends based on their preferences, such as walking or riding a cart, listening to music, friendly wagering, imbibing a favorite beverage at the 19th Hole and more. GolfLync is available for both Android and iOS as a free download.

Market Opportunity

According to a report by Statista, a leading provider of market and consumer data, in 2022, the number of people participating in golf in the United States reached 25.6 million, with 15.5 million additional players participating in off-course activities like driving ranges. In 2020, over 502 million rounds of golf were played in the U.S. alone. The game, traditionally dominated by male players, is changing, with increased interest from women golfers driven by social media influencers around the game.

Lumen Sports puts the total number of golf courses in the U.S. at more than 16,700. According to Lumen, about 75% of those are public courses open to all golfers, with the rest considered private golf clubs that require a membership.

Management Team

Noah DiPasquale is a co-founder and CEO of SportLync Inc., leading the marketing and operations of the platform. He is also the founder and CEO of Epic Golf Club, a premier national membership and private golf society which partners with hundreds of top tier private golf clubs allowing Epic members access to their courses and recently founded the Epic Foundation, a Scottsdale-based 501c3. He holds a B.S. in Business Administration, Management and Operations from the W.A. Franke College of Business at Northern Arizona University and an MBA in Marketing from the University of Phoenix.

Michael Quiel is a co-founder of SportLync Inc. and the President of the organization. He leads the application development and research teams. Michael understands how to build successful companies. His deep knowledge of investment banking, finance and building successful business partnerships is unparalleled. He’s an expert at capital formation and growth hacking companies. He has raised over $250 million in capital and taken multiple companies public.

Greenwave Technology Solutions Inc. (NASDAQ: GWAV)

Greenwave Technology Solutions Inc. (NASDAQ: GWAV), through its wholly owned subsidiary Empire Services Inc., operates a network of 13 metal recycling facilities located across Virginia, North Carolina, and Ohio. These facilities specialize in the collection, classification, and processing of raw scrap metal, both ferrous and nonferrous. By efficiently managing and repurposing scrap metal, Greenwave plays a crucial role in the recycling industry, contributing to the sustainability and conservation of natural resources.

Steel, one of the most recycled materials globally, can be re-melted and re-cast multiple times without losing its properties. Greenwave’s facilities are instrumental in ensuring that scrap steel and other metals are effectively recycled, reducing the need for virgin materials and minimizing the environmental impact associated with metal production. The company’s operations not only support the circular economy but also provide essential raw materials for various industries.

As a leader in metal recycling, Greenwave Technology Solutions is committed to expanding its operations and enhancing its capabilities to meet the growing demand for recycled materials. Through continued investment in technology and infrastructure, the company aims to improve its processing efficiency, lessening environment impact and improving economies.

Scrap App

Greenwave Technology Solutions recently achieved a significant milestone with its wholly-owned subsidiary, Scrap App Inc., setting a new weekly revenue record from cars purchased through its ScrapApp.com platform between July 21 and July 27, 2024. Scrap App, launched recently in the Greenville, North Carolina, market, makes selling junk cars simple and seamless on a user-friendly platform where customers can quickly and easily sell their vehicles. This success underscores Greenwave’s strategy of leveraging vertical integration to create efficiencies in the car scrapping process, positioning Scrap App for continued growth and competitive advantage in the $42.2 billion scrap metal industry.

In addition to simplifying the car-selling process, Scrap App has implemented Trust Pilot reviews to enhance its Google search ranking and optimize its conversion rate, further boosting its market presence. With hundreds of thousands of dollars already generated from car purchases, Greenwave plans to expand Scrap App into several new markets in the coming weeks. The company aims to develop Scrap App into a leading technology platform, capitalizing on the efficiencies and scalability created by its integration with Greenwave’s existing metal recycling operations, and establishing a strong foothold in the competitive scrap metal industry.

Market Opportunity

From an investment perspective, Greenwave Technology Solutions is well-positioned to capitalize on the growing demand for sustainable metal recycling, driven by increasing environmental awareness and regulatory pressures to reduce carbon emissions. As industries worldwide shift towards greener practices, the metal recycling sector is experiencing robust growth, with recycled materials becoming a preferred choice for manufacturing due to their lower environmental impact. Greenwave’s established network of 13 metal recycling facilities in key markets positions the company to benefit from this trend, offering a stable revenue base with potential for expansion as the demand for recycled metals continues to rise.

Additionally, the integration of technology through Scrap App presents a significant growth opportunity for Greenwave. As the scrap metal industry, valued at $42.2 billion, becomes more digitized, platforms like Scrap App, which streamline the car scrapping process, can capture substantial market share by providing convenience and efficiency to consumers. Greenwave’s focus on scaling Scrap App across new markets not only diversifies its revenue streams but also enhances its competitive edge by leveraging technology to optimize operations and customer engagement. This dual strategy of combining traditional recycling with innovative digital solutions positions Greenwave as an attractive investment opportunity with strong growth potential in a rapidly evolving industry.

Leadership Team

Danny Meeks, Chairman and CEO of Greenwave Technology Solutions, began his entrepreneurial journey at the age of 18 with a single truck, quickly expanding his hauling company by reinvesting its profits. Within two years, he secured contracts for some of the region’s largest projects, including the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel expansion. A seasoned businessman, family man, and active community member, Mr. Meeks leverages his unique skills and experiences to drive Greenwave’s growth and success.

Isaac Dietrich, Chief Financial Officer of Greenwave Technology Solutions, is the founder of the company and has held various key leadership roles, including CEO and Chairman of the Board. He has been instrumental in securing over $100 million in equity financing, developing a robust shareholder base of more than 27,000 investors, and overseeing an acquisition that led to $33.9 million in revenue in fiscal year 2022. Mr. Dietrich also serves on the Board of Directors of Truleum Inc., where he chairs the Audit Committee.

RYVYL Inc. (NASDAQ: RVYL)

RYVYL Inc. (NASDAQ: RVYL) is an emerging financial technology company leveraging proprietary security and token technology to build customized payment solutions for business. The company’s mission is to build compliant, cutting-edge blockchain ledger tokenized solutions for the diverse, evolving and dynamic global market.

GreenBox applications enable an end-to-end suite of turnkey financial products which offer improved fraud detection and better handling efficiency of large-scale commercial payment processing volumes for its merchant clients globally. The company’s proprietary blockchain and smart contract token technologies create seamless payment processing using digital encryption keys.

GreenBox is a unified platform providing scalability for businesses to accept payments, transact, send, settle and convert in a single versatile ecosystem. GreenBox operates a private and proprietary blockchain-based payment platform that offers distinct advantages when compared to traditional payment technologies, including greater security and data privacy, as well as enhanced identity theft protection and quick settlement.

As the settlement engine for financial transactions, GreenBox’s blockchain technology is a distributed ledger that uses digitally encrypted keys to verify, secure and record details of each transaction conducted within GreenBox’s private ecosystem. The speed and security of the platform allows GreenBox to log immense volumes of immutable transactional records in real time for Tier-1 partners around the world.

In November 2021, GreenBox announced the closing of a previously announced $100 million convertible note financing. The company plans to use proceeds for acquisitions, a planned stablecoin spin-off, and additional working capital toward the company’s future growth. The initial conversion price equals a more than 80 percent premium to the market price of the company’s common stock on October 29, 2021, and values the enterprise at more than $700 million upon conversion.

Brands & Solutions

The company offers multiple solutions and brands under the GreenBox label. The other brands that are nested under the RYVYL Inc. label include coyni, ChargeSavvy, QuickCard, Transact Europe [didn’t yet close] and Northeast Merchant Systems. Each of these brands play a large role in allowing GreenBox to accel in customizing payment solutions across different verticals and industries.

Payment Solutions

The GreenBox platform offers blockchain secure, robust payment processing solutions for both individual consumers and businesses. The company combines the power and security of blockchain with bank-level tools necessary to both settle transactions and monitor cash flows. Customers can transfer cryptocurrencies like USDC, Ethereum or Bitcoin from external decentralized crypto wallets to their GreenBox wallets. They can also exchange those tokens from their GreenBox wallets to any supported coin. Customers can easily offload in USDC to a debit card or a multitude of gift cards.

White Label Solutions

The company’s white label platform allows it to partner with firms seeking blockchain-based tools to manage merchant relationships. White label partners can monitor cash flows, as well as run reports on merchant transactions, chargebacks, agent and affiliate commissions and more. Partners can access the platform through their partner portal to manage business relationships with full visibility. The platform’s cutting-edge technology saves partners time and simplifies their payment processing. It ensures compliance with automated Know Your Customer and Know Your Bank services and allows customers to set up automated payouts.

coyni Stablecoin

The company is planning soon to launch its own stablecoin, coyni (CYN). coyni is equivalent to the value of the U.S. dollar on a one-to-one ratio. Stablecoin allows for instantaneous transactions with blockchain security just like other cryptocurrency tokens, but without the price volatility of traditional cryptocurrencies. The CYN token is expected to make possible features like digital dollar accounts, cross border payments, international payment processing and other payment solutions. As a smart contract technology, coyni will offer instant settlement using the GreenBox blockchain ledger in any location and currency – crypto or fiat – all at lower fees and in a tokenized secure ecosystem.

Market Overview

A Mordor Intelligence report put the transaction value of the global digital payments market at $5.44 trillion in 2020 and projects the market to be worth $11.29 trillion by 2026. That represents a CAGR of 11.21 percent during the period of 2021-2026.

The report notes that the global COVID-19 pandemic and its impact on e-commerce is likely to encourage strengthened international cooperation and further development of policies for online purchasing and supply. The report states, “The pandemic has made it clear that e-commerce can be an important tool/solution, especially considering the fact that e-commerce sales can support small and medium businesses that form the backbone for certain economies. This is expected to substantially spur the growth of digital payment methods across various economies.”

According to Mordor, other drivers of the growth trend in digital payments include:

• Greater convenience, favorable government policies and evolving consumer behavior worldwide
• Rapid rise in smartphone penetration throughout emerging economies
• Introduction of mobile wallets across the world
• Widespread adoption of retail digital payment services across the vast population of China, serving as a kind of test case for other countries

Management Team

Ben Errez, Chairman of the Board of Directors

Ben Errez’s past positions have included positions at large companies like Microsoft and Intel. He has brought this expertise to lead GreenBox into the forefront of the blockchain-based financial software, services, and hardware market.

Mr. Errez was one of the early managers of Microsoft in 1991. From 1991 to 2004, he served as Software Development Lead for the Microsoft International Office Group. He led the International Microsoft Office Components team (Word, Excel, PowerPoint) in design, engineering, development, and successful deployment. He also served as Executive Representative of Microsoft Office and was a founding member of the Microsoft Trustworthy Computing Team both within the company and internationally. Mr. Errez co-authored the first Microsoft Trustworthy Computing Paper on Reliability. At Microsoft, he was responsible for the development of the first Microsoft software translation Software Development Kit (“SDK”) in Hebrew, Arabic, Thai, and Simplified Chinese, as well as the development of the first bidirectional extensions to Rich Text Format (“RTF”) file format and all bidirectional extensions in text converters for Microsoft Office. He also contributed to the development of the international extensions to the Unicode standard to include bidirectional requirements under the World Wide Web Consortium (“W3C”).

In 2004, Mr. Errez transitioned into the world of consulting, where he held the position of Principal Consultant from founding to the present date, through which he advises clients in the South Pacific region with market capitalizations ranging from $50 million to $150 million on commerce, security, reliability, and privacy.

In 2017, immediately before partnering with Fredi Nisan to launch GreenBox, Mr. Errez was asked to take over the Microsoft Alumni Network for the Southern California region as a regional director. Mr. Errez has been a principal of GreenBox since its inception in 2017.

Fredi Nisan, Chief Executive Officer

Fredi Nisan’s career in technology began during his years of service in the Israeli Defense Forces, where he served as IT Manager for all of Israel’s Northern Bases. After serving in the military, Mr. Nisan opened and operated a computer hardware store before becoming the Inventory Operations Manager for Zicon Israel in 2005, a hardware and software producer. At Zicon, he supervised inventory operations, worked on quality controls for motherboards and chips, and educated customers on software and hardware product functionality. Subsequently, Mr. Nisan moved to the United States, where he worked for One Coach in San Diego, California, as a business coach. One Coach specializes in customized growth solutions for small business owners, including the latest strategies for sales, internet marketing, branding, and ROI. Mr. Nisan was consistently ranked as the top salesperson for small business coaching while working with One Coach.

In 2010, Mr. Nisan launched Brava POS, where he served as President until 2015. Brava POS provided point of sale (“POS”) systems for specialty retail companies. Mr. Nisan developed software to provide clients with solutions for issues ranging from inventory management to payroll to processing high volume transactions in the form of a cloud-based POS system. This system had the capability to manage multiple stores with centralized inventory and process sales without an internet connection, and offered a secure login for each employee, as well as including advanced inventory management and reporting, plus powerful functionality for its end users.

In 2016, Mr. Nisan founded Firmness, LLC. Through Firmness, he created “QuickCitizen,” a software program that simplifies the onboarding process for new clients of law firms specializing in immigration issues. The QuickCitizen software significantly reduced law firms onboarding processing time from more than three hours to approximately 15 minutes. Mr. Nisan has been a principal of GreenBox since its August 2017 inception. In January 2018, Firmness sold QuickCitizen to GreenBox.

Jacquline B. Reynolds, Chief Marketing Officer

Jacqueline B. Reynolds is the company’s Chief Marketing Officer. She served most recently as vice president of marketing for Sprouts Farmers Market. She has built her reputation as a world-class global marketer, working with Coca-Cola, McDonald’s, Verizon, Walmart, L’Oréal, Xbox, 7-Eleven and many other Fortune 500 brands. She has managed award-winning marketing programs with partners such as the NFL, Super Bowl LIV, the Olympics, the FIFA World Cup, Sony Pictures, Universal Music and others.

Cepton Inc. (NASDAQ: CPTN)

Cepton Inc. (NASDAQ: CPTN) is a provider of state-of-the-art, intelligent, lidar-based solutions serving a range of markets, including automotive (ADAS/AV), smart cities, smart spaces and smart industrial applications. General Motors (NYSE:GM) has granted a series production award for Cepton’s lidar, the biggest such award to date in the automotive space. Cepton’s is the lidar component of GM’s Ultra Cruise autonomous driving platform. By leveraging its patented Micro Motion Technology (MMT®) lidar platform, the company develops reliable, scalable and cost-effective solutions that deliver long-range, high-resolution 3D perception for smart applications.

Cepton was established in 2016 by co-founders Dr. Jun Pei and Dr. Mark McCord. The company is headquartered in San Jose, California, and serves a fast-growing customer base through an international presence spanning North America, Germany, Japan, India and China.

Micro Motion Technology (MMT®)

Cepton was built from the ground up to meet key lidar industry challenges for mass market adoption. This company’s portfolio of proprietary technology is uniquely aimed at facilitating this industry growth through a combination of performance, reliability, affordability and design integration.

Key among its innovations is MMT®, a mirrorless, frictionless, rotation-free 3D imaging platform designed specifically for lidars. Its benefits for OEMs and system integrators include:

• Reliability – The durable design uses common, easily attainable materials.
• Versatility – The platform is capable of achieving near- to ultra-long range with a wide field of view.
• Efficiency – MMT® features a compact form factor, low power usage and inexpensive components.
• Scalability – Its simple design means that scale-up to high manufacturing volumes is easily attainable.

Because of their compact form factor, Cepton lidars are embeddable and ideally suited for advanced driver-assistance system (ADAS) integration, whether behind windshield, in headlamp or in fascia.

Agreement with KOITO

KOITO Manufacturing Co. Ltd., the world’s premier Tier 1 auto lighting supplier, originally started an evaluation of Cepton’s MMT® based lidars in 2018. In 2020, KOITO made an investment in Cepton aimed at accelerating the company’s development and enabling KOITO’s industrialization of high-performance and high reliability lidar sensors for ADAS and autonomous vehicle (AV) applications.

Through this collaboration, Cepton was able to secure the largest ADAS lidar series production award[1] with General Motors as a sole source in the automotive space. The award covers GM vehicles for the initial period of 2023-2027.

On August 5, 2021, the two companies deepened their relationship when KOITO committed to invest a further $50 million in Cepton’s business through its participation in a Private Investment in Public Equity (PIPE) offering of shares of common stock of Growth Capital Acquisition Corp. in connection with Cepton’s recent merger.

Collaboration with GM

On July 13, 2021, Cepton announced that it had secured an ADAS lidar series production award from a leading, Detroit-based global automotive OEM – the biggest lidar production award by any OEM to any lidar company. It was later clarified that the OEM was General Motors, and Cepton’s lidar is part of GM’s ADAS Ultra Cruise system.

GM is “expected to deploy Cepton lidars in its next generation of advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) across multiple vehicle classes and models – not just luxury cars.” As such, the agreement marks the potential for “an industry-first, mass-market adoption of lidar technology for automotive ADAS, with an anticipated deployment in consumer vehicles starting in 2023.”

On July 28, 2021, Ford Motor Company (NYSE: F) distributed an article on Medium noting, “Ford has been engaged with Cepton almost since their inception in 2016, both for R&D collaboration and small-scale deployments. Cepton LiDAR are deployed in some of [Ford’s] smart city projects. Based on Ford’s guidance, Cepton delivered a custom version of their LiDAR to enable R&D on advanced ADAS features.”

Market Outlook

Driven by increasing development and adoption in automobile safety applications, environmental mapping and 3D-modeling, the global lidar market is forecast to experience considerable growth over the coming years. A research report published by MarketsAndMarkets suggests that the sector will grow to an estimated $3.4 billion by 2026, achieving a CAGR of 21.6% over the next five years.

The report further highlights increasing investments in lidar startups by automotive giants as a driver of growth opportunities in the sector, particularly in North America.

In 2020, ground-based lidar accounted for the lion’s share of the overall lidar market, and this trend is expected to continue as the automotive sector continues to rapidly advance adoption across the full spectrum of vehicle classes. One factor not to be underestimated is the high barrier of entry and the exceptionally long time required for automotive OEMs to vet and award a production win to a lidar company. It is a commonly held view that the over 50 lidar companies will inevitably coalesce into a handful serving all OEMs.

Cepton, having a head start through its established partnership with leading global OEM GM, is uniquely positioned to capitalize on this market growth in the years to come.

Management Team

Cepton’s founder-led team is made up of lidar industry pioneers with decades of collective experience across advanced lidar and imaging technologies.

Jun Pei, Ph.D., is the company’s CEO and Co-Founder. He is a technology specialist with a focus in optics and electronics. Prior to founding Cepton, Dr. Pei founded AEP Technology, a firm focused on developing advanced 3D optical instruments. He received his Ph.D. in electrical engineering from Stanford University.

Mark McCord, Ph.D., is Cepton’s CTO and Co-Founder. Prior to founding Cepton, he led advanced development at KLA-Tencor. Dr. McCord also formerly served as an associate professor at Stanford University, where he earned his Ph.D. in electrical engineering.

Winston Fu, Ph.D., is the company’s CFO. Dr. Fu is the founder of Silicon Valley venture capital firm LDV Partners. Prior to joining Cepton, he served as CFO and Chairman of Active-Semi before its acquisition. Dr. Fu has also helped to build many technology companies as an entrepreneur and/or board member. He received his Ph.D. in applied physics from Stanford University, as well as an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University.

[1] Largest known ADAS lidar series production award based on number of vehicle models awarded

HealthLynked Corp. (OTCQB: HLYK)

HealthLynked Corp. (OTCQB: HLYK) is at the forefront of a transformative movement in healthcare, utilizing its extensive collection of health data to improve care for all. With a commitment to leveraging its advanced technology platforms, HealthLynked employs a sophisticated, cloud-based network that serves as a comprehensive repository for personal health data. This system not only simplifies the management and archiving of medical records but also enables the application of AI to deliver personalized healthcare insights. Through deep analysis of this data, HealthLynked’s AI capabilities help identify the root causes of diseases, tailor healthcare solutions to individual needs, and accelerate medical discoveries.

In addition to these capabilities, HealthLynked provides a user-friendly platform for booking healthcare appointments, similar to how OpenTable operates for restaurant reservations. This feature allows patients to conveniently book appointments with healthcare providers across the country, including options for telemedicine consultations, enhancing accessibility and efficiency in healthcare service delivery.

Strategically headquartered in Naples, Florida, HealthLynked operates through three primary divisions: Health Services, Digital Healthcare, and Medical Distribution. Each division supports the company’s mission to revolutionize patient care and health management. Positioned as a potential leader in healthcare AI, HealthLynked is dedicated to shaping the future of the industry over the next 20 years, driving significant advancements in healthcare accessibility and effectiveness through innovation and technology.

Strategic Initiatives and Operational Highlights

The company’s commitment to enhancing global health is evident in its dual goals: transforming healthcare through advanced technology and creating a patient-centric network that accelerates medical discoveries and the development of disease cures.

HealthLynked’s intellectual property portfolio is robust and strategically developed to enhance healthcare delivery and management. In March 2023, HealthLynked was granted a patent for a groundbreaking healthcare-specific wireless access point, known as the “Patient Access Hub.” This technology significantly improves the efficiency of healthcare practices by enabling real-time monitoring of patient flow within facilities. It intelligently determines patients waiting in exam rooms and calculates wait times, alongside other critical practice metrics. This system not only enhances patient experience by reducing unnecessary wait times but also optimizes resource allocation within healthcare settings.

Additionally, in October 2023, HealthLynked filed a patent application for its advanced AI program, ARI (Augmented Real-time Interface). ARI acts as a virtual doctor for patients, capable of performing medical intake, booking appointments, and providing personalized medical recommendations based on a patient’s medical history. By integrating these tasks, ARI streamlines the healthcare process, reducing the administrative burden on healthcare providers and ensuring that patients receive timely and tailored healthcare advice. This AI-driven interface enhances the accessibility and personalization of healthcare, embodying HealthLynked’s commitment to leveraging technology for better health outcomes. The company recently launched HealthLynked 3.2.0, an advanced version of its application, incorporating telemedicine, AI-driven personal healthcare guidance, and remote patient monitoring – setting a new standard in healthcare technology.

Market Position and Future Outlook

According to Facts and Figures Research, a research and consulting firm, the global market for patient-centric healthcare applications is projected to reach $41.6 billion by 2030, growing at a CAGR of 18.77% from 2022. HealthLynked’s offerings align perfectly with this expansive market opportunity, especially with increasing demands for digital health solutions and data management in healthcare.

HealthLynked’s strategic direction, spearheaded by its seasoned management team, is designed to leverage these market dynamics, enhancing patient engagement and healthcare efficiency on a global scale.

Management Team

Michael T. Dent, M.D., Founder, CEO, and Chairman, brings extensive experience from his foundational role at NeoGenomics and leadership in various healthcare and technology sector companies.

David Rosal, CFO, with previous senior roles at Teradata and McDonald’s Corporation, brings a wealth of expertise in financial and business integration strategies essential for growth and operational efficiency.

Chris Hall, CTO, with a strong background in global technology development from his time at Siemens and several patents to his name, is instrumental in driving the innovation and technological advancement at HealthLynked.

Bill Crupi, Operations Manager, has a proven track record in streamlining operations and enhancing productivity across multiple sectors within the healthcare industry. His expertise is crucial in maintaining the operational excellence that HealthLynked is known for.

Michael Paisan, Director of Investor Relations, leverages his extensive experience in finance and communications to enhance HealthLynked’s relationships with investors and stakeholders, ensuring transparent and effective communication of the company’s value and growth strategy.

Gagan Babber, Manager of Software Development, oversees the HealthLynked development teams based in the U.S. and India. With a robust background in engineering and software development, he plays a critical role in guiding the technological direction of HealthLynked’s products. His expertise in developing scalable, innovative software solutions is essential for driving the company’s technical initiatives forward and ensuring that HealthLynked stays at the forefront of digital healthcare technology.

HeartBeam Inc. (NASDAQ: BEAT)

HeartBeam Inc. (NASDAQ: BEAT) is a cardiac technology company that has developed the first and only 3D-vector 12-lead electrocardiogram (ECG) platform for heart attack detection anytime, anywhere. The company’s proprietary ECG telehealth technology aims to redefine the way high risk cardiovascular patients are diagnosed in ambulatory and acute care settings. HeartBeam’s initial focus is on providing diagnostic data to help physicians with care management of patients with cardiovascular disease.

In August 2022, HeartBeam announced that it submitted its HeartBeam AIMI™ software for approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). HeartBeam AIMI is a platform technology to improve the speed and accuracy of heart attack detection in acute care settings. The company expects FDA approval by the end of 2022, and a full commercial roll-out of HeartBeam AIMI is targeted for Q1 2023.

HeartBeam sees submission of its first product based on its platform technology as an important milestone toward commercialization, which underscores the company’s continued progress toward making the HeartBeam AIMI platform widely available to help emergency department physicians quickly and accurately identify a heart attack.

While the FDA conducts its regulatory review, HeartBeam will focus on executing key components of its commercialization plan and subscription revenue model. It will also continue to engage in discussions with strategic institutions, including academic centers, regional healthcare systems and regional community hospital systems that can utilize HeartBeam products.

The company is based in Santa Clara, California.

Products

HeartBeam’s development portfolio includes two products:

• HeartBeam AIMI is software that provides a 3D comparison of baseline and symptomatic 12-lead ECG to more accurately identify a heart attack in acute care settings and, as noted above, has been submitted for FDA approval; and
• HeartBeam AIMIGo™, the first and only credit card-sized 12-lead output ECG device coupled with a smartphone app and cloud-based diagnostic software system for remote heart attack detection.

HeartBeam is developing AIMIGo, a medical-grade detection and monitoring technology for use in remote heart attack detection, thereby allowing physicians to diagnose a patient’s heart attack as it occurs, even if the patient is not at a medical facility. The company’s system, once approved by the FDA, can be used by patients at home or almost anywhere and anytime to help their physicians assess whether chest pain is the result of a heart attack or another cause. While approximately 82% of chest pain ED visits are unnecessary, patients delay approximately 3 to 4 hours after symptoms begin, increasing mortality rates by 40%. The company’s goal is to shorten the time to treatment outside of the medical facility to improve patients’ well-being.

HeartBeam’s AIMIGo is a powerful, portable and easy-to-use prescription-based product. It comprises a smartphone app, a credit card-sized ECG device placed on a patient’s chest, the HeartBeam cloud platform, and a digital portal for the physician to view ECG results and direct patient action. For the first time outside of a medical setting, HeartBeam AIMIGo enables patients and their clinicians to determine if symptoms are due to a heart attack, quickly and easily, so care can be expedited, if needed.

Pending FDA clearance, AIMIGo is initially intended to be available by prescription, and is reimbursable under existing remote patient monitoring codes (RPM codes). This provides a new revenue stream to physicians who before did not have a way to monitor these high-risk patients. The RPM codes provide a monthly reoccurring revenue stream to the company, as well. On average, at current reimbursement rates, the practice will receive $1,300+ per year per patient they monitor, and the company will receive $600 per year per patient from this RPM reimbursement.

Market Overview

Adoption rates of telehealth services increased dramatically in recent years, with the COVID-19 pandemic serving as a major driver of growth. Among the areas seeing the greatest expansion are cardiology, radiology, behavioral health and online consultation.

Encouraging this growth, governments are actively developing new policies and reimbursement guidelines to promote the use of digital health platforms. The U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), for example, has recently expanded reimbursement for telehealth services. U.S. market growth is also being driven by the rising prevalence of chronic conditions and the growing geriatric population.

Remote heart attack detection is a previously unsolved problem with a massive and underserved market that is several times larger than the $2 billion total addressable market (TAM) in the U.S. for ECG cardiac arrhythmia monitoring.

Approximately 8 million Americans have suffered at least one heart attack, and a total of 18 million have been diagnosed with coronary artery disease (CAD). Based on these figures, HeartBeam projects a total addressable U.S. market TAM valued at $10 billion annually for its AIMIGo solution for remote heart attack monitoring of CAD.

Management Team

Branislav Vajdic, Ph.D., Chief Executive Officer and Founder of HeartBeam, Inc, combines over 30 years of experience in technology development and senior management positions. Dr. Vajdic has been deeply involved with the development of HeartBeam’s technology to fit his vision for the company. Prior to HeartBeam, from 2007 to 2010, Dr. Vajdic was CEO and Founder of NewCardio, a publicly traded company in the cardiovascular devices space. From 1984 to 2007, Dr. Vajdic was at Intel, where he held various senior management position. At Intel, Dr. Vajdic was the designer of first Flash memory and two key inventions that enabled Flash as a product and led engineering groups responsible for Pentium 1 through Pentium 4 designs. Dr. Vajdic was awarded two Intel Achievement Awards, the highest level of award for outstanding contributions to Intel. Dr. Vajdic is author of numerous patents and publications in the fields of cardiovascular devices, as well as chip design. Dr. Vajdic holds a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Minnesota.

Jon Hunt, Ph.D., has over 35 years’ experience in the medical/medical device industry with extensive domestic and international experience in general management, clinical/regulatory, sales and marketing. He also has diverse experience in Fortune 500 companies, as well as start-up environments. Dr. Hunt was the Vice President of Clinical Science and Technology, Medical Device Innovation Consortium, from July 2019 to July 2021, and Vice President of Clinical and Regulatory Affairs, Cryterion Medical from January 2018 to June 2019 (acquired by Boston Scientific Corporation in July 2018 for $202M). Dr. Hunt was the Founding President and CEO of Bardy Diagnostics, Inc. from October 2013 to November 2017 (acquired by Hill-Rom Holdings, Inc.). Prior to joining Bardy Diagnostics, Dr. Hunt spent the previous 11 years as the Vice President of Clinical & Regulatory Affairs with Cameron Health, Inc. (acquired by Boston Scientific Corporation). Dr. Hunt spent the previous 10 years with Cardiac Pacemakers, Inc., St. Jude Medical and Cardiac Pathways Corporation. Dr. Hunt began his career with Cardiac Pacemakers, Inc. (now Boston Scientific Corporation) as the Director of Clinical Programs. He subsequently held positions at St. Jude Medical in Clinical Affairs and as the Business Unit Director for the Cardiac Rhythm Management division for Europe, the Middle East and Africa. At Cardiac Pathways Corporation, Dr. Hunt held various executive positions as Vice President of International Sales and Marketing and Vice President of Worldwide Sales and Marketing (acquired by Boston Scientific Corporation). Dr. Hunt received his Ph.D. in Motor Control from The Pennsylvania State University, his Master’s from California State University, Long Beach and his undergraduate degree from Keele University in the United Kingdom.

Rick Brounstein, HeartBeam’s Chief Financial Officer, combines over 30 years of experience in health technology senior management. Since 2017, Mr. Brounstein has been and is currently a partner of Hardesty, LLC, a financial services firm, and Mr. Brounstein is currently a managing director of CTRLCFO, LLC, a firm Mr. Brounstein founded in 2016 to support funded start-ups in life science and technology. From 2008 to 2011, Mr. Brounstein was Chief Financial Officer of NewCardio, Inc., a microcap public company in the cardiology space, and, over his career, he has been with nine other companies in life science or technology, holding positions including Chief Financial Officer, Chief Operating Officer, Treasurer and Accounting Manager. From June 2001 through November 2007, Mr. Brounstein held several positions at Calypte Biomedical Corporation, a publicly traded medical device company, including Chief Financial Officer and Executive Vice President. In January 2007, Mr. Brounstein was appointed as the National Member Representative for the 2007 COSO Monitoring Project, which published new guidelines for monitoring internal financial controls in February 2009; Mr. Brounstein subsequently was a member of the FEI task force that issued the updated COSO Internal Control Framework in 2013. In March 2005, Mr. Brounstein was appointed to the SEC Advisory Committee on Smaller Public Companies. Mr. Brounstein earned his Certified Public Accountant (CPA) certification while working at Arthur Andersen LLP, formerly a public accounting firm. Mr. Brounstein holds a B.A. in accounting and an M.B.A. in finance, both from Michigan State University.

Ken Persen, HeartBeam’s Chief Technology Officer, combines over 28 years of experience in the medical device and digital health industries in engineering and senior management positions. Mr. Persen has been involved in several companies in Cardiac Rhythm Management, holding positions including Chief Executive Officer, Chief Technology Officer, Executive Vice President and Director of Engineering. Since 2016 and prior to joining HeartBeam, Mr. Persen was the Chief Technology Officer at LIVMOR, Inc., a digital health company. In addition, from 2016 through November 2021, he was also Chief Executive Officer of LIVMOR. Prior roles included Director of Engineering at Cameron Health (acquired by Boston Scientific), a late-stage medical device start up, and engineering and management positions at Guidant Corp. (acquired by Boston Scientific), a large medical device manufacturer. He has an undergraduate degree from University of Minnesota, Duluth, with a BA in Computer Science.

Hillcrest Energy Technologies Ltd. (CSE: HEAT) (OTCQB: HLRTF) (FRA: 7HIA.F)

Hillcrest Energy Technologies Ltd. (CSE: HEAT) (OTCQB: HLRTF) (FRA: 7HIA.F) is a clean technology company based in Vancouver, British Columbia, engaged in developing high-value, high-performance power conversion technologies and digital control systems for next-generation powertrains and grid-connected renewable energy systems.

From concept to commercialization, Hillcrest invests in the development of energy solutions that power a more sustainable and electrified future. Hillcrest power inverter technology helps produce efficiencies in electrification and maximize the performance of electric systems, including electric vehicles (EV), motors and generators.

The company offers a flexible, single-inverter architecture that can be applied at nearly every stage of the electrification ecosystem, from renewable energy generation through the charging and operation of an EV, to provide full-cycle efficiency and performance improvements.

As momentum to electrify and decarbonize energy systems accelerates, Hillcrest believes the power inverter is increasingly emerging as a key component. While system cohorts such as battery packs, PV panels and electric motors are often in the spotlight, the inverter holds the key to unlocking efficiency and performance improvements.

Hillcrest power inverter technology is:

• REVOLUTIONARY: high-efficiency inverter technology has the potential to revolutionize how motors respond and how efficiency is gained.
• AGILE: able to deliver and deploy high-efficiency inverter solutions purpose-designed to meet specific customer needs.
• INNOVATIVE: technology-forward, clean-energy experts who are focused on advancing and optimizing efficient alternative energy use across all electric vehicle and charging platforms.
• A MARKET LEADER: a next-generation technology provider to the automotive industry’s top suppliers and manufacturers.

Technology & Applications

Hillcrest’s first application for its inverter technology – a 250 kW|800V Hillcrest SiC high efficiency traction inverter – is focused on the growing EV market. Hillcrest technology eliminates traditional design trade-offs faced across the power industry – deploying higher switching frequencies has historically meant a greater increase in losses, lower system efficiency and higher heat. Through a combination of hardware and software expertise, Hillcrest enables power applications to leverage higher switching frequencies AND

• Realize improved power system performance and reliability
• Operate at higher power levels without compromising efficiency

The expected benefits of Hillcrest’s traction inverter have been confirmed via testing and shared in a technical white paper, published in April 2022, that confirmed the following results:

• Significant efficiency gains – 99%-plus inverter efficiency
• Increased power density targeting 50kW/L+
• Significantly increased motor efficiency
• Lower stress on mechanical and electrical parts, enhancing reliability
• Improved thermal management

Hillcrest has also filed a patent for an enhanced powertrain solution that offers the potential to simplify EV charging and redefine how the industry envisions charging infrastructure. The company believes the most exciting benefit of the enhanced powertrain solution is the ability to eliminate the onboard charger and booster from an EV, as well as faster, anywhere charging including direct DC, wireless, and bidirectional charging across current and future power levels. Hillcrest sees this as a true EV charging game changer.

The company’s technology applies to nearly every clean energy industry segment:

• Wind power – an inverter is deployed at a wind turbine generator to convert the AC output, with at least one additional inverter used to deliver the power to the grid/battery.
• Solar power – an inverter is used to convert the DC output from the photovoltaic panels into the AC power that flows to the grid/battery/home.
• Energy storage – an inverter is deployed to convert the DC output from the storage system or batteries to the AC power that flows to the grid/home/EV.
• EV fast chargers – an inverter converts the AC input from the grid/storage system to the DC output needed to charge an EV’s battery.

Market Outlook

According to an April 2022 market analysis by Vantage Market Research (VMR), the global power inverter market is expected to reach a value of $95 billion by 2028, driven by increasing demand for EVs, energy generating wind turbines and solar-powered photovoltaic systems. That jump is forecast from an estimated $70.5 billion market value in 2021 and represents a compound annual growth rate of more than 5%.

According to the VMR report, many governments in countries around the world are supporting alternative options for efficient and nonpolluting energy generation. This has boosted demand for wind energy and solar energy systems. Hillcrest is aiming to capture a share of this future market growth across nearly every segment of the clean energy industry.

Management Team

Don Currie is the founding CEO of Hillcrest Energy Technologies. He has led the company’s successful transition from fossil fuels into clean energy technologies. Earlier in his career, he held various senior level positions, including director, officer and vice president of corporate communications with Enhanced Oil Resources Inc., an oil and gas exploration and production company based in Houston. Prior to that, he worked in other private and public ventures spanning the mining, gaming and technology sectors.

Jamie L. Hogue is the COO of Hillcrest. She brings more than two decades of progressive policy leadership, economic analysis and organizational development experience to Hillcrest. She builds collaborative processes and solutions that drive growing organizations toward a more resilient future. She previously served as the director of operations for Arizona State University’s Ten Across initiative – a compelling observatory positioned on the front lines of economic, social and climate change. She earned a master’s degree in public administration and a bachelor’s degree in economics from Arizona State University.

Ari Berger is Chief Technology Officer at Hillcrest. He brings over a decade of commercial experience with a track record of deploying new electrification technologies and go-to-market strategies. In 2015, he founded NIG Systems Ltd. in Israel, which specializes in custom high performance control systems design. Prior to this, he previously worked for Bental Industries, a leading motor manufacturer. He holds a master’s degree in system control engineering from the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology.

Raj Clair is CFO at Hillcrest. She is a CPA who began her career at Deloitte and has served in advanced finance positions in the energy and resources sector. She has been responsible for reporting, audits and internal controls, as well as working on budgeting and forecasting. She has worked with various publicly listed companies, including SEC registrants, and has both Canadian and U.S. experience. She holds a bachelor’s degree in accounting from Simon Fraser University.

Horizon Fintex | Upstream

Horizon Fintex is a software business specializing in compliant securities solutions. The company aims to facilitate the future of capital markets by leveraging the regulatory experience of Wall Street bankers and the proven track record of technology veterans to bring focus to compliance, efficiency, security and transparency.

Horizon’s flagship product is the revolutionary trading app ‘Upstream’, a MERJ Exchange Market, and the first regulated market powered by a blockchain to offer both digital securities and NFT trading. Upstream traders experience T+0 settlement, best bids and offers displayed on a transparent public orderbook that prevents predatory market practices – all from a user-friendly trading app.

Products

Horizon Fintex offers a full suite of end-to-end blockchain-enhanced software solutions to create a seamless experience for both issuers and investors. Its product suite includes:

• Securitization & Issuance – ETSware is an end-to-end Electronic Trading System streamlining capital raising from primary issuance through compliant secondary trading.
• KYC Compliance Onboarding – KYCware is a white label Know Your Customer (KYC) and Anti-Money Laundering (AML) compliance software solution offering best-in-class cryptographic security to compliantly onboard and verify user identity through a smartphone application.
• AML Screening Software – AMLCop offers advanced Anti-Money Laundering (AML) software to streamline the verification of user details against a proprietary database of global sanctions, politically exposed persons (PEPs) and watchlists.
• Cap. Table Management Tools – CustodyWare equips registered U.S. transfer agents with next-generation cap. table management software to manage securities on behalf of their clients pursuant to an SEC-registered or exempt securities offering.
• Exchange & Trading App Technology – Open Order Book offers Ethereum blockchain securities exchange software to power the next generation of trading venues for digital assets.

Upstream – The Horizon-Powered Trading App

Upstream is a joint venture with MERJ Exchange (merj.exchange), an affiliate of the World Federation of Exchanges.

Upstream aims to be the premiere global trading hub offering issuers around the world exposure to a digital-first investor base that can trade using USDC digital currency along with credit, debit, PayPal, and USD (fiat) to increase liquidity and enhance price discovery; while also offering investors access to dual-listed companies, IPOs, crowdfunded companies, U.S. & Int’l. equities, digital coupons and NFTs directly from a user-friendly trading app.

Upstream aims to unlock liquidity for investors of all levels while offering industry-leading levels of transparency, accessibility and investor protections enforced using Ethereum blockchain technology.

Management Team

Brian Collins is the CEO of Horizon Fintex. He founded the company in 2010. From 1999-2010, Mr. Collins was CEO of Abbey Technology in Switzerland, specializing in the design of trading software for Swiss banks. Prior to this, he worked for Credit Suisse in Zürich, designing and building proprietary equity trading solutions. Mr. Collins graduated in 1990 with a BS in Computer Systems from the University of Limerick, Ireland.

Mark Elenowitz is the company’s President. He is a Wall Street veteran with over 29 years of experience. Mr. Elenowitz was the co-founder of a U.S. broker dealer and is Managing Director of two U.S. broker dealers, responsible for advising clients on compliance, capital structure and capital market navigation. He was responsible for leading the first successful Reg A+ IPO of a company to list on the NYSE and others which listed directly onto Nasdaq. He is a noted speaker at Small Cap and Reg A events, including the SEC Small Business Forum, and has been profiled in BusinessWeek and CNBC, as well as several other publications. Mr. Elenowitz is a graduate of the University of Maryland School of Business and Management with a BS in Finance and holds Series 24, 62, 63, 79, 82 and 99 licenses.

Dr. Andrew Le Gear is the CTO of Horizon Fintex. Prior to joining the company in 2013, he worked as a software engineer with Dell Inc. (2012-2013) and Lehman Brothers and Nomura Plc. (2007-2012). Dr. Le Gear was a co-founder of Juneberi Ltd., a research-driven software tech start-up (2004-2007). He graduated in 2006 with a Ph.D. in Computer Science from the University of Limerick, Ireland.

Peter Hall is the company’s CIO. Prior to joining Horizon Fintex in 2011, he worked at Microsoft (2008-2011), Atos Origin (2004-2008) and AIT Group Plc. (1998-2002). Mr. Hall has held CISSP certification since 2010. He graduated from the University of Sheffield, UK in 1995 and earned an MS from the University College London in 2006.

Mike Boswell is the CFO of Horizon Fintex. A Wall Street veteran, he co-founded a U.S. broker dealer and served as Chief Compliance Officer. Mr. Boswell was also Managing Director of TriPoint Capital Advisors, a merchant banking and financial consulting company, and CFO of Mission Solutions Group, a privately held defense sector firm. He earned an MBA from John Hopkins University and a BS in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Maryland. Mr. Boswell holds Series 24, 62, 63, 79, 82 and 99 licenses.

iClick Interactive Asia Group Ltd. (NASDAQ: ICLK)

iClick Interactive Asia Group Ltd. (NASDAQ: ICLK) is an independent online marketing and enterprise data solutions provider connecting worldwide marketers w/ith audiences in China. Built on cutting-edge technologies, iClick’s proprietary platform possesses omni-channel marketing capabilities and fulfills various marketing objectives in a data-driven and automated manner, helping international and domestic marketers reach their target audiences. Headquartered in Hong Kong, iClick operates in 10 locations worldwide, including Asia and Europe.

iClick aims to become a fully integrated Enterprise and Marketing Cloud Platform in China, providing clients a full consumer-cycle solution. This is facilitated by two pillars’ growth strategy through two business segments: Marketing Solutions and Enterprise Solutions.

Marketing Solutions

Using data and AI-driven technology to help brands efficiently identify, target and acquire the right customers

As the leading programmatic marketing platform in China, iClick’s proprietary platform collects a wealth of data from multiple sources to precisely reach the right audience at the right moment, on the right channel and right device. Cross-screen search solutions capture critical micro-moments when users proactively search for what they need. This multi-dimensional approach to marketing allows iClick to effectively understand internet users and exponentially widen target audiences for its brand clients. Multiple monetization models available in the Marketing Solutions segment allow iClick to serve its clients in several ways, such as audience targeting.

Data-driven marketing is indispensable to marketers targeting specific audiences in China. More than 825 million internet users in China are anonymously profiled on iClick’s platform, which boasts cross-channel and cross-screen capabilities.

Enterprise Solutions

Enabling brands to efficiently manage their consumers through online and offline data integration and analysis, increase the repurchase rate, and enhance consumers’ loyalty

iClick’s Enterprise Solutions segment addresses enterprise needs in China, particularly focusing on “smart retail,” an expanding and innovating market involving the combination of online and offline consumers’ behavioral information. Enterprise Solutions support detailed profiling of customers, which facilitates data-driven business strategies, enhances business processes at various levels, and increases operational and marketing efficiency.

Enterprise Solutions leverages iClick’s proprietary platform that incorporates Artificial Intelligence (AI) to learn, build and store knowledge, enabling accurate predictions about consumer behavior that ultimately provide marketing solutions derived from the large amount of available data.

Through a strategic partnership with Tencent, iClick’s Enterprise Solutions presents strong recurring revenue streams with tremendous opportunities to upsell multi-national corporations (MNCs). Tencent’s proprietary API connection enables brands to build 360-degree consumer profiles based on the collection and integration of purchased behavioral information from online and offline touchpoints, including WeChat Mini Programs, WeChat Payment, WeChat Work and more.

As iClick continues to provide integrated marketing and smart retail solutions targeting Chinese consumers, the company believes Enterprise Solutions has strong long-term growth potential and will become a major gross margin contributor in the future.

Partnerships

In 2019, iClick established various agreements and partnerships with a number of leading southeast and northeast Asian companies for regional diversification and in 2020 is focused on continuing to develop additional partnerships and new business models globally. Many of the world’s top companies are leveraging iClick’s proprietary data platform to precisely identify and reach out to core target audience groups in China.

The company’s partnerships include:

• A tri-partnership with BTG WELINK, an online retail services arm of Beijing Tourism Group (“BTG”), and Tencent Holdings Ltd., China’s leading provider of internet value added services. As part of this partnership, iClick applies its upgraded solutions to build a private DSP (Demand Side Platform) system for BTG. Using Tencent’s big data advertising platform, iClick can assist BTG to develop precision marketing campaigns.
• An Advertising Agency Authorization Certificate from Baidu Inc. (NASDAQ: BIDU), under which iClick is designated the authorized agency for native advertising of Baidu’s news feed ads. Native advertising is a consumer-friendly, non-disruptive advertising format that has gained rapid popularity among advertisers in recent years. Native advertising and creative marketing content have become a more effective marketing method among the Chinese young consumers. In 2019, the native advertising sector was estimated to have an around 53.5% share of the online advertising revenue, according to Statista.
• A joint-venture partnership with VGI Global Media Plc (VGI.BKK), Thailand’s No. 1 online to offline (O2O) solutions provider across advertising, payment and logistics platforms, which enables brands in Southeast Asia to capture the multi-billion-dollar Chinese consumer market through a range of technology-driven marketing solutions.

Case Study: Armani Hotel Dubai

Dubai has been gearing up to welcome the growing wave of Chinese visitors. Chinese nationals are eligible for a 30-day visa-on-arrival into the UAE, which gives Chinese travelers tremendous convenience. In light of this, Armani Hotel Dubai set the objective to increase its sales in this market.

The challenge: What Aarmani Hotel Dubai lacked in executing this goal was insightful understanding of Chinese travelers in particular the demographics that were likely to be attracted to the hotel. Challenged by the huge differences in the business practice, unique culture and language barrier in running digital campaigns in China, Armani Hotel Dubai turned to iClick’s know-how and expertise to guide its campaign to success and meet its sales goal.

The solution: iClick tailored an optimal solution for the hotel to increase brand awareness and booking rate from China – which is the key market for the hotel – and successfully assisted Armani Hotel Dubai in reaching its target Chinese audiences by using China’s most popular mobile and internet sites, including WeChat and Weibo, to improve reach and booking potential.

The results: Due to iClick’s unrivaled technological and execution strengths, Armani Hotel Dubai’s ads were delivered in an omnichannel manner, raising brand awareness and garnering interest between Chinese consumers. Subsequently, Armani Hotel Dubai saw a surge in conversion rate.
During the campaign, the Armani Hotel Dubai brand was connected with 87% of Chinese mobile users.

Award-winning Provider

iClick, a Deloitte Technology Fast50, has received multiple industry awards from the international marketing community. The company is committed to helping clients access digital China with its omni-channel, data-driven marketing solutions that deliver uniquely sharpened marketing capabilities and outstanding advertising results.

Most recently, iClick subsidiary OptAim (Beijing) Information Technology Co., Ltd was recognized by Tencent Ads as a 2019 Gold Service Provider. Tencent Ads also named OptAim the winner of three major annual awards for the second half of 2019: “Outstanding Contribution of the Year,” “Best Technology & Data Application Award,” and “Best Branding Awards.”

In November 2019, company co-founder and CEO Sammy Hsieh was chosen as the winner of the “EY Entrepreneur of The Year China 2019 Award in Technology Category,” an award recognizing his entrepreneurial acumen, innovative spirit and strong leadership. As one of the world’s most prestigious business accolades, the “EY Entrepreneur of The Year” awards program honors those who accomplish success by combining ability with opportunity, and inspire others with great vision, leadership and outstanding achievement.

iClick won the Annual Influential Platform Award and the Innovation Golden Award in Marketing at the Creative Award 2019, as well as the Best Tourism Marketing Agency. The company was also the recipient of the “Best Brand and Performance Marketing Award” at the Performance Marketing Ecosystem Summit 2018 hosted by the Advertising & Marketing Service, a division of Tencent Holdings Limited.

The company in 2018 was also recognized as “Platinum Service Partner of Tencent Social Ads” at the Tencent Key Accounts Mid-Year Summit held in Beijing. The mobile division of iClick, Optaim, received the same award beginning in 2016. Optaim was also the “Best DSP Partner” and “Key Account Data Partner” of Tencent, making it the only player in China with such unique and deep level of cooperation with Tencent Social Ads.

Leadership

Sammy Wing Hong Hsieh, chairman of the board and co-founder, was CEO from 2009 to 2019. Prior to co-founding iClick, Hsieh held senior positions in several prominent technology companies. He was general manager for Asia Pacific at Efficient Frontier (now an Adobe company), a leading digital performance marketing company, and was director of Search Marketing at Yahoo Hong Kong from 2000-2008. Hsieh received a bachelor’s degree in economics from the University of California, Los Angeles.

Jian Tang, director, CEO and co-founder, has 20 years of experience in digital advertising and is well-known in China for his expertise in advertising technologies and big data. In 2012, he founded OptAim, which was acquired by iClick in 2015, and has served key research, engineering and management roles at Yahoo’s global research and development center. Tang received his doctorate in computer engineering from Tsinghua University and was named by Campaign Asia as one of the leaders in its Digital A-List in 2016.

Terence Chi Wai Li, chief financial officer, has 15 years of experience in financial management, investment and business operations. He has served in management roles and advisory capacities at several start-ups, in addition to financial management and fundraising roles. He previously worked at PricewaterhouseCoopers, specializing in M&A due diligence and cross border tax and deal structuring projects. Li received an MBA from Oxford University’s Said Business School. He is a Fellow Member of ACCA, a Member of HKICPA, and a Chartered Financial Analyst.

Ideanomics Inc. (NASDAQ: IDEX)

Ideanomics Inc. (NASDAQ: IDEX) is a global company facilitating the adoption of commercial electric vehicles and supporting next-generation financial services and fintech products. Ideanomics is currently divided into two divisions – mobility and capital. These divisions provide shareholders with access to disruptive and high-growth opportunities.

The company expects 2021 to be another growth year after it raised approximately $400 million over the past six months. This funding has already been put to good use with acquisitions of Wireless Advanced Vehicle Electrification (WAVE) and Timios. With roughly $200 million still on the balance sheet, Ideanomics continues to look for new investments and acquisitions in revenue-based opportunities focused on EV and fintech businesses.

Founded in 2004, Ideanomics is headquartered in New York, New York, with additional offices in Hangzhou, Beijing and Qingdao, China. Its current operations span the United States, China, Ukraine and Malaysia.

Ideanomics Mobility

Ideanomics Mobility is focused on the EV market. The global commercial EV market was valued at $34.7 billion in 2018 and is expected to grow at a CAGR of 39.9% through 2022 to reach a total of $132.73 billion (https://ibn.fm/pPrf4). According to a survey by Grand View Research, the global EV charging infrastructure market is also expected to grow and reach $144.97 billion in 2028, expanding at a CAGR of 33.4% from 2021 to 2028.

This growth is expected to be driven by increased support of electric vehicles from the public, as well as the current U.S. administration, which has a goal of achieving a 100% clean-energy economy.

The Ideanomics Mobility unit consists of five companies:

• Mobile Energy Global (MEG) – Wholly owned China-based service provider of the Sales-to-Finance-to-Charging (S2F2C) business model to assist commercial fleet operators on EV enablement. Recent sales include 2,000 units of D1, BYD’s custom electric ride-hailing vehicle.
• Medici Motor Works – Wholly owned North America division. MMW will develop zero-emissions specialty vehicles, trucks, buses and vans for the North American market.
• Wireless Advanced Vehicle Electrification (WAVE) – Wholly owned Utah-based commercial EV charging technology company with a specialized offering of in-ground wireless charging for commercial vehicles. WAVE’s chargers power the Antelope Valley Transportation Authority, the largest municipal EV bus system in the country. Its revenue for 2020 exceeded $7 million, and it boasts a robust pipeline for 2021 and beyond.
• Treeletrik – Majority investment in Malaysian-based OEM will service a high-demand market – electric delivery mopeds. Treeletrik has obtained certifications in Thailand and Indonesia, with orders secured for 2021. Its North American marketing program is expected to commence in 2021. As a part of the ESG initiative, one tree will be planted for every unit sold.
• Solectrac – Minority investment in California-based electric tractor company. Solectrac manufactures 100% electric tractors to benefit farmers, crops and the planet at a time when the agriculture market remains virtually unaddressed by EV solutions.
• Silk EV – Minority investment in hyper car and performance car design company, which provides access to the high-end battery and charging technology development ecosystem.

Ideanomics is generating EV revenue from its Sales to Financing to Charging (S2F2C) business model, which features three operating areas:

1. Vehicle and Battery Sales: Medici, Treeletrik and Solectrac cover three key market segments
2. Financing, Leasing and Insurance: Offering financial services to fleet customers, commission delivery and origination fee-based revenue
3. Charging and Energy Services: Offering charging as a service, battery swap programs and WAVE wireless charging products

Ideanomics Capital

Ideanomics Capital is focused on providing disruptive fintech solutions across the entire board of financial services, ranging from financial markets to digital securities and assets to mortgages and more. More mainstream institutions and a growing number of companies have increased their digital securities services, along with institutional investments boosting bitcoin and the emergence of favorable regulatory developments, creating ample opportunities for widespread adoption of financial technologies.

Additionally, the U.S. real estate industry is ripe for technologization, as it currently is fragmented, antiquated, opaque and largely untouched by tech innovation. However, the expanding market, with U.S. home sales expected to grow 21.9% in 2021, and the increased digitization of all business spaces are expected to promote a digital-first experience as the new industry standard this year and beyond (https://ibn.fm/DwsUv).

The Ideanomics Capital unit consists of five companies:

• Timios – Wholly owned subsidiary bringing real estate into the 21st century by providing value-add, fee-based services addressing the title and closing process of home buying and mortgage transactions. Timios works to create transparency and efficiency within the market. Timios ended 2020 as a cash flow and EBITDA positive business.
• The Delaware Board of Trade (DBOT) – Wholly owned FINRA-regulated ATS and broker dealer based in Delaware.
• Liquefy – Minority investment bringing innovation to investment in real assets with blockchain technology by increasing efficiency in fractional ownership, lowering entry to investment barriers and unlocking liquidity in assets that were previously illiquid.
• Technology Metals Market (TM2) – Minority investment in UK company delivering a direct investment and trading market for technology metals with a newly accessible technology metals asset class for inventory diversification. The traded metals are 100% backed by physical metals.
• Intelligenta – Investment providing AI and machine learning solutions for financial institutions and regulators.

Management Team

Alf Poor is Ideanomics’ Chief Executive Officer. He is a client-focused and profit-driven executive who has a track record of success in rapidly growing technology companies and large, multi-national organizations. Mr. Poor’s expertise includes business planning, financing and creating and implementing corporate governance policies, as well as handling management across organizations. His specialization is working with cross-border and multi-national startups. Before taking the CEO role at Ideanomics, he was the CEO for Global Data Sentinel.

Conor McCarthy is the company’s Chief Financial Officer. He is a strategic and operationally oriented management-level professional. His extensive international experience is within the fintech, data science and advertising technology sectors. Mr. McCarthy has experience with public companies, PE, and VC-backed firms. His specializations are financial and management reporting, planning and analysis, financial modelling, performance metrics, KPIs, venture borrowing, Series A equity funding, ERP system implementation, international business operations, and acquisition due diligence and integration. Before joining Ideanomics, Mr. McCarthy most recently held a CFO position at OS33. Prior to that, he was CFO for Intent Media Inc.

Kate Lam is the company’s Managing Director of Financial Products. She is highly regarded for her fixed income capital marketing skills across Asia and the United States. Ms. Lam has over 25 years of experience in the financial markets industry, dealing with many asset classes and clients. Having spent a few years in the fintech startup industry, her skills bridge the gap between traditional financial assets and new technological innovations. She has held senior management positions at Bear Sterns, Deutsche Bank and Standard Chartered Bank.

Keith Byers is Ideanomics’ Senior Vice President of Operations. He has extensive experience managing strategic relationships with key clients and deepening the relationships through innovation and successful engagement strategies. Before Ideanomics, Mr. Byers was the Managing Partner and Head of Operations for Gain Theory. He has a Master of Arts – MA, Economics from Heriot-Watt University and a Master of Science – Economics from The University of Edinburgh.

Tony Sklar is the company’s Senior Vice President of Investor Relations. He is a communication strategist and has worked for multi-faceted companies with global operations. Mr. Sklar handles omni-channel distribution using intelligence platforms and data insights for strategic planning, international expansion and marketing channels. His specialties include project management with digital strategy and transformation, ICO, marketing, blockchain and strategic partnerships. In addition to his role with Ideanomics, he is also a board member for the Delaware Board of Trade and the host and senior technology reporter for Far From TV.

IGC Pharma Inc. (NYSE American: IGC)

IGC Pharma Inc. (NYSE American: IGC), through subsidiary IGC Pharma, develops, patents, and markets advanced THC-based drug formulations for the treatment of symptoms related to various diseases including but not limited to Alzheimer’s disease, Tourette syndrome, chronic pain, and pet seizures.

IGC’s leading drug candidate, IGC-AD1, has completed Phase 1 of a safety and tolerability trial and entered Phase 2 trials for treating agitation in patients with Alzheimer’s dementia, the first study in humans of a natural tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) compound plus another molecule (www.clinicaltrials.gov). As of September 2022, the IGC trial is the only ongoing Phase 2 trial of a natural THC-based formulation on Alzheimer’s patients.

The company’s other drug candidate, TGR-63, is an enzyme inhibitor that has shown in preclinical trials the potential to reduce neurotoxicity in Alzheimer’s cell lines. Both drug candidates have shown their ability to ameliorate beta amyloid plaques in Alzheimer’s cell lines and improve memory in Alzheimer’s mouse models. Beta amyloid plaques are a key hallmark of Alzheimer’s and an important target of Alzheimer’s pharmaceutical drug development.

Neuro Psychiatric Symptoms (NPS) are not only debilitating for Alzheimer’s patients; they also place an immense emotional burden on their caregivers. Beyond reducing symptoms, IGC-AD1’s active molecules and TGR-63 have also shown promise in preclinical trials to reduce important hallmarks of Alzheimer’s including plaques and tangles, as well as improving the treatment of memory loss.

Over the past eight years, the IGC team has amassed a deep knowledge of cannabinoid science, including extraction, isolation, purification, and development. The company’s strategy is to leverage its unique end-to-end capabilities, platform, and expertise to develop a class-leading program and bring it to market quickly and cost efficiently to treat neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s.

The company also has a family of cannabidiol (CBD)-based consumer products (www.Holief.com) such as pain relief creams, pain relief gels, purpose gummies, tinctures, and capsules targeting women’s wellness, with a particular focus on premenstrual syndrome (PMS) and dysmenorrhea (period cramps). In addition, the company targets individuals that need sleep-aids with its specially formulated low melatonin cannabinoid gummies.

IGC has also introduced a low-calorie CBD- and caffeine-infused energy beverage brand (www.SundaySeltzer.com) that is currently available for purchase. The company’s brands are founded on the belief that effective natural solutions should be affordable and accessible to everyone. As the demand for natural products targeting women’s wellness and energy drinks continue to grow, these products are seeing strong traction in the market.

The company operates three facilities – a large GMP (Good Manufacturing Production Standards) certified facility that includes extraction, distillation, and manufacturing, in Washington State; a GMP-211 (pharmaceutical) grade facility in Maryland; and a facility licensed for controlled substances including cannabis in Bogota, Colombia, with complete access to legal licensed cannabis where the company conducts its testing.

In addition, the company’s development under Magistral Formulations is approved by INVIMA (Colombia National Food and Drug Surveillance Institute) to treat neurological disorders, non-oncological chronic pain, and mental disorders.

IGC’s intellectual property (IP) portfolio comprises of eight patents that it controls and seven patent applications. The portfolio includes #11,446,276, a patent for extreme low dose THC treatment of Alzheimer’s that was granted in September 2022.

The company is headquartered in Potomac, Maryland.

IGC-AD1

IGC-AD1 is the company’s leading drug candidate for the treatment and relief of Alzheimer’s symptoms. A significant amount of research on Alzheimer’s cell lines has shown that the active agents in IGC-AD1 reduce plaques and neurofibrillary tangles that are the hallmarks of Alzheimer’s. Further, micro-dosing of THC, as shown in cell lines, could increase the functioning of mitochondria and potentially promote the growth of new neural pathways (neurogenesis). The research shows that micro-dosing of THC affects the brain radically differently from the normal higher dosing of THC.

While there is a significant body of research showing that THC is neuro-toxic at normal levels of dosing, micro-dosing of THC has been shown to be non-toxic to neurons. With the results of these preclinical studies, the company developed an oral formulation, IGC-AD1. The company recently completed a safety and tolerability Phase 1 trial on Alzheimer’s patients and has initiated a Phase 2, multi-site, double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled trial of the safety and efficacy of IGC-AD1 on agitation in participants with dementia due to Alzheimer’s disease at sites in the U.S. and Canada. IGC expects the Phase 2 trial to take between 9 and 12 months to complete, barring unknown factors such as, for example, a resurgence of COVID and the enforcement of lockdowns and travel restrictions.

With further successful trials and FDA approvals, IGC hopes to bring a drug based on natural THC as an effective treatment for agitation in Alzheimer’s to market.

TGR-63

The company’s other molecule, TGR-63, has been shown to reduce the neurotoxicity that impacts memory loss in preclinical trials with mice. On a dose dependent manner, transgenic Alzheimer’s mice treated with TGR-63 showed improvement in memory relative to control.

Both drug candidates, IGC-AD1 and TGR-63, have shown their ability to reduce the brain plaques associated with memory loss in Alzheimer’s in mice.

With further successful trials and FDA approvals, IGC hopes to bring TGR-63 as a treatment for Alzheimer’s disease to market.

Market Opportunity

Alzheimer’s disease impacts over 55 million people worldwide and about 5.5 million individuals in the U.S. Over 70% of these patients face debilitating symptoms, including anxiety, depression, and agitation (Mendez, 2021). Agitation in dementia patients can include excessive physical movement and verbal activity, restlessness, pacing, belligerence, aggression, screaming, crying, and wandering.

In 2020, the estimated healthcare costs for Alzheimer’s disease in the U.S. were $305 billion. Medicare and Medicaid covered about 70% of those costs, leaving considerable burden on patients and families. At the current rate of growth of Alzheimer’s and other dementia diagnoses, those costs are estimated to reach over $1 trillion by 2050.

Currently, there are no FDA-approved medications to alleviate the symptoms of dementia due to Alzheimer’s disease, providing a tremendous opportunity for formulations that can have an impact on quality of life and disease progression.

Management Team

Richard Prins has been chairman at IGC since 2012 and served as an independent director since 2007. From March 1996 to 2008, he was the Director of Investment Banking at Ferris, Baker Watts, Incorporated. Prins served in a consulting role to RBC until January 2009. He currently volunteers full time with a non-profit organization, Advancing Native Missions, and is a private investor. Since February 2003, he has been on the board of Amphastar Pharmaceuticals Inc. He holds a bachelor’s degree from Colgate University and an MBA from Oral Roberts University.

Ram Mukunda is CEO and President of IGC. He has been the chief inventor and architect of most of the company’s patent filings and is responsible for the company’s strategic positioning. Prior to IGC, he was founder and CEO of Startec Global Communications, which he took public in 1997. He served as Strategic Planning Advisor at Intelsat, a communications satellite services provider. From 2001 to 2003, he was a Council Member at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, Belfer Center of Science and International Affairs. He was named the 1998 Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year. He holds bachelor’s degrees in electrical engineering and mathematics, and a master’s degree in engineering from the University of Maryland.

Dr. Jagadeesh Rao is the company’s Principal Scientist. His career spans two decades in the public sector and product R&D for Johnson & Johnson. He leads IGC’s scientists in the development of pharmaceutical and OTC products. He worked for the federal National Institutes of Health, and for the National Institute on Drug Abuse. His Ph.D. in Neurochemistry is from the National Institute of Mental Health & Neurosciences in India. He did postdoctoral training at the University of Illinois-Chicago.

Claudia Grimaldi is a Director, Vice President, Principal Financial Officer, and Chief Compliance Officer for IGC. She also serves as a Director/Manager Director for some of the company’s subsidiaries. She graduated with highest honors from Javeriana University in Colombia with a bachelor’s degree in psychology. She holds an MBA, graduating with highest honors, from Meredith College in North Carolina. In addition, she has attended the Darden School of Business Financial Management Executives program and the Corporate Governance Program at Columbia Business School. She is currently pursuing her Directorship Certification with the National Association of Corporate Directors. She is fluent in both English and Spanish.

Infobird Co., Ltd (NASDAQ: IFBD)

Infobird Co., Ltd (NASDAQ: IFBD) is a software-as-a-service (SaaS) provider of AI-powered customer engagement solutions in China. Infobird leverages a self-developed cloud computing structure, AI and machine learning capabilities, patented Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) application technologies, a no-code development platform and in-depth industry expertise to best serve its growing client base.

Founded in October 2001, Infobird empowers clients with value-driven business solutions designed to increase revenue, reduce costs and enhance service quality and customer satisfaction. The company currently specializes in corporate clients in finance and a broad array of ancillary industries.

Infobird is headquartered in Beijing, China, and began trading on the Nasdaq Capital Market on April 20, 2021, following an initial public offering of 6.25 million ordinary shares at a public offering price of $4.00 per share, before underwriting discounts and commissions.

Product Offering

Infobird’s flagship customer engagement software can handle both AI Customer Engagement and AI Salesforce Management.

• AI Customer Engagement
  • Intelligent Omni-Channel Customer Service – This offering allows clients to connect with their customers anytime and anywhere through a comprehensive suite of cloud-based tools.
  • Cloud Call Center – This service puts Infobird’s years of technical and operational experience to work for clients, with options including intelligent IVR technology, call monitoring, routing strategy and ticketing systems, all supported by multi-dimensional data reports.
  • Intelligent Telemarketing – Infobird’s AI bots can help clients navigate “never-ending lists” of potential customers, filter out the most promising leads and increase the working efficiency of agents, keeping agents focused on high-value tasks.
  • AI Voice Chatbot and AI Text Chatbot – This technology allows clients to create human-like interactions offering 24/7 availability and multi-round dialogue capabilities, decreasing labor costs by up to 80% while greatly improving efficiency.

• AI Salesforce Management
  • Intelligent Quality Inspection – Infobird’s platform aims to improve quality inspection rates and service levels through the use of real-time smart monitoring with comprehensive coverage.
  • Intelligent Training – Interactive training programs allow clients to ensure and continuously improve the performance level of their agents, lessening the impact of high turnover rates common throughout the customer service industry.

Infobird’s client base includes roughly 10,000 paid user accounts representing 358 customers in the industries of finance, education, public services, consumer products and health care – as reported on June 30, 2020.

Market Outlook

Cloud infrastructure services spending in China increased by 32% ($39.9 billion) in the fourth quarter of 2020. For all of 2020, total services grew to $142 billion, up from the reported $107 billion in 2019. This growth can be attributed to rising demand for cloud infrastructure over physical software solutions (https://ibn.fm/rHZUh). China is the second-largest market for cloud infrastructure solutions after the U.S., accounting for roughly 14% of the global industry.

Likewise, SaaS has demonstrated considerable growth potential in recent years. In 2020, the SaaS industry in China was valued at $3.3 billion, representing an increase of 43.5% over 2019, as companies continue to leverage artificial intelligence and Big Data technologies to increase efficiencies and promote expansion.

As one of the leading and longest standing providers of domestic SaaS solutions and with a comprehensive portfolio of intelligent, customizable and scalable solutions, Infobird is uniquely positioned to capitalize on the market’s expansion and resulting opportunities for corporate growth.

Management Team

Yimin Wu is the CEO and Founder of Infobird. He has served as the Chairman of the board of directors and Chief Executive Officer of the company since it was founded. From August 1990 to March 1993, Mr. Wu was a software engineer for the Software Center of Tsinghua University and was sent to the U.S. to co-develop the HP_UX operating system at HP Inc. From April 1993 to May 2000, he served as the general manager for Beijing Jing Zhou Computers Co. Ltd., a company responsible for marketing and developing interactive voice response systems. From July 2000 to October 2001, Mr. Wu was the general manager for Beijing Jing Zhou Rong Hua Internet Technology Co. Ltd, a company responsible for developing middleware for call center establishments. He received a bachelor’s degree and a master’s degree in computer sciences from Tsinghua University.

Hsiaochien Tseng is the EVP of Infobird and has held the title since January 2020. From March 2010 to September 2018, he served as a sales director for the Credit Card Center of China Guangfa Bank, where he was responsible for integrating and managing online and offline sales channels, establishing overall and regional sales strategies and creating training systems to increase the client base. From October 2018 to January 2020, Mr. Tseng served as SVP of Hua Tuo Digital Technology Group Co. Ltd., a financial information technology company. He received a bachelor’s degree in information management from Fu Jen Catholic University and a master’s degree in business administration from San Diego State University.

Chunhsiang Chen is the VP of Infobird, a position he has held since April 2012. From June 1990 to February 1993, he served as an advisory programmer of International Business Machine Corp. (IBM). During that time, he participated in the design and development of the Multiple Protocol Transport Network. From February 1993 to September 1996, Mr. Chen served as an associate professor in the Information Education Department of National Taiwan Normal University. He founded GenNet Technology Co. Ltd., an information technology company, in 1993 and served as the president until joining Infobird in 2012. Mr. Chen has a bachelor’s degree in computer sciences from the National Chiao Tung University and a master’s degree and doctoral degree in computer sciences from Northwestern University.

Lianfang Zhou is the CFO of Infobird and has been with the company for over 10 years. From September 2004 to July 2008, she served as the head of accounting at Beijing Saishuo Technology Co. Ltd., a software development company specializing in port services. From August 2008 to December 2009, Mrs. Zhou served as the head of accounting for Beijing Lianhe Lida Investment Co. Ltd., a property management services company. She holds an intermediate accounting qualification certificate issued by the Ministry of Finance of the PRC. Mrs. Zhou also has a bachelor’s degree in accounting from the Renmin University of China.

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.

Safety Shot Inc. (NASDAQ: SHOT)

Safety Shot Inc. (NASDAQ: SHOT) is a diversified company that supports health and wellness by researching and developing over-the-counter (OTC) products and intellectual property. The company has a robust and growing portfolio of granted and pending patents to protect its proprietary products.

Safety Shot’s product pipeline, backed by clinical research to ensure efficacy, addresses a range of underserved conditions. The company’s revenue is generated through a combination of OTC and consumer product sales, contract research agreements, and licensing royalties.

Safety Shot was formed in 2018 and is headquartered in Jupiter, Florida.

Products with Purpose

Safety Shot’s product pipeline currently targets a variety of indications with underserved needs. These include:

• Hair Loss – Safety Shot’s Minoxidil Booster is a topical treatment that’s been clinically shown to increase the enzymes needed for minoxidil to work by up to 7x over a two-week period. The product has been licensed to Taisho, a $2.6 billion revenue company and Japan’s leading seller of minoxidil products, which expects to launch it commercially in 2023. The product is licensed to India-based Cosmofix Technovation Pvt. Ltd. and Sanpellegrino Cosmetics, and additional licensing opportunities are being pursued.
• Psoriasis & Vitiligo – Photocil safely and effectively permits phototherapy treatments at home by blocking harmful radiation and permitting the passage of therapeutic UV radiation. The product has been licensed abroad and is currently being launched commercially in India by Eris Oaknet Healthcare and Cosmofix Technovation under the brand name PhotoFirst. The product is also available in the U.S., and the company is working to find new partners in dermatology for expanded distribution.
• Jellyfish Protection Sunscreen – NoStingz is a topical protection from jellyfish, sea lice, and UVA/UVB rays. It provides an effective barrier against the stinging mechanism of jellyfish cnidocytes, preventing the delivery of venom to the victim. NoStingz is currently available online through Amazon and Walmart, as well as in select stores.
• Eczema – JW-100 is a pre-revenue topical treatment for atopic dermatitis (eczema). In prior studies, JW-100 cleared or reduced eczema symptoms following 2 weeks of use. Results suggest that JW-100 may potentially prove superior to existing prescription drugs. It is currently being evaluated in a Phase 3, double-blind, placebo-controlled multicenter trial.
• Burns – JW-300 is a pre-revenue topical treatment for first-degree burns and sun exposure. In prior studies, JW-300 was shown to significantly lower the incidence of burns in patients exposed to UV radiation. It is currently being evaluated for sale as an “after sun” consumer product.
• Cold Sores – JW-400 is a pre-revenue topical treatment of herpes labialis (cold sores). A phase 1, double-blind, placebo-controlled investigational study is currently being planned for JW-400.
• Sexual Wellness – JW-500 is a pre-revenue topical treatment for female libido loss. In clinical studies, the topical formulation improved nipple sensitivity and alleviated associated sexual problems. Safety Shot plans to file for a pre-IND meeting with the U.S. FDA within the next 12 months and intends to seek Orphan Drug Designation.
• COVID-19-Induced Tinnitus – JW-600 is currently being evaluated in a triple-blind clinical study. Up to 15% of patients recovering from COVID-19 have experienced post-acute COVID-19-induced tinnitus

Management Team

Brian John is the CEO of Safety Shot. For the past 20 years, he has been an investor and advisor to companies around the globe. He is the founder of a successful financial consulting firm specializing in helping emerging growth companies and has worked with hundreds of companies in dozens of countries over the last 25 years. Mr. John also serves on the board of directors of The Learning Center at the Els Center of Excellence – a school for children with autism in Jupiter, Florida.

Doug McKinnon is the CFO of Safety Shot. His 35+ year professional career includes financial, advisory, and operational experience across a broad spectrum of industry sectors, including oil and gas, technology, cannabis, and communications. He has served in C-Level positions in both private and public sectors, including as chairman and CEO of an American-stock-exchange-traded company; as VP – Chief Administrative Officer of a $12-billion-market-cap Nasdaq-traded company; as CFO of several publicly-held U.S., Canadian and Australian companies; and as CEO/CFO of various other private enterprises.

Dr. Glynn Wilson is the Chief Scientific Officer of Safety Shot. He brings to the company an extensive background of success in corporate management and product development with tenures in both multinational and start-up biotech organizations. He was formerly Head of Drug Delivery at SmithKline Beecham Pharmaceuticals; Research Area Head in Advanced Drug Delivery at Ciba-Geigy Pharmaceuticals; and Founder, CEO, and Chairman of TapImmune Inc., which became Marker Therapeutics through a merger. At TapImmune, he licensed cancer vaccine technology platforms and established the clinical pipeline.

Knightscope, Inc. (NASDAQ: KSCP)

Knightscope, Inc. (NASDAQ: KSCP), founded in 2013 and based in Mountain View, California, is a leader in the development of autonomous security capabilities targeting to disrupt the $500 billion security industry. Knightscope’s technology uniquely combines self-driving technology, robotics, artificial intelligence and electric vehicles.

Knightscope designs and builds Autonomous Security Robots (ASRs) that provide 24/7/365 security to the places you live, work, visit and study. The company’s client list covers public institutions and commercial business operations, including multiple Fortune 1000 companies to date. These ASRs have been proven to enhance safety at hospitals, logistics facilities, manufacturing plants, schools and corporations. ASRs act as highly cost-effective complementary systems to traditional security and law enforcement officials, providing an additional advantage by continuing to offer uninterrupted patrolling capabilities across the country.

The company’s ASRs have assisted in the arrest of suspects involved in crimes ranging from armed robbery to hit-and-runs. Their machine-embedded thermal scanning capability even aided in preventing the breakout of a major fire. You can learn more about the crime fighting wins at www.knightscope.com/crime

The company has achieved several milestones since its creation in 2013, including:

• Establishing itself in a 15,000-square-foot facility located in Mountain View, California, in the heart of Silicon Valley, where Knightscope designs, engineers and builds its technology (Made in the USA)
• Operating for more than 1 million hours in the field and securing contracts across five time zones, from Hawaii to Rhode Island
• Raising over $100 million since inception to build its technology from scratch and generating over $13 million in lifetime revenue, validating both the market opportunity and the technology

Growth Capital & Proposed Nasdaq Listing

With backing from more than 28,000 investors and four major corporations and over $100 million raised since inception, Knightscope is poised to be an industry leader in the future of public safety and security.

On December 1, 2021, Knightscope announced the commencement of an offering of up to $40 million of its Class A common stock, with shares to be listed immediately following closing on the Nasdaq Global Market under the ticker symbol ‘KSCP’. The offering is for up to 4 million shares priced at $10 per share. Learn more at www.knightscope.com/investors

Company Mission – Reimagining Public Safety

Knightscope’s long-term vision has an eye on the greater good. The company’s mission is to make the United States of America the safest nation in the world while supporting the 2+ million law enforcement and security professionals across the country.

Crime has an estimated negative economic impact in excess of $2 trillion annually. As crime is reduced, positive impacts will likely be realized across several aspects of society, including housing, financial markets, insurance, municipal budgets, local business and safety in general.

Knightscope CEO William Santana Li was interviewed by Kevin O’Leary, more commonly known as Shark Tank’s Mr. Wonderful. When asked to explain how the benefits provided by the ASRs outrank a human doing the same job, Li said, “First, just the simple presence of a physical deterrent causes criminal behavior to change. Second, the machines are self-driving cars that patrol all around and recharge themselves. They also generate 90 terabytes of data per year. No human would ever be able to process that. The robots are intended to be eyes and ears for the humans, not a one-to-one replacement.”

The Knightscope solution to reduce crime combines the physical presence of ASRs, sometimes referred to as proprietary Autonomous Data Machines, with real-time onsite data collection and analysis. The ASRs are fitted with eye-level 360° cameras, thermal scanning, public address announcements and various other features that work in tandem with humans to provide law enforcement officers and security guards unprecedented situational awareness.

Those 90 terabytes of data are then formatted in a useable way, so law enforcement can leverage that information and execute their responsibilities more effectively.

Public Safety Innovation

The company’s recurring revenue business model is set up to mimic the recurring societal problem of crime, and it takes into consideration the fact that innovation in the security and public safety industry has been stagnant for decades. Because the traditional practices of the sector have remained unchanged for years, automation has potential to drive substantial cost savings – and significant improvement in capabilities.

Human security guards are one of both the largest expenses and the largest liabilities for companies. Knightscope’s robots are offered at an effective price of $3 to $9 per hour, compared with approximately $85 for an armed off-duty law enforcement officer and $15 to $35 for an unarmed security guard.

This innovation has the potential to drive considerable cost savings. Based on these estimates, manufacturing costs can be recovered as soon as the first year of operation.

Product Offerings

The company has nine patents and a framework of unique intellectual property. Knightscope currently offers a K1 stationary machine, a K3 indoor machine and a K5 outdoor machine. A K7 multi-terrain four-wheel version is in development.

The ASRs autonomously patrol client sites without the need for remote control, providing a visible, force multiplying, physical security presence to help protect assets, monitor changes in the area and deter crime. The data is accessible through the Knightscope Security Operations Center (KSOC), an intuitive, browser-based interface that enables security professionals to review events generated by the ASRs providing effectively ‘mobile smart eyes and ears’. Learn more at www.knightscope.com/ksoc

The ASRs and the related technologies were developed ground up by the company and are Made in the USA.

The Robot Roadshow

Knightscope has created the ultimate hybrid physical and virtual event, bringing its Autonomous Security Robot technologies to cities across the country for interactive and in-person demonstrations.

Each roadshow landing is hosted virtually by a Knightscope expert, and visitors can interact directly with each of the company’s ASRs and see the Knightscope Security Operations Center (KSOC) user interface in action. Learn more at www.knightscope.com/roadshow

Management Team

Chief Executive Officer William Santana Li is a veteran entrepreneur, a former executive at Ford Motor Company and the founder of GreenLeaf, a company that grew to be the world’s second-largest automotive recycler and is now part of LKQ Corporation (NASDAQ: LKQ).

Chief Client Officer Stacy Dean Stephens brings his experience as a former Dallas law enforcement officer, as well as his skills as a seasoned entrepreneur, to assist on the client acquisition side.

Chief Intelligence Officer Mercedes Soria is an award-winning technologist and former Deloitte software engineer.

Chief Design Officer Aaron Lehnhardt brings over two decades of two- and three-dimensional product and industrial design in modeling and VR to the table, on top of his experience as a senior designer at Ford Motor Company.

Chief Financial Officer Mallorie Burke is a seasoned financial executive and strategic advisor for both private and publicly traded technology companies with a successful track record of mergers & acquisitions, corporate growth and exit strategies, including public listings.

General Counsel Peter Weinberg leverages 30 years of diverse corporate counsel experience, spanning from startups to well-established companies, private and public. He has significant experience training personnel at all levels in critical areas to improve corporate compliance and productivity.

Laredo Oil Inc. (OTC: LRDC)

Laredo Oil Inc. (OTC: LRDC) is a publicly traded oil and gas exploration and production (E&P) company engaging in the acquisition and development of both undervalued quality conventional oil and gas properties and select mature oil fields that are suitable for the company’s proprietary Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR) methods.

Laredo Oil is headquartered in Austin, Texas.

Conventional Acreage

Laredo Oil’s primary focus is on acquiring, developing, and operating undervalued conventional oil and gas properties.

The company leased 23,739 mineral acres in the Western Williston Basin of Montana, at favorable prices during the most recent down cycle and continues to take leases in the area. Before year end, it expects to drill the first development well at one of the first of 10 potential locations it has identified. If that well yields the anticipated results, the company plans to begin drilling additional wells there as soon as practical thereafter. The company believes the leased acreage has the potential to yield at least five years of development opportunities.

The company intends to pursue aggressively the acquisition of quality assets that major, mid-major, and large independent oil and gas companies continue to divest themselves of at a discount in response to ESG (Environmental, Social and Governmental) & sustainability initiatives and other pressures imposed upon them by their activist boards of directors. The company will focus on value, growth potential and free cash flow while complying with common sense ESG policies, often having a lower environmental impact than its competitors through its EOR methods.

EOR

In addition to pursuing conventional acreage and properties, Laredo Oil plans to acquire additional select mature oil fields where it believes that it can profitably use its proprietary Underground Gravity Drainage™ (UGD) model to recover stranded oil reserves (reserves previously considered to be economically incapable of recovery). The UGD method is applicable to mature oil fields that have very specific geological and reservoir characteristics.

Laredo Oil has done extensive research and field level application over the last 10 years and has identified specific oil fields within the United States that it believes are qualified for the UGD recovery method. The company believes the costs of implementing the UGD method are significantly lower than those of other commonly used EOR methods. Laredo Oil believes that it can materially increase the field oil production rate from prior periods and, in some cases, recover amounts of oil equal to or greater than amounts previously recovered from the mature fields selected.

Market Outlook

The company expects U.S. oil prices to climb in the near term as energy demand intensifies with the economy continuing to recover from the COVID-19 slowdown. Also causing upward price pressure is global supply chain dysfunction that slows or prevents shipments, including energy components, from reaching destinations. Domestic oil production is also constrained by years of reduced investment in fossil fuel producers due to green energy mandates. Accordingly, the company believes that the short-term outlook for oil is favorable. Many industries have yet to reach their pre-COVID production levels, which the company believes points to a continuing near-term upward trend in energy demand.

Management Team

Mark See has been the Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Board of Directors of the company since October 16, 2009. He has over 30 years’ experience in heavy civil, natural resources and the E&P industries. He was the founder and founding CEO of Rock Well Petroleum, a private oil & gas company until December 2008 and worked from then until October 2009 forming Laredo Oil. He was employed with Albian Sands as the Manager for the Alberta Oil Sands Projects at Fort McMurray, Alberta, Canada, a joint venture between Shell Canada and Chevron. Mr. See was also President of Oil Recovery Enhancement LLC in Bozeman, Montana, a private oil company. He was selected as one of the top 25 Engineers in North America by the Engineering News Record for his innovations in the petroleum industry. He is a graduate of the Mackay School of Mines at the University of Nevada at Reno, with a degree in Mining Engineering. He is a member of the Society of Mining Engineers and the Society of Petroleum Engineers.

Bradley Sparks currently serves as the Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer of Laredo Oil and has been a director of the company since March 1, 2011. Before joining Laredo Oil in October 2009, he was the Chief Executive Officer, President and a Director of Visualant Inc. Prior to joining Visualant, he was the Chief Financial Officer of WatchGuard Technologies Inc. from 2005-2006. Before joining WatchGuard, he was the founder and managing director of Sunburst Growth Ventures LLC, a private investment firm specializing in emerging-growth companies. Previously, he founded Pointer Communications and served as Chief Financial Officer for several telecommunications and internet companies, including eSpire Communications Inc., Digex Inc., Omnipoint Corporation, and WAM!NET. He also served as Vice President and Treasurer of MCI Communications from 1988-1993 and as Vice President and Controller from 1993-1995. Before his tenure at MCI, Mr. Sparks held various financial management positions at Ryder System Inc. He currently serves on the Board of Directors of Comrise. Mr. Sparks graduated from the United States Military Academy at West Point in 1969 and is a former Army Captain in the Signal Corps. He has a Master of Science in Management from the Sloan School of Management at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and is a licensed CPA in Florida.

Donald Beckham has served as a director of the company since March 1, 2011. Since July 2015, he has been a partner with Copestone Energy Partners LLC. In 1993, he founded Beckham Resources Inc. (“BRI”), which, for over 30 years, has been a licensed, bonded and insured operator in good standing with the Railroad Commission of Texas. Through BRI, Mr. Beckham has drilled and operated fields for his own account. His expertise is in the acquisition, exploitation, exploration and production enhancement of mature oil and gas fields through which he has been able to enhance production by compressor optimization, pump design, work-over programs, stimulation techniques and identifying new pay zones. Prior to BRI, Mr. Beckham was the chief operations manager for Houston Oil Fields Corporation (“HOFCO”), where he began his career. There, he was responsible for drilling, production and field operations and managed approximately 100 people, including engineers, geologists, land men, pumpers, and other contract personnel, as well as state and federal environmental and regulatory functions. He managed an annual capital budget of approximately $30 million and operated approximately 100 wells. HOFCO drilled about 20 wells per annum and performed approximately 30 recompletions and work over operations each year. HOFCO owned interests in about 10 key fields principally in Texas, and company-managed production was approximately 1,000 bpd of crude oil and 10 mm cfd of natural gas. Mr. Beckham is a petroleum engineer and 1984 graduate of Mississippi State University.

Michael Price, an independent director of Laredo Oil, has over 40 years of senior financial and petroleum experience in the global oil and gas industry. He has been a principal in Octagon Energy Advisors, a Houston-based energy investment advisory firm, from 2002 to the present. The firm advises financial institutions and institutional investors participating in energy investments. From 2008 through his retirement in 2021, he was a Managing Director at ING Capital, which provides debt financing to domestic exploration and production companies. From 1998 through 2002, Mr. Price was the Chief Financial Officer of Forman Petroleum Corporation. Before that, Mr. Price was Managing Director at Chase Manhattan Bank for 15 years and was in charge of technical support for Chase’s worldwide energy merchant banking activities. In his early career, he worked as a consulting principal on domestic petroleum engineering and landowner matters and gained extensive international experience working with major oil companies in a variety of operating positions. He holds a BS and MS from Illinois Institute of Technology, an MBA from the University of Chicago, a M.Sc. from the London School of Economics, and an MS in Petroleum Engineering from Tulane University.

FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS

This press release and the statements made by Laredo Oil, Inc. in this press release may be forward-looking in nature and are made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Such forward-looking statements describe Laredo Oil’s future plans, projections, strategies and expectations, and may be identified by words such as “expects”, “anticipates”, “intends”, “plans”, “believes”, “seeks”, “estimates” or the negative versions of those words or other words of similar meaning. These forward-looking statements are based on assumptions and involve a number of risks, uncertainties, situations and other factors that may cause the actual results, level of activity, performance or achievements of Laredo Oil or the oil industry to be materially different from any future results, level of activity, performance or achievements expressed or implied by these statements. These factors include changes in interest rates, market competition, changes in the local and national economies, and various other factors detailed from time to time in the reports filed with, or furnished to, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, including its Annual Report on Form 10-K, Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q and Current Reports on Form 8-K. Laredo Oil undertakes no obligation to update publicly any forward-looking statements to reflect new information, events or circumstances after the date hereof to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events.

Longeveron Inc. (NASDAQ: LGVN)

Longeveron Inc. (NASDAQ: LGVN) is a clinical-stage biotechnology company developing regenerative medicines to address unmet medical needs for specific aging-related and life-threatening conditions. The Company’s research and therapies are aimed at improving the outcome of infants born with a life-threatening heart condition, as well as improving the healthspan for the aging population – the number of years a person is expected to live in relatively good health, free of chronic disease and disabilities of aging, with function and ability to perform activities of daily living.

Longeveron is involved in clinical trials in the following indications: Hypoplastic left heart syndrome (HLHS), Alzheimer’s disease, and Aging-related Frailty.

The Company’s philosophy revolves around the idea that regenerative medicine may hold the potential to improve certain rare medical conditions and contribute to healthy aging. While there has been a remarkable rise in life expectancy over the last century due to medical and public health advancements, this increase in longevity has not been paralleled by the number of years a person is expected to live in relatively good health, free of chronic disease and disabilities of aging.

Longeveron’s lead investigational product is Lomecel-B™, an allogeneic Medicinal Signaling Cell therapy product isolated from the bone marrow of young, healthy adult donors. As humans age, they experience a decrease in immune system function, a decline in blood vessel functioning, chronic inflammation, and other issues. Clinical data has suggested that Lomecel-B™ may address these conditions through multiple mechanisms of action (MOA) that simultaneously target key aging-related processes.

The Company is headquartered in Miami, Florida.

Lomecel-B™

Lomecel-B™ is being evaluated in multiple clinical trials for aging-related chronic diseases and other life-threatening conditions under U.S. FDA-approved Investigational New Drug applications. Lomecel-B™ has multiple potential mechanisms of action encompassing pro-vascular, pro-regenerative, anti-inflammatory, and tissue repair and healing effects with broad potential applications across a spectrum of disease areas.

The drug is made from special living cells called Medicinal Signaling Cells (MSCs) that are isolated from fresh bone marrow tissue that has been donated by adult donors aged 18 to 45. Once the MSCs have been isolated from the fresh bone marrow through a careful selection process, the cells are culture-expanded (allowed to replicate under controlled laboratory conditions) into the billions using specialized techniques and processes. After a specific number of expansion cycles, called “passages,” the cells are harvested, separated into specific doses (e.g., 50 million cells), and cryopreserved until future use.

These cells have been shown to have characteristics that allow them to be transplanted from a donor to host without triggering a harmful immune response in the recipient, and they can be administered on an outpatient basis in as little as 40 minutes after thawing. Because of these characteristics, Lomecel-B™ is considered an “off-the-shelf” product.

In some trials, such as for Alzheimer’s disease and Aging-related Frailty, Lomecel-B™ is administered via peripheral intravenous infusion, while, in the Company’s HLHS trial, Lomecel-B™ is administered via direct injection into the heart tissue.

Market Opportunity

Longeveron estimates the potential market size for Lomecel-B™ in the treatment of HLHS to be up to $1 billion annually, globally.

U.S. patients suffering from Aging-related Frailty are estimated using U.S. Census Bureau statistics to be approximately 8.1 million. That population potentially represents a market for Lomecel-B™ of between $4 billion and $8 billion globally per year, according to Company estimates.

Additionally, the Alzheimer’s Association puts the number of Americans with that disease at 5.1 million, highlighting another potentially addressable market for Lomecel-B™, that’s worth $5 billion to $10 billion annually.

Management Team

Wa’el Hashad is CEO of Longeveron. He has more than 35 years of experience in the pharmaceutical and biotech industries. He has launched several successful brands in the U.S. and worldwide markets. Prior to joining Longeveron, he was president and CEO of Avanir Pharmaceuticals. Before Avanir, he was the chief commercial officer of Seres Therapeutics. He also has held senior leadership positions at Amgen, Boehringer Ingelheim, and Eli Lilly and Company. He holds a bachelor’s degree in pharmacy from Cairo University and an MBA from the University of Akron.

Joshua M. Hare, M.D., FACC, FAHA, is Co-Founder, Chief Science Officer and Chairman of Longeveron. He is a double board-certified cardiologist and is the founding director of the Interdisciplinary Stem Cell Institute at the University of Miami’s Miller School of Medicine. He is a recipient of the Paul Beeson Physician Faculty Scholar in Aging Research Award and is an elected member of the American Association of Physicians and The American Society for Clinical Investigation. He is also an elected Fellow of the American Heart Association. He received a bachelor’s degree from the University of Pennsylvania and his M.D. from The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.

Lisa Locklear is CFO at Longeveron. She previously served as the senior vice president and CFO for Avanir Pharmaceuticals. Prior to Avanir, she held senior financial roles at GSN Games, CoreLogic, Ingram Micro, the Walt Disney Company, and Price Waterhouse, with assignments in Paris and London. She holds a bachelor’s degree in plant science from the University of California, Davis, and an MBA from the University of California, Irvine. She is a licensed CPA (inactive) and is a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, the California Society of CPAs, and Financial Executives International.

Dr. Nataliya Agafonova, M.D., is the Chief Medical Officer at Longeveron. She previously served as clinical development lead, senior medical director, and product development chair at Otsuka Pharmaceuticals. Before that, she was the clinical development lead and senior medical director at Bristol-Myers Squibb. She previously held senior leadership positions at Ardea Bioscience, Biogen, Amgen, and Genzyme Corporation. She earned an M.D. from the Ukrainian National Medical University and completed her internal medicine residency at Kharkov State University Hospital in Ukraine.

Certain statements in this corporate profile that are not historical facts are forward-looking statements made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, which reflect management’s current expectations, assumptions, and estimates of future operations, performance and economic conditions, and involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those anticipated by the statements made herein. Forward-looking statements are generally identifiable by the use of forward-looking terminology such as “believe,” “expects,” “may,” “looks to,” “will,” “should,” “plan,” “intend,” “on condition,” “target,” “see,” “potential,” “estimates,” “preliminary,” or “anticipates” or the negative thereof or comparable terminology, or by discussion of strategy or goals or other future events, circumstances, or effects. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied in any forward-looking statements in this release include, but are not limited to, statements regarding the offer and sale of securities, the terms of the offering, about the ability of Longeveron’s clinical trials to demonstrate safety and efficacy of the Company’s product candidates, and other positive results; the timing and focus of the Company’s ongoing and future preclinical studies and clinical trials and the reporting of data from those studies and trials; the size of the market opportunity for the Company’s product candidates, including its estimates of the number of patients who suffer from the diseases being targeted; the success of competing therapies that are or may become available; the beneficial characteristics, safety, efficacy and therapeutic effects of the Company’s product candidates; the Company’s ability to obtain and maintain regulatory approval of its product candidates in the U.S., Japan and other jurisdictions; the Company’s plans relating to the further development of its product candidates, including additional disease states or indications it may pursue; the Company’s plans and ability to obtain or protect intellectual property rights, including extensions of existing patent terms where available and its ability to avoid infringing the intellectual property rights of others; the need to hire additional personnel and the Company’s ability to attract and retain such personnel; the Company’s estimates regarding expenses, future revenue, capital requirements and needs for additional financing; the Company’s need to raise additional capital, and the difficulties it may face in obtaining access to capital, and the dilutive impact it may have on its investors; the Company’s financial performance and ability to continue as a going concern, and the period over which it estimates its existing cash and cash equivalents will be sufficient to fund its future operating expenses and capital expenditure requirements. Additionally, Longeveron makes no assurance that any public offering of its securities as described herein will occur on the timelines, in the manner or on the terms anticipated due to numerous factors. Further information relating to factors that may impact the Company’s results and forward-looking statements are disclosed in the Company’s filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including Longeveron’s Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2022, filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on March 14, 2023 and its Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the second quarter of 2023 filed with the SEC on August 11, 2023. The forward-looking statements contained in this corporate profile are made as of the date of this corporate profile, and the Company disclaims any intention or obligation, other than imposed by law, to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise.

Investor Contact
Mike Moyer
LifeSci Advisors
Tel: 617-308-4306
Email: mmoyer@lifesciadvisors.com

Date prepared: August 31, 2023

Lexaria Bioscience Corp. (NASDAQ: LEXX)

Lexaria Bioscience Corp. (NASDAQ: LEXX) is a global innovator in drug delivery platforms. The company’s patented technology, DehydraTECH™, improves the way active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) enter the bloodstream by promoting healthier oral ingestion methods and increasing the effectiveness of fat-soluble active molecules. DehydraTECH promotes fast-acting, less expensive and more effective oral drug delivery and has been thoroughly evaluated through in vivo, in vitro and human clinical testing.

DehydraTECH is covered by 21 issued and more than 50 pending patents in over 40 countries around the world. Lexaria’s first patent was issued by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office in October 2016 (US 9,474,725 B1), providing 20 years of patent protection expiring June 2034. Multiple patents have been awarded since then and are expected in the future.

Lexaria has also collaborated with the National Research Council (NRC), the Canadian government’s premier research and technology organization. The company has been granted patent protection for specific delivery of nicotine, vitamins, NSAIDs, antiviral drugs, cannabinoids and more.

Lexaria began developing DehydraTECH in 2014 and has since continued to strengthen and broaden the technology. The company has no plans to create or sell Lexaria-branded products containing controlled substances. Instead, Lexaria licenses its technology to other companies around the world to offer consumers the best possible performance across an array of ingestible product formats.

The company’s technology is best thought of as an additional layer that providers of consumer supplements, prescription and non-prescription drugs, nicotine and CBD products can utilize to improve the effectiveness of their own existing or planned new offerings. Lexaria has licensed DehydraTECH to multiple companies, including a world-leading tobacco producer for the research and development of smokeless, oral-based nicotine products, and for use in industries that produce cannabinoid beverages, edibles and oral products.

DehydraTECH is suitable for use with a wide range of product formats including pharmaceuticals, nutraceuticals, consumer packaged goods and over-the-counter capsules, pills, tablets and oral suspensions.

DehydraTECH Technology

Lexaria’s DehydraTECH is designed specifically for formulating and delivering lipophilic (fat-soluble) drugs and active ingredients. DehydraTECH increases their effectiveness and improves the way active pharmaceutical ingredients enter the bloodstream. The major benefits to a subject ingesting a DehydraTECH-enabled drug or consumer product can be summarized by the following:

• Speeds up delivery – the effects of the product are felt by the subject in just minutes.
• Increases bioavailability – the technology is much more effective at delivering a drug or product into the bloodstream.
• Increases brain absorption – animal testing suggests significant improvement in the quantity of drug delivered across the blood-brain barrier.
• Improves drug potency – more of the ingested product is made available to the body, so lower doses are required to achieve the desired effect.
• Reduces drug administration cost – lower doses mean lower overall drug costs.
• Masks unwanted taste – the technology eliminates or reduces the need for sweeteners.

Lexaria has demonstrated in animal studies a propensity for DehydraTECH technology to elevate the quantity of drug delivered across the blood-brain barrier by as much as 1,900 percent, initiating additional new patent applications and opening possibilities for improved drug delivery.

Since 2016, DehydraTECH has repeatedly demonstrated, with cannabinoids and nicotine, the ability to increase bio-absorption by up to five to 10 times, reduce time of onset from one to two hours to just minutes, and mask unwanted tastes. The technology is to be further evaluated for additional orally administered bioactive molecules, including antivirals, cannabinoids, vitamins, non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) and nicotine.

Market Outlook

Lexaria’s ongoing research and development efforts are mainly focused on development of product candidates across several key segments:

• Oral Cannabinoids – a market estimated to be worth $18.4 billion in 2021 and expected to reach $46.2 billion by 2025.
• Antivirals – an estimated $52.1 billion market in 2021 that’s expected to grow to $66.7 billion by 2025.
• Oral Mucosal Nicotine – smokeless tobacco products, a $13.6 billion market in 2018, is forecast to grow at 7.2 percent annually through 2025.
• Human Hormones – estrogen and testosterone replacement therapies represented a $21.9 billion market in 2019, with a forecast CAGR of 7.7 percent through 2027.
• Ibuprofen and Naproxen – NSAID sales totaled $15.6 billion globally in 2019 and are projected to reach $24.4 billion by 2027.
• Vitamin D3 – the global market size was $1.1 billion in 2021, growing at 7 percent per year and expected to reach $1.7 billion in 2026.

Management Team

Chris Bunka is Chairman and CEO of Lexaria Bioscience Corp. He is a serial entrepreneur who has been involved in several private and public companies since the late 1980s. He has extensive experience in the capital markets, corporate governance, mergers and acquisitions, as well as corporate finance. He is named as an inventor on multiple patent innovations.

John Docherty, M.Sc., is the President of Lexaria. He is a pharmacologist and toxicologist, and a specialist in the development of drug delivery technologies. He is the former president and COO of Helix BioPharma Corp. (TSX: HBP). He is named as an inventor on multiple issued and pending patents.

Greg Downey is Lexaria’s CFO. He has more than 35 years of diverse financial experience in the mining, oil and gas, manufacturing, and construction industries, and in the public sector. He served for eight years as CFO for several public companies and has provided business advisory and financial accounting services to many large organizations.

Gregg Smith is a strategic advisor to Lexaria. He is a founder and private investor with Evolution VC Partners. He is a member of the Sand Hill Angels and held previous investment banking roles with Cowen and Company and Bank of America Merrill Lynch.

Dr. Philip Ainslie serves as a scientific and medical advisor to Lexaria. He is co-director for the Centre for Heart, Lung and Vascular Health, Canada. He is also Research Chair in Cerebrovascular Physiology and Professor at the School of Health and Exercise Sciences, Faculty of Health and Social Development at the University of British Columbia.

Life Electric Vehicles Holdings Inc. (OTC: LFEV)

Life Electric Vehicles Holdings Inc. (OTC: LFEV) (d/b/a Life EV Group), along with its subsidiaries, is a developer, manufacturer and distributor in the light electric vehicle industry. The company’s business model focuses on the launch, acquisition and consolidation of multiple brands of e-bikes, e-trikes, e-scooters and light EVs with the aim of positioning itself as an industry leader for the American micro-mobility market.

The light electric vehicle industry, mainly e-bikes, is fast becoming a leading form of EV sales in the U.S. and Europe. In addition to offering ready-to-ride electric vehicles, Life EV Group intends to distribute individual components, including motors, batteries, chargers, controllers and EV parts, to third party manufacturers in both the U.S. and worldwide.

The company’s first acquisition was completed in 2023 with a 40% equity stake in LEV Manufacturing Inc., a related company and American manufacturer of e-bikes. LEV Manufacturing’s assembly utilizes free-trade zone processes with a U.S. Certificate of Origin, eliminating middle layer costs and resulting in cost-effective production and lower MSRPs.

LEV Manufacturing recently completed the acquisition of Serial 1 Cycle Company LLC. Serial 1 is an e-bike maker founded by U.S. motorcycle manufacturer Harley-Davidson in 2018 and spun off as an independent brand in 2020. The acquisition positions Serial 1 for even greater success and long-term growth.

Life EV Group is headquartered in Deerfield Beach, Florida.

Market Opportunity

An analysis from Mordor Intelligence, a market research and advisory firm, estimates the e-bike market to be worth $34.98 billion in 2024 and projects it will expand to reach a value of $51.78 billion by 2029, representing a CAGR of 8.16% during the forecast period.

Mordor attributes forecast market growth primarily to the increasing adoption of electric bikes as a mode of daily transportation around the world. The market is seeing an upsurge in unit sales based on their attractive consumer characteristics, including health benefits, affordability and convenience.

The North American electric bike market is growing as the preference for low-speed two- and three-wheelers has increased in recent years. Various bike-sharing operators are including electric bikes in their fleets, which is expected to support the sales growth of these bikes in the near future.

Management Team

Robert Provost is the CEO of Life EV Group. He was Founder and CEO of Prodeco Technologies, a maker of e-bikes and e-bike parts and accessories. He also serves as President and CEO of LEV Manufacturing Inc. He is Chairman of the board for Serial 1 Cycle Company.

Daniel Del Aguila is COO at Life EV Group. He co-founded Prodeco Technologies and serves as COO of LEV Manufacturing Inc.

Ivan Drusc is CFO at Life EV Group. He is a seasoned accounting and finance professional with a proven track record in industries from insurance to IT and property management. He has served as a key player in businesses ranging in size from startups to publicly traded global companies. He has experience in cost reduction, risk mitigation, IT and ERP systems, outsourcing and restructuring. He is a graduate of the University of Akron with a bachelor’s degree in accounting.

Lottery.com Inc. (NASDAQ: LTRY)

Lottery.com Inc. (NASDAQ: LTRY) is a next generation platform where consumers can play the lottery online – in browser or via smartphone app. The platform offers users access to official lottery games sanctioned by their individual states and also provides lottery data to more than 400 digital publishers, including Google and Amazon Alexa.

Lottery.com was founded in 2015, launching at the LAUNCH festival and soon turning into a leader in the industry. With headquarters in Austin, Texas, the company is dedicated to helping advance the lottery industry into the digital age and works closely with state regulatory bodies to achieve this goal.

The company recently entered into a definitive agreement for a business combination with special purpose acquisition company Trident Acquisitions Corp. (NASDAQ: TDAC) (“Trident”), which will result in Lottery.com becoming a publicly listed company. Once the transaction is complete, the combined company will be trademarked as Lottery.com, with its common stock to remain listed on Nasdaq under ticker symbol ‘LTRY’.

Lottery.com Online Platform

The Lottery.com online platform works closely with state regulators, advancing the lottery into the digital age. With the online platform, the company offers enhanced regulatory capabilities by leveraging innovative blockchain technology and capturing the untapped market of digitally native players.

Players go online in a browser or through a mobile application to use the interface. The process includes:

• Players Choose a Game: Players can play officially state sanctioned multi-state games and other games offered in the states in which they live. Players can also find winning numbers, jackpot totals, draw dates and more for hundreds of other lottery games around the world.
• Players Pick Numbers: Players can play their lucky numbers or do a quick pick of randomized numbers in as simple as two taps. “Tap, Tap, Ticket!”
• A Safe and Secure Way to Play: Purchases for up to 50 tickets can be made at one time through the online interface. Lottery.com handles everything after purchase, letting users know when they win.
• Collect All Winnings: Consumers keep 100% of their winnings. All winnings stay in the Lottery.com balance for future ticket purchases, or a cashout can be requested. Company representatives contact winners who hit big jackpots, instructing them on the redemption process.

A Better Way to Play the Lottery

Lottery.com has an innovative e-commerce platform that is using blockchain to maintain an accurate ledger. From 2016 to 2020, Lottery.com grew gross revenue at a CAGR of 363%, and it forecasts gross revenue equal to approximately $71 million in 2021, $279 million in 2022, and $571 million in 2023.

Lottery.com is leveraging a successful playbook, with $398 billion in global lottery sales but only 6.7% online penetration. The large market opportunity is expected to shift to online transactions within the next decade.

The platform is currently available in 12 states across the United States, and the company plans to expand to 34 by the end of 2023. Global expansion is also on the horizon, with partnership plans in Turkey and Ukraine.

Key features that make the Lottery.com experience unique include:

• All the Games Users Love – For consumers who live in applicable LIVE states, Powerball and Mega Millions are available right from the mobile application.
• Convenience – Lottery.com makes playing the lottery on mobile devices easy. After setting up an account, users can begin playing in moments or set reminders to play when the jackpot is high.
• Easy Cashouts – Users can cash out winnings straight to a bank account, safely and securely, with no commissions.

The company is also gamifying charitable giving, fundamentally changing how nonprofits engage with donors and raise funds. WinTogether.org is a platform designed to offer charitable donation sweepstakes to incentivize donors to take action by offering large cash prizes and once-in-a-lifetime experiences.

Strong Advisory Board Presence

Lottery.com is expected to continue to gain support, leaning on the experience of its advisory board and notable investors from the venture capital, gaming and entertainment industries. These include:

• Jason Robins, CEO of DraftKings Inc. (NASDAQ: DKNG)
• Ben Narasin, Venture Partner of NEA
• Peter Diamandis, Chairman of XPRIZE Foundation
• Matthew Le Merle, Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Fifth Era and Keiretsu Capital
• Paraag Marathe, President of Enterprises and EVP of Football Operations for the San Francisco 49ers
• Jamie Gold, The Poker Philanthropist

Management Team

Tony DiMatteo is the Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Lottery.com. He is a serial entrepreneur and highly sought-after industry speaker and thought leader. He has been featured in The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, VentureBeat, TechCrunch Inc. and more for his approach to entrepreneurship, the gaming industry and cryptocurrency.

Matt Clemenson is the Co-Founder and Chief Commercial Officer of Lottery.com. He is responsible for the company’s strategy. Mr. Clemenson was steeped in corporate and enterprise engineering processes at Hotwire and Expedia before going on to be CEO at LesConcierges, the world’s largest concierge company, which merged into John Paul and sold to Accor Hotels. Clemenson and DiMatteo have been partners for more than 10 years.

Ryan Dickinson is the company’s President and Chief Operating Officer. He has a diverse background in business, technology, product, design and sales, which has aided him in producing many successful outcomes throughout his career. Notably, as Senior Vice President of a SaaS company, Mr. Dickinson produced profitability from a negative $1.4 million division within the first year by reinventing the product offerings, streamlining processes and establishing a go-to-market strategy. Additionally, he produced three record breaking revenue years in a row for AccuWeather, the world’s largest weather provider, by increasing every KPI for all flagship properties by no less than 5%.

Luc Vanhal is the company’s Chief Financial Officer. He has served in C-level executive roles since the 1990s, including a nine-year tenure for The Walt Disney Company (NYSE: DIS) from 1990 to 1999. From 2001 to 2004, he managed the development of the World of Warcraft massively multiplayer game, which, by the end of 2020, still had over five million active subscribers. As the CFO of Lottery.com, Mr. Vanhal leads the company’s global finance organization, with treasury responsibility, accounting, analysis and financial planning.

LQwD Technologies Corp. (TSX.V: LQWD) (OTCQB: LQWDF)

LQwD Technologies Corp. (TSX.V: LQWD) (OTCQB: LQWDF) is a financial technology company focused on creating enterprise-grade infrastructure to drive bitcoin adoption.

LQwD FinTech’s mission is to develop institutional-grade services that support the Lightning Network and drive improved functionality, transaction capability, user adoption and utility, and scaling of bitcoin. LQwD is also securing a substantial position in bitcoin as an operating asset and will use its holdings to establish nodes and payment channels on the Lightning Network.

The Lightning Network is a second-layer protocol, sitting above the bitcoin blockchain, intended to facilitate faster micro-transactions and lower fees on bitcoin transactions, thus allowing mass adoption of bitcoin.

LQwD expects the Lightning Network to eclipse the patchwork of legacy financial networks that are used to move value today. The company’s software will make migration from legacy networks onto the Lightning Network easy and seamless. By onboarding more financial service providers, LQwD intends to grow the value of the Lightning Network.

The company, formerly known as Interlapse Technologies Corp., is harnessing new payment rails built on top of the bitcoin blockchain that are capable of beyond visa-level transaction volumes and backed by bitcoin, the strongest and most well-known cryptocurrency. These new rails, enabled by the Bitcoin Lightning Network, open a vast opportunity and market segment for digital payments and financial services on a global scale. LQwD aims to leverage its position as a public company to enhance trust in its products and services, and leverage its shares as currency for acquisitions, roll-up and growth, as well as to attract and retain top industry talent.

Product

The Lightning Network is a solution to massively scale the use of bitcoin for microtransactions globally, dramatically improving upon fees, as well as providing instant settlement times. The Lightning Network has experienced explosive growth and is expected to continue with the trend as usage increases. Well-known companies, such as Twitter and Square, have expressed their enthusiasm to incorporate Lightning Network into their platforms. The Lightning Network is scalable, global, open, inclusive, permissionless and decentralized. It is made up of nodes connected via payment channels, and enables off-chain, instantaneous and cheap payments at scale.

Upon launch of LQwD’s Lightning Network platform-as-a-service, users will be able to leverage the Lightning Network infrastructure to send payments instantly, securely and inexpensively anywhere in the world. Companies and service providers will be able to conduct Lightning Network transactions in bitcoin by integrating LQwD’s infrastructure with their business or web property. Connected businesses will be able to easily deploy, monitor and manage LQwD’s Lightning Network nodes with no or low-level technical knowledge required. The company fully expects Lightning Network to be a force for global change and to become the monetary exchange network of the future.

The Lightning Network, which is already built, functioning and growing, will advance bitcoin from a store-of-value to a global monetary network through payment utility. The company expects the Lightning Network will propel the growing number of active blockchain wallets to new heights, by increasing bitcoin’s scalability and lowering its fees for users. For coming generations, everything from wealth to experiences will be acquired and transacted virtually, and LQwD sees the Lightning Network as an enabling technology that can bring bitcoin to hundreds of millions of new users across the globe.

Market Outlook

Forbes in August 2021 noted that “private investors are funding companies that are building the infrastructure that will support future growth of crypto and digital assets,” and called public companies building cryptocurrency infrastructure “the hottest part of the crypto market.” While the first wave of investor interest in crypto firms was directed at companies catering to retail investors, investors have now shifted their attention to infrastructure builders, like LQwD FinTech. Forbes did not put an estimated value on the crypto infrastructure market but pointed out that large-scale adoption of cryptocurrencies will only happen when infrastructure is in place to support it. The larger digital payments market, of which crypto payments are a small fraction, is growing at more than 14 percent annually and is forecast to hit $154 billion by 2025.

Management Team

Shone Anstey is co-founder, chairman and CEO at LQwD FinTech. He has 20 years of experience in building complex technologies and has acted as technology lead for an industrial bitcoin mine and bitcoin mining pool. He is a Certified Cryptocurrency Investigator, and an advisor to the British Columbia Securities Commission. He is also co-founder of BIGG Digital Assets (OTCQX: BBKCF) and took that company public in 2017.

Barry MacNeil is CFO at LQwD FinTech. He is a member of the Chartered Professional Accountants of British Columbia and has more than 30 years of management and accounting experience with public companies and in private practice. His previous positions include director of both public companies and nonprofits, as well as Chief Financial Officer and Corporate Controller.

Albert Szmigielski is co-founder and CTO at LQwD FinTech. He was formerly the Head of Research and Chief Blockchain Engineer at Blockchain Intelligence Group and VP Research at CipherTrace. He holds a B.Sc. in Computing Science from Simon Fraser University, and a Master of Science in Digital Currencies and Blockchain Technologies from the University of Nicosia, Cyprus.

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 with a large exposure to copper through its subsidiary, McEwen Copper, owner of the Los Azules copper deposit in Argentina, believed to be the 8th 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 of the Americas. The company proactively took cost-saving measures months ago to lower expenses and increase production across its portfolio of gold assets, driving some production costs below industry averages. Gold and copper prices, already in an upswing, are forecast to enter an explosive uptrend over the next couple years. Drawing from its experience, McEwen Mining planned, prepared and laid the groundwork to capitalize on this emerging opportunity.

The company currently holds a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy), placing it in the top 5% of over 4,000 stocks ranked by Zacks, based on trends in earnings estimate revisions and EPS surprises. Seldom is management so aligned with investors’ interests and committed to the company’s success. With a combined investment of over $220 million, CEO Rob McEwen holds a 17% ownership stake in McEwen Mining and a 13% ownership in McEwen Copper. Acclaimed in the mining industry, McEwen founded Goldcorp, where he increased the company’s market capitalization 160 times – from $50 million to over $8 billion. That same vision and tenacity led MUX in creating McEwen Copper.

For McEwen Mining shareholders, beyond the company’s exposure to gold upsurges, its 47.7% stake in McEwen Copper is expected to be a blockbuster, turbocharging MUX by creating the world’s next prolific copper unicorn.

McEwen Copper

With continuous industrial need, new critical demand for copper is rapidly emerging, increasingly driven by the green energy transition. The price of copper rose from a low of about $2 per pound in 2020 to over $4.60 per pound in May 2024, and strong demand is expected to intensify. 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 forecasts annual supply shortfalls to reach nearly 10 million metric tons in 2035.

McEwen Mining owns a 47.7% equity stake in McEwen Copper, the holder of a 100% interest in the Los Azules copper project in San Juan, Argentina, which is ranked the 8th largest undeveloped copper deposit in the world. Current copper resources at Los Azules are estimated at 10.9 billion pounds at a grade of 0.40% Cu (Indicated category) and an additional 26.7 billion pounds at a grade of 0.31% Cu (Inferred category). McEwen Copper also owns a copper exploration project in Nevada, USA, called Elder Creek.

In a 2023 Preliminary Economic Assessment (PEA), Los Azules was estimated to have a 27-year life, producing an average of 322 million lbs. of copper cathode annually, at a cash cost of $1.07 per lb. of copper, in the lowest quartile of the copper cost curve. The project could ultimately become an even larger mine with a longer life, since the extent of mineralization has not been fully assessed on the property.

The project’s 2023 PEA presents a distinctly different development strategy from a prior PEA published in 2017. By proposing a heap leach project using solvent extraction-electrowinning instead of the previously detailed mine with a conventional mill and flotation concentrator, McEwen Copper aims to decrease its environmental footprint and reduce permitting risk, albeit with a lower overall copper recovery, slightly higher unit costs and a delay in immediate cashflow due to extended leach cycles.

After securing a $25 million investment from mining giant Rio Tinto’s technology arm, Nuton LLC, McEwen Copper closed its non-brokered, private placement offering of $82 million in August 2022. Shortly after, in February 2023, Nuton agreed to invest an additional $30 million into McEwen Copper, and in October 2023, Nuton once again expanded its stake, investing an additional $10 million to bring its ownership position in McEwen Copper to 14.5%.

“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. In October 2023, Stellantis invested an additional ARS $42 billion, bringing its current stake in McEwen Copper to 19.4%.

“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.”

Following the capital raise, McEwen Copper is well-funded to advance its Los Azules Project, with a Feasibility Study planned for Q1 2025. MUX strategically reduced its interest to increase its treasury, in order to reduce debt and fund the further development of its gold and silver assets.

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.

McEwen Mining issued 2024 guidance for its cash cost/oz at the Fox Complex of $1,225-1,325 on annual production of 40,000-42,000 GEOs. Fox Complex produced 44,450 GEOs in 2023, which was within the company’s guidance range.

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 yielded over 1,000,000 ounces of gold to date. Also, the complex includes the Grey Fox and Stock deposits that have over 1,800,000 ounces in gold 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, with a total gold content currently estimated at over 300 million ounces.

In 2024, MUX commenced development of underground ramp access to the Stock orebodies at the Fox Complex. This development will become the primary source of feed following the completion of mining the Froome deposit in 2026. As part of the future mining sequence initiative, the company has already reported a 31% year-over-year increase of gold resources at Stock West and Stock Main (historical Stock Mine), with confirmation of good grading structures plunging to depth. It has also identified Stock East as a potential new near-term source of future revenue.

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, 25 miles south of Nevada Gold Mines, a Barrick-Newmont joint venture, part of the Cortez-Goldrush complex. This complex contains estimated reserves and resources of over 50 million gold ounces, with an annual production of 1,000,000 gold ounces.

Gold Bar had been mined between 1991 and 1994, producing 134,000 gold ounces. A new facility was built by MUX in 2019. Gold Bar accounted for 42,700 GEOs in 2023, within the company’s guidance for the year. For 2024, McEwen Mining issued guidance of 40,000-43,000 at a cash cost of $1,450-1,550. The first half of the year is expected to deliver higher production relative to the second half, due to a scheduled waste stripping phase in the Pick pit, in preparation for the 2025 mining program.

Notably, in April 2024, McEwen Mining announced its entry into a definitive agreement and plan of merger with Timberline Resources Corporation (TSX.V: TBR) (OTCQB: TLRS) in a transaction valued at roughly $18.8 million. The merger with Timberline is expected to augment McEwen’s existing portfolio of development and exploration projects in Nevada, leveraging synergies between Timberline’s projects and the Company’s Gold Bar mine.

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 began operating it as an open pit, heap leach mine in 2013, which produced 281,000 gold equivalent ounces at average cash cost of $655 per ounce. Due to the transition to deeper sulfide mineralization that is not amenable to heap leaching, mining activities ceased in the second quarter of 2018 and residual heap leaching followed until mid-2022. The redevelopment plan 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 of 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 begin in the second half of 2024.

San José Mine

McEwen Mining is a 49% owner and non-operator of the San José gold and silver mine, located in Santa Cruz province, Argentina, encircling Newmont’s prolific Cerro Negro (approx. 300,000 gold ounces produced in 2023). This high-grade underground mine has been operating since 2007 and currently has an expected life of six years with a reserve grade of 296 gpt silver and 5.4 gpt 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.

Production guidance for 2024 for MUX’s 49% interest is 50,000-60,000 GEOs. As a minority shareholder in the mine, MUX equity accounts for its investment in San José, and receives 49% of the dividends from the mine’s free cash flow.

Market Outlook

Mining stocks suffered significant losses in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. However, this has turned, and many analysts now forecast a gold bull market in 2024 and beyond.

“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 – 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 of Operations for America and Mexico. 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.

Mind Cure Health Inc. (CSE: MCUR) (OTCQX: MCURF)

Mind Cure Health Inc. (CSE: MCUR) (OTCQX: MCURF) (“MINDCURE”) is a diversified life sciences company at the forefront of the mental health industry. The company is currently developing digital therapeutics and researching psychedelic compounds, while innovating and commercializing new ways to promote healing and improve mental health.

MINDCURE’s research and digital therapeutics technology supports access to safe, science-based, evidence-backed psychedelic-assisted therapies globally. With hundreds of millions of people suffering from mental illnesses worldwide and an estimated $1 trillion in lost productivity per year, psychedelics offer promising alternatives for healing. This medical need has been amplified by the COVID-19 pandemic. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 40 percent of U.S. adults reported struggling with substance abuse or mental health issues during the pandemic.

MINDCURE is uniquely positioned to address these medical needs. By concentrating on both technology and research, the company is focusing on near-term revenue generation, targeting a longer-term, blue sky horizon and hedging against regulatory unknowns with a scalable, adaptive model. MINDCURE’s software-as-a-service (SaaS) platform, iSTRYM, scales globally and services every psychedelic medicine without the capital-intensive drag of clinic scale-out costs. The company plans to first enter the market for psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy, then to move into the larger fields of technologically undisrupted psychotherapy and psychiatry.

Technology

Digital therapeutics include health interventions delivered through a smart device to induce a behavioral change in the patient. The global market is focused on simplifying behavioral change and empowering consumers to take charge of their own health. iSTRYM is the company’s AI-driven software platform that enables personalized and quantified outcomes in psychedelic therapy. The SaaS platform modernizes care, taking it from manual to digital and bringing better treatment outcomes for patients and therapists while lowering costs for insurers.

iSTRYM offers clinicians direct access to global, science-backed, evidence-based protocols, integration plans, insights into client journeys, and real-time assessments for personalized care. Patients access the platform on their smart devices, enjoying transparency into their wellness journeys, personalized care resources, and optimized relationships with their practitioners. The minimal viable product (MVP) of the software is being launched in Q3 2021. MINDCURE targets a Q1-Q2 2022 commercial product launch.

Research

In June 2021, the company announced it had completed the first stage of manufacturing pharmaceutical-grade synthetic ibogaine to be used in clinical research. In July, MINDCURE announced it had filed U.S. Provisional Patent applications for the company’s first full synthetic routes to create ibogaine. The company’s pharmaceutical grade ibogaine would provide researchers access to a sustainable, high-quality, reliable, and consistent supply of the psychedelic drug.

The company is also actively researching ibogaine as a potential treatment for Traumatic Brain Injury and related conditions. Preliminary data show the drug may also have promise as a treatment for neuropathic pain and migraines. In addition, research indicates ibogaine may help repair and rewire the brain’s neural pathways, making it potentially useful in the treatment of addictions.

Market Outlook

MINDCURE actively develops technology, conducts research, and distributes products in several market spaces. The global market for digital therapeutics is projected to grow to $6.9 billion by 2025, from an estimated $2.1 billion in 2020. In North American alone, the market is forecast to reach $5 billion by 2025.

The market for treatment of drug, alcohol and other addictions is estimated to be worth $38.2 billion in 2021, with a forecast CAGR of 5.2 percent for the next several years. The global market for the treatment of neuropathic pain is forecast to account for $9 billion by 2027, while drug treatment for migraines is expected to have a value of $2.1 billion by 2025.

Management Team

Kelsey Ramsden is President and CEO of MINDCURE. She has 15 years of experience founding, scaling, and operating innovative companies across Canada and the Caribbean. She has built multiple eight-figure businesses and twice been named Canada’s Top Female Entrepreneur. She holds a seat on the Entrepreneurship Council for the University of Western Ontario, where she is also a faculty member. She has an MBA from the Richard Ivey School of Business at the University of Western Ontario.

Dr. Joel Raskin is the Chief Medical Officer at MINDCURE. He is a psychiatrist and academic with 20 years international pharmaceutical experience in neuroscience drug development, lifecycle preparation, launch and commercialization with Eli Lilly & Co., where, as Senior Director, he led the medical affairs team for Alzheimer’s disease diagnostics and therapeutics. He earned his medical degree from the University of Toronto and is a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada in Psychiatry.

Tarik Lebbadi is the COO at MINDCURE. He has more than 13 years of international operational experience. Before joining the company, he led the medical division of Johnson & Johnson in Morocco. He holds a BA in mathematics and computer science from Ripon College and an MBA from IESE Business School in Barcelona, Spain.

Geoff Belair is the CTO at MINDCURE. He has 30 years of experience working in highly regulated industries, including fintech and banking. He was the senior architect and creator of the Integration Services Team at banking solutions company Fincentric Corporation. Before joining MINDCURE he was Vice President of Information Technology at Westland Insurance.

Michael Wolfe, CPA CA, is MINDCURE’s CFO. He has 30 years of experience in finance, accounting, private equity, and business valuation. He was previously CFO of Baylin Technologies Inc., as well as CFO of several mid-market Canadian companies, including Masstech Group Inc. He was General Partner at VenGrowth Capital Partners Inc. He holds an MBA from McMaster University and a BA in business and economics from the University of Western Ontario.

Daniel Herrera is Vice President of Growth & Strategic Partnerships at MINDCURE. He is a former pharmaceutical executive with extensive experience in highly regulated industries. He is experienced with medical affairs, product development and product licensing, negotiations with public and private payers, GPOs, and pharmacy buyers, as well as strategic partnerships resulting in high-value M&A transactions. He is a graduate of McGill University and the University of Montreal and holds an MBA from the John Molson School of Business at Concordia University.

Mydecine Innovations Group Inc. (NEO: MYCO) (FSE: 0NFA) (OTC: MYCOF)

Mydecine Innovations Group Inc. (NEO: MYCO) (FSE: 0NFA) (OTC: MYCOF) is a biotechnology and digital technology company aiming to transform the treatment of mental health disorders and addiction. Founded in 2020 on the guiding principle that there is a significant unmet need and lack of innovations in the mental health and therapeutic treatment environments, Mydecine is dedicated to efficiently developing innovative first- and second-generation novel therapeutics to treat PTSD, addiction and other mental health disorders.

Mydecine’s business model combines clinical trials and data outcome, technology and scientific and regulatory expertise with a focus on psychedelic therapy underpinned by novel molecules with differentiated therapeutic potential. By collaborating with some of the world’s foremost authorities connected by best practices, Mydecine aims to responsibly fast-track the development of new medicines across its platforms, ultimately changing the way we treat mental health disorders. The company seeks to bridge the gap between the needs of patients and what the mental health care system currently provides.

Mydecine Innovations Group is headquartered in Denver with international offices in Canada and Europe.

Research and Technology

The invention and development of novel psychedelic and non-psychedelic molecules for medical use is an important part of Mydecine’s research strategy. The company uses molecules found in nature as building blocks to create improved second-generation drugs. This portfolio of new drugs represents major improvements to existing natural products and synthetics, including enhanced safety, efficacy, stability and dosing, as well as reduced side effects.

The goal of creating these improved second-generation compounds is to enable safer, more effective treatments for patients, along with improved management of dosage and drug behavior for clinicians. Mydecine believes the multibillion-dollar market for mental health and addiction disorder medicines will soon be disrupted amid a resurgence of the study into psychedelics and data showing the immense benefits of these forms of medicine.

The company currently has four lead drug candidates which include various enhancements such as improved controllability, delivery mechanisms, safety, stability and shelf-life. The drug candidates are in clinical trials or in pre-trial stage as potential treatments to aid PTSD, substance abuse and smoking cessation.

Mindleap Health is a wholly owned subsidiary of Mydecine. The Mindleap platform is a virtual community that aims to foster the conscious and responsible adoption of psychedelic medicine into inner wellness. Users access the platform through the Mindleap app. Mindleap provides users with inner wellness resources to assist them in their daily mental-health journeys. The platform also seeks to support the conscious and trustworthy adoption of psychedelics into a widely accepted approach to mental health and inner wellness.

Market Outlook

The global smoking cessation market is expected to reach $63.99 billion by 2026, growing at a CAGR of 16.9 percent from 2018 to 2026. The market for psychedelic therapeutics is in its very early stages. Estimates of current market value and forecasts of expected value in future years are all over the map. Market forecasts range from $6.5 billion by 2030 with a CAGR of 15 percent, to more than $69 billion as soon as 2025, at a CAGR of 8.2 percent. What is clear is that interest in psychedelic therapeutic drugs is expanding rapidly.

Management Team

Joshua Bartch is Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of Mydecine Innovations Group. He is an experienced entrepreneur who co-founded AudioTranscriptionist.com and founded Denver-based dispensary Doctors Orders in 2009. He also founded a boutique investment firm that operated throughout the U.S. and Canadian markets. In 2014, Bartch co-founded Cannabase.io, the USA’s most significant and sophisticated legal cannabis wholesale platform.

Dr. Rakesh Jetly, OMM, CD, MD, FRCPC, is the Chief Medical Officer of Mydecine. He was formerly Chief of Psychiatry for the Canadian Armed Forces, retiring in 2021 with the rank of colonel after 31 years of service. He began his career as a general duty medical officer and flight surgeon and spent his final 20 years of service as a psychiatrist. He maintains academic appointments at Dalhousie University and The University of Ottawa. He is the inaugural CF Brigadier Jonathan C. Meakins CBE, RCMAC, Chair in Military Mental Health at the Royal Ottawa Hospital.

Robert Roscow is Chief Scientific Officer of Mydecine. As a geneticist, he has spent his academic and professional careers looking for valuable and unique medicinal molecules found in nature. His innovations were applied at Canopy Growth and ebbu, where he ran those companies’ genetics divisions. He has leveraged his expertise to maximize industrial production of cannabinoids in a pharmacological context, resulting in multiple patent filings.

Damon Michaels is Chief Operating Officer of Mydecine. He previously consulted for various hemp businesses through his company, Emerald Baron. Before that, he served as GM for ebbu, the leading multi-platform cannabinoid research and technology firm based in Colorado. He has held leading roles with multiple large brands throughout the cannabis vertical. He also developed a national snowboard brand.

NanoViricides Inc. (NYSE American: NNVC)

NanoViricides Inc. (NYSE American: NNVC) is a clinical stage global leader in the development of nanomedicine drugs against viruses. Going beyond what antibodies and immunotherapeutics do, the company’s unique nanoviricide® platform technology is designed to specifically target and dismantle enveloped virus particles, offering a novel approach to treating a wide range of viral infections. NanoViricides’ lead drug candidate, NV-387, is being developed for the treatment of respiratory viral infections, including RSV, COVID-19, Long COVID, and Influenza, with the company currently advancing NV-387 into Phase II human clinical trials. Another advanced candidate, NV-HHV-1, targets Shingles and represents a significant step forward in the treatment of viral diseases.

NanoViricides has also developed drug candidates specifically for COVID-19, including NV-CoV-2, which is composed of the NV-387 active pharmaceutical ingredient, and NV-CoV-2-R, which incorporates remdesivir, an FDA-approved antiviral, within its polymeric micelles. The company believes that NV-CoV-2-R has strong potential for approval, given the established safety profile of remdesivir. NanoViricides’ platform technology, based on the TheraCour® nanomedicine technology licensed from TheraCour Pharma, Inc., provides broad, exclusive, and sub-licensable field licenses for various viral diseases.

Beyond its focus on respiratory infections, NanoViricides is developing treatments for a range of other viral diseases, including oral and genital herpes, viral eye diseases, H1N1 and H5N1 influenza, HIV, Hepatitis C, Rabies, Dengue fever, and Ebola. The company’s technology platform is built on a solid foundation of licensing agreements with TheraCour Pharma, Inc., which allows NanoViricides to access and develop therapies targeting specific viruses. With its broad pipeline and innovative approach, NanoViricides aims to play a leading role in the development of next-generation antiviral therapies.

NV-387

NanoViricides is advancing its lead drug candidate, NV-387, a novel broad-spectrum antiviral designed to mimic the ubiquitous sulfated-proteoglycan (S-PG) features that over 90% of pathogenic human viruses utilize to infect human cells. NV-387 has demonstrated superior or equivalent efficacy compared to existing drugs in non-clinical animal trials against three major classes of viruses: Influenza, COVID-19, and RSV. Notably, in an RSV efficacy study, NV-387 provided complete survival and full lung protection in lethally infected mice, indicating its potential as a groundbreaking treatment where no effective options currently exist. The broad-spectrum effectiveness of NV-387 across multiple viral families suggests a highly robust antiviral agent that could potentially address the challenge of viral resistance, setting it apart from traditional medical countermeasures like vaccines, antibodies, and small molecule antivirals.

Currently, NanoViricides is completing a database audit and an external technical audit of its Phase 1a/1b human clinical trial of NV-387 in healthy subjects, with the goal of advancing to a Phase II clinical trial aimed at evaluating the drug’s antiviral effectiveness in humans. The company is also exploring innovative clinical trial designs that could allow for the simultaneous evaluation of NV-387’s efficacy against multiple respiratory viruses, which would be a significant advancement in clinical science. With the potential to address a market size estimated to exceed $12 billion within the next three years, NanoViricides is making substantial progress towards the commercialization and market entry of NV-387, while also seeking big pharma collaborations to expedite its programs and secure additional financing.

Market Opportunity

From an investment perspective, NanoViricides is positioned to capitalize on the growing demand for broad-spectrum antiviral therapies, particularly as the world continues to grapple with emerging and re-emerging viral threats. The company’s innovative approach, using nanomaterials to directly target and dismantle viruses, offers a unique and potentially disruptive solution in a market traditionally dominated by vaccines and small molecule antivirals. With a focus on respiratory viruses, which are a significant global health concern, NanoViricides addresses critical unmet needs that could result in substantial market penetration and revenue growth, especially as governments and health organizations seek more effective countermeasures against viral pandemics.

Additionally, the versatility of NanoViricides’ platform technology provides significant potential for expansion into multiple viral indications beyond its current focus areas. This adaptability not only enhances the company’s ability to address a broader range of viral infections but also diversifies its revenue streams, reducing reliance on any single market. As global health challenges evolve, NanoViricides’ capacity to quickly develop and scale antiviral therapies tailored to various viruses positions the company as a compelling investment opportunity with the potential for significant returns, particularly as it advances its clinical programs and moves closer to commercialization.

Leadership Team

Dr. Anil R. Diwan is the President and Chairman of NanoViricides, which he co-founded in 2005. A prolific inventor and serial entrepreneur, Dr. Diwan has over 25 years of experience in biopharmaceutical R&D and has played a pivotal role in the company’s growth, including leading its 2013 uplisting to NYSE-American and spearheading various financing efforts. He is the inventor of novel polymeric micelle-based nanomedicine technologies and has founded multiple companies, including TheraCour Pharma, Inc. and AllExcel, Inc. Dr. Diwan holds a Ph.D. from Rice University and a B.Tech. from the Indian Institute of Technology, Mumbai (IIT-B), and was recognized as “Researcher of the Year” by BusinessNewHaven in 2014.

Ms. Meeta R. Vyas is the interim Chief Financial Officer of NanoViricides, bringing over 25 years of experience in finance, operations, and strategy across a diverse range of organizations, including publicly listed companies and non-revenue generating entities. She holds the distinction of being the first Indian woman to serve as CEO of a publicly listed U.S. corporation, Signature Brands, Inc., where she successfully led a turnaround strategy. Ms. Vyas has held senior leadership roles at the World-Wide Fund for Nature – India, the National Audubon Society, and General Electric (GE). She holds an MBA in Finance from Columbia University and a BS in Chemical Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

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.

NextPlat Corp. (NASDAQ: NXPL) (NASDAQ: NXPLW)

NextPlat Corp. (NASDAQ: NXPL) (NASDAQ: NXPLW), a next generation e-commerce platform, was created with vision and purpose to capitalize on high growth sectors and global markets. The company collaborates with businesses – large and small – to simplify and accelerate online commerce and uniquely enables customers and partners to optimize their e-commerce reach, presence and revenue. NextPlat recently launched a new e-commerce development program to provide American businesses with easy access to the massive Chinese consumer market.

Current Initiatives

NextPlat provides cutting edge technology in an advanced e-commerce ecosystem. The company is actively expanding its global network of online storefronts serving thousands of consumers, enterprises and governments. The company also has developed a next generation platform built for Web3 that enables the creation and sale of digital assets, as well as optimizing e-commerce transactions and business building activities. The company’s current initiatives include:

• E-Commerce Development Program – In April 2023, NextPlat announced it had entered into a merchant sourcing agreement with Alibaba.com Singapore E-Commerce Private Limited (“Alibaba”) and its Tmall Global e-commerce platform whereby the two companies will collaborate to increase the sale of products produced and sold by American companies to the multi-trillion-dollar Chinese consumer market. Alibaba’s Tmall Global e-commerce platform will provide NextPlat customers a turn-key solution through which products can be sold to the Chinese consumer market. The launch of the Florida E-Commerce Development Program is the first in a series of new NextPlat programs designed to assist U.S. businesses in expanding their online sales capabilities to reach new international customers in the Chinese market. NextPlat intends to rapidly expand this unique e-commerce development opportunity to businesses throughout the United States and all of North America, as well as Central and South America. The new development program features NextPlat’s turnkey global e-commerce solution for customers and leverages NextPlat’s relationships with key partners, including Tmall Global, China’s largest cross-border B2C online marketplace.
• Progressive Care Inc. – In August 2022, NextPlat completed a strategic $7 million investment in Progressive Care Inc. (OTCQB: RXMD), a personalized health care services and technology company. In a news release announcing the investment, NextPlat CEO Charles M. Fernandez noted that the company is “committed to harnessing the power of digital technologies to capitalize on the ongoing digital transformation of Progressive Care and the entire health care industry.” NextPlat intends to accelerate Progressive Care’s digital health care transformation with the launch of a new e-commerce platform for health care products later this year.
• NextPlat NFT Platform – Building on its existing e-commerce initiatives, NextPlat is working to bridge the gap between tangible and digital e-commerce marketplaces by incorporating burgeoning Web3 technologies. The company intends to launch a fully integrated NFT platform in the coming months that will enable brands to create, manage and authenticate digital assets while serving as a new source of revenue for NextPlat. Through this model, the company will receive a portion of the revenue generated from branded NFT drops, as well as subsequent secondary market transactions.
• Global Telesat Communications and Orbital SatCom Corp. – Targeting both domestic and international markets, NextPlat’s subsidiaries leverage partnerships with major e-commerce platforms such as Amazon, Alibaba, eBay and Walmart to serve a growing base that includes more than 50,000 corporate, governmental and individual customers. In total, the brands market more than 10,000 individual products, with a focus on satellite-based connectivity solutions. In addition to exploring accretive M&A opportunities, NextPlat aims to diversify its range of products and broaden its geographic footprint moving forward in an effort to better capitalize on the tremendous growth potential in the United States, Europe and Asia.

“Our goal for 2023 and beyond is to leverage our improved operational capabilities and enhanced leadership team as we expand our offerings in communications and connectivity into the high-growth health care market where we intend to launch an array of innovative new offerings,” Fernandez said in a March 2023 news release detailing the company’s record top-line performance. “Although there remain supply chain headwinds and the challenge of global inflation, we are confident that we have the right combination of market-tested expertise, technology and partnerships that will enable us to bring the power of e-commerce to more customers, brands and industries in the United States and abroad.”

Market Opportunity

The rapid growth of e-commerce over the last decade is expected to continue for the foreseeable future. According to data published by Forbes, roughly 20.8% of all retail purchases are expected to take place online in 2023, accounting for total sales of $6.31 trillion worldwide. It total, e-commerce sales are expected to grow by 10.4% YoY in 2023, accounting for a whopping 24% of all retail purchases by 2026.

For NextPlat, existing partnerships in the industry could be key to capitalizing on this growth. The Forbes report indicates that Amazon accounts for roughly 38.7% of e-commerce sales, while sites like Walmart, eBay and Alibaba round out the list of most visited e-commerce websites. Alibaba is especially interesting due to NextPlat’s recent strategic merchant sourcing agreement with Tmall Global. The Chinese market is “mammoth,” as a recent Alizila report noted. The country’s annual online retail sales of physical goods have nearly doubled in the last five years, reaching approximately 13.8 trillion yuan in 2022, which is nearly $2 trillion USD.

The health care portion of the e-commerce market is generating particularly bullish forecasts, bolstered by the continued adoption of the 340B Drug Pricing Program in the U.S., which requires most drug manufacturers to provide outpatient drugs to covered entities at significantly reduced prices. Industry reports suggest that the global health care e-commerce market will expand at a compound annual growth rate of 16.8% from 2022 to 2030, climbing to a value of more than $1.37 trillion by the end of the forecast period.

Management Team

Charles M. Fernandez, CEO, Executive Chairman and Director of NextPlat, has over three decades of experience in identifying profitable start-up and dislocation opportunities, building significant value and executing exit strategies as an entrepreneur and global investor. Successful across multiple sectors, Fortune Magazine actually labeled Fernandez ‘a restructuring whiz’. As President of Fairholme Capital Management, which he joined in 2008, Mr. Fernandez co-managed all three Fairholme funds and brought in a $2 billion gain for shareholders. Throughout his impressive career, he has participated in more than 100 significant mergers, acquisitions and product development projects across multiple industries. Mr. Fernandez was the founder, Chairman and CEO of eApeiron Solutions LLC, a brand protection and e-commerce company in partnership with Alibaba (NYSE: BABA) and Eastman Kodak (NYSE: KODK), which was successfully sold to Smartrac, a unit of Avery Dennison Corp. (NYSE: AVY).

Rodney Barreto is Chairman and CEO of the Barreto Group and Director of Nextplat. Mr. Barreto’s business career spans over 35 years, including his role at the Barreto Group and, earlier, as the founding partner of Floridian Partners LLC, a corporate and public affairs consulting firm recognized by policy makers as one of the top in its industry in Florida. He chaired the Super Bowl Host Committee in 2007, 2010 and 2020, helping to raise more than $100 million for the success of Miami Super Bowls. As a philanthropist and conservationist, Mr. Barreto is also a three-time appointee to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, where he has served for over 10 years including holding the title of Chairman eight times. He has twice chaired the Annual U.S. Conference of Mayors, was Chairman of the 1999 Breeder’s Cup Championship held in South Florida and was the Chairman of the 1999 Sister Cities International Convention in Miami. Currently, Mr. Barreto is the Membership Chairman of the Florida Council of 100, and a member of the Boards of Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden, the Baptist Health South Florida Giving Society, the Bonefish and Tarpon Trust, the Guy Harvey Ocean Foundation, and a member of Miami Dade County Schools Superintendent Carvalho’s Business Advisory Council. Prior to his career in public affairs and real estate, Mr. Barreto was a City of Miami police officer and is a member of the Florida Highway Patrol Advisory Council.

NextPlat Corp. (NASDAQ: NXPL) (NASDAQ: NXPLW)

NextPlat Corp. (NASDAQ: NXPL) (NASDAQ: NXPLW), a next generation e-commerce platform, was created with vision and purpose to capitalize on high growth sectors and global markets. The company collaborates with businesses – large and small – to simplify and accelerate online commerce and uniquely enables customers and partners to optimize their e-commerce reach, presence and revenue. NextPlat recently launched a new e-commerce development program to provide American businesses with easy access to the massive Chinese consumer market.

Current Initiatives

NextPlat provides cutting edge technology in an advanced e-commerce ecosystem. The company is actively expanding its global network of online storefronts serving thousands of consumers, enterprises and governments. The company also has developed a next generation platform built for Web3 that enables the creation and sale of digital assets, as well as optimizing e-commerce transactions and business building activities. The company’s current initiatives include:

• E-Commerce Development Program – In April 2023, NextPlat announced it had entered into a merchant sourcing agreement with Alibaba.com Singapore E-Commerce Private Limited (“Alibaba”) and its Tmall Global e-commerce platform whereby the two companies will collaborate to increase the sale of products produced and sold by American companies to the multi-trillion-dollar Chinese consumer market. Alibaba’s Tmall Global e-commerce platform will provide NextPlat customers a turn-key solution through which products can be sold to the Chinese consumer market. The launch of the Florida E-Commerce Development Program is the first in a series of new NextPlat programs designed to assist U.S. businesses in expanding their online sales capabilities to reach new international customers in the Chinese market. NextPlat intends to rapidly expand this unique e-commerce development opportunity to businesses throughout the United States and all of North America, as well as Central and South America. The new development program features NextPlat’s turnkey global e-commerce solution for customers and leverages NextPlat’s relationships with key partners, including Tmall Global, China’s largest cross-border B2C online marketplace.
• Progressive Care Inc. – In August 2022, NextPlat completed a strategic $7 million investment in Progressive Care Inc. (OTCQB: RXMD), a personalized health care services and technology company. In a news release announcing the investment, NextPlat CEO Charles M. Fernandez noted that the company is “committed to harnessing the power of digital technologies to capitalize on the ongoing digital transformation of Progressive Care and the entire health care industry.” NextPlat intends to accelerate Progressive Care’s digital health care transformation with the launch of a new e-commerce platform for health care products later this year.
• NextPlat NFT Platform – Building on its existing e-commerce initiatives, NextPlat is working to bridge the gap between tangible and digital e-commerce marketplaces by incorporating burgeoning Web3 technologies. The company intends to launch a fully integrated NFT platform in the coming months that will enable brands to create, manage and authenticate digital assets while serving as a new source of revenue for NextPlat. Through this model, the company will receive a portion of the revenue generated from branded NFT drops, as well as subsequent secondary market transactions.
• Global Telesat Communications and Orbital SatCom Corp. – Targeting both domestic and international markets, NextPlat’s subsidiaries leverage partnerships with major e-commerce platforms such as Amazon, Alibaba, eBay and Walmart to serve a growing base that includes more than 50,000 corporate, governmental and individual customers. In total, the brands market more than 10,000 individual products, with a focus on satellite-based connectivity solutions. In addition to exploring accretive M&A opportunities, NextPlat aims to diversify its range of products and broaden its geographic footprint moving forward in an effort to better capitalize on the tremendous growth potential in the United States, Europe and Asia.

“Our goal for 2023 and beyond is to leverage our improved operational capabilities and enhanced leadership team as we expand our offerings in communications and connectivity into the high-growth health care market where we intend to launch an array of innovative new offerings,” Fernandez said in a March 2023 news release detailing the company’s record top-line performance. “Although there remain supply chain headwinds and the challenge of global inflation, we are confident that we have the right combination of market-tested expertise, technology and partnerships that will enable us to bring the power of e-commerce to more customers, brands and industries in the United States and abroad.”

Market Opportunity

The rapid growth of e-commerce over the last decade is expected to continue for the foreseeable future. According to data published by Forbes, roughly 20.8% of all retail purchases are expected to take place online in 2023, accounting for total sales of $6.31 trillion worldwide. It total, e-commerce sales are expected to grow by 10.4% YoY in 2023, accounting for a whopping 24% of all retail purchases by 2026.

For NextPlat, existing partnerships in the industry could be key to capitalizing on this growth. The Forbes report indicates that Amazon accounts for roughly 38.7% of e-commerce sales, while sites like Walmart, eBay and Alibaba round out the list of most visited e-commerce websites. Alibaba is especially interesting due to NextPlat’s recent strategic merchant sourcing agreement with Tmall Global. The Chinese market is “mammoth,” as a recent Alizila report noted. The country’s annual online retail sales of physical goods have nearly doubled in the last five years, reaching approximately 13.8 trillion yuan in 2022, which is nearly $2 trillion USD.

The health care portion of the e-commerce market is generating particularly bullish forecasts, bolstered by the continued adoption of the 340B Drug Pricing Program in the U.S., which requires most drug manufacturers to provide outpatient drugs to covered entities at significantly reduced prices. Industry reports suggest that the global health care e-commerce market will expand at a compound annual growth rate of 16.8% from 2022 to 2030, climbing to a value of more than $1.37 trillion by the end of the forecast period.

Management Team

Charles M. Fernandez, CEO, Executive Chairman and Director of NextPlat, has over three decades of experience in identifying profitable start-up and dislocation opportunities, building significant value and executing exit strategies as an entrepreneur and global investor. Successful across multiple sectors, Fortune Magazine actually labeled Fernandez ‘a restructuring whiz’. As President of Fairholme Capital Management, which he joined in 2008, Mr. Fernandez co-managed all three Fairholme funds and brought in a $2 billion gain for shareholders. Throughout his impressive career, he has participated in more than 100 significant mergers, acquisitions and product development projects across multiple industries. Mr. Fernandez was the founder, Chairman and CEO of eApeiron Solutions LLC, a brand protection and e-commerce company in partnership with Alibaba (NYSE: BABA) and Eastman Kodak (NYSE: KODK), which was successfully sold to Smartrac, a unit of Avery Dennison Corp. (NYSE: AVY).

Rodney Barreto is Chairman and CEO of the Barreto Group and Director of Nextplat. Mr. Barreto’s business career spans over 35 years, including his role at the Barreto Group and, earlier, as the founding partner of Floridian Partners LLC, a corporate and public affairs consulting firm recognized by policy makers as one of the top in its industry in Florida. He chaired the Super Bowl Host Committee in 2007, 2010 and 2020, helping to raise more than $100 million for the success of Miami Super Bowls. As a philanthropist and conservationist, Mr. Barreto is also a three-time appointee to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, where he has served for over 10 years including holding the title of Chairman eight times. He has twice chaired the Annual U.S. Conference of Mayors, was Chairman of the 1999 Breeder’s Cup Championship held in South Florida and was the Chairman of the 1999 Sister Cities International Convention in Miami. Currently, Mr. Barreto is the Membership Chairman of the Florida Council of 100, and a member of the Boards of Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden, the Baptist Health South Florida Giving Society, the Bonefish and Tarpon Trust, the Guy Harvey Ocean Foundation, and a member of Miami Dade County Schools Superintendent Carvalho’s Business Advisory Council. Prior to his career in public affairs and real estate, Mr. Barreto was a City of Miami police officer and is a member of the Florida Highway Patrol Advisory Council.

Nowigence Inc. (OTCQB: NOWG)

Nowigence Inc. (OTCQB: NOWG) is an innovative software-as-a-service (“SaaS”) company focused on developing and bringing to market Pluaris™ — a comprehensive, ready-to-use artificial intelligence (“AI”) platform. Pluaris delivers the combined power of an intelligent reader along with a smart search engine. It works 24/7 reading and analyzing relevant content as is being created in various public and private data sources on topics that one reads either because one enjoys them or because one needs to gather information to fulfill job tasks or other responsibilities.

A personal knowledge management (“PKM”) tool, Pluaris is created for those who want to advance their competitiveness with the power of intelligent reading while searching for information. It accelerates the pace of problem-solving and decision-making. Pluaris is an end-to-end, fully automated, data-science product, offering data-at-scale capabilities mimicking the human process in their abilities to learn. It performs tasks that typically require human intensive activities when reading information from public and private data sources. It provides precise answers to questions asked, analyzes different perspectives, discovers new connections, and creates organized and nested notes. As a result, Pluaris allows teams to work collaboratively from anywhere in the world to share and draw informed conclusions.

Nowigence puts the power of data science into the hands of consumers through integrating state-of-the-art data processing techniques in an intuitive interface at an affordable subscription price. The Pluaris platform generates a trove of critical information to assist individuals, teams, and organizations to quickly build expertise. It reads and analyzes hundreds of pages in a few minutes wherein the data is transformed, linked, taxonomized, and optimized for storage and further trend analysis.

Key Target Market

Pluaris is pre-built with supervised and unsupervised machine learning (ML) and natural language processing (NLP) models. It has three main features. They are:

• A precise information retrieval engine
• An intelligent reader, and
• A Smart Search Engine that intelligently reads and analyzes content written inside files instead of contemporary search tools that use keywords to bring forth URLs or files which users still need to open to read manually.

Pluaris enables distillation of knowledge from hundreds or thousands of sources in seconds rather than the time-consuming method of reading and gaining insight from one source at a time. Keyword-based search-and-retrieval applications do not have the capability to open documents, read content, extract key points, conduct cause-and-effect analysis or answer questions specifically. Pluaris includes those features while going one step further with its semantic capabilities to empower users with interpretations of retrieved information. Nowigence estimates this feature alone can save typical researchers between one and three hours per workday. The platform also extracts only important and relevant information on every monitored or researched topic, reducing “noise” and information overload, a major source of workplace stress.

Pluaris Solution

The Problem

In the modern world, there is a need to consume a tremendous amount of text and transcript-based information for both personal and professional use. This need is met with exceptional challenges due to:

• Information Overload: For virtually any significant topic, the amount of textual information available and continually generated is vastly more than can be consumed by an individual.
• Pervasive Distractions: In the era of modern technology, new inputs such as instant messages, e-mails, social media and more reduce attention spans often lead to the disregard of information considered too long and complex to read.
• Highly Imperfect Human Recall: Information that is read is easily forgotten and, while key insights may be retained, the details are almost certainly lost.
• Data Sharing/Translation: Working in teams often finds colleagues researching the same content, with much of the information acquired by one individual lost in translation with the communication process to others.

Pluaris

From its early days, Nowigence has worked with pioneers and stalwarts in the fields of machine learning (“ML”) and natural language processing (“NLP”). In doing so, the company was keen to solve the big problem of the information age — too much data exists for it to be processed manually.

Pluaris is designed as a user-friendly platform, requiring no technical expertise or extensive training while avoiding structured or rigid methodology. As a result, Pluaris is adaptable to the unique needs by which individuals absorb knowledge and may be utilized across a variety of different functions and sectors. By leveraging the capabilities of Pluaris’ state-of-the-art no code editing, organizations have the flexibility to improve and tailor results without hiring data scientists. Further, real-time information retrieval, meaning instantaneous delivery of outputs at the click of a button, ensures the client never misses any piece of intelligence.

Pluaris does not simply gather information. The platform was built over the course of three years by a Nowigence team of experts and is designed to understand the context of every sentence it reads. In cases where Pluaris does make an error in contextual interpretation, the user can correct it, instantly giving the correction precedence over the ML’s algorithmic outputs. This removes the biggest criticism against AI/ML platforms, which is that annotating data and developing training datasets to build models takes too much time and effort from internal teams.

Use Cases

There is a virtually unlimited potential for Pluaris to cut through information overload and bring critical data to individuals and enterprises. Nowigence has customized its platform to cater to the needs of a variety of users, including an enterprise customer interested in tracking news and events in the telecom industry. In less than a week, Nowigence was able to quickly create and fine-tune a list of monitored topics, resulting in the team’s access to an annotated and industry specific news feed.

In another instance, Pluaris was useful to an employee of one of the world’s largest aluminum mining companies tasked with preparing talking points for her manager for an upcoming investor meeting. Using the platform, she built a comprehensive database of documents, including notes, transcripts, speeches, question-and-answer sessions, annual reports, and internal documents, some of which were from previous investor meetings. Through the platform’s dashboard and using various filters, she was able to quickly explore that database and pull the information together in a Pluaris Notebook to share directly with her supervisor.

Pluaris has further proven valuable in individual and personal-use cases. For example, a customer who was already using the platform for business intelligence decided to use his account to make improvements in his health after he received a report from his doctor of a high fasting blood sugar level. After uploading a few research reports, reviewing the summaries and exploring the annotated labels, the user set up Pluaris to monitor topics such as “lowering fasting blood sugar” and “low glycemic food.” From those results, he built an action list of daily habits for diet and fitness and, within two months, brought his fasting blood sugar level back down.

Market Considerations

Pluaris users include:

• Educators, Learners, and Publishers of Interactive Community Knowledge Banks: In a recent report titled “Digital 2022 – Global Overview,” published by the Tribune, it is said that the world between the ages of 16 and 64 spends a daily average of seven hours on the internet. Wikipedia estimates this age group to be 74% of the world’s population of nearly 8 billion people. Pluaris is helping create interactive community knowledge banks for people to save time and improve their quality of learning for specific subjects or topics. The first one being set up is on “healthy living.”
• Knowledge Workers: Gartner estimates there are more than one billion knowledge workers worldwide as of December 2019. According to a McKinsey report, employees spend 1.8 hours every day searching and gathering information. Nearly all data generated in businesses is in the form of language, but few today have the resources to leverage it. Pluaris, with its basis in data science, synthesizes knowledge from information assisting users to accelerate the pace of problem-solving and decision-making.

Nowigence offers subscription-based pricing to educators, researchers, learners, and publishers of community knowledge banks. Subscription prices are nominal but vary depending upon the volume, variety, velocity, and frequency of accessing large data sets.

Prices vary depending on the scope for small, medium, or large organizations. Typically, the business model is a one-time set up fee to taxonomize and link extracted entities which are user specific jargon. An additional fee is charged for scoping and integrating Pluaris with currently used enterprise tools. Subsequently, a monthly subscription fee is charged.

In 2020, the amount of data in the world was estimated at 44 zettabytes. By 2025, the amount of data generated each day is expected to reach 463 exabytes globally. Reading intelligently while searching for information is going to become an even bigger problem. Nowigence is targeting opportunity across the rapidly growing cognitive computing and personal knowledge management (“PKM”) markets. According to Allied Market Research, the cognitive computing market alone was valued at $8.87 billion in 2018 and is projected to reach a value of $87.39 billion by 2026. This represents a CAGR of 31.6% from 2019 through the end of the forecast period.

Leadership Team

Anoop Bhatia
Founder and Chief Executive Officer
Anoop Bhatia founded Nowigence Inc. and has served as its CEO since 2015. Previously, he worked as a global operation strategic transformation leader for Momentive Performance Material (formerly GE Silicones). Bhatia’s experience includes more than two decades serving in roles for various General Electric companies across different countries, including the U.S., India, The Netherlands and Germany. He played a key role in establishing GE Silicones as the first-ever wholly owned foreign subsidiary established in India in 1996. Bhatia holds a B.S. degree in chemical engineering from BITS in India and completed post-graduate studies in management from Heriot-Watt at Edinburgh in Scotland.

Gordon Haupt
Chief Technology Officer
Gordon Haupt brings more than 20 years of experience building and leading diverse engineering and operations teams, as well as a strong technical background in machine learning, signal processing and statistical data analysis. This includes expertise in speech and text, biotechnology and computer vision applications. He is experienced in all phases of engineering development and operations and is a named inventor on 15 issued patents. Haupt holds a B.S. degree in engineering mechanics from the University of Wisconsin and M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in aeronautics and astronautics from Stanford University.

David Evans
Chief Financial Officer and General Counsel
As an attorney and licensed CPA in the state of New York, David Evans has extensive experience in multistate and international tax policies and guidelines, federal taxation laws, mergers and acquisitions, including valuation of closely held businesses. He is a contributing author to the New York State Tax Service, a six-volume publication of NYS tax laws and regulations. His prior experience includes serving as a managing director for UHY Advisors LLC, a board member and chairperson of the Tax Division Executive Committee of New York State Society of Certified Public Accountants, as well as a past president of the Estate Planning Council of Eastern New York. Evans holds degrees from Hofstra University and State University of New York at Buffalo.

Uday Bawa
Vice President Business Development – India, SEA, and MEA
Uday Bawa brings a wealth of nearly two decades of global P&L experience, growing businesses from scratch in the field of energy and sports. He has worked in B2C and B2B sales environment focusing on product sales, building the brand and generating endorsement deals for renowned sports personalities in India. Previously, he worked in the petrochemicals industry, where he led Houston-based Dorf Ketal’s Fuels business for North America. He was instrumental in generating sponsorship revenues for the Commonwealth Games in Delhi, India, in 2010 from corporate sponsors. He has also managed Indian sports icon Sachin Tendulkar’s commercial interests and endorsement deals. He completed his bachelor’s from Symbiosis International University in India and then his executive MBA from Rice University at Houston in Texas. He is a Doon school (India) alumnus.

OK Stone Engineering Inc.

OK Stone Engineering Inc. is a Texas-based company formed to manufacture engineered quartz slabs to be used as materials for countertops and tile in the building and construction industry. The company’s manufacturing process uses next-generation technologies which reduce costs, improve the quality of the finished product and increase safety of workers in the manufacturing process.

OK Stone is the first high tech source of U.S.-made quartz stone products. The company, with joint venture partner Breton S.p.A., has announced a new factory for engineered stone in Fort Worth, Texas, to fill the massive supply gap in the U.S. market, where the domestic shortage is projected to increase to 140 million square feet annually by 2026. Construction of the facility is scheduled to begin in 2024, with production projected to start in mid to late 2025 and the is facility projected to be scaling to full production in early 2026.

The factory will be the first in the U.S. to employ Breton’s Bioquartz® technology, a transformative state-of-the-art manufacturing process. There are only nine engineered stone slab manufacturers in the U.S., and seven of those are based on older Breton technology. Only OK Stone is investing in this latest technology while other manufacturing facilities risk falling behind.

Products

OK Stone’s licensed Bioquartz® manufacturing technology, which has been under development for a decade, will provide a significant competitive advantage in the market by solving the most frustrating problems faced by customers. Breton, based in Italy, is the definitive international leader in designing and developing engineered stone production plants, with more than 95% of global market share.

This next-gen manufacturing technology will allow OK Stone to source a more reliable and less expensive supply of domestic raw materials, replacing variable supplies from Asia. It also reduces costs by more than 10% while producing quartz slabs with an unlimited range of aesthetic effects that older manufacturing technologies cannot replicate.

Importantly, the Bioquartz® process eliminates the risk that workers can develop silicosis, an incurable lung disease caused by inhaling crystalline silica particles. Expected new government regulations to prevent silicosis are likely to impact other U.S. manufacturers. The company’s expected regulatory compliance, as well as its avoidance of international shipping costs for raw materials – which have been unstable since 2021 – are among the factors likely to provide OK Stone with major competitive advantages in the market.

The company will sell its factory output through the existing network of stone distributors that supply the building and construction industry.

Market Opportunity

According to a report by Allied Market Research, a research, consulting and advisory firm, the global engineered stone market was valued at $21.1 billion in 2021 and is projected to reach $35.1 billion by 2031, growing at a CAGR of greater than 5% for the forecast period.

Engineered stone is used in a number of applications in the construction industry, including countertops, flooring and wall tiles, fireplaces and more. The report states that rapid expansion in construction is boosting the global demand for engineered stone.

Management Team

OK Stone’s management team recently designed, built and operated a Breton factory with more than $100 million in annual revenues.

The CEO of OK Stone has almost two decades of experience in the engineered stone industry. He began as a production engineer, later hired as a factory manager and eventually in the role of Managing Partner an an Industrial Investment fund, focusing on investments in engineered stone. He holds a Mechanical Engineering degree and an MBA.

The Chief Marketing Officer at OK Stone has more than 15 years of experience as a sales and marketing executive in the industry. He has worked for the top tier of engineered surfaces companies as well as a significant U.S.-based engineered stone company. He has recently been Sales and Marketing Director of a fully scaled Breton equipped factory, and was previously part of the founding team at a separate Breton factory, where he worked extensively in the U.S. market.

Ronald Max is COO at OK Stone. He has more than 35 years of experience in operations and finance. He has been involved in over $4 billion in real estate transactions and has extensive expertise in complicated ownership structures such as sale-leaseback financing, ground lease bifurcations and real estate securities offerings. In addition, he has experience in creating operating budgets, financial management and industrial real estate development for highly scaled enterprises.

Mullen Automotive Inc. (NASDAQ: MULN)

Mullen Automotive Inc. (NASDAQ: MULN) is a Southern California-based automotive company that owns and partners with several synergistic businesses working toward the unified goal of creating clean and scalable energy solutions. Mullen has evolved over the past decade in sync with consumers and technology trends. Today, the company is working diligently to provide exciting EV options built entirely in the United States and made to fit perfectly into the American consumer’s life. Mullen strives to make EVs more accessible than ever by building an end-to-end ecosystem that takes care of all aspects of EV ownership.

Commencement of Trading on Nasdaq

On November 5, 2021, Mullen announced its commencement of trading on the Nasdaq Capital Market.

“Today is a monumental day for Mullen Automotive. I am especially proud of our team, investors and all who have believed in Mullen and taken us to this point as a publicly traded company on the Nasdaq Capital Market,” David Michery, CEO and Chairman of Mullen Automotive, stated in the news release. “Trading on Nasdaq now opens us up to new investors, both institutional and retail shareholders, and broadens our awareness and company profile, while increasing awareness of Mullen and our technology platform and opening new opportunities in EV and beyond. The road ahead has never been brighter for Mullen, and I am proud to lead us into the future.”

The milestone came in the wake of the company’s stock-for-stock merger with Net Element Inc.

The Mullen FIVE

The Mullen FIVE EV Crossover, debuting at the Los Angeles International Auto Show (LAIAS) on November 17, 2021, embodies Mullen’s Southern California roots with an inspired design focused on two complementary Golden State themes – California landscape and California urban.

The FIVE is built on an EV Crossover skateboard platform that offers multiple powertrain configurations and trim levels in a svelte design that is Strikingly Different™ and exciting to experience in person.

Prior to the start of LAIAS, the Mullen FIVE was selected as a finalist by the LA Auto Show for Top EV SUV in the ZEVA “People’s Choice” Awards.

LAIAS provides Mullen an opportunity to display multiple variants of the FIVE model while also showcasing its powertrain, battery and charging technology. The company intends to bring the FIVE to market in 2024, and reservations are currently open here.

Mullen’s development portfolio also includes EV Fleet Vans, which it intends to bring to market in Q2 2022, and the pure electric, high performance Mullen DragonFLY.

Expansion of Manufacturing Capacity

On November 2, 2021, Mullen announced plans to expand its facility in Robinsonville, Mississippi.

Mullen’s Advanced Manufacturing and Engineering Facility (AMEC) currently occupies 124,000 square feet of manufacturing space. The total available land on the property is over 100 acres, and Mullen is moving ahead with plans to build out another 1.2 million square feet of manufacturing space to support class 1 and class 2 EV cargo vans and the Mullen FIVE EV Crossover.

On the expanded site, Mullen plans to build a body shop, a fully automated paint shop and a general assembly shop.

EV Market Outlook

The global EV market was reported to consist of 3,269,671 units in 2019, a figure that is expected to grow at a CAGR of 21.1% through 2030 to a total of 26,951,318 units worldwide. This market’s monetary value was estimated at $162.34 billion in 2019 and is expected to grow at a CAGR of 22.6%, resulting in an approximate value of $802.81 billion by 2027. The primary driver for this exponential growth is a worldwide increase in vehicle emissions regulations.

Management Team

David Michery is the CEO and Founder of Mullen and has been leading the company and its divisions since inception in 2014. With over 25 years of executive management, marketing, distressed assets, and business restructuring experience, Mr. Michery brings a wealth of relevant knowledge and expertise to the Mullen brand. He has notably created 12 trademarks so far to develop the company brand and vision.

Mr. Michery is working toward a sustainable future accessible to all by creating a suite of clean-energy electric vehicles at varied price points. With entirely U.S.-based manufacturing and operations, he is also determined to have Mullen Technologies play a role in shaping a self-sustaining local economy by creating more jobs in America.

Mr. Michery manages risks and company expectations as a pathway to success and has personally overseen several businesses that totaled over $1 billion in transactions. His key strength is the ability to be fiscally responsible and lead teams to complete projects on time and within budget. As a seasoned professional in this space, Mr. Michery has demonstrated skill in building businesses from the ground up and into successful entities that subsequently sold for hundreds of millions of dollars.

PaxMedica Inc. (NASDAQ: PXMD)

PaxMedica Inc. (NASDAQ: PXMD) is a clinical stage biopharmaceutical company focusing on the development of novel anti-purinergic therapies (APTs) for the treatment of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and other serious conditions with intractable neurologic symptoms.

The company’s lead programs are focused on ASD, for which there are currently no approved pharmacologic treatments that target its cause and symptoms. Currently used treatments only address the symptoms of the condition, rather than targeting the pathophysiology itself.

PaxMedica is on a promising path to address these unmet medical needs, bringing hope to millions. Anti-purinergic therapies target the excess production of purines in cells. An overexpression of purines can offset homeostasis and result in an overproduction of cellular adenosine triphosphate, the main energy molecule in all living cells.

The company is headquartered in Tarrytown, New York.

Product Pipeline

PaxMedica is building a robust pipeline of products targeting ASD and related neurodevelopmental conditions. The company’s lead product in development may help eliminate, reduce or modulate some of the more troublesome aspects of ASD. That would open the potential for people with autism to integrate their behavior with others more successfully and improve their lives.

PaxMedica’s lead programs, PAX-101 and PAX-102, utilize the company’s proprietary source of suramin sodium, a broadly acting anti-purinergic therapy that has been known for over 100 years. Its current pipeline includes:

• PAX-101 (IV Suramin) for ASD – PAX-101 completed a Phase 2B study for ASD in 2021. Suramin is a broadly acting APT and has reported positive results from a dose range study. The results of PaxMedica’s Phase 2B study, which targeted 52 subjects across six sites in South Africa, were presented to AACAP in October 2021.
• PAX-102 (Intranasal Suramin) – PaxMedica has developed a proprietary intranasal formulation of suramin that is currently being evaluated in ASD and other neurodevelopmental conditions.
• PAX-101 for HAT – Given suramin’s historical use as a treatment for Human African Trypanosomiasis (HAT), or African Sleeping Sickness, the company is also developing PAX-101 as a treatment for HAT. PaxMedica’s most advanced program is the pursuit of PAX-101 for early-stage East African HAT.
• Selective APTs – PaxMedica has conducted several preclinical studies to evaluate other APTs that are more selective to specific purinergic receptors and may offer additional benefits over suramin.

Market Opportunity

According to a report by Fortune Business Insights, a leading global market research company, the global ASD therapeutics market was estimated at $1.93 billion in 2022 and is projected to grow from $2.01 billion in 2023 to $3.42 billion by 2030, a CAGR of 7.9% over the forecast period. As there is no current treatment for the core symptoms of autism, PaxMedica believes the addressable market for PAX-101, if approved, could greatly exceed these forecasts.

Autistic disorder, Asperger’s Syndrome and Pervasive Development Disorder are the three main types of ASD, affecting millions of people globally. A 2020 report by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control & Prevention estimated that one in 36 children in the U.S. have been diagnosed with autism disorder.

Several factors are expected to contribute to market growth prospects. A growing prevalence of the condition globally and rising awareness coupled with available treatment options are key factors expected to drive ASD therapeutics market growth during the forecast period. Growing investment in R&D to find effective treatments is also expected to fuel global market growth.

Management Team

Howard Weisman is Chairman and CEO of PaxMedica. He has been a founder and CEO of several specialty pharma and medical device companies. Most recently, he was executive chairman and co-founder of Sofregen, a biotech company. He also served as CEO and president of Seventh Sense Biosystems, a medical device development company. He also was founder, chairman and CEO of EKR Therapeutics, a specialty pharmaceutical company, and founder and COO of ESP Pharma, a company focused on cardio and neurovascular products. He has a bachelor’s degree in chemistry from Rutgers University.

David Hough, M.D., is Chief Medical Officer at PaxMedica. He is a neuroscience clinical development consultant who previously served as vice president at Janssen Research and Development and in various leadership roles over 17 years. Most recently, he was the compound development team leader for SPRAVATO® for treatment-resistant depression. Prior to that, he was the schizophrenia disease area leader. He played a pivotal role in the development programs for oral INVEGA®, INVEGA SUSTENNA® and XEPLION® for schizophrenia. He is a graduate of West Point and is board certified in psychiatry.

Stephen Sheldon is COO and CFO at PaxMedica. He has served as CEO of Thailand-based specialty healthcare company Indochina Healthcare Co. Ltd. since 2015. Previously, he was a consultant for PricewaterhouseCoopers Healthcare Advisory in the Chicago office. He was responsible for developing specialty pharmacy patient programs, strategy development for specialty products and compliance programs. He has an MBA from Thunderbird School of Global Management and a bachelor’s degree in computer science and visual arts from Bowdoin College.

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”).

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, with online 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.

Platinum Group Metals Ltd. (TSX: PTM) (NYSE American: PLG)

Platinum Group Metals Ltd. (NYSE American: PLG) (TSX: PTM) is the operator of the Waterberg Project, a bulk underground platinum group metals (PGM) deposit discovered by Platinum Group in 2011 and located on the Northern Limb of the Bushveld Complex in South Africa. The Waterberg Project is planned as a fully mechanised platinum, palladium, rhodium and gold mine, including by-product copper and nickel production, and is projected to be one of the largest and lowest cost PGM mines globally.

The project is a joint venture between Platinum Group; integrated PGM producer Impala Platinum Holdings Ltd. (OTCQX: IMPUY); Japanese consortium HJ Platinum, which includes trading house Hanwa Co. and the government-backed Japan Organization for Metals and Energy Security (JOGMEC); and local empowerment partner Mnombo Wethu Consultants (Pty) Ltd. Platinum Group has an effective 50.22% interest in the Waterberg Project.

The company’s primary business objective is to advance the Waterberg Project to a development and construction decision. An update to the 2019 Definite Feasibility Study is expected in 2024.

PGMs are essential and precious metals that include platinum, palladium, rhodium, iridium, osmium and ruthenium. These metals are known for their purity, high melting points and unique catalytic properties. They are utilized in a number of industrial processes, technologies and commercial applications and play a critical role in autocatalysis and pollution control in the automotive sector. The bulk of global PGMs are mined in Southern Africa and Russia.

The unique properties of PGMs are being applied to various technologies as possible solutions for more efficient energy generation and storage, which may create new demand for PGMs. The company’s battery technology initiative through Lion Battery Technologies Inc., using platinum and palladium in lithium battery technologies, represents one such new opportunity in the high-profile lithium battery research and innovation field.

Platinum Group Metals Ltd. founded Lion Battery Technologies Inc. in partnership with Anglo American Platinum Ltd. (AMS: JNB) to support the use of palladium and platinum in lithium battery applications. Lion Battery has entered into an agreement with Florida International University to further advance a research program that uses platinum and palladium to unlock the potential of Lithium Sulfur (Li-S) battery chemistries.

Platinum Group is headquartered in Vancouver, B.C., and Johannesburg, South Africa.

Waterberg Project

Platinum Group’s sole material mineral property, the Waterberg Project, is presently in process with pre-construction permitting; engineering work, including road upgrade and traffic studies; finalization of power and water infrastructure design; and construction camp design.

The company’s principal product from the Waterberg Project is planned to be a PGM-bearing concentrate. The concentrate will contain economic amounts of six elements comprising platinum, palladium, rhodium, gold, copper and nickel. The company’s partner in the Waterberg Project, Impala Platinum Holdings, has acquired a right of first refusal to enter into an offtake agreement, on commercial arm’s-length terms, for the smelting and refining of mineral products from the Waterberg Project.

The Waterberg project has proven and estimated reserves of 19.5 million ounces of PGMs and gold. When fully operational, the mine is projected to produce more than 400,000 ounces of PGMs annually during the peak period of steady state production. The life of the mine is projected at 45 years.

South Africa’s PGM mining sector remains closely tied to economic developments in the global automotive industry, which in 2022 accounted for approximately 43% of the total global demand for platinum and 82% of the total global demand for palladium.

Market Opportunity

According to a report from Straits Research, a global market and business research firm, the worldwide platinum market had an estimated value of $7.72 billion in 2022 and is projected to reach $11.95 billion by 2031. That represents a CAGR of 5.13% over the forecast period.

Platinum, one of the rarest of precious metals, is about 30 times scarcer than gold. It is crucial to the automotive and electronics industries and is also used to make jewelry. Stricter emissions regulations around the world have led to an increased demand for platinum to be used in catalytic converters to reduce automotive emission, the report states.

A report from Allied Market Research estimated the global palladium market at $16.3 billion in 2021 and projects the market will reach $28.6 billion by 2031, growing at a CAGR of 5.8% over the period.

Palladium is also used in automotive catalytic converters for reducing emissions and in jewelry, dentistry, watchmaking, blood sugar test strips, aircraft spark plugs, surgical instruments, electrical contacts and musical instruments.

An increase in demand for consumer electronics has driven demand for palladium-based multilayer ceramic capacitors (MLCC) used to store energy in electronic devices such as broadcasting equipment, mobile telephones, computers, electronic lighting and high voltage circuits, according to the report.

Management Team

Frank R. Hallam is Co-Founder, Director, President and CEO of Platinum Group. He has over 30 years of experience in the mining, minerals and petroleum industry as an operator, principal and founder. He was a co-founder and former CFO of MAG Silver Corp. He was also co-founder and director of West Timmins Mining Inc. and a director of Lake Shore Gold Corp. In addition, he was CFO and director with gold exploration company Tan Range Exploration Corp. He is a Chartered Professional Accountant and was formerly an auditor in the public mining practice of PwC. He holds a Bachelor of Business Administration from Simon Fraser University.

Greg Blair is CFO of Platinum Group. He has been with Platinum Group since 2010 in various roles, most recently as Interim CFO. Prior to joining Platinum Group, he was at a public accounting firm working on public company (mainly mining) audits. He is a Chartered Professional Accountant and holds a degree in Economics from Simon Fraser University and has completed the Canadian Securities Course.

Kris Begic is VP Corporate Development of Platinum Group. He has over 25 years of experience in the mining industry and capital markets and has been involved with the raising of over $500 million for various exploration and development projects globally. His efforts are focused on project generation, mergers and acquisitions, capital markets, investor relations and marketing.

Playgon Games Inc. (TSX.V: DEAL) (OTC: PLGNF)

Playgon Games Inc. (TSX.V: DEAL) (OTC: PLGNF) is a SaaS technology company focused on developing and licensing digital content for the growing global iGaming market. The company provides a multi-tenant gateway that allows online operators the ability to offer their customers innovative iGaming software solutions. Its current software platform includes Live Dealer Casino, E-Table Games and Daily Fantasy Sports. Seamless integration at the operator level allows customer access without requiring the sharing of any sensitive customer data. Playgon games run on any browser and any device as fast and secure as a native app, without requiring any app store download. All that’s needed is a stable internet connection. The gaming experience is identical across all mobile devices. As a true business-to-business digital content provider, the company’s products are scalable turnkey solutions for online casinos, sportsbook operators, location-based operators, media groups, and big database companies.

Playgon’s proprietary technology provides digital games for online gambling sites and mobile device apps, with the company licensing its mobile live-dealer technology to online gaming operators worldwide. Playgon combines high definition live streaming dealers with state-of-the-art augmented reality betting to provide the most authentic casino experience, live from Las Vegas. Playgon’s mobile platform features popular table games, all optimized for one-handed play on mobile devices.

The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated an already existing shift away from location-based casinos to online gambling. At the same time, the proliferation of mobile devices has provided players with new access to betting. A younger, tech-savvy consumer demographic is driving adoption of digital gaming globally. To meet this demand, Playgon has launched a studio with 10 gaming tables from which its live dealer streaming video originates. The company’s platform is live with multiple online casino operators through four aggregator clients in South Africa and Europe, and commitments are coming in from more.

Playgon plans to expand the studio to 25 tables in the near term and is working to establish a U.S. strategy. The company will continue to expand licensing of its live dealer games to iGaming operators worldwide under a SaaS license agreement. As a B2B software supplier, Playgon avoids player acquisition costs.

Games

Live Dealer Casino

Playgon offers the first and only Live Dealer Casino streaming live from Las Vegas. The company brings cutting-edge handheld features and functionality to the mobile generation of gaming enthusiasts who demand a world-class gaming experience on all devices. Playgon’s Blackjack delivers the look and feel of location-based casino tables with features providing players with the most unique user experience. The company’s true-to-life Roulette offers players a clear and uninterrupted view of the dealer, wheel, ball, bets, results, trends and statistics. Players can strategize, place multiple bets, track results and review trends without ever losing focus of the game.

Playgon’s traditional Baccarat and proprietary Tiger Bonus Baccarat™ prove their worth by not only recognizing the need for a prominent product, but by adding elements which separate them from the pack without removing their authenticity. The games mix advances in technology with the traditional game attributes that have resonated and captivated players for hundreds of years.

eTable Games

To lead the rise of mobile-first gaming, Playgon developed a user experience perfected for one-handed play. Providing this next evolution in gaming technology ensures the company’s client operators loyalty from existing customers and is a powerful strategy to attract and retain new players. Playgon’s VEGAS LOUNGE™ brings together an innovative mix of games, technology and gameplay that offers players an authentic experience and real Las Vegas casino fun every time, everywhere.

Daily Fantasy Sports

Playgon’s Daily Fantasy Sports (DFS) are a subset of fantasy sport games which typically target a younger demographic. DFS provides iGaming operators a turnkey fantasy sports platform that can quickly go to market, integrate with the operator’s existing operations and services, and be customized to match and enhance the operator’s brand. The platform is mobile and desktop friendly, built for regulated market environments, and allows operators to monetize users through a network of shared liquidity.

Market Outlook

Online casinos and sports betting sites/apps are increasingly adding market share to traditional location-based casinos. 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, as well as tech like digital wallets and digital gameplay that underpins Playgon Games. The company has been described as “Netflix + Vegas, all in one.”

The online gambling market is slated to reach a value of $127.3 billion by 2027, 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 percent year over year. The current global online Live Casino TAM is estimated at about $6 billion annually, and revenue is forecast to reach more than $8 billion by 2023 and more than $13 billion by 2027.

Management Team

Darcy Krogh is CEO of Playgon Games. He is a veteran of the iGaming industry with over 20 years of experience. In 1999, he co-founded Chartwell Technology Inc., which pioneered the development of browser-based digital content for the iGaming industry. After that company was sold to Amaya Gaming Group, he served as VP Business Development with Amaya. In 2016, he started Playgon Games (formally Global Daily Fantasy Sports Inc.) as President and CEO. His experience in the online gaming industry includes sales and marketing, relationship management, corporate finance, M&A, and strategic corporate development.

Guido Ganschow is President of Playgon Interactive. He has more than 12 years of experience in creating real-time Live Dealer technology and platforms and was the co-founder and Creative Director for a Macau-based casino consortium. Between 2008 and 2014, he successfully created and established Live Dealer platform businesses in Asia and Europe, and executed commercial partnerships, sales, and integration of the Live Dealer solution with major global gaming brands, including Ho Gaming Group, Chartwell Technology and Amaya Gaming Group.

Steve Baker is COO of Playgon. He is a former VP Operations for Shaw Communications, where he was directly involved in video streaming, home entertainment, new products, sales and M&A. He oversaw revenue growth from $300 million to $2.8 billion and employee growth from 350 to 13,000. He has broad experience and a proven record in development and implementation of cost effective and efficient growth strategies transitioning businesses from development to operations.

Harry Nijjar is CFO of Playgon Games. He is currently a Managing Director with Malaspina Consultants Inc. and provides CFO and strategic financial advisory services to his clients across many industries. This experience has allowed him to help his clients successfully navigate the regulatory and financial environments within which they operate. Mr. Nijjar holds a CPA-CMA designation from the Chartered Professional Accountants of British Columbia.

Predictive Oncology (NASDAQ: POAI)

Predictive Oncology (NASDAQ: POAI) is a knowledge-driven precision medicine company focused on applying data and artificial intelligence (AI) to personalized medicine and drug discovery. The company applies its smart tumor profiling and AI platform to extensive genomic and biomarker patient data sets to build predictive models of tumor drug response to improve clinical outcomes for the cancer patients of today and tomorrow. The company has several tools that support its mission of bringing precision medicine to the treatment 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

Dr. Carl Schwartz was appointed to Skyline Medical’s board of directors in March 2015 and became interim president and CEO in May 2016. Dr. Schwartz became CEO of Plastics Research Corporation in 1988, leading the company to become the largest manufacturer of structural foam molding products in the U.S. with more than $60 million in revenues and 300 employees by the time he retired in 2001. He holds a bachelor’s degree and DDS degree from the University of Detroit.

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.

Gerald Vardzel, President of Helomics, has over 25 years of healthcare executive management experience developing and implementing commercialization strategies and models for technology launches. His Go-To-Market expertise includes equity financing, strategic planning, market intelligence, M&A, and new market development in both start-up and established settings including fortune 500 market leaders. He has developed innovative solutions for both CLIA and FDA regulatory paths defining the delivery chains from discovery to clinical acceptance. Mr. Vardzel also has significant experience designing and implementing sales and marketing programs tailored not only to expand market share, but to empirically assess client satisfaction, strengthen business processes, and maximize profitability. Mr. Vardzel was previously Vice President of Corporate Development and Strategic Initiatives at Global Specimen Solutions. Furthermore, as an executive affiliate to the healthcare industry, he routinely consults for several small-to-mid sized private equity firms advising on, in part, the feasibility of acquisition targets. Mr. Vardzel graduated from the University of Pittsburgh.

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.

Pressure BioSciences Inc. (PBIO)

Pressure BioSciences Inc. (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.

Processa Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ: PCSA)

Processa Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ: PCSA) aims to develop products where existing clinical evidence of efficacy already exists in unmet medical need conditions. In support of this goal, the company has assembled an unparalleled management team, board of directors and product development team featuring experts in developing drug products, from IND-enabling studies to NDA submission. In total, the team’s combined scientific, development and regulatory experience has resulted in more than 30 drug approvals by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and more than 100 meetings with the FDA while working on more than 50 drug development programs, including drug products targeted to orphan disease and unmet medical need conditions.

Headquartered in Hanover, Maryland, Processa has built a pipeline of drugs which already have some proof-of-concept clinical data supporting clinical use in their selected indications.

Development Pipeline

The Processa process focuses on the advancement of drugs that are ready for clinical development or have minimal pre-IND enabling studies to complete. More specifically, Processa:

1. Acquires drugs that already have some clinical data to support the targeted treatment – whether it be the drug itself, an analog of the drug or a drug with similar pharmacological targets;
2. Navigates through the FDA, collaborating with the reviewers to define a complete development program; and
3. Develops each drug over the course of 2-5 years, out-licensing the drug either just prior to pivotal study after Phase 2b or after the completion of the pivotal study.

Processa’s current development pipeline features multiple drug candidates, including PCS499 and PCS100. The company has also announced three additional licensing agreements since June 2020, further bolstering its clinical efforts. Each drug is briefly described below.

PCS6422

On August 27, 2020, Processa announced its entry into a contingent precedent exclusive licensing agreement with Elion Oncology Inc. to develop, manufacture and commercialize eniluracil (PCS6422) globally. PCS6422 is an oral drug to be administered with fluoropyrimidine cancer drugs (e.g., capecitabine, 5-FU) to decrease the breakdown of the cancer drug to inactive metabolites or metabolites that are known to cause unwanted side effects and to increase the anti-cancer related metabolites.

An IND for a Phase 1B study was cleared by the FDA in May 2020. The study will evaluate the safety and tolerability of several dose combinations of PCS6422 and capecitabine in advanced GI tumor patients. Processa intends to enroll the first patient in 1H2021, obtain interim results, and have a final report completed in 2H2022.

“Having worked on 5-FU and other cancer agents in the past, adding PCS6422 to our pipeline and expanding our involvement in oncology was an easy decision given the significant impact that PCS6422 may have on improving the efficacy and safety of capecitabine or other fluoropyrimidines,” CEO Dr. David Young said of the agreement.

PCS499

PCS499 as a potential treatment for necrobiosis lipoidica (“NL”) was first presented to the FDA in a pre-IND meeting in 2018. In 2019, it was the subject of an IND submission and a promising Phase 2 safety study. On March 30, 2020, Processa announced a successful meeting with the FDA regarding the design and execution of the next clinical study to evaluate the ability of PCS499 to completely close ulcers in patients with NL.

“We are pleased with the outcome of the FDA meeting and the feedback we received from the FDA. We believe that the results from our completed Phase 2 trial in NL patients, especially those with more severe ulcerated forms of NL, are encouraging and we appreciate the guidance provided by the FDA regarding our next clinical trial and the requirements to support our NDA submission,” Dr. David Young, CEO of Processa, stated in the news release.

NL is a chronic, disfiguring condition affecting the skin and tissue under the skin, typically on the lower extremities, with no currently FDA-approved treatments. More severe complications can occur, such as deep tissue infections and osteonecrosis, threatening the life of the limb. Approximately 22,500 – 55,500 people in the United States and more than 150,000 – 400,000 people worldwide are affected by the ulcerated form of NL.

YH12852

On August 20, 2020, Processa announced its entry into an agreement with Yuhan Corporation, a South Korean firm, to license YH12852, a small molecule drug in development for the treatment of functional gastrointestinal (GI) disorders. Under the terms of the agreement, Processa will acquire the rights to a portfolio of patents with an exclusive license to develop, manufacture and commercialize YH12852 globally, excluding South Korea.

YH12852 is a novel, potent and highly selective 5-hydroxytryptamine 4 (5-HT4) receptor agonist. Other 5-HT receptor agonists with less 5-HT4 selectivity have been shown to successfully treat GI mobility disorders such as chronic constipation, constipation-predominant irritable bowel syndrome, functional dyspepsia and gastroparesis. The less selective 5-HT4 agonists, such as cisapride, have been removed from the market because of the cardiovascular side effects associated with the drugs binding to other receptors, especially 5-HT receptors other than 5-HT4.

CEO Dr. David Young called the agreement “further evidence of Processa’s commitment to seek out novel treatments for unmet medical conditions.” Processa intends to meet with the FDA in early 2021 to further define the clinical development program. In 2021, Processa expects to initiate a Phase 2 trial in a functional GI motility-related disorder that that needs better therapeutic options, such as postoperative ileus and opioid-induced constipation.

ATT-11T

On June 1, 2020, Processa announced its entry into a licensing agreement with Aposense Ltd. for the patent rights and know-how to develop and commercialize ATT-11T, a next generation irinotecan cancer drug. In the release, CEO Dr. David Young noted that the licensing deal fit with Processa’s strategy to “continue to bring innovative products to patients with an unmet medical need condition.”

ATT-11T is a novel lipophilic anti-cancer pro-drug that is being developed for the treatment of the same solid tumors as prescribed for irinotecan. This pro-drug is a conjugate of a specific proprietary Aposense molecule connected to SN-38, the active metabolite of irinotecan. The proprietary Aposense molecule on ATT-11T allows ATT-11T to bind to cell membranes to form an inactive pro-drug depot on the cell, with SN-38 preferentially accumulating in the membrane of tumors cells and the tumor core. This unique characteristic is expected to make the therapeutic window of ATT-11T wider than irinotecan, such that the anti-tumor effect of ATT-11T will occur at a much lower dose than irinotecan with a milder adverse effect profile than irinotecan. The wider therapeutic window will likely lead to more patients responding with less side effects when on ATT-11T compared to irinotecan.

The ATT-11T licensing agreement is conditioned upon Processa’s closing of a satisfactory financing round and the listing of the company’s shares on the Nasdaq or NYSE, among other conditions.

PCS100

On September 3, 2020, Processa announced its entry into an exclusive worldwide license agreement with Akashi Therapeutics to develop and commercialization Akashi’s lead drug, HT-100. Rebranded PCS100, the candidate is an anti-fibrotic, anti-inflammatory drug demonstrated to have some clinical anti-fibrotic effect in children. Processa intends to develop PCS100 first in rare adult fibrotic related diseases such as focal segmental glomerulosclerosis (FSGS), idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) or Scleroderma, where there are still few therapeutic options.

Management Team

David Young, Pharm.D., Ph.D. is the CEO and founder of Processa. He has over 30 years of pharmaceutical research, drug development and corporate experience. Young has served in leadership roles with a number of pharmaceutical firms throughout his career, including serving as founder and CEO of Promet Therapeutics LLC since 2015 and as Chief Scientific Officer of Questcor Pharmaceuticals from 2009 to 2014. At Questcor, he was responsible for working with the FDA on modernizing the Acthar Gel label and for obtaining FDA approval in infantile spasms. In total, Young has met with the FDA more than 100 times on more than 50 drug products and has been a key team member on more than 30 NDA/supplemental NDA approvals.

Sian Bigora, Pharm.D., is Processa’s Chief Development Officer and founder. She has over 20 years of pharmaceutical research, regulatory strategy and drug development experience, working closely with Young. Prior to joining Processa, Bigora served as Co-Founder, Director and Chief Development Officer at Promet Therapeutics LLC and as Vice President of Regulatory Affairs at Questcor Pharmaceuticals from 2009 to 2015, where she led efforts to modernize the Acthar Gel label and obtain FDA approval in infantile spasms – events which were of material importance to Questcor’s subsequent success.

Patrick Lin is Chief Business & Strategy Officer and founder of Processa. He has over 20 years of financing and investing experience in the biopharma sector. Prior to joining Processa, Lin served as Co-Founder and Chairman of Promet Therapeutics LLC. He is also founder and managing partner of Primarius Capital, a family office that manages public and private investments focused on small capitalization companies.

James Stanker has served as CFO of Processa since 2018. He has over 30 years of financial and executive leadership experience in the areas of accounting principles and audit standards, regulatory reporting, and fiscal management and strategy. He served in a financial leadership role as an audit partner at Grant Thornton from February 2000 until his retirement in August 2016, where he was responsible for managing audit quality in the Atlantic Coast market territory.

Wendy Guy is the Chief Administrative Officer and founder of Processa. She has more than two decades of experience in business operations, having worked closely with Young over the last 18 years in corporate management and operations, HR and finance. Prior to joining Processa, she was Co-Founder, Director and Chief Administrative Officer of Promet Therapeutics LLC and Senior Manager, Business Operation over the Maryland office for Questcor Pharmaceuticals.

Progressive Care Inc. (OTCQB: RXMD)

Progressive Care Inc. (OTCQB: RXMD) is a health services organization based in Florida that offers personalized healthcare services and technology that supports the managed healthcare industry. Through its subsidiaries, Progressive Care provides Third-Party Administration (TPA), data management and analytics, COVID-19 diagnostics and vaccinations, 340B contracted pharmacy services, compounded medications, tele-pharmacy services, dispensing of anti-retroviral medications, medication therapy management (MTM), long-term care facility-targeted prescription medications, and health practice risk management.

The company collaborates with various healthcare organizations such as managed care organizations (MCOs), management services organizations (MSOs), accountable care organizations (ACOs), primary care providers, Medicare Advantage plans, Medicaid, commercial payors, pharmaceutical manufacturers, and distributors to enhance patient and provider engagement while improving the lives of patients with chronic diseases. Progressive Care offers a wide range of innovative solutions to address the dispensing, delivery, dosing, and reimbursement of clinically intensive, high-cost drugs.

Progressive Care currently operates four pharmacies in Florida, which generate the majority of its revenue. Pharmacy revenue is derived from dispensing medications, third-party administrative services to 340B-covered entities, and MTM services. The company also provides customized management, patient health risk reviews, and free same- and next-day delivery. Its focus is on complex chronic diseases that require multiyear or lifelong therapy, driving recurring revenue and sustainable growth. Progressive Care’s pharmacy revenue growth stems from its expanding breadth of services, new drugs coming to market, new indications for existing drugs, volume growth with current clients, and addition of new customers resulting from its emphasis on higher patient engagement, free delivery to the patient, and clinical expertise.

With licenses in 14 states, Progressive Care is poised for national expansion. The company anticipates revenue growth by signing new contract pharmacy service and data management contracts with 340B-covered entities, expanding data management and analytics services to healthcare organizations, and potential acquisitions.

Subsidiaries

Progressive Care’s wholly-owned subsidiaries provide services to client organizations and patients.

PharmcoRx Pharmacy

PharmcoRx, a full-service pharmacy, provides a complete healthcare ecosystem with services such as medication therapy management, rapid COVID-19 testing and vaccines, contactless medication delivery, Smart-Pack Unit Dosing packaging, custom compound medications, specialty medications, hospital transition pharmacy services, medication adherence monitoring, medication adherence risk management, and drug cost containment. PharmcoRx Pharmacy is a contracted pharmacy services provider for 340B-covered entities under the 340B Drug Discount Pricing Program.

ClearMetrX

ClearMetrX, a wholly-owned data management company, offers services that support healthcare organizations across the country. In September 2022, ClearMetrX launched the 340MetrX Platform, a software product developed by ClearMetrX that provides 340B-covered entities with data insights to effectively operate and maximize the benefits of the 340B program. 340MetrX supplies data access and delivers actionable insights that providers and support organizations can use to improve their practices and patient care. Its TPA services include management of wholesale accounts and contract pharmacies, patient eligibility with regard to the 340B drug program, development and review of 340B policies and procedures, and management of receivables.

Market Opportunity

According to an industry report by global consulting firm Berkeley Research Group, gross sales across the 340B drug program were valued at $116 billion in 2021 and are projected to grow to $280 billion by 2026, achieving a CAGR of more than 19% over the period.

The 340B drug pricing program allows eligible healthcare clinics and hospitals (the covered entities) to purchase outpatient drugs at a 20-50 percent discount to treat low-income, uninsured, or underinsured populations. The program’s forecast growth is expected to benefit Progressive care’s business of providing 340B program services to covered entities through the nationwide expansion of ClearMetrX, its third-party administration and data-management business.

Management Team

Charles M. Fernandez is CEO and Chairman of the Board of Directors of Progressive Care. Mr. Fernandez is also the Executive Chairman and CEO of NextPlat Corp. (NASDAQ: NXPL) and has over 30 years of experience in identifying profitable start-up and dislocation opportunities, building significant value and executing exit strategies as an entrepreneur and global investor. In 2008, he joined Fairholme Capital Management. As president, he co-managed all three Fairholme funds and was commended for bringing in a $2 billion gain for shareholders. Throughout his impressive career in media, pharmaceuticals, healthcare, finance and technology, Mr. Fernandez has participated in more than 100 significant mergers, acquisitions and product development projects. He was the founder, chairman and CEO of eApeiron Solutions LLC, a brand protection and e-commerce company in partnership with Alibaba (NYSE: BABA) and Eastman Kodak (NYSE: KODK) which was successfully sold to Smartrac, a leading developer, manufacturer and supplier of RFID and Internet of Things (“IoT”) solutions and a unit of Avery Dennison Corporation (NYSE: AVY).

Other top management team members include Chief Operating Officer Birute Norkute, Chief Financial Officer Cecile Munnik, and Pamela Roberts, who serves as the company’s Pharmacist in Charge.

Prospera Energy Inc. (TSX.V: PEI) (FRA: OF6B) (OTC: GXRFF)

Prospera Energy Inc. (TSX.V: PEI) (OTC: GXRFF) (FRA: OF6B) is a public oil and gas exploration, exploitation and development company focusing on conventional oil and gas reservoirs in Western Canada. The company uses its experience to develop, acquire and drill assets with potential for primary and secondary recovery.

Prospera is primarily focused on optimizing hydrocarbon recovery from legacy fields through environmentally safe and efficient reservoir development methods and production practices. It is in the midst of a three-stage restructuring process aimed at prioritizing cost effective operations while appreciating production capacity and reducing liabilities.

The company is based in Calgary, Alberta, Canada.

Operations

Prospera’s core properties include more than 42,000 cumulative acres across Cuthbert, Luseland and Heart Hills in Saskatchewan and Red Earth and Pouce Coupe in Alberta. In total, the company estimates that there are half a billion barrels of oil in place at these sites accounting for 20+ years of forward project lifespan, with as little as 8% of total reserves having been recovered via legacy vertical well technology.

Restructuring Initiative

In 2021, Prospera enacted a top-down reorganization. The early results of these efforts were on display in May 2023, when the company reported a three-fold year-over-year increase in annual revenue for 2022 alongside drastically reduced operating costs and record-high cash flow from operations.

Prospera noted in the news release that it has positioned itself in 2023 to execute the second phase of its development plan aimed at increasing production through medium-oil development in Alberta and leveraging horizontal wells to capture the significant remaining reserves in Saskatchewan.

During the company’s investor summit in August 2023, Prospera CEO Samuel David provided more information regarding this three-phase strategy:

Phase I

Prospera completed the first phase of its restructuring by optimizing operations at its existing assets and addressing legacy arrears and non-compliance issues.

At the beginning of this transformation, the company was producing just 80 barrels of oil equivalent (BOE) per day. In Q4 of last year, Prospera peaked at nearly 1,200 BOE per day. Its breakeven is around 500 barrels per day, illustrating the opportunity for free cash flow. This prospect has driven Prospera’s capital development and optimization in recent quarters.

After a temporary slowdown in production due to harsh winter conditions, Prospera is currently producing about 800 BOE per day and anticipates an additional 300-500 barrels of daily production following the completion of ongoing site maintenance work.

This sustained increase has pushed the company’s NPV from roughly $3 million prior to the restructuring efforts to approximately $72 million today.

In an effort to build on this progress and maximize its available resources, Prospera piloted two horizontal reentries to assess a potential horizontal well transformation at its properties.

Phase II

Following up on the optimization efforts of Phase I, Prospera aims to commence a horizontal well transformation at its properties in the coming months. Based on its pilot wells from Phase I, the company has proposed 10 horizontal well locations at its Cuthbert and Heart Hills properties.

Prospera has likewise proposed eight medium light oil direction wells at its Alberta property, and it is exploring strategic acquisitions aimed at expanding its core area and diversifying its product mix.

Other facets of Phase II include piloting an enhanced oil recovery (EOR) application and continuing to execute its liability management goals and ESG initiatives. Prospera has already abandoned 60 vertical wells as part of its three-year LMR plan to reclaim surface land and reduce the environmental footprint of its operations.

Phase III

Beginning next year, Phase III of Prospera’s corporate redevelopment strategy will focus on continuing the company’s horizontal modular development to appreciate production and optimize recovery of remaining reserves. Prospera intends to implement full-scale EOR applications based on the results of its Phase II pilot program, which is forecast to optimize recovery by greater than 10%.

Prospera also intends to continue its acquisition strategy to diversify its product mix. Its goal, as detailed by in August 2023 investor summit, is to attain 50% light oil, 40% heavy oil and 10% gas – all while continuing to eliminate carbon emissions as part of its existing ESG initiatives.

Poised for Growth

Following its transformational efforts in 2022, Prospera is poised to achieve record growth in 2023. The company has forecast significant reductions in production costs through 2024, alongside sizable increases in daily production.

Prospera is currently exploring strategic acquisition targets to potentially increase its production beyond 5,000 BPD while expanding its reserve base to a billion barrels.

Market Opportunity

While the oil and gas industry faces long-term geopolitical and macroeconomic uncertainty, there is a clear trend to secure supply in the short term. According to Deloitte, the global upstream industry ended 2022 with some of the highest free cash flows on record, driving reinvestment in hydrocarbons and overall investment in clean energy.

The Energy Information Administration recently forecast a dip in global oil inventories over each of the next five quarters, placing upward pressure on oil prices. The agency further forecasts a YoY increase in fuel consumption, exacerbating the effects of OPEC+ production cuts that are set to remain in place through 2024.

For Prospera, these forecasts are promising. The company aims to build on its recent financial growth in the coming months (Prospera reported a three-fold YoY increase in revenue to $13.9 million in 2022), hitting a projected $57 million in total revenue by the end of 2024 while working to expand its core area holdings through accretive M&A transactions.

Leadership Team

Prospera is led by a team with extensive, diverse petroleum industry experience spanning both reservoir management and operations of oil and gas assets. The team boasts a proven track record of reorganizing companies, structuring financing arrangements and positioning for growth.

Samuel David is the company’s President and CEO. He brings to Prospera over 32 years of experience in operation, development and management of oil and gas assets and companies. Mr. David holds a B.Sc. in Mechanical Engineering and a B.A. in Economics from the University of Calgary. His background consists of both engineering and executive management experience with majors Petro-Canada, AEC Oil & Gas (now EnCana / Cenovus) and Husky Energy, as well as founding and operating juniors Ventura Energy and First West Petroleum. Mr. David has proven expertise in corporate planning, production, reservoir engineering, depletion strategies, EOR, property evaluations, acquisitions and divestitures.

George Magarian is VP Subsurface for Prospera. He is a professional petroleum geologist (APEGA) with over 36 years’ experience in the Western Canada Sedimentary Basin. After graduating with an Honors B.Sc. degree in Earth Science from the University of Waterloo, Mr. Magarian spearheaded many successful exploration programs, conducted evaluations for improved recovery schemes and assessed/exploited unconventional oil reservoir opportunities. He has held roles of increasing responsibility, from exploration geologist at oil industry major Petro-Canada and intermediates Anderson Exploration and Jordan Petroleum, to geoscience manager and VP exploration at junior companies Ionic Energy, Gentry Resources and Westfire Energy.

Chris Ludtke is the company’s VP Finance & Accounting. He is a high functioning finance leader with extensive expertise in finance, budgets and planning, accounting, economic evaluation, management, governance and sound decision making. Mr. Ludtke has 20 years of experience within the oil and gas, clean energy and renewables industries, including 12+ years working for Husky Energy before moving into an executive role in the junior oil and gas and hydrogen space. He graduated from the University of Lethbridge (Bachelor of Management) and is a Chartered Professional Accountant in the Province of Alberta.

Matthew Kenna is the CFO of Prospera. He has over 30 years’ experience leading organizations and helping them expand, drive efficiencies and grow profitability. Mr. Kenna is a professional accountant (CPA, CMA) and spent 15 years heading up the financial and operating departments at KUDU Industries, where he fostered financing arrangements, client relationships and manufacturing teams to take the organization from $35M to $150M in revenue. He has extensive experience turning companies around, growing them and building efficient organizations.

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.

G Mining Ventures Corp. (TSX: GMIN) (OTCQX: GMINF)

G Mining Ventures Corp. (TSX: GMIN) (OTCQX: GMINF) is a mineral exploration company engaged in the acquisition, exploration and development of precious metal projects to capitalize on the value uplift from successful mine development. The company’s mission is to acquire, build and operate sustainable precious metal mining operations using its proven “self-perform” approach, while focusing on the health and safety of its employees and host communities first.

In 2020, G Mining Ventures was created to acquire direct ownership of projects. With strong access to capital via a supportive shareholder base, coupled with proven development expertise, the company is well positioned to become the next mid-tier precious metal producer.

G Mining Ventures is currently anchored by its flagship asset, the 100%-owned Tocantinzinho Project (TZ), in mining friendly Para State, Brazil. TZ is an open-pit gold deposit containing around 2 million ounces of reserves at 1.3 grams per ton. The deposit is open at depth, and an underexplored 688-square-kilometer land package presents additional exploration potential.

G Mining strives to include all stakeholders in its journey toward creating exceptional value, including major shareholders, government organizations, local communities and employees, among others. In order to facilitate that inclusion, regular communications are coordinated to convey material developments and solicit feedback from interested parties.

The company is headquartered in Brossard, Québec.

Project Portfolio

Tocantinzinho

Tocantinzinho (TZ) was acquired in 2021 and construction was launched in September 2022, following completion of a Definitive Feasibility Study (DFS) which confirmed TZ’s potential to be a cornerstone asset for G Mining. The DFS contemplates a 10.5-year mine life with an average annual gold production of 175,000 ounces and an initial capital cost of $458 million. The DFS displayed robust economics at a $2,000 per ounce gold price assumption, including an after-tax NPV 5% of $1 billion and an after-tax IRR of 34%.

The first pour at TZ yielded approximately 440 ounces of gold, and the project remains on time and budget for commercial production in the second half of 2024. Once in commercial production, TZ is expected to become Brazil’s third-largest primary gold mine.

Since the start of hot commissioning in June 2024 approximately 77,000 tons of ore have been processed through the TZ process plant, with all circuits operating as expected.

Oko West

In July 2024, through its business combination with Reunion Gold Corp., G Mining acquired Reunion’s flagship Oko West Project located in Guyana within the Guiana Shield region, one of the most attractive mining jurisdictions in South America. Oko West has emerged as a globally significant gold discovery over the last few years, with excellent potential to become a top tier deposit that could support a large, long-life mine complex to accelerate G Mining’s vision of building a leading intermediate gold producer.

The company plans to move Oko West quickly through technical studies to a construction decision, leveraging the considerable amount of exploration, development and permitting work that has already been completed, supported by the expected free cash flow stemming from TZ.

Market Opportunity

The World Gold Council, the industry association for the world’s gold producers, estimated in 2023 the physical financial gold market, which is made up of bars, coins, gold ETFs and central bank reserves, is worth nearly $5 trillion. The council reports that gold mine production adds approximately 3,500 tons of the precious metal to the world’s supply annually, equivalent to about 2% growth.

This historical scarcity and relatively slow production of new supply, as compared to other commodities, is a primary reason gold has retained its value for millennia, according to the council. In July 2024, the market price of gold was approximately $2,450 per ounce.

Management Team

Louis-Pierre Gignac, P. Eng., CFA, is Co-Founder, President and CEO of G Mining Ventures. He has more than 20 years of experience in the mining industry and has coordinated many mandates with numerous major mining companies, ranging from early exploration evaluations to operations optimization involving all fields of mining and geology. He is a member of the Ordre des Ingénieurs du Québec and the Canadian Institute of Mining. He holds a Bachelor of Mining Engineering from McGill University and a Master degree of Applied Science in Industrial Engineering from the École Polytechnique de Montréal.

Julie Lafleur, CPA, CA, is Vice President, Finance and CFO of G Mining Ventures. She has been a Chartered Professional Accountant in Québec since 1998 and has 20 years of experience in the mining industry. After four years with accounting firm Raymond Chabot Grant Thornton, she started with Cambior Inc. as accounting analyst and took on various positions of increasing responsibility with Niobec Inc., Iamgold Essakane S.A., Newmont Suriname LLC and Aurelian Ecuador S.A., a subsidiary of Lundin Gold Inc. She holds a bachelor’s degree in business administration from l’École des Hautes Études Commerciales of Montreal.

Dušan Petković, CFA, is Co-Founder and Senior Vice President, Corporate Strategy of G Mining Ventures. He is a financial market professional with over 15 years of experience in resource-based capital markets, including private equity, credit and investment banking. Before joining G Mining, he was a Principal of Private Debt at Sprott Resource Lending Corp. Before that, he spent time in mining investment banking, advising on IPOs, equity issuance and M&A. He earned a Bachelor of Commerce degree from Western University.

Reflex Advanced Materials Corp. (CSE: RFLX) (OTCQB: RFLXF)

Reflex Advanced Materials Corp. (CSE: RFLX) (OTCQB: RFLXF) is a strategic minerals company focused on locating and developing economic properties in the strategic metals and advanced materials space. The company aims to improve domestic specialty mineral infrastructure efficiencies to meet surging national demand from North American manufacturers, effectively positioning itself as one of the only North American suppliers of high purity natural graphite for hi-tech applications.

Reflex Advanced Materials is based in Vancouver, British Columbia. Its project portfolio includes the Ruby Graphite Deposit in Montana and the ZigZag Lithium Property in Ontario.

Projects

Ruby Graphite Project

Located in a mining-friendly jurisdiction in southwest Montana, the Ruby Graphite Deposit is a low cost, rapid re-entry opportunity that produced roughly 2,400 tons of graphite from 1902 to 1948. Reflex Advanced Materials holds mining rights for 755 hectares at the Ruby Graphite Project, with 96 federal lode mining claims. Recent samples assay at 95.8% to 98.4% total carbon.

The site is notable as the only combined U.S. graphite flake and vein graphite source. Vein graphite is ideal for energy storage applications, because it requires fewer steps to achieve purity than synthetic alternatives and is therefore far less environmentally damaging. This is expected to play a key role in the project’s development as demand for electric vehicles continues to surge.

In March 2023, the company announced its submittal of permit applications to the Bureau of Land Management in respect of its exploration of the Ruby Graphite Project. Its initial drill program, expected to take place in the summer of 2023, includes plans for 3,500 total meters of drilling, cored to an average depth of 130 meters. The targets for this drill program have been identified using historical data from original mine operations and data gathered for the initial 43-101 technical report on the project, dated January 31, 2023.

ZigZag Lithium Property

Located in the Thunder Bay Mining Division of Ontario, the ZigZag Lithium Property consists of eight mining claims spanning roughly 2,710 hectares. Mineralization at the property, most notably lithium, is based in pegmatite dikes and concentrated in spodumene crystals, which are consistent throughout the entire unit.

Spodumene is readily observable in outcrops and in drill cores, with crystal sizes ranging from 3-15cm, on average.

Reflex Advanced Materials and American Energy Technologies Company Metallurgical Partnership

Reflex Advanced Materials has entered into a material processing agreement with American Energy Technologies Co., which is based in Arlington Heights, Illinois, to conduct metallurgical testwork with the goal of creating a technical support data package for Reflex’s target customer base, U.S. Federal agencies and qualification programs with hi-tech customers in the battery and battery storage business.

The resulting coated, spherionized, purified graphite (CSPG) material that is expected to be created from the aforementioned tests will be used to provide potential customers of CSPG with samples so that they can begin the material qualification process.

Market Opportunity

Graphite is an ideal battery anode and has dominated the market since the proliferation of lithium-ion batteries. Despite this demand, there is currently no significant production of lithium-ion battery anode material in North America.

Instead, most graphite sold in North America today is sourced from Chinese producers. U.S. President Joe Biden highlighted this sourcing disparity in a 2022 address:

“The United Stated depends on unreliable foreign sources for many of the strategic and critical materials necessary for the clean energy transition – such as lithium, nickel, cobalt, graphite and manganese for large-capacity batteries,” he said. “Demand for such materials is projected to increase exponentially as the world transitions to a clean energy economy.”

The U.S. Department of Energy is in the process of awarding $2.8 billion to expand domestic manufacturing of batteries for electric vehicles and combat this foreign dependency. Reflex Advanced Materials has identified its Ruby Graphite Project as a prime candidate for U.S.-sponsored initiatives due to the rarity and scarcity of natural graphite deposits in the country.

Processing graphite domestically in the U.S. is expected to provide Reflex Advanced Materials a competitive advantage as manufacturers begin to seek out American supply in the face of increased diplomatic tension. This is critical, as a rise in anode demand is expected to fuel a shortage of 8 million tonnes of graphite by 2040. World Bank Group projects 494% growth in total graphite demand by 2050.

Leadership Team

Paul Gorman is the CEO and a Director of Reflex Advanced Materials. He brings to the company over 25 years of experience in junior mining finance, public listings, viability assessment and operational rationalization. For 18 years, Mr. Gorman served as president and managing partner of Riverbank Capital, where he played an instrumental role in raising more than $85 million for small-cap companies. In 2008, he funded Industrial Minerals Inc. (later Northern Graphite) and served in an advisory role for four other graphite companies, contributing significantly to the revitalization of the junior graphite space in North America. Mr. Gorman founded Mega Graphite Inc. in 2009 and has served as chief executive for three other companies.

Tasheel Jeerh, CPA, is the company’s CFO. He is a finance and accounting professional with over a decade of experience spanning both public and private sectors. Prior to joining Reflex Advanced Materials, Mr. Jeerh played a pivotal role in the growth of a private upstream oil and gas firm, dealing with over $2 billion in M&A activity and $1 billion in financing activities. He gained his designation at PricewaterhouseCoopers, where he worked as a manager in the assurance practice.

Greg Bell is Project Manager for Reflex Advanced Materials. He is a multi-disciplined engineering management professional with more than 40 years of experience in the natural resources sector. Mr. Bell has successfully built and managed several start-up operations in various capacities. He has been active in graphite and lithium exploration for the past seven years.

Christopher W. Hill leads the company’s Corporate Development initiatives. He is an investor and entrepreneur with over a decade of experience in the capital markets. Mr. Hill began his career as an investment advisor and then began to consult and advise private companies on their paths to becoming publicly traded. He specializes in corporate development and strategic financing utilizing his large network in the capital markets.

Renforth Resources Inc. (CSE: RFR) (OTCQB: RFHRF)

Annovis Bio Inc. Overview

Renforth Resources Inc. (CSE: RFR) (OTCQB: RFHRF) is an active mineral exploration company engaged in the exploration and development of the company’s wholly owned multi-commodity mineral properties in Canada. The company owns the Parbec gold deposit on the Cadillac Break in Quebec and is currently exploring the Parbec property to increase the gold resource and identify a location to strip and bulk sample from surface.

In addition, the company holds the Nixon Bartleman gold property in Ontario and is also engaged in developing its wholly owned Malartic Metals Package, Quebec’s newest polymetallic battery minerals district with several areas of mineralization, one of which is the nickel, cobalt, copper and zinc mineralized Victoria structure boasting approximately 20 kilometers of strike with surface mineralization, limited drilling, road access and hydroelectric power.

Renforth is well positioned in the heart of the Abitibi Greenstone belt, which straddles the Canadian Provinces of Ontario and Quebec, on both of the Cadillac-Larder Lake and Destor-Porcupine faults – the two main structures responsible for a belt endowed with more than 300 million ounces of gold (including production, M&I reserves and resources to date), making it one of the world’s most prospective gold regions.

The Canadian Malartic Mine, one of Canada’s largest gold mines, is adjacent to each of Renforth’s brownfield Malartic area properties, the Parbec open pit gold resource and the Malartic Metals Package, which, in addition to several known battery metals mineralized structures, also hosts gold within the Pontiac sediments, a very under-explored geological setting.

The company is headquartered in Pickering, Ontario.

Projects

Parbec Gold Deposit

Renforth’s 100% owned Parbec Gold Deposit contains a gold resource designed with an open pit to capitalize on Parbec’s surface mineralization. An MRE on the project, effective December 2019 and now considered by Renforth to be obsolete, is based upon approximately 28,000 meters of drilling which occurred between 2007 and 2019.

Renforth drilled 15,000 meters of new holes in 2020 and 2021 which were not included in the MRE, but which did extend the mineralization deeper within the MRE. The 2020-21 drilling is considered to have validated an additional 13,000 meters of historic drilling from 1986-93.

The validation occurs as 10% of the historic holes were redrilled, with results comparable to the historic results in terms of geology and gold values. Any future MRE calculated at Parbec will benefit from the inclusion of the new and historic drilling.

In addition to this, Renforth’s current structural interpretation on the location of, and controls on, the gold mineralization at Parbec is materially different than the geological model for the outdated MRE. For the first time, Renforth has mapped the Pontiac contact and interpreted a hinge fold interacting with the Cadillac Break and allowing the movement of gold enriched fluids, with mineralization plunging to the south, into the Pontiac.

It is worth noting that a structural control on the adjacent, and much larger, Canadian Malartic Mine is the Sladen Fault transiting into the Pontiac. Currently, Renforth is testing this interpretation with a soil survey designed to outline an area for stripping and bulk sampling within the Pontiac south of the Cadillac Break.

Malartic Metals Package

Renforth’s wholly owned approximately 300-square-kilometer Malartic Metals Package in Quebec’s mining heartland includes surface mineralization of battery metals nickel, cobalt, copper, zinc and silver in separate structures, as well as a copper/silver discovery and gold mineralization. Lithium is also present in anomalous amounts in the sediments, though the source has not yet been located.

The property was assembled commencing in 2020 by adding claims to Renforth’s existing Malartic West property by map staking. The goal was to acquire historic gold and base metal showings, as well as pronounced magnetic anomalies, joining several of the areas of discrete historic exploration into a district scale property with several areas of interest for battery metals and a greenfield copper/silver discovery. The property benefits from its location in an established mining community, roads on the property, rail just off the property and hydroelectric power lines crossing the property, making logistics simple and the cost to operate quite low.

This is the first time this property has been assembled as it is today and actively explored. A significant portion of the property has never been explored.

Market Overview

The World Gold Council, the industry association for the world’s gold producers, estimated in 2023 the physical financial gold market, which is made up of bars, coins, gold ETFs and central bank reserves, is worth nearly $5 trillion. The council reports that gold mine production adds approximately 3,500 tons of the precious metal to the world’s supply annually, equivalent to about 2% growth.

This historical scarcity and relatively slow production of new supply, as compared to other commodities, is a primary reason gold has retained its value for millennia, according to the council. In August 2024, the market price of gold was approximately $2,435 per ounce.

Management Team

Nicole Brewster is President and CEO of Renforth Resources. During her tenure she has reconstituted the company, developed a maiden mineral resource and sold a gold deposit. She is a native of the Toronto area and has been around the mining business nearly all her life, having been raised by a successful mineral exploration geologist who worked (and is still working) around the world as an entrepreneur and geoscientist.

Ms. Brewster worked summer jobs in various segments of the mining business, which led to her employment as a contractor working in the early days of the digitization of exploration data, 3D modeling and data visualization. After working in the capital markets for a time, she returned to the mineral exploration business as a partner in a successful private firm with several employees.

REZYFi, Inc.

REZYFi, Inc. is a cannabis mortgage bank servicing the needs of both traditional and non-traditional consumers and businesses. Its target markets include licensed and permitted cannabis companies, owners of real estate who lease to cannabis companies, and companies and individual homeowners seeking a variety of real estate-related first and additional mortgage-based financing and project-specific financings, such as solar installations and real estate development projects.

Headquartered in Miami, Florida, REZYFi operates through two wholly owned subsidiaries – REZYFi Lending, which primarily addresses emerging real estate-related financing opportunities, and ResMac Inc., the company’s traditional mortgage origination, correspondent and servicing operation. REZYFi is currently licensed in 34 U.S. states, with plans to expand to all remaining states later this year.

REZYFi is positioned as one of first cannabis mortgage bankers in the U.S., while most traditional lenders are still reticent to serve the state-licensed cannabis industry.

Operations

REZYFi Lending

REZYFi Lending leverages a wide network to offer options such as 15- and 30-year fixed-rate loans, FHA loans, VA loans, reverse mortgages, jumbo loans and adjustable-rate mortgages.

Looking ahead, the company expects increased funding in marketing and loan agents to drive significant origination growth over the next two years, further supported by the planned launch of a high-margin cannabis division later this year.

ResMac Inc.

ResMac has been in operation for 13 years, having closed more than 20,000 loans for more than 15,000 clients. The company expects to accumulate $285 million in retail origination in 2023, alongside $250 million in wholesale origination for the same period. ResMac is further targeting $600 million in origination through its mortgage correspondent operations for 2023.

Through its ResMac subsidiary, REZYFi operates as a direct lender and originator of residential mortgages, with active mortgage correspondent and mortgage servicing operations. Through its correspondent segment, ResMac primarily purchases and aggregates residential mortgages from trusted third-party originators.

The company intends to harvest the database of customers within its mortgage servicing operations as an essential source of additional growth, especially relative to the new alternative residential loan programs being offered.

Corporate Strengths

• Experience – REZYFi is led by a seasoned management team with significant expertise spanning a wide range of real estate and financing subsectors. The team also has extensive experience in the cannabis and hemp marketplace, which the company intends to leverage as it navigates the changing landscape of the cannabis industry while sourcing the best opportunities in the sector.
• Network of Independent Brokers – Over the past five years, REZYFi has developed an extensive network of independent mortgage-related brokers and licensed loan officers. The company is currently training the network members on its new service offerings, with many already launching sales efforts. REZYFi believes this network will be a vital asset moving forward as other firms in the sector terminate relationships in the face of slowing mortgage business in a rising interest rate environment.
• Proprietary Technology – REZYFi has invested heavily in designing, building and implementing proprietary automated/machine learning technology to shorten loan processing timeframes and increase efficiencies, allowing it to operate its legacy business at staffing levels meaningfully below those of its competitors.

Market Overview

REZYFi’s diversified approach to the real estate lending sector positions it to capitalize on growth in multiple verticals in the years to come.

In the first quarter of 2022, lenders issued 2.71 million residential loans, with the average balance for a first mortgage climbing to a record high of $298,324 in 2021, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association. This trend is expected to continue, with Freddie Mac forecasting a 10.4 percent increase in home prices in 2022 and a 5.0 percent bump in 2023. Growth prospects in the cannabis industry paint a similar picture.

The National Association of Realtors® issued a report in April 2021 examining the correlation between cannabis legalization and real estate demand. In states where prescription and recreational cannabis use is legal, more than a third of surveyed agents reported an increase in demand for warehouses. Likewise, 23 percent of those surveyed reported an increase in demand for storefronts, and 28 percent observed increased demand for land. As other states look to join the 19 that have embraced full cannabis legalization, this rising demand could create an opportunity for REZYFi’s cannabis-focused initiatives.

In total, an analysis by market research firm Business Research Insights projects the global loan servicing market to reach a value of nearly $1.5 billion by 2028, up from $680.8 million in 2021. Those figures represent a CAGR of 11.0 percent during the forecast period of 2022-2028.

Management Team

John Vu, Esq., is CEO of REZYFi, Inc. He has more than two decades of experience in the mortgage and commercial banking industry. He has filled many senior and executive management positions in high-producing mortgage banks, including C-level assignments. He has also served as general counsel for a nationally associated commercial bank. Mr. Vu brings considerable cannabis industry expertise to REZYFi. He has served as a corporate attorney to multiple cannabis cultivators, manufacturers and retailers.

Ji Ji Zhang, Esq., is CFO of REZYFi, Inc. He is a multifaceted entrepreneur who owns a law firm, a portfolio of hotels and a high-producing mortgage bank. Mr. Zhang is also an investor in the development of a cannabis business park. He brings more than five years of experience in mortgage banking to REZYFi, having developed Freddie Mac and HUD licenses and amassed a managed portfolio valued at over $300 million.

Kevin Heckemeyer is President of REZYFi, Inc. He has more than 25 years of experience in mortgage banking. He has built and sold several high producing mortgage businesses. In his current roles with ResMac, he is responsible for production and operations.

Spencer Dang is Chief Credit Officer of REZYFi, Inc. He has more than a decade of experience in mortgage operations. He is a direct endorsement underwriter for HUD and has specialized in non-QM underwriting. Under his watch as an underwriter, he has never had a single repurchase.

N2OFF Inc. (NASDAQ: NITO)

N2OFF Inc. (NASDAQ: NITO)(FSE: 80W) (formerly known as Save Foods, Inc.), 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. and Europe. 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.

Software Effective Solutions Corp. (d/b/a MedCana) (OTC: SFWJ)

Software Effective Solutions Corp. (d/b/a MedCana) (OTC: SFWJ) is a global infrastructure and holding company in the cannabis industry. MedCana currently has five companies focused on pharmaceutical cannabis production, as well a software company focused on managing processes for plant-to-patient operations. The recent acquisition of an irrigation and greenhouse technology company has rounded out MedCana’s portfolio of holdings.

MedCana’s focus is on developing clients and companies in Latin America, initially in Colombia, and partnerships with laboratories, research facilities and hospitals throughout the world. MedCana is building the technology, laboratories, growing facilities and scientific teams to provide premium pharmaceutical-grade cannabis extracts to the world.

MedCana’s goal is to be the world’s premier resource for pharmaceutical cannabis products. The company believes its advantage is its global view and reach. From initial cultivation to final product, MedCana aims to help partners produce pharmaceutical CBD and other extracts that will have no equal.

The company’s mission is to utilize its technology to partner with and develop companies that provide premium pharmaceutical-grade cannabis extracts with absolute integrity, sustainability and social responsibility. MedCana’s team of pharmaceutical scientists includes some of the most respected chemists in the world. They aim to ensure that the company’s customers and partners create premium cannabis extracts that meet the growing worldwide demand. MedCana’s software is designed to ensure traceability and quality from seed to finished product.

MedCana is headquartered in Austin, Texas, with offices in Colombia.

Production

MedCana announced in May 2023 the beginning of full-scale production of non-THC cannabis for export to Europe in response to high demand in that market. This expansion comes after the successful completion of full crop cycle testing and infrastructure development at production sites in Columbia.

The recent acquisition of the assets of Tokan Corp., a software company focused on creating an enterprise resource planning (ERP) platform for the cannabis industry, and Eko2O S.A.S., a greenhouse and irrigation engineering company, has positioned MedCana for explosive growth in the region.

As a MedCana subsidiary, Eko2O SA will increase the company’s revenue potential in Central and South America. The subsidiary specializes in the construction and distribution of greenhouses and sophisticated irrigation platforms. A positive outlook has resulted from the company’s expansion as it investigates new opportunities for greenhouse and irrigation system installations in Panama and Uruguay. These opportunities are expected to accelerate Eko2O’s development and strengthen its position as a top supplier of innovative agricultural solutions in cannabis and other sectors that are quickly moving to high technology agricultural production.

In addition, MedCana has started talks with the government in Argentina about possible incentives for beginning operations in that country as part of its ongoing worldwide development strategy. Support from the Argentinean government and the start of new operations there would greatly increase MedCana’s market share in Latin America and solidify the company’s position as the market leader in the cannabis industry.

Market Opportunity

According to a report by Grand View Research, a San Francisco-based market research and consulting company, the global cannabis extract market was valued at $3.5 billion in 2022 and is expected to expand at a CAGR of 20% from 2023 to 2030 to be worth more than $15 billion.

Growing demand for cannabis extracts, including oils and tinctures, and the increased legalization of marijuana for the treatment of different chronic ailments like arthritis, Alzheimer’s, anxiety and cancer are driving the expansion of the industry. The marijuana derivative industry is flourishing due to a greater understanding of its various medical benefits.

Management Team

Jose Gabriel Diaz is CEO of MedCana. He has successfully built, grown and sold multiple telecom companies. He was senior vice president of sales at IP Communications, a national high-speed data provider. He also founded Reallinx, a national data carrier later sold to GTT Communications. Additionally, he is currently president of the A.E.M. Business and Entrepreneurship Association in Austin, Texas.

Claudio Jiménez Cartagena, QF, Ph.D. is Chief Scientific Officer at MedCana. He joined MedCana after working with Sosteli Pharma as Technical Director and serving as a director consultant for the Corporation for Agricultural Industrial Development at the University of Antioquia in Colombia. Before that, he worked as the scientific director at the Institute of Food Science & Technology. He holds a bachelor’s degree in pharmaceutical chemistry, a master’s degree in basic biomedical sciences and a doctoral degree in Environmental Engineering from the University of Antioquia.

Julián Alberto Londoño Londoño, Ph.D., is Senior Vice President of Operations at MedCana. He previously served as general manager for the Corporation for Agricultural Industrial Development, and as Chief Scientific Officer at Sosteli Pharma in the Resource Management Department. He has developed multiple U.S. patents, and recently served as senior advisor to the Secretariat of Agriculture Development for the Government of Antioquia. He holds a doctorate in Chemical Sciences from the University of Antioquia.

Sigyn Therapeutics Inc. (OTCQB: SIGY)

Sigyn Therapeutics Inc. (OTCQB: SIGY) is a development-stage medical technology company headquartered in San Diego, California. The company’s therapeutic candidates include Sigyn Therapy™ to address pathogen-associated inflammatory disorders, the ImmunePrep™ platform to enhance the performance of immunotherapeutic antibodies, ChemoPrep™ to improve the delivery of cancer chemotherapy and ChemoPure™ to reduce the toxicity of chemotherapy.

Sigyn created each of these technologies with two prerequisites in mind: 1) they must offer to overcome a clearly defined limitation in healthcare, and 2) their successful clinical advancement would offer a potential competitive advantage to established therapeutic organizations.

Sigyn Therapy™

The company is advancing Sigyn Therapy™ to treat pathogen-associated inflammatory disorders that are not addressed with FDA approved drugs. Candidate treatment indications include community-acquired pneumonia, drug-resistant virus and bacterial infections, endotoxemia and sepsis, which is the leading cause of hospital deaths in the United States.

The technology has the following attributes and capabilities.

• Sigyn Therapy™ incorporates a formulation of adsorbent components that have more than 200,000 square meters (~50 acres) of surface area on which to adsorb and remove therapeutic targets from the bloodstream.
• In vitro studies have demonstrated the ability of Sigyn Therapy™ to eliminate life-threatening pathogen and inflammatory disease targets from human blood plasma. In these studies, 12 relevant targets, including viral pathogens, bacterial toxins and inflammatory cytokines, were validated. Subsequent animal studies were completed at the University of Michigan.
• Sigyn Therapy™ is highly efficient, as the entire circulatory system of a patient can pass through the device ~15-times during a four-hour treatment.
• To allow for broad deployment, Sigyn Therapy™ is designed for use on the established infrastructure of dialysis and continuous renal replacement machines already located in hospitals and clinics around the world.

First-in-human studies of Sigyn Therapy™ plan to enroll dialysis dependent end-stage renal disease (ESRD) patients with endotoxemia and concurrent inflammation, which are highly prevalent and associated with increased mortality in the ESRD population. There are more than 550,000 individuals with ESRD in the United States, which result in approximately 85 million dialysis treatments being administered each year.

The ImmunePrep™ Platform

Immunotherapeutic antibodies to treat cancer are among the most valued assets in global medicine. However, these drugs suffer from a severe limitation: they are poorly delivered to cancer cell targets, and, as a result, a majority of patients do not respond to therapy.

The Sigyn team recognized that just a small fraction of an antibody dose reaches its cancer cell target, yet a significant portion of the same dose can be sequestered by circulating decoys that display the target (antigen) binding site of the antibody. In response, Sigyn designed the ImmunePrep™ platform to leverage the use of therapeutic antibodies to create extracorporeal blood purification devices that sweep antibody decoys from the bloodstream prior to the subsequent infusion (normal delivery) of the same therapeutic antibody.

The company believes its reverse decoy mechanism will increase the availability of antibodies to interact with their intended disease targets, and, simultaneously, the devices will also extract disease targets from the bloodstream to further improve patient benefit.

The opportunity to enhance the performance of therapeutic antibodies is significant. Consider that Pfizer’s $43 billion acquisition of Seagen Inc. and Amgen’s $27.8 billion acquisition of Horizon Therapeutics were the highest valued M&A deals of 2023. In both cases, transaction values were driven by market-cleared antibody assets.

Perhaps more revealing were the values placed on clinical-stage (pre-revenue) therapeutic antibody candidates. In this regard, consider Merck’s $10.8 billion acquisition of Prometheus Biosciences and Roche’s $7 billion acquisition of a clinical-stage antibody from Roivant Sciences.

In the backdrop of these M&A transactions, the immune checkpoint antibody Keytruda (Merck) became the world’s best-selling (non-vaccine) drug in 2023, with anticipated revenues of ~$24 billion.

ChemoPrep™ and ChemoPure™

Recent scientific publications have reported that only 1% of chemotherapy is delivered to the tumor cell targets of cancer patients. In response, the Sigyn team designed ChemoPrep™ to overcome a delivery limitation of the most commonly administered drug to treat cancer.

The company is developing ChemoPrep™ to reduce the circulating presence of tumor-derived exosomes (tumor exosomes), which interfere with chemotherapy delivery. High concentrations of tumor exosomes in the bloodstream correspond with poor treatment outcomes, whereas low concentrations of tumor exosomes correspond with more favorable outcomes. As compared to non-cancer subjects, exosome populations are reported to be 10x to 500x higher in the bloodstream of cancer patients. Based on these factors, the company believes there is a compelling scientific rationale to reduce the circulating presence of tumor exosomes prior to chemotherapy administration.

Inversely, the Sigyn team recognized that if 99% of chemotherapy was missing its target, then there was a need to eliminate off-target chemotherapy from the bloodstream to reduce toxicity and limit organ damage. This factor led to the design of ChemoPure™ to reduce treatment toxicity by reducing the presence of off-target chemotherapy from the bloodstream. The company believes that a reduction in chemotoxicity may also alleviate treatment-related fatigue and potentially temper the long-term health consequences associated with chemotherapy administration.

Management Team

James A. Joyce is Co-Founder, Chairman and CEO of Sigyn Therapeutics. He has more than two decades of public company CEO and corporate board leadership experience and is an inventor or co-inventor of 20 pending or issued patents, including those underlying ImmunePrep, ChemoPrep, ChemoPure and Sigyn Therapy. Previously, he was founder and CEO of Aethlon Medical, a therapeutic technology company that he built from a start-up to a Nasdaq-traded company. Under his leadership, Aethlon developed the first medical device to receive two breakthrough device designations from the FDA. Mr. Joyce graduated from the University of Maryland.

Annette Marleau, Ph.D., is Chief Scientific Officer at Sigyn Therapeutics. Prior to joining the company, she was Chief Technology Officer at Immunicom Inc. and Director of Research at Aethlon Medical Inc. Additionally, she is an inventor on pending and issued patents underlying blood purification therapies targeting cancer, inflammatory disorders and life-threatening infectious diseases. She holds a Ph.D. from Western University, an M.S. from the University of Guelph and a B.S. from the University of Waterloo in Canada.

Jerry DeCiccio, CPA, is CFO at Sigyn Therapeutics. He has more than 40 years of financial industry experience. Previously, he was CFO/COO at Intech Electromechanical, CFO/COO at GTC Telecom, CFO at Incomnet Communications and President at Cerebain Biotech Corp. He also served in senior financial roles at Parker Hannifin Corp., Waste Management Inc. and Newport Corp. He earned a bachelor’s degree in accounting and business administration from Loma Linda University and an MBA in finance and systems technology from the University of Southern California.

Silo Pharma Inc. (OTCQB: SILO)

Silo Pharma Inc. (OTCQB: SILO), a developmental stage biopharmaceutical company, is focused on merging traditional therapeutics with psychedelic research for people suffering from indications such as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), fibromyalgia, Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, and other rare neurological disorders. Silo’s mission is to identify assets to license and fund research that the company believes will be transformative to the wellbeing of patients and the health care industry.

Silo is committed to developing innovative solutions to address a variety of underserved conditions. Combining Silo’s resources with world-class medical research partners, the company looks to make significant advances in the medical and psychedelic space.

Silo works to identify and partner with leading medical universities, providing the needed financial resources to develop safe therapeutic treatments while moving cutting-edge research through the clinical stage and into commercialization. The company is well-capitalized with access to additional funds as opportunities present themselves.

Silo recently engaged Donohoe Advisory Associates LLC for consulting and advisory services in connection with the potential uplisting of Silo’s common shares to the Nasdaq Stock Market.

Research

Silo has entered into research agreements and partnerships with multiple leading medical universities.

The company is involved in a sponsored study with Maastricht University utilizing repeated low doses of ketamine and psilocybin to examine the effects on cognitive and emotional dysfunctions in Parkinson’s disease and to understand its mechanism of action. The investigator in the Netherlands is acquiring the substances for the study and will then finalize the documentation to submit to the ethics committee.

Additionally, in June 2021, Silo announced its entry into a scientific research agreement with the University of California San Francisco (UCSF). The agreement will leverage four other clinical trials being planned by the university to determine the effects of psilocybin on inflammation. The study will take place at The Translational Psychedelic Research (TrPR) Program at UCSF.

Silo also recently extended its exclusive option agreement with the University of Maryland, Baltimore (UMB) to explore a novel invention generally known as joint-homing peptides. These peptides are being developed for use in the investigation and treatment of arthritogenic processes and can be used for enhanced targeting of therapeutic agents.

This agreement includes the study of two separate peptides. The first is an option and study for the treatment of arthritis. The second is a patented licensed peptide for the central nervous system, with an initial study for MS autoimmune diseases, in addition to rheumatoid arthritis. Animal studies are underway for both initial indications relating to the UMB agreement, with the potential for studies evaluating additional indications in the future.

Finally, Silo signed an agreement with Columbia University granting it an option to license certain assets currently under development, including an Alzheimer’s disease formulation targeting NDMARs and 5-HT4Rs, as well as a prophylactic treatment for stress-induced disorders and PTSD. Both candidates are currently being tested in mice and have already provided early data.

In addition to its university partnerships, Silo entered a joint venture agreement with Zylo Therapeutics Inc. (“ZTI”) focused on the development of ketamine and psilocybin using ZTI’s Z-Pod™ technology for the transdermal time released delivery of therapeutics. In November 2021, the company announced ZTI’s reception of its first ketamine shipment and initiation of loading ketamine into its Z-Pod technology. In a news release, Eric Weisblum, CEO of Silo, called the development an “important milestone” that will help the company “study the benefits of slow-release transdermal release of Ketamine.”

Market Overview

According to Coherent Market Insights, the fibromyalgia treatment market was valued at $2.78 billion in 2018 and has a projected CAGR of 3.3% over the forecast period 2018 to 2026. Fibromyalgia is a condition that causes pain all over the body, sleep problems, fatigue, and emotional and mental distress.

The global PTSD therapeutics market is expected to reach $10.68 billion by 2026 with a CAGR of 4.5% during the forecast period from 2018 to 2026, according to a report by Credence Research. Growing prevalence of PTSD is the chief factor driving the global treatment market. Increases in events such as wars, combat, and interpersonal violence has been a major contributing factor. Other factors like growing emphasis on rehabilitation initiatives by governments for treating their war veterans has also been facilitating the increase in demand for PTSD therapeutics.

Fortune Business Insights reports the global Parkinson’s disease treatment market is predicted to grow to $8.38 billion by 2026, with a CAGR of 8.1% during the forecast period. Parkinson’s is a neurodegenerative disease of the central nervous system which primarily affects the brain, causing uncontrollable shaking and tremors, difficulties in balance and restricted body movement making it difficult for the person to function or perform a daily routine.

Management Team

Eric Weisblum is CEO and founder of Silo Pharma. He has over 25 years of Wall Street experience, most recently in the biotechnology sector. He has served on the board of Aikido Pharma and was the president of Sableridge Capital. He has a proven track record in licensing therapeutic assets and assisting in their development. He brings to the company nearly 20 years of expertise in structuring and trading financial instruments. He holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of Hartford’s Barney School of Business.

Dr. Kevin Muñoz was appointed to the Silo board of directors in October 2020. He teaches biomedical sciences and medical intervention for the Passaic County Technical Institute. He previously served as Director of Operations at Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation. He began his career with Harlem Health Promotion Center in New York City as a research assistant. He earned a bachelor’s degree from the University of Michigan and a Doctor of Medicine from Xavier University School of Medicine.

Josh Woolley, M.D., Ph.D., is a Scientific Advisor for Silo. He is an associate professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the University of California, San Francisco. He is also a psychiatrist on staff at the San Francisco Veterans Affairs Medical Center. He is the director and founder of the Bonding and Attunement in Neuropsychiatric Disorders Laboratory. He received both his M.D. and his Ph.D. in Neuroscience from UCSF, where he completed his psychiatry residency training.

Charles Nemeroff, M.D., Ph.D., is a Scientific Advisor for Silo Pharma. He directs the Institute for Early Life Adversity Research within the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences as part of the Mulva Clinic for the Neurosciences. He was chair of the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences and clinical director of the Center on Aging at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine. He received his M.D. and Ph.D. in neurobiology from the University of North Carolina School of Medicine.

SUIC Worldwide Holdings Ltd. (OTC: SUIC)

SUIC Worldwide Holdings Ltd. (OTC: SUIC) provides research and development, venture financing and investment for private and public companies that develop products and services in the areas of Internet of Things, cloud computing, mobile payments, Big Data, blockchain, artificial intelligence and global franchising. The company seeks to enhance and streamline existing processes and establish new and exciting business models that will create revolutionary products and services.

SUIC is the largest shareholder and major operating partner of Beneway Holdings Group. The I.Hart Group, a subsidiary of Beneway, currently operates 150 global chain and franchised locations under a variety of brands. It is working on integrating more successful chains to enter the U.S. chain and franchise market in all 50 states. It is replicating its successful multi-branding business model and teaming up with top U.S. real estate firms, shopping malls and associated groups to expand and achieve its target of 750 chain and franchise locations in the near future.

The company is headquartered in Flushing, New York, with offices in San Francisco, Taiwan and Malaysia.

Portfolio

SUIC works with Beneway in several business ventures, with focus on the following:

• Fintech – Through Boom Fintech, the major subsidiary of Beneway USA, the company holds nine revolutionary fintech patents. Boom Fintech integrates payment systems, electronic invoice devices, mobile cash registers, POS system devices and ERP, as well Big Data + AI and other services, to ALL-IN-ONE products that provide standardized intellectual property that’s modular to all industries, from chain department stores to night market vendors. Beneway Holdings Group connects borrowers and lenders, building strategic partnerships by bridging the various stakeholders to provide a holistic financial delivery ecosystem and to integrate advanced systems and finance its global merchants and franchisees.
• Food Industry Supply Chain Integration – SUIC and Beneway will partner with international trade financiers to support the huge demand for raw material import/export between the U.S. and Asia. SUIC and Beneway are looking to raise funds from an IPO and the capital markets to support mergers and acquisitions of U.S. mid- and upper-stream food industry suppliers.
• Global Chain and Franchise Expansion – Through I.Hart catering group, SUIC and Beneway are working to bring reputable and distinguished overseas food product brands to the U.S. and around the world. It is working on integrating more successful chains to enter the U.S. chain and franchise market in all 50 states. It is replicating its successful multi-branding business model and teaming up with top U.S. real estate firms, shopping malls and associated groups for faster expansion.
• Other Supply Chain Integration – Beneway has identified several additional industries for future expansion, including medical and health care, high-tech digital AI systems, environmental protection and energy-related production.

Market Opportunity

An analysis by Growth Market Reports, a full-service market research and business consulting organization, estimated that the value of the global Asian food market was $437.15 billion in 2022. The market value is projected to reach approximately $805.08 billion by 2031, expanding at a CAGR of 7.1% during the forecast period.

Asian cuisine is well known for its diversity, with a wide range of flavors, ingredients and cooking techniques influenced by various factors such as climate, geography, history and cultural practices. The report states that Asian food outlets are expanding at a tremendous rate in the U.S. and Europe due to rising consumer demand. Demand is driven by various factors, including the growing interest in global authentic flavors and the nutritional benefits that Asian food offers. Consumers have become increasingly exploratory with their food choices, according to the report.

McKinsey Consultants estimate that, by 2025, the global supply chain financial market will reach $20 trillion. At present, 60% of the global participants are small and medium-sized retail companies, representing the target customers of SUIC and its subsidiary. Recent Juniper Research shows that global digital commerce transaction value will also pass $20 trillion by 2027.

Management Team

Hank Wang is CEO of SUIC. Since 2018, he has served as CEO of the I.Hart Group. Prior to joining I.Hart, he was Secretary General of Taiwan Quantitative Hedging Development Association. He graduated from Tamkang University in Taiwan with a Bachelor of Finance degree.

Elena Lin is associate CFO of SUIC. She previously served as CEO of Monga Chicken. In 2015, she was recognized as one of Taiwan’s Top 100 Managers of the Year. She holds a master’s degree from the Kaohsiung University of Hospitality and Tourism’s Institute of Food Culture and Catering Innovation in Taiwan.

Elton Han is associate CTO of SUIC. He is also currently Director of Food and Beverage Development for the I.Hart Group. He also holds a position with the Taiwan International Young Chefs Association. He previously served as Executive Chef of Hanbilou, Huashan Guanzhi, Daye Group.

SuperCom Ltd. (NASDAQ: SPCB)

SuperCom Ltd. (NASDAQ: SPCB) provides secured solutions for the e-government, IoT and cybersecurity sectors. Since 1988, the company has been a trusted global provider of traditional and digital identity offerings, providing cutting-edge electronic and digital security solutions to governments and organizations, both private and public, around the world.

SuperCom’s mission is to revolutionize the public safety sector worldwide through proprietary electronic monitoring technology, data intelligence, and complementary services.

The company is headquartered in Tel Aviv, Israel, with offices in California and other regions in the U.S.

Business Units

IoT and Connectivity

SuperCom IoT products and solutions provide advanced electronic monitoring solutions and services to criminal justice agencies, enabling customers to detect unauthorized movement of people, vehicles, and other monitored objects. The company provides an all-in-one, field-proven PureSecurity offender monitoring suite, accompanied by services such as GPS monitoring, home detention, domestic violence prevention, and more. The company’s services are specifically tailored to meet each client’s needs.

SuperCom’s proprietary Puresecurity suite of hardware, connectivity, and software components is the foundation for its criminal justice services and offerings. SuperCom is leveraging its extensive technology expertise to implement groundbreaking artificial intelligence (AI) technologies into various parts of its core offerings. By leveraging the power of AI, SuperCom’s PureSecurity platform can offer new abilities, such as amplified data analysis, predictive modeling, and streamlined automation – all geared toward optimizing decision-making and operational efficiency.

Competitive advantages of SuperCom’s technology include:

• Long Battery Life (No Tag Charging Required)
• Ultra Lightweight Form Factor
• Next-Gen Location Tech
• Protection of Domestic Violence Victims
• And More

Cybersecurity

In 2015, SuperCom identified the cybersecurity market as a fast-growing space with significant advantages due to synergistic technologies and a shared customer base with its e-Gov and IoT business units. Consequently, SuperCom strategically acquired Prevision Ltd., a company with a strong presence in the market and a broad range of competitive cybersecurity services.

During the first quarter of 2016, SuperCom acquired Safend Ltd., an international provider of cutting-edge endpoint data protection guarding against corporate data loss and theft through content discovery and inspection, encryption methodologies, and comprehensive device and port control.

Both acquisitions significantly expanded the breadth of the company’s global cybersecurity capabilities.

e-Gov

Through proprietary e-government platforms and innovative solutions for traditional and biometrics enrollment, personalization, issuance, and border control services, SuperCom has helped governments, and national agencies design and issue secured multi-identification, or Multi-ID, documents and robust digital identity solutions to their citizens, visitors, and lands.

The company has focused on expanding its activities in the traditional identification, or ID, and electronic identification, or e-Gov, markets, including the design, development, and marketing of identification technologies and solutions to governments in Europe, Asia, America, and Africa using SuperCom’s e-Government platforms.

Market Opportunity

Data from Berg Insight estimates the market for electronic monitoring solutions will grow from $1.2 billion in 2021 to $2.1 billion in 2026, marking a CAGR of 10.8% for the forecast period.

High recidivism rates, prison overcrowding, and soaring incarceration costs are some factors that are driving the electronic monitoring of offenders’ market growth.

An analysis by ReportLinker forecasts that the global cybersecurity market will grow from an estimated value of $173.5 billion in 2022 to $266.2 billion by 2027, achieving a CAGR of 8.9% for the period.

The increased number of data breaches worldwide, the ability of malicious actors to operate from anywhere in the world, the links between cyberspace and physical systems, and the difficulty of reducing vulnerabilities and consequences in complex cyber networks are some factors driving the cybersecurity market growth.

Management Team

Ordan Trabelsi is President and CEO of SuperCom. He has over 15 years of experience as CEO, growing high-tech companies globally. He also has experience in research and development and product innovation, as well as hands-on experience in cybersecurity, encryption, advanced mathematics, and mobile and internet network technologies. Prior to joining SuperCom, he served as co-founder and CEO of Klikot Inc., a global social networking company. He holds an MBA from Columbia University and a B.Sc. in Computer Engineering from The Technion: Israel Institute of Technology.

Barak Trabelsi is COO of SuperCom. He has expertise in big data, cyber, mobile, and internet network technologies, as well as extensive experience in product development and strategies. Prior to joining SuperCom, he served as Senior Product Manager at Equinox Ltd. Before that, he served for four years as VP of R&D at Sigma Wave, a wireless, security, and internet-focused company. He holds a B.Sc. in Computer Science and Business, as well as an MBA from Tel Aviv University.

Gil Alfi is VP of Sales at Safend Ltd., SuperCom’s cybersecurity subsidiary. He joined SuperCom in 2016 as VP of Business Development for Safend. He has more than 18 years of experience in technology companies. He served as an R&D team technology lead for more than seven years and as Director of Product Management for various telecom and wireless companies for more than 10 years. Prior to joining SuperCom, he served as Regional Sales Director at Safend, managing sales regions in Europe and Africa. He holds a B.Sc. in Computer Science and Mathematics and an M.Sc. in Computer Science from Bar-Ilan University.

Siyata Mobile Inc. (NASDAQ: SYTA)

Siyata Mobile Inc. (NASDAQ: SYTA) is a leading global developer and provider of Push-to-Talk Over Cellular (“PTT/PoC”) systems for enterprise customers. The company specializes in connected vehicle products for professional fleets and markets its products under the Uniden® Cellular brand.

Since its inception in 2012, Siyata has amassed a customer base that includes cellular operators, commercial vehicle technology distributors, and fleets of all sizes in Canada, the U.S., Europe, Australia and the Middle East.

Recognized by the Toronto Venture Stock Exchange in 2018 as a Venture Top 50 Company, Siyata aims to deliver the highest quality and most technologically advanced mobile communication devices for global corporate workforces, fleets, homes and buildings.

The company has long been an industry pioneer, delivering the world’s first 3G connected vehicle device as well as the world’s first 4G/LTE vehicle-mounted smartphone for First Responders and commercial fleets and vehicles, thereby creating a new category in the cellular device market with a dedicated smartphone tailor-made for the commercial vehicle market.

Siyata is headquartered in Montréal, Québec, Canada.

Product Portfolio

Siyata’s suite of technology includes numerous PTT and legacy devices, as well as cellular boosters designed to improve cellular signals in corporate warehouses, government embassies, retirement home campuses, banks and manufacturing plants.

The company’s flagship product, the Uniden UV350, is the world’s first vehicle-mounted 4G/LTE smartphone with crystal clear quality, carrier grade PTT, voice, text, video and data applications built into a single device. Specifically designed for First Responder and commercial fleet vehicles, the UV350 runs on cellular LTE networks that provide nationwide and global coverage, replacing traditional single purpose two-way radios that require a monthly fee and limited network coverage.

The Uniden UV350 is currently available through Bell Mobility, Canada’s largest LTE network and PTT community, as well as AT&T in the U.S. Further expanding its availability, Siyata is completing network approval with another U.S. Tier 1 operator to launch the UV350 in Q3 2019.

Management Team

CEO and Chairman Marc Seelenfreund is the founder of Siyata. He is also the founder of Siyata’s parent company, Accel Telecom, an Israel-based company that specializes in importing and distributing innovative cellular and IP devices to fixed line operators and mobile providers within Israel. Prior to establishing Accel, Seelenfreund was a vice president at Sunrise Corporation in New York where he focused on financing publicly traded technology companies. Seelenfreund has a law degree from Bar Ilan University, is a board member at Israel’s leading private university, and has served as an officer in the Israel Defense Forces.

Glenn Kennedy, vice president of sales, has over 25 years of sales experience in the telecommunications industry. Prior to joining Siyata in 2016, Kennedy managed sales nationally for Motorola Canada, HTC Communications Canada, and Sonim Technologies. He holds a bachelor’s degree in honors business administration from the Richard Ivey School of Business at the University of Western Ontario.

CFO Gerald Bernstein, a professional chartered accountant, has spent 20 years focusing on private equity financing and tax efficient corporate structuring in multi-jurisdictional arenas. He holds a bachelor’s degree of commerce as well as a graduate diploma in public accountancy from McGill University. Bernstein has been a member of the Canadian Institute of Chartered Accountants since 1987.

Gidi Bracha, vice president of technology, has served in this position since 2011 and spearheaded the development of both the Truckfone, Voyager and UV350. Bracha served in various key positions at Cellcom, Israel’s leading cellular provider, including head of car mobility products and director of type approvals. Bracha served as an engineer technician in the Anti-Aircraft division of the Air Force in the Israel Defense Forces and holds a bachelor’s degree in engineering and business management from the University of Derby.

SOBRsafe Inc. (NASDAQ: SOBR)

SOBRsafe Inc. (NASDAQ: SOBR) is a provider of a game-changing transdermal (touch-based) alcohol detection technology that can improve workplace safety and provides advanced screening and monitoring solutions for the behavioral health industry.

Alcohol misuse is the fourth leading cause of preventable death in the U.S., and the seventh worldwide. Nearly half of all industrial accidents with injuries are alcohol-related, and 1-in-10 U.S. commercial drivers tests positive for alcohol – the highest rate in the world. Despite these statistics, prevention and monitoring solutions have not kept pace with this epidemic. Legacy detection technologies are invasive and inefficient, unhygienic and unconnected. SOBRsafe believes there is a better way.

The company has developed a patent-pending alcohol detection device called SOBRcheck™ for use in detecting alcohol in humans, with just the touch of a finger. SOBRsafe’s next-generation transdermal technology detects and instantaneously reports the presence of alcohol as emitted through a user’s skin. No breath, blood or urine sample is required. SOBRsafe believes its technology is a superior, hygienic alternative to traditional breathalyzers for frontline, preventative applications.

With a powerful backend data platform, SOBRsafe provides humane, passive and connected alcohol detection for the behavioral health, transportation, oil and gas, judicial and consumer markets.

A preventative solution in historically reactive industries, SOBRsafe technology is being deployed for commercial fleets, workplaces, alcohol rehabilitation, probation management and teen drivers. This monitoring technology helps prevent intoxicated workers from taking the factory floor or drivers from receiving the keys to a truck, bus or family car. An offender is immediately flagged, and an administrator is empowered to take the appropriate corrective actions.

SOBRsafe technology is commercially available for access control (SOBRcheck), wearable use (SOBRsure™) and licensing or white labeling.

The company is headquartered in the Denver (CO) Technology Center.

Products

The SOBRsafe technology is integrated within the company’s robust and scalable data platform, producing statistical and measurable user and business data.

SOBRsafe™

With a mission is to save lives, increase productivity, create significant economic benefits and positively impact behavior, SOBRsafe developed the scalable, patent-pending SOBRsafe™ platform for non-invasive alcohol detection, real-time reporting and historical data aggregation.

SOBRsafe is a solution that has broad applications in behavioral health, fleet and facility safety, youth drivers and judicial markets.

SOBRcheck™

SOBRcheck is the company’s stationary identification and alcohol monitoring product, providing a quick, specific-point-in-time test for the presence of alcohol. In hygienic, real-time fashion, SOBRcheck verifies user identity and determines the absence or presence of alcohol.

SOBRcheck provides an administrator immediate results – delivered securely – to aid in the efficient management of an existing substance abuse policy.

SOBRsure™

SOBRsure is the company’s transdermal, alcohol-detecting wearable. SOBRsure provides continuous, mobile alcohol monitoring. The band’s advanced alcohol safety technology discreetly detects and instantaneously reports the presence of alcohol in the body. Additionally, SOBRsure provides app-based alcohol detection alerts, pinpoint location tracking and band-removal notifications.

The SOBRcheck and SOBRsure revenue models consist of two components: (1) a hardware device purchase and (2) a recurring monthly SaaS subscription fee.

Design, manufacturing, quality testing and distribution for all SOBRsafe devices takes place in the U.S.

Market Opportunity

A report from Data Bridge Market Research, an international market research and consulting firm, estimated the global alcohol sensor market at $2.3 billion in 2022. The market is forecast to reach a value of $6.3 billion by 2030, recording a CAGR of 13.7% over the forecast period.

Market growth drivers, as cited by the report, include rising alcohol consumption rates, more stringent laws pertaining to alcohol consumption and new, more effective technologies that facilitate detection and enforcement.

Greater awareness of alcohol consumption as a potential threat to public and workplace safety has led to increased emphasis on preventing operation of motor vehicles and machinery by those under the influence of alcohol and promoting responsible alcohol consumption, as the report details.

Management Team

David Gandini is Chairman and CEO of SOBRsafe. He most recently served as president of IPS Denver, a bank card personalization company. Prior to that, Dave was the COO at First World Communications, a U.S. internet and data center provider, and participated in its successful IPO. He previously founded Pace Network Services and facilitated a successful exit to ICG Communications. Dave also co-founded Detroit-based Digital Signal in the fiber optic long haul market sector, where he executed a successful exit to SP Telecom.

Chris Whitaker, CPA, is CFO of SOBRsafe. Previously, Chris had served as the Company’s Vice President of Finance and Accounting. He has held various executive finance positions with large public multi-national corporations and small entrepreneurial companies throughout a progressive 30-year career that began with KPMG. Chris was formerly President – Americas and Vice President of Finance and Administration for public, multinational corporation Elixinol. He also served as the Managing Director of AEGIS Financial Consulting, leading a team of consultants in providing fractional CFO and financial consulting services to a wide variety of businesses in the public and private sectors.

Scott Bennett is EVP, Business Operations at SOBRsafe. He has more than 20 years of experience as a senior executive in technology-driven enterprises. Prior to joining SOBRsafe, he co-founded cybersecurity firm GBprotect and served as its COO until its successful sale to Nuspire. He previously served as Chief Technical Officer/Chief Information Security Officer of fintech businesses Catalyst Card Company and Integrated Printing Solutions.

Splash Beverage Group Inc. (NYSE American: SBEV)

Splash Beverage Group Inc. (NYSE American: SBEV) is a portfolio company of successful beverage brands with the objective of driving value through superior production, supply chain efficiency and global distribution capabilities.

Specializing in manufacturing, distributing, sales & marketing of various beverages across multiple channels, the company operates in both the alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverage segments, allowing it to leverage efficiencies and dilute risk. The company’s business strategy is to quickly develop and/or accelerate pre-existing brands to exit for cash events. Led by a highly successful management team, the company only works with brands it perceives to have highly visible preexisting brand awareness or pure category innovation, thus breaking through the clutter. Splash seeks out brands offering products that:

• Deliver natural quality, health benefits, freshness and refreshment within their beverages;
• Are on trend with consumers;
• Have a high level of brand awareness;
• Maintain highest performance standards and focus on execution;
• Help distributors and retail partners achieve and exceed all goals; and
• Offer unapologetic support for members of the U.S. armed forces, first responders and health care professionals.

Splash was founded in 2013 and is located in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

Splash Portfolio

The current Splash portfolio includes four unique beverage brands. Each of these brands offers one or more of the qualities that the company specifically seeks in an acquisition.

• TapouT Performance is a natural isotonic hydration & recovery sport drink featuring a 3-in-1 advanced formula. TapouT Performance restores what the body loses through physical exertion, delivering hydration and cellular recovery. Perfectly balanced with key vitamins & minerals and all five necessary electrolytes, TapouT increases nutrient absorption, allowing the body to recover quickly and more efficiently. TapouT is the official training partner of the WWE (NYSE: WWE).
• Salt Naturally Flavored Tequila is a 100% blanco agave 80 proof tequila that offers a clean and delicate taste. Salt is grown, distilled and bottled in the Jalisco region of Mexico. Every bottle of Salt Tequila is the result of hard work, determination and numerous blends. The brand offers a line of tequila flavors for enhanced refreshment, including berry, citrus and salted chocolate.
• Copa Di Vino is the leading producer of premium “wine by the glass” in the U.S. Produced in the Columbia Valley, Copa di Vino is readily available on the go without the requirement of a bottle, corkscrew or glass. Open, drink and enjoy.
• Pulpoloco Sangria is a premium crafted sangria imported from Spain. Its flavor is light-bodied, fruity and refreshing, offering the best blend of Spanish ingredients. The product is filled and packed in a unique eco-friendly biodegradable catocan, allowing Pulpoloco to extend the shelf life of the sangria without the use of preservatives.

Market Outlook

The global beverage industry was valued at $1.5 trillion in 2018 and is projected to grow at a CAGR of 3.1%, reaching a market size of $1.9 trillion by 2024 (https://nnw.fm/w1Cx9). The push for non-alcoholic beverages that are healthier and contain zero sugar is expected to be a driving force in the forecast period and beyond.

With a seasoned management team and sufficient capital to fuel sustained growth, Splash is uniquely positioned to capitalize on this market growth. The company is currently preparing a secondary offering and has engaged Kingswood Capital Markets as lead underwriter in order to uplist to the Nasdaq or NYSE in the near future.

Management Team

Robert Nistico is the Chairman and CEO of Splash Beverage Group. He has 28 years of experience in the beverage industry and was the fifth employee and SVP/General Manager of Red Bull North America. In this role, he led the start-up from zero sales to $1.65 billion in annual sales. Mr. Nistico was a founder and President of Marley Beverages and was responsible for framing the company’s long-term vision. Mr. Nistico held executive positions at DIAGEO, Republic National Distributing Company and the Gallo Wine Company resulting in decades of successful experience in the ‘Three Tier Beverage System’. In the spirit of his true entrepreneurial nature, he is a motivated, results-driven, creative and passionate leader.

William Meissner is the company’s President and CMO. He boasts over 20 years of success in growing consumer brand companies with large and medium-sized entrepreneurial organizations, both locally and internationally. His résumé includes multiple CEO roles, leading efforts to revamp both healthy and distressed companies. Before joining Splash, Mr. Meissner was the President and CEO of Sweet Leaf and Tradewinds Tea. He has held multiple positions with leading companies in the beverage sector, including Sparkling Ice, Jones Soda, SoBe Beverages, Fuze & NOS (Coca-Cola) and many others.

Sanjeev Javia is the Vice President of Product Development for Splash. He is the founder and President of Javia Wellness Group, a firm focusing on the innovation, research, formulation and design of healthy exercise and wellness initiatives. Mr. Javia is a sports nutrition expert, allowing him the advantage of developing innovative functional beverages that include health benefits for consumers. Since 2000, he has advised and written nutritional plans for hundreds of the world’s most famous athletes, including Tom Brady, Kurt Warner, Curt Schilling and more.

Dean Huge is the company’s Chief Financial Officer. He brings 35 years of public and private sector accounting and finance experience to the Splash Beverage team. Mr. Huge has led four public offerings as CFO and guided the growth efforts of numerous companies, including Catalyst Energy Corp., which was named Inc. Magazine’s ‘Fastest Growing Company’ within 36 months of his joining. His expertise spans financial services, manufacturing, distribution and SAAS-type programs.

Aida Aragon is the company’s Senior Vice President of National Accounts. She is a sales, marketing and brand management executive with years of experience working in the sports supplement and beverage industry. In her previous positions, Ms. Aragon was vital in leading successful store rollouts for brands including Muscle Milk. Her passion for brand development comes as second nature, but her true passion has always been focused on increasing sales for brands in the sports nutrition industry.

Standard Lithium Ltd. (NYSE American: SLI)

Standard Lithium Ltd. (NYSE American: SLI) is focused on unlocking the value of existing large-scale U.S.-based lithium brine resources that can quickly be brought into production. The Company believes new lithium production can rapidly be brought on stream by minimizing project risks at selection stage; resource, political & geographic, and regulatory & permitting; and by leveraging advances in lithium extraction technologies and processes.

The Company’s flagship project is in southern Arkansas. The more than 180,000-acre “Smackover Project” is in the most prolific and productive brine processing region in North America. Agreements with large commercial brine operators in the region will allow Standard Lithium to utilize the extensive existing infrastructure, including brine supply and disposal pipelines, water, power and a trained workforce to fast-track project development timelines.

“Arkansas produces about 9.4 billion gallons of brine per year, according to 2010-2016 average statistics reported by the Arkansas Oil & Gas Commission.”

Standard Lithium signed a binding MoU with global specialty chemicals company LANXESS Corporation and its U.S. affiliate Great Lakes Chemical Corporation with the purpose of demonstrating the commercial viability of extraction of lithium from brine (“tail brine”) that is produced as part of LANXESS’ bromine extraction business at its three Southern Arkansas facilities.

LANXESS’ land operations in Southern Arkansas encompass more than 150,000 acres, 10,000 brine leases and surface agreements and 250 miles of pipelines. LANXESS extracts the brine from its wells located throughout the area, and the brine is transported to the three Arkansas plants through a network of pipelines. The three bromine extraction plants currently employ approximately 500 people and process and reinject several hundred thousand barrels of brine per day.

Standard Lithium has developed a breakthrough rapid lithium extraction process that reduces the recovery time of extracting lithium from brine to as little as several hours vs. the current industry method that takes years. The process is also much more environmentally friendly with a significantly smaller footprint than the conventional processes. The company has a signed agreement to locate a demonstration scale lithium extraction plant inside one of LANXESS’ chemical plants in Southern Arkansas.

The Company has also signed an option agreement with NYSE-listed Tetra Technologies for the lithium rights for exploration, extraction, and possible commercial development on approximately 30,000 acres of brine leases in Southern Arkansas. The largest available land package.

Recent laboratory results of four brine samples recovered from two existing wells in Standard Lithium’s project area showed lithium concentrations ranging between 347-461 mg/L lithium, with an average of 450 mg/L lithium in one of the wells and 350 mg/L in the other. Geological modeling of the project area is complete, and a maiden resource report is on the horizon.

Market Opportunity

World demand for lithium continues to surge. The global lithium compounds market is projected to reach U.S. $5.87 billion by 2020 at a compound annual growth rate of 13.22% between 2015 and 2020. Lithium-ion batteries are the fastest growing segment of the market.

Leadership

Standard Lithium’s commitment to being a premier, innovation-driven company focused on developing and commercializing new modern processes for lithium extraction is bolstered by the leading experts that comprise the company’s Scientific Advisory Council. Each member was selected because of their experience and expertise in areas that are central to and/or complement Standard Lithium’s current development plans. Standard Lithium recently welcomed to the Council world-renowned chemist Dr. Barry Sharpless, the recipient of the 2001 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his work on chirally catalyzed oxidation reactions.

Standard Lithium is led by a team of professionals with proven strong technical and project development skills. CEO Robert Mintak has a global network of industry contacts and is a pioneer in the rapidly evolving lithium space. COO and President Dr. Andy Robinson is an experienced geoscientist with 20+ years of experience and a PhD in Geochemistry from the University of Bristol, UK. Dr. Robinson has worked on a wide range of projects in the resource, power and energy sectors in Europe, Africa, and North and South America.

The company recently appointed Robert Cross as non-executive chairman. Cross is an engineer with 25 years of experience as a financier and company builder in the mining and oil and gas sectors. He co-founded and serves as chairman of B2Gold, a top-performing growing gold producer which is expected to achieve nearly 1 million ounces of low-cost gold production in 2018. He was also co-founder and chairman of Bankers Petroleum Ltd.; co-founder and chairman of Petrodorado Energy Ltd.; and until October 2007 was the non-executive chairman of Northern Orion Resources Inc. He also was previously the chairman and CEO of Yorkton Securities Inc., and a partner in investment banking with Gordon Capital Corp. in Toronto. Cross has an engineering degree from the University of Waterloo (1982) and received an MBA from Harvard in 1987.

Following a multi-million-dollar financing in Q1 2018, Standard Lithium is well-positioned to meet its upcoming milestones including two maiden resource reports and the launch of its breakthrough rapid lithium extraction technology.

Starco Brands Inc. (OTCQB: STCB)

Starco Brands Inc. (OTCQB: STCB) is a modern-day invention factory. The company’s unwavering mission is to invent and acquire consumer products and brands with behavior-changing technologies that spark excitement in the everyday.

This consumer product company has grown from a few million dollars in revenue to a current run rate of approximately $67 million in annual revenue in one year.

The company has succeeded by identifying whitespaces in eight core consumer categories and then either: 1) leveraging its internal R&D capabilities and dedicated manufacturing network to invent new technologies and brands or 2) utilizing the management team’s extensive M&A experience to acquire brands that fill the industry void, delighting consumers and retailers alike.

Whether the brand is developed internally or acquired, the company employs a modern marketing playbook to ensure its brands are at the forefront of culture; garnering unprecedented media attention and engagement that supports a robust sales network.

Starco Brands’ core competencies are inventing technologies, acquiring companies, marketing, building trends, pushing awareness, penetrating media (social and otherwise) and executing cutting edge pull-through strategies with a roster of globally recognized celebrities, influencers and media and distribution partners.

A commitment to changing the way people approach everyday activities is innate in the company’s corporate DNA.

The company is based in Santa Monica, California.

Brands

Whereas other consumer products companies are content with evolution, Starco Brands has its mind set on creating a revolution across the industry. From disrupting the spirits industry with Whipshots, the world’s only vodka-infused whipped cream, to Soylent, the original food tech company, Starco Brands is putting the CPG world on notice. Its portfolio of brands includes:

• Whipshots is a first-of-its-kind alcoholic whipped cream launched in 2021 with celebrity partner Cardi B. Consumers have embraced this boozy concoction, putting it on top of cocktails, coffees and desserts, or enjoying it straight from the can. In just over a year, the brand has sold over 2 MILLION cans, making it one of the fastest growing spirits in history.
• Winona Pure gives consumers movie theatre popcorn in the comfort of their own homes. All the flavor and none of the additives is the story behind these all-natural, non-GMO popcorn seasoning sprays. A simple spray is all it takes to add the perfect pop of flavor to the classic theatre treat.
• Art of Sport, co-founded by the great Kobe Bryant, is the number one body care brand for athletes. With a growing line of personal care products tested by the world’s greatest athletes, these daily skin essentials give consumers everything they need to feel fresh, stay protected and confident and perform at their peak every day.
• Skylar is the first and only line of perfumes on the market that are hypoallergenic and safe for sensitive skin. With the strong support of industry titan Sephora, the brand has quickly attracted a loyal following.
• Soylent is a technological feat. Originally funded by Google Ventures and Andreessen Horwitz, Soylent is dubbed as the world’s most perfect food. Made from sustainably grown plant-based ingredients, Soylent’s line of products is scientifically developed to provide all the functional ingredients, vitamins, minerals, fats, carbohydrates and protein that the body needs – all in convenient, delicious and affordable packages. Soylent’s innovative product line-up includes complete nutrition powders, ready-to-drink shakes, 100-calorie snack bars, high protein nutrition shakes and energy boosting nutrition shakes. Soylent was also the recipient of the 2023 Product of the Year Award by Kantar, a global leader in consumer research.

With award-winning marketing talent, Starco Brands develops robust, integrated marketing plans for every brand in its portfolio, ensuring an impactful presence across all verticals.

Market Outlook

Starco Brands’ varied brand portfolio gives it access to the growth of numerous product categories that are ripe for innovation.

Through its February 2023 acquisition of complete nutrition pioneer Soylent, Starco Brands is positioned to capitalize on the projected growth of the plant-based nutrition space. Research firm Statista valued the plant-based nutrition market at $29.4 billion in 2020 and forecasts its value at nearly $162 billion by 2030, representing a CAGR of 18.7% for the period.

Likewise, Starco Brands gained improved access to the global fragrance market through its December 2022 acquisition of Skylar. According to a report by Grand View Research, the global perfume market was valued at $50.85 billion in 2022 and is expected to grow to a value of nearly $80 billion by 2030, achieving a CAGR of 5.9% over the forecast period.

The company is primed to expand its access to other growth verticals as it advances on its path to invent and acquire behavior-changing technologies and brands.

Management Team

Ross Sklar is the CEO of Starco Brands. A chemical formulator by trade, he started his first company while still in college. Since 2004, he has made over a dozen acquisitions with multiple exits and controls an eclectic collection of industrial, household, personal care and food and beverage manufacturers covering many consumer-packaged goods categories.

Darin Brown is the Chief Operating Officer of Starco Brands. With over 20 years of experience in chemical manufacturing, business development, finance and mergers and acquisitions, he has scaled the company from the ground up. He oversees all internal operations for Starco Brands and is an integral liaison between the company and Mr. Sklar’s manufacturing facilities.

David Dreyer is Chief Marketing Officer of Starco Brands. With over 25 years of experience working with blue chip and startup brands, he oversees all marketing initiatives for the company. Mr. Dreyer comes to Starco having worked with such standout brands as Apple, Pepsi, Pizza Hut, Dr Pepper, Snapple, Infiniti, The GRAMMY’s, Honda and Stamps.com. He is also a Professor of Advertising at USC’s Annenberg School for Communication.

StorEn Technologies Inc.

StorEn Technologies Inc. delivers proprietary vanadium flow batteries aimed at revolutionizing the world of residential and industrial energy storage. With an expected life of 25 years and more than 15,000 cycles, the company’s batteries satisfy market demand for efficient, durable and cost-effective energy storage, enabling self-consumption of self-produced electricity and the transition toward a carbon-free economy.

The company is currently accepting investments through a Reg A+ offering on StartEngine. For more information, view the company’s Offering Circular. To date, StorEn has raised more than $6.7 million from over 5,000 investors on the crowdfunding platform, along with venture capital from the ANYSEED Fund.

StorEn’s growing intellectual property portfolio currently features four international PCT patents and five trademarks, securing its innovative IP in all major regions and countries in the world.

A Disruptive Approach to Energy Storage

StorEn’s patent-pending all-vanadium flow battery technology offers a variety of benefits over existing lithium and lead acid batteries, including:

• Eco-Friendly: StorEn vanadium flow batteries are 100% recyclable, featuring a 100% reusable electrolyte and low GHGs emissions.
• Safe: The company’s batteries are both non-flammable and non-explosive.
• Cost Effective: StorEn’s cost/kWh is comparable to that of lithium batteries, but its cost/cycle is up to four times lower than lithium batteries, thanks to the exceptional duration of over 25 years or 15,000 cycles.
• Efficient: The company’s vanadium flow battery technology offers the highest power density thanks to MULTIGRIDS™, +35% in energy storage capacity with the same volume and +5% round-trip efficiency in harsh climate thanks to its proprietary THERMASTABLE™ geothermal design. StorEn’s solution is also virtually maintenance-free, leveraging its proprietary RESAFE™ and EQUILEVELS™ technologies.

StorEn batteries are modular and configurable in either 20kWh or 30kWh versions sharing the same Power Module, ensuring that customers only pay for the energy capacity they really need. The ability to connect additional modules allows for maximum flexibility.

Traction in the Market

To date, the total investment in the company’s technology has exceeded $2 million, and it is already putting these efforts to work. StorEn secured a $500,000 order in Australia to provide 30 kWh StorEn vanadium flow batteries to a renewable hydrogen plant at Queensland University of Technology (QUT), where researchers will develop safety standards for the future use of vanadium flow batteries. The first battery – the first of its kind in Australia – was installed in Brisbane in November 2020 at the National Battery Testing Centre (NBTC), a flagship project of the Future Battery Industries CRC. Additional units are being manufactured.

StorEn has also entered into a supply chain deal with Multicom Resources, an Australian mining company which is the owner of two vanadium mines. Through this agreement, StorEn has secured the exclusive availability of vanadium for up to 20 years with either a price cap or at market price, whichever is lower.

Capitalizing on the Australian government’s support to fulfil the country’s energy storage opportunity, Multicom’s subsidiary, Freedom Energy, has agreed to assemble StorEn batteries within Australia and distribute them widely across the wider Asia Pacific region. In addition to an initial pilot plant, Multicom has completed a concept design for a full-scale manufacturing facility for StorEn batteries.

Market Opportunity

The shift to renewable energy sources is on, with governments around the globe discussing and implementing initiatives to reduce dependence on fossil fuels. McKinsey & Company research suggests that, by 2035, more than 50% of global power generation will come from renewable sources.

Spurred on by this transition, demand for reliable energy storage systems is expected to attain exponential growth in the coming years, positively influencing the energy storage industry landscape, according to Grand View Research.

Data from Fortune Business Insights projects that the global battery energy storage market will reach $19.74 billion by 2027, recording a CAGR of 20.4% from 2020 to 2027. The research firm suggests that improving access to electricity across the globe will be a prominent trend shaping the growth trajectory of this market, which is particularly noteworthy for StorEn and its TITANstack™ grid-scale energy storage solution.

Over a billion people still do not have access to electricity. The electrification of these unserved communities can become a reality with mini grids, using solar plus energy storage. StorEn’s vanadium flow batteries could be a key technology toward providing universal access to affordable, longer lasting and dependable energy. In support this critical mission, StorEn Technologies is a member of the Alliance for Rural Electrification and the Global Off-Grid Lighting Association.

Management Team

StorEn is led by an executive team with decades of experience in the vanadium flow battery industry.

Founder Carlo Brovero has served as the company’s chief executive officer, treasurer and director since its inception in January 2017. From 2013 to 2019, Mr. Brovero served as a consultant for eCaral Ltd., a management consulting firm. From 2013 to 2015, he served as an advisory board member for Proxhima S.r.l., a vanadium flow battery company, which was sold to the Gala Group, a utility listed on the Milan Stock Exchange. From 2010 to 2016, Mr. Brovero served as International Sales and Marketing Director for iVis Technologies, the manufacturer of an excimer laser therapeutic and refractive platform for corneal surgery. He holds an MBA from Aston University in Birmingham, UK.

Founder Angelo D’Anzi has served as StorEn’s chief technology officer and director since the company’s inception. He is primarily responsible for the technical development of StorEn’s products. Since May 2018, Mr. D’Anzi has also served as a director of Arco Fuel Cells S.r.l., where he is responsible for the company’s fuel cell technical development activities. Mr. D’Anzi co-founded vanadium flow battery company Proxhima in 2013. In 2000, he founded ROEN-EST, a fuel cell company that was eventually acquired by the Morphic Group, a cleantech holding company listed on the Stockholm Stock Exchange. Mr. D’Anzi holds 14 international patents and received the 2003 Sapio Award in the Energy and Transportation category. He holds an MBA from the LUISS Business School in Rome.

Founder Gabriele Colombo has served as secretary of StorEn since its inception. Since 2012, he has also served in various roles ranging from regional manager to CEO with Leonardo Hispania S.A., a subsidiary of the Leonardo Group of Italy, an aerospace, defense and security conglomerate. Mr. Colombo co-founded vanadium flow battery company Proxhima in 2013. He holds an honors degree in computer engineering from the University of Pisa and a master’s degree in business leadership from the University of Genova.

SenesTech Inc. (NASDAQ: SNES)

SenesTech Inc. (NASDAQ: SNES) is the rodent fertility control expert and the inventor of the only EPA-registered contraceptive for male and female rats. The company’s technology provides an innovative and humane method for managing rat populations.

SenesTech is focused on developing effective solutions that are grounded in science and proven through research, all while providing value to people, communities and the environment. The company’s passion is to create a healthier world by better controlling rat pest populations. This aim is critical, as, if left unchecked, a breeding pair of rats and their descendants can produce up to 15,000 pups after just one year.

The company strives for clean cities, efficient businesses and happy households – with a product that was scientifically designed to be effective without killing rats. SenesTech is committed to the sustainable, humane treatment of animals, improving the quality of all human life and enhancing environmental stewardship through the global application of its effective solution in fertility control technology.

SenesTech is headquartered in Phoenix, Arizona.

ContraPest®

SenesTech’s first product, ContraPest®, applies revolutionary technology to a global challenge that has persisted since the Middle Ages – the proliferation of rats in urban and agricultural settings. ContraPest® targets the reproductive capabilities of Norway and roof rats. As a highly palatable liquid, the formulation promotes sustained consumption, helping to reduce fertility in both male and female rats, bringing populations down and keeping them down.

The company’s flagship offering can be used as part of integrated pest management (IPM) programs – fitting seamlessly into all IPM programs – to help reduce reproduction and magnify the success of these protocols, or as a standalone solution for customers who want to reduce or eliminate the use of lethal rodent control methods.

In multiple, independent field deployments, ContraPest was shown to reduce rat activity over 90% when added to an existing IPM program.

ContraPest® is registered federally as a General Use Product.

Delivery Systems and New Products

In July 2023, SenesTech began to distribute a new delivery system for ContraPest®, the Isolate Bait System™. This new delivery system brings to market a simple design that enables more efficient deployment, incorporates an enhanced formulation of ContraPest® that is expected to provide improved performance of the fertility control bait in the field and is paired with a new bait station that is more space-efficient and economical.

The other delivery systems available for ContraPest include the Ultimate Bait System™, a tank and tray in a larger format for use with more severe infestations, and the Elevate Bait System™, a unique delivery system that targets above ground infestations, as with roof rats.

SenesTech, as of August 2023, is also in the final stages of releasing a soft bait formulation, which provides the unique attributes of proven fertility control in an industry-familiar format demanded by big box retailers, key e-commerce channels and leading industry pest management professionals.

Market Opportunity

According to SenesTech’s figures, rats cause over $27 billion in damage to public and private infrastructure annually in the United States. Rats also destroy 20% of the global stored food supply every year by consuming or contaminating it.

Rats are known to spread at least 35 diseases, globally posing a dangerous risk to public health and safety. Not only does this age-old problem persist despite extensive campaigns to eradicate it, but multiple sources have reported that post-COVID rat populations have boomed.

Poison-based control methods sicken rats, and they typically die slowly. An animal that eats a poisoned rat may also sicken or die. The global rodenticide market is projected to be worth $1.7 billion by 2026.

In one case study, results reported by the customer showed a $5,000 investment in ContraPest® saved more than $500,000 annually in reduced labor, loss and damage.

Management Team

Joel Fruendt is SenesTech’s President and CEO. He has 15 years of executive leadership in the vector and pest control industries as Vice President and General Manager of Clarke Environmental Inc., a leading vector and pest control products and services company. He has extensive expertise in the development and manufacturing of EPA-registered chemical control products, and the commercialization and sale of those products. He received the ‘Smart Leaders’ award from Smart Business Magazine and holds a bachelor’s degree in business from Illinois Wesleyan University.

Tom Chesterman is CFO at SenesTech. He has over 20 years of experience as the CFO of public companies in the life science, tech and telecommunications industries. Most recently, he was the Vice President and Treasurer of GCI, a telecommunications company. Previous to that, he was the CFO of life science companies Bio-Rad Laboratories, Aradigm and Bionovo. He has a bachelor’s degree from Harvard University and an MBA from the University of California at Davis.

Dan Palasky is Chief Technical Officer at SenesTech. Previously he held the title of Vice President of Research & Development at PLZ Corp., a manufacturer of chemical consumer products, serving as the technical expert for its entire product portfolio. He started his career with Camie-Campbell, Inc., as a chemist in the R&D department. Mr. Palasky received his bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering from the Missouri University of Science & Technology and his MBA in Project Management from Aspen University.

Sekur Private Data Ltd. (FRA: GDT0) (CSE: SKUR) (OTCQB: SWISF)

Sekur Private Data Ltd. (CSE: SKUR) (OTCQB: SWISF) (FRA: GDT0) is a Cybersecurity and Internet privacy provider of Swiss hosted solutions for secure and private communications. The company distributes a suite of encrypted e-mails, secure messengers and secure communication tools. Sekur Private Data Ltd. sells its products through its own website at www.Sekur.com, approved distributors, and telecommunications companies. Sekur Private Data Ltd. serves consumers, businesses and governments worldwide.

Customer information is completely confidential and safely stored in Switzerland using military grade security. All data, whether physical, network-based or encryption security, is stored in bank-approved, state-of-the-art ISO-certified data centers used by Swiss and global banks and most United Nations organizations, as well as many corporations and governmental organizations. All user data is protected by the Swiss Federal Data Protection Act and the Swiss Federal Data Protection Ordinance, which offer some of the strongest privacy protection in the world for both individuals and organizations.

The company owns 100% of its own infrastructure and, unlike its competitors, does not rely on third party cloud services like Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure Cloud or Google cloud infrastructure.

Sekur Private Data has chosen Switzerland to locate its data storage because of the country’s neutrality, independence, strong privacy laws, long standing political stability and excellent international relations. Switzerland is also home to several large multinational corporations and is ranked as having one of the strongest and most competitive economies in the world.

The company is headquartered in Toronto, Ontario.

Products

Sekur Private Data distributes a privacy communications suite offering encrypted and private email, the only Swiss-hosted privacy VPN, and a secure and private messaging application. All solutions cater to consumers, SMBs, enterprises and governments.

• SekurMail® is an encrypted email service offering a private, safe and powerful tool to communicate with everyone, either within the Sekur ecosystem or outside. SekurMail protects personal information and communications from being accessed by unauthorized parties. Its encryption and other security measures prevent messages from being intercepted, modified or tampered with, either in transit or while stored. SekurMail empowers the client to access information and communicate with anyone in the world, regardless of geographical or political barriers.
• SekurVPN® creates a secure, encrypted connection between the client’s device and the Internet, giving clients access to the web safely and privately by routing their connections through a server and hiding their online actions. All the data sent and received is hidden from prying eyes. This includes the clients’ Internet Service Providers, as well as potential hackers and even government surveillance agencies. It can also help clients bypass geographical restrictions and censorship.
• SekurMessenger® is a Swiss-hosted private and secure messaging communications app providing secure and private chat, self-deleting chat, voice recording and file transfer via any mobile device, tablet or desktop computer. Communications are transmitted only within secure servers. It’s designed for organizations that need to protect their flow of information and secure their communications with customers and partners. SekurMessenger is designed to provide military-grade encryption and privacy by ensuring that only the sender and intended recipient can read the messages exchanged. It works for both licensed users of the app and intended message recipients who do not have the app.

Market Opportunity

An analysis from ReportLinker forecasts that the global cybersecurity market will grow from an estimated $173.5 billion in 2022 to $266.2 billion by 2027, recording a CAGR of 8.9% for the period.

The increased number of data breaches worldwide, the ability of malicious actors to operate from anywhere in the world, the links between cyberspace and physical systems and the difficulty of reducing vulnerabilities and consequences in complex cyber networks are some factors that are driving cybersecurity market growth, according to the report.

The global data privacy software market was estimated to be worth $1.68 billion in 2021 and is expected to grow from $2.36 billion in 2022 to $25.85 billion by 2029, achieving an eye-popping 40.8% CAGR during the forecast period, according to a Fortune Business Insights report titled ‘Data Privacy Software Market 2022-2029’.

The widespread shift toward remote working culture, evolving government data privacy regulations and the rapidly increasing adoption of Internet-of-Things devices are among the major factors propelling market growth, per the report.

Management Team

Alain Ghiai is founder, CEO and Director at Sekur Private Data. He also founded GlobeX Data S.A. (GDSA) in 2007 and has served as Director and CEO since then. He founded GlobeX Data Inc. (GlobeX US) in August 2012 and has served as Director and CEO since that time. He attended the California College of Arts in San Francisco, where he earned a Bachelor of Architecture. He has over 15 years of experience in the software industry and was instrumental in taking Sekur Private Data public in July 2019.

Scott Davis, CPA, CGA, is CFO at Sekur Private Data. He is also a partner at Cross Davis & Company LLP Chartered Professional Accountants. His experience includes CFO positions at several companies listed on the TSX Venture Exchange. He spent four years at Appleby as an Assistant Financial Controller. Prior to that, he spent two years at Davison & Company Chartered Professional Accountants as Auditor, five years with Pacific Opportunity Capital as Accounting Manager and two years at Jacobson Soda and Hosak, Chartered Professional Accountants. He obtained his CPA, CGA in 2003.

Learn more about the company’s management team by visiting its corporate page.

TAAT Global Alternatives Inc. (OTCQX: TOBAF)

TAAT Global Alternatives Inc. (OTCQX: TOBAD) 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 Global Alternatives 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 Global Alternatives Inc. 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 Global Alternatives 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 Global Alternatives Inc. 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 Global Alternatives Inc. 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 Global Alternatives 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 Global Alternatives 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.

Tartisan Nickel Corp. (CSE: TN) (OTCQB: TTSRF)

Tartisan Nickel Corp. (CSE: TN) (OTCQB: TTSRF) is a Canadian mineral and battery metals exploration and mining development company. Tartisan’s flagship asset is the Kenbridge Nickel Project. Located in the Kenora Mining District, in the Province of Ontario, the Kenbridge Nickel Project is an advanced staged nickel deposit with a measured, indicated and inferred resource and has an existing 622-meter three compartment shaft.

As the world looks to utilize electric vehicles (EVs) in an effort to reduce air pollution, demand for EV battery metals is on the rise. Nickel is one of these in-demand battery metals, and there are few new, high grade development projects ready to meet this opportunity. Silver, zinc, copper and even lead are also part of this transformation in the EV sector. Tartisan Nickel Corp. is an advanced stage mining development company in a mining friendly jurisdiction. The company is headquartered in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

Projects

The company’s flagship Kenbridge Nickel Project is in the north-central part of the Atikwa Lake area and the south-central part of the Fisher Lake Area in the Kenora Mining District, approximately 70 kilometers east-southeast of the Town of Kenora in northwestern Ontario. The property is accessible via gravel roads from paved Highway 71. The Kenbridge Nickel Project is covered by patented and unpatented mining claims totaling 10,150 acres.

Tartisan’s project portfolio also includes:

• The Don Pancho Manganese Silver Zinc Project is in a prolific polymetallic mineral belt in central Peru with several operating mines in the area, including the world-class Iscaycruz and Yauliyacu polymetallic mines, operated by Glencore Xstrata PLC, which are located 50 kilometers to the north-northwest. Additionally, Travail Mining Corporation’s Santander silver-lead-zinc mine is located just nine kilometers to the east and Buenaventura’s silver-lead-zinc Uchucchacua mine, which produced 10 million ounces of silver in 2011, is located 63 kilometers to the north.
• The Turtle Pond Nickel Copper Project includes 105 staked units covering approximately 5,440 acres in northwestern Ontario, approximately 40 kilometers south of the town of Dryden in the Turtle Pond and Ukik Lake area. The claims are located approximately 70 kilometers east of the company’s flagship Kenbridge Nickel Project.
• The Sill Lake Lead Silver Project is located approximately 30 kilometers north-northeast of Sault Ste. Marie in Vankoughnet Township in the Sault Ste. Marie Mining District of Ontario. The Sill Lake Property comprises 57 contiguous mining claims totaling approximately 2,850 acres.

Market Opportunity

A report by Grand View Research, a market research and consulting company, estimated the global nickel mining market to be worth $50.4 billion in 2022 and projected the market will grow to a value of more than $84.04 billion by 2030, achieving a CAGR of 6.6% over the forecast period.

Nickel alloy is a component of EV, portable electronics and power tool batteries. In addition, nickel is one of the key raw materials of stainless steel. Hence, development in the EV industry and growth in stainless steel end-use industries such as construction, consumer durables and machinery and equipment contribute to the growth of the market.

According to the Nickel Institute, the industry association for the world’s nickel producers, over two-thirds of the world’s nickel is currently utilized in the production of stainless steel.

Management Team

D. Mark Appleby is President, CEO and Director of Tartisan Nickel. He has more than 37 years of experience in a variety of disciplines relating to investment banking, corporate finance and capital markets. His career began at Manulife in the equity and fixed income departments. He later joined First Boston Canada, where he reached the position of Vice President, Bond Trading. Subsequently, he has worked as an investment executive with Scotia Mcleod Inc. and is co-founder of The Atlantis Group. He also served as a Director of Guyana Goldfields Inc. for five years.

Omar Gonzalez is CFO of Tartisan Nickel. He has over 20 years of experience in audit and assurance in South America, as well as five years of public and private audit practice, financial analysis and corporate development in Canada. He has led many assurance and non-assurance engagements for companies in the energy, mining and natural resources, real estate, manufacturing and consumer business sectors. He is a Chartered Professional Accountant in Venezuela and holds a bachelor’s degree in accounting from the Universidad Santa María in Caracas.

TRxADE HEALTH, INC. (NASDAQ: MEDS)

TRxADE HEALTH, INC. (NASDAQ: MEDS) is an integrated pharmaceutical services company that offers a unique combination of a web-based purchasing platform (www.trxade.com) for transactions between independent pharmacists and drug distributors (B2B); a network of pharmacies with E-Hub software; a mail order pharmacy; and warehouse and drug delivery services. This synergistic combination of product offerings and superior data analytics is poised to benefit all stakeholders and consumers within the pharmaceutical industry.

Trxade will leverage and scale its fully integrated model to execute the following growth strategies:

• Increase share of pharmacist drug purchasing
• Additional SKUs and expand product breath
• Partner with Specialty and International Mfg.
• Expand mail order licenses to all 50 states
• Scale Delivmeds for consumer delivery nationwide
• Integration with telemedicine
• M&A Opportunities within drug value chain

Founded in 2010 and headquartered in Tampa, Florida, Trxade’s overarching corporate strategy is to penetrate the existing retail independent pharmacy marketplace and diversify the company’s pharmaceutical mix with additional specialty and acute care products. Trxade is advancing on this mission by focusing on three key niches in the health care market.

Business-to-Business (B2B)

The $330 billion U.S. pharmaceutical industry is comprised of more than 65,000 pharmacy facilities and 1,500 state-licensed suppliers. Roughly 24,000 of these facilities are independent pharmacies, which collectively spend approximately $93 billion a year on branded and generic drugs.

Trxade targets these independent pharmacies, leveraging a robust, “E-Bay/Kayak-like” technology platform with optimum buyer/seller pricing algorithms, product availability, and predictive data analytics features.

Trxade currently serves and transacts with more than one-third (10,250) of these independent pharmacies and facilitates over $10 million of drug purchases a month!

Consumer

Trxade also targets the “consumer side” of the pharmaceutical industry, aiming to lower prescription drug costs by attacking the inefficient value chain; offering drug price transparency and efficient buying; and, delivering drugs DIRECT to independent pharmacists and consumers.

The company operates a full-service mail order pharmacy for U.S. consumers, as well as a mobile app called “Delivmeds” (http://www.delivmeds.com) which enables SAME DAY home delivery of dispensed prescriptions.

Retail

Trxade’s Managed Services Organization (“TrxadeMSO”) enables its member independent retail pharmacies to get patients, process orders, and deliver or ship prescriptions to patients. TrxadeMSO provides access to encompassing network of pharmacies through the E-Hub software, allowing for timely and comprehensive medication fulfillment.

These offerings ensure the best-suited pharmacy receives the patient’s information, thereby ensuring appropriate medication coverage based on the patient’s location, payor coverage, and medication access/inventory. This will save the clinicians and their staff time as they benefit from efficiency and enhanced workflow management in script processing and fulfillment.

Health Care Market 

The U.S. health care market currently hovers near $4 trillion and is expected to grow as the general population ages. This growth will have greater impact on consumers as out-of-pocket expenses also rise. Additionally, drug costs are paced to increase faster than the overall health care and well above inflation.

Drug pricing is variable, and reimbursement is squeezing profits. This provides significant opportunity for the Trxade model of price visibility and profit optimization.

Trxade’s fair online market platform targets the nation’s retail community and independent pharmacies, of which there are approximately 24,000 nationwide. TRxADE has found that independent pharmacies, in order to be cost-effective, often operate with minimal staff and conduct up-to-the minute price checks. The TRxADE S2P platform gives these pharmacists the ability to easily compare the price of drugs offered by various suppliers and select the most favorable deals, saving money by taking advantage of best purchase pricing.

TRxADE’s programs include:

• TRxADE Exchange, which opens and widens the distribution channel to the retail, community pharmacy. A purchasing pharmacy can view products from manufacturers, buying groups, and wholesalers on a real-time and continuous basis. This approach significantly enhances the competitive spirit of the exchange where the lowest price exists for each product at any given point in time. TRxADE has become a competitive tool for all progressive entities and is recognized for its easy searching of hard-to-find generic pharmaceuticals at substantially reduced prices.  
• RX Guru™ is an industry-leading price prediction model that integrates product shortage insight into pharmacy acquisition benchmarks (“PAC”) to ascertain trends and pricing variances that result in significant purchasing opportunities. RX Guru affords members the opportunity to continuously benefit from real price purchasing opportunities that are concealed from the rest of the industry. 
• Product Shortage Database – TRxADE maintains the most comprehensive retail, specialty and acute care pharmaceutical product shortage database in the country. Other industry competitors mainly restrict their efforts to specialty and acute care product shortages and narrowly research oral generic products. TRxADE’s advanced prediction tools help members source those hard-to-find products at affordable costs in a timely and easy-to-search process. 

Management Team 

Trxade’s management team is rich in expertise within the pharmaceutical supply chain and is supported by a base of advisors and contractors who are experts in related fields of the pharmaceutical sector.

Suren Ajjarapu – Chairman of the Board, Chief Executive Officer and Secretary
Suren Ajjarapu has served as Trxade’s chairman of the board, CEO and secretary since 2014, and as the chairman of the board, chief executive officer and secretary of Trxade Nevada since its inception. Ajjarapu also serves as a chairman of the board for Feeder Creek Group Inc., since March 2018. Ajjarapu formerly was a founder, CEO and chairman of Sansur Renewable Energy Inc., a company involved in developing wind power sites in the Midwest, United States; a founder, president and director of Aemetis Inc., a biofuels company (AMTX.OB); a founder, chairman and CEO of International Biofuels, a subsidiary of Aemetis Inc.; and a co-founder, COO, and director at Global Information Technology Inc., an IT outsourcing and systems design company. Ajjarapu holds an M.S. in environmental engineering from South Dakota State University, Brookings, South Dakota, and an MBA from the University of South Florida, specializing in international finance and management. Ajjarapu is also a graduate of the Venture Capital and Private Equity program at Harvard University.

Prashant Patel – Director, President and Chief Operating Officer
Prashant Patel has served as Trxade’s full-time president and COO, and as a director since the company’s acquisition of Trxade Nevada in 2014, and as the COO and president and as a director of Trxade Nevada since its inception. He has been a president and member of the board of Trxade since August 2010. Patel is a registered pharmacist and pharmaceutical consultant with over 10 years of experience in retail pharmacy and pharmaceutical logistics. He is the founder of several pharmacies in the Tampa Bay area, in Florida. Since 2008, Patel has been managing member of the APAA LLC pharmacy. Since 2007, Patel has been a vice president of Holiday Pharmacy Inc. Patel graduated from Nottingham University School of Pharmacy and practiced in the United Kingdom before obtaining his masters in Transport, Trade and Finance from Cass Business School, City University, UK.

TC BioPharm Holdings PLC (NASDAQ: TCBP)

TC BioPharm Holdings PLC (NASDAQ: TCBP) is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company pioneering the development and commercialization of gamma-delta T cell therapies for the treatment of cancer, with a particular focus on acute myeloid leukemia (AML). Gamma-delta T cells are unique immune cells that possess characteristics of both the innate and adaptive immune systems, allowing them to distinguish between healthy and diseased tissues. This dual capability makes them a powerful tool in the fight against cancer, and TC BioPharm is at the forefront of harnessing this potential to develop innovative therapeutics.

As the leader in gamma-delta T cell therapy development, TC BioPharm is the first company to advance to Phase II/pivotal clinical studies in oncology. The company is currently conducting two investigator-initiated clinical trials for its unmodified gamma-delta T cell product line, including a Phase 2b/3 pivotal trial for the treatment of acute myeloid leukemia. This trial utilizes TC BioPharm’s proprietary allogeneic CryoTC technology, which enables the production and distribution of frozen gamma-delta T cell products to clinics worldwide, ensuring broader accessibility and consistency in treatment.

TC BioPharm’s commitment to advancing gamma-delta T cell therapies reflects its broader mission to develop cutting-edge, immune-based treatments that address significant unmet medical needs in oncology. By leveraging the unique properties of gamma-delta T cells, the company aims to revolutionize cancer treatment and improve outcomes for patients with difficult-to-treat cancers like acute myeloid leukemia. With its pioneering approach and robust clinical pipeline, TC BioPharm is well-positioned to become a leader in the field of immuno-oncology.

TCB-008

TC BioPharm’s lead candidate, TCB-008, is an innovative allogeneic gamma-delta T cell therapy currently being evaluated in the ACHIEVE UK clinical trial, a Phase II study targeting patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) or myelodysplastic syndromes progressing to AML (MDS/AML). The trial is designed to assess the efficacy and safety of TCB-008 in two distinct patient cohorts: those with relapsed/refractory disease and those in remission but with detectable residual disease. Recently, the trial advanced to a higher dose level, with the sixth patient receiving treatment under the amended protocol, which includes up to 230 million cells per dose—a significant increase from the previous 35 million cells. This dose escalation aligns with the medium dose cohort proposed for the company’s FDA trial in AML, highlighting the company’s commitment to optimizing treatment efficacy.

The ACHIEVE trial represents a critical milestone in TC BioPharm’s development of TCB-008 as a potentially transformative therapy for AML. The ability to advance either cohort independently to a Phase III Pivotal Trial upon meeting primary efficacy endpoints underscores the trial’s flexibility and the potential for rapid progression. With plans to enroll up to 24 patients in each cohort and interim data expected within the next six to nine months, TC BioPharm is likely to achieve key inflection points in 2024. The promising safety and efficacy data generated so far, combined with the company’s strategic efforts to refine and escalate the dose of TCB-008, reinforce the candidate’s potential as a monotherapy and support ongoing discussions for potential combination therapy partnerships.

Market Opportunity

From an investment perspective, TC BioPharm is uniquely positioned within the rapidly expanding field of immuno-oncology, a market projected to grow substantially in the coming years. The company’s focus on gamma-delta T cell therapies, particularly in the treatment of acute myeloid leukemia (AML), sets it apart from competitors in the oncology space. As traditional cancer therapies continue to face challenges in terms of efficacy and patient tolerance, the novel approach of utilizing gamma-delta T cells offers a compelling alternative that could potentially capture significant market share. Investors looking for opportunities in breakthrough cancer therapies may find TC BioPharm’s innovative platform and clinical progress highly attractive.

Additionally, the company’s strategic use of its proprietary CryoTC technology, which facilitates the global distribution of its gamma-delta T cell products, positions TC BioPharm to scale rapidly upon successful clinical outcomes. This technology not only enhances the company’s operational efficiency but also broadens its potential reach in the global oncology market, including in regions where access to advanced therapies is limited. With the oncology sector experiencing continuous demand for new and effective treatments, TC BioPharm’s unique approach and scalable technology platform offer a promising investment opportunity with the potential for significant returns as the company progresses toward commercialization.

Leadership Team

Bryan Kobel is the Chief Executive Officer of TC BioPharm, having joined the company in June 2021. Before joining TC BioPharm, he held various senior positions in healthcare investment banking, including Managing Director roles at EF Hutton and the Alberleen Group, where he led deal origination and structuring across the healthcare and technology sectors. Mr. Kobel has a BA from Franklin & Marshall College and previously held several FINRA licenses, including Series 7, 63, 82, 79, and 24.

Martin Thorp has been a member of the Board of Directors of TC BioPharm since March 2016 and has served as the company’s Chief Financial Officer since March 2019. He is the founder of Copernican Capital Partners Limited, a life science financial advisory firm, and has an extensive background in corporate finance, having been a partner and global managing partner at Arthur Andersen & Co. Martin holds a BA in business finance from the University of Kent and qualified as a Chartered Accountant in 1977. He served in various executive roles throughout his career, including co-founding NCL Technology Ventures, a life science advisory and investment firm.

Tonix Pharmaceuticals Holding Corp. (NASDAQ: TNXP)

Tonix Pharmaceuticals Holding Corp. (NASDAQ: TNXP) is a fully-integrated biopharmaceutical company dedicated to developing, licensing, and commercializing innovative therapeutics aimed at treating and preventing human diseases and alleviating suffering. The company’s development portfolio is primarily focused on central nervous system (CNS) disorders, with its lead product candidate, TNX-102 SL, showing significant promise for the management of fibromyalgia. With two successful Phase 3 studies completed, Tonix is preparing to submit a New Drug Application (NDA) to the FDA in the second half of 2024 for TNX-102 SL, which has also been granted Fast Track designation. In addition to fibromyalgia, TNX-102 SL is being developed to treat acute stress reactions, further broadening its therapeutic potential.

Tonix’s CNS portfolio also includes TNX-1300, a biologic designed to treat cocaine intoxication, which has been granted Breakthrough Therapy designation by the FDA. This designation underscores the urgency and significance of developing an effective treatment for cocaine intoxication, a critical need in the healthcare system. Beyond CNS disorders, Tonix is expanding its immunology portfolio with the development of TNX-1500, a humanized monoclonal antibody targeting CD40-ligand (CD40L or CD154). TNX-1500 is being developed for the prevention of allograft rejection and the treatment of autoimmune diseases, highlighting Tonix’s commitment to addressing complex and challenging medical conditions.

In addition to its robust pipeline, Tonix has an established commercial presence through its subsidiary, Tonix Medicines, which markets Zembrace® SymTouch® (sumatriptan injection) 3 mg and Tosymra® (sumatriptan nasal spray) 10 mg for the treatment of acute migraine in adults. The company’s diverse portfolio, spanning CNS disorders, immunology, rare diseases, and infectious diseases, positions Tonix as a leader in biopharmaceutical innovation, with a strong focus on developing therapies that address unmet medical needs and improve patient outcomes.

TNX-102 SL

TNX-102 SL is a groundbreaking, non-opioid, non-addictive investigational drug developed by Tonix Pharmaceuticals for the management of fibromyalgia where patients suffer chronic musculoskeletal pain, sleep deprivation, fatigue and mood changes. This patented sublingual formulation of cyclobenzaprine hydrochloride has demonstrated remarkable efficacy in clinical trials, including the recent RESILIENT Phase 3 trial, where it achieved highly statistically significant results in reducing daily pain compared to placebo (p=0.00005). The drug also showed significant improvements in sleep quality, fatigue reduction, and overall fibromyalgia symptoms and function across all key secondary endpoints. With similar success in the earlier RELIEF Phase 3 trial, TNX-102 SL is positioned as a promising new treatment option for fibromyalgia, particularly given its favorable safety profile, where the most common side effect was mild and self-limiting tongue or mouth numbness.

Recently granted Fast Track Designation by the FDA, TNX-102 SL is on course for a New Drug Application (NDA) submission in the second half of 2024. This designation highlights the urgent need for new fibromyalgia treatments and underscores the drug’s potential to effectively address this challenging condition. With its strong clinical results and focus on improving multiple aspects of fibromyalgia, TNX-102 SL offers hope for patients seeking better management of their symptoms and represents a significant advancement in the treatment landscape for this debilitating disorder.

Market Opportunity

From an investment perspective, Tonix Pharmaceuticals is strategically positioned to capitalize on the growing demand for effective treatments in the central nervous system (CNS) disorder market, particularly within the fibromyalgia segment, which is estimated to affect up to 10 million people in the U.S. alone. With the potential approval of TNX-102 SL, Tonix could tap into a significant and underserved market, offering a non-opioid alternative for a condition that currently has limited treatment options. The recent positive results from the Phase 3 trials and the FDA’s Fast Track designation increase the likelihood of TNX-102 SL gaining market approval, which could significantly boost Tonix’s market share and revenue potential.

In addition to its lead candidate, Tonix’s diversified pipeline, which includes treatments for conditions such as cocaine intoxication and autoimmune diseases, broadens market opportunities and reduces single product dependency. The company’s established commercial presence with its migraine treatments, combined with the advancement of its CNS and immunology portfolios, positions Tonix to become a key player in the biopharmaceutical industry. As the company moves closer to potential product launches and reached new clinical milestones, it stands to attract substantial investor interest, offering significant upside potential as it addresses critical unmet needs across multiple therapeutic areas.

Leadership Team

Dr. Seth Lederman is the Co-Founder, CEO, and Chairman of Tonix Pharmaceuticals, bringing decades of experience in the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries. A trained physician and scientist, Dr. Lederman has been instrumental in leading Tonix’s strategic direction and advancing its pipeline of innovative therapeutics. He has a strong background in immunology and infectious diseases, with numerous contributions to medical research and drug development. Dr. Lederman earned his MD from Columbia University, where he also served as an Associate Professor.

Dr. Gregory Sullivan is the Chief Medical Officer of Tonix Pharmaceuticals, where he oversees the clinical development and regulatory strategy for the company’s therapeutic programs. With extensive experience in psychiatry and CNS disorders, Dr. Sullivan plays a key role in guiding Tonix’s clinical trials and ensuring the scientific rigor of its development efforts. Before joining Tonix, Dr. Sullivan had a distinguished career in academic medicine and clinical research. He holds an MD from the University of California, San Francisco, and has published widely on topics related to psychiatry and neurological disorders.

Torr Metals Inc. (TSX.V: TMET)

Torr Metals Inc. (TSX.V: TMET) operates as a mineral exploration company focusing on the identification, acquisition, and advancement of mineral properties. With full 100% ownership of over 1,000 square kilometers of gold and copper projects strategically positioned in premier low-cost mining jurisdictions, Torr is poised for substantial returns across various promising regions.

The company’s extensive portfolio encompasses multiple district-scale projects, including the Filion Gold Project in northern Ontario, the Kolos Copper-Gold Project in south-central British Columbia, and the Latham Copper-Gold Project in northern British Columbia. These projects are all located in prolific mining regions with paved highway access, robust support infrastructure, and favorable geological conditions offering significant potential for new discoveries.

Headquartered in Vancouver, British Columbia, Torr Metals is ideally situated to leverage its expertise and resources for continued exploration and growth.

Projects

Kolos Copper-Gold Project

Situated within British Columbia’s prime copper-producing belt, the 140-square-kilometer Kolos Copper-Gold Project exhibits Nicola Belt geology similar to notable porphyry mines, including Copper Mountain and Highland Valley, respectively situated 106 kilometers to the south and 30 kilometers to the northwest.

With field operations based in the nearby city of Merritt and year-round access provided via Highway 5, the Kolos Project showcases substantial discovery upside potential with five defined large-scale copper-gold-molybdenum anomalies untested by drilling.

Torr Metals’ primary focus lies in unlocking the potential for major new discoveries at the Kolos Copper-Gold Project, with recent surface geochemical results marking a significant milestone positioning the company as a new key player in the region.

Filion Gold Project

The 261-square-kilometer Filion Project is situated within a largely unexplored greenstone belt where gold was initially discovered in the 1930s. With a comparable geological setting to regional orogenic gold deposits and multiple newly identified and undrilled gold trends in surficial geochemistry, the Filion Project holds significant district-scale exploration promise.

The Filion Project benefits from unparalleled infrastructure access, with direct drive-on access from the Trans-Canada Highway, as well as a regional railway and power grid four kilometers to the south. Additionally, the nearby town of Kapuskasing, with a population of 8,300, provides essential support services.

This strategic positioning ensures the Filion Project’s viability for cost-effective, year-round operations in an area poised for untapped discovery potential.

Latham Copper-Gold Project

Situated in British Columbia’s renowned Golden Triangle, the Latham Project spans a vast 689-square-kilometer district, offering immense potential for multiple major discoveries. Accessible year-round via Highway 37, just 20 kilometers south of the town of Dease Lake, the site is strategically located amidst established mining infrastructure, including the active Red Chris mine to the southeast and upcoming major porphyry projects at Schaft Creek and Galore Creek along-trend to the southwest.

Highlighted by the Gnat Pass copper-gold porphyry deposit dating back to the 1960s, the Latham Project presents a compelling opportunity for significant expansion and potential discovery. A non-compliant indicated resource at the Gnat Pass deposit includes 33 million tonnes at 0.39% copper, open beyond 200 meters vertical depth, alongside six drill-ready kilometer-scale copper-gold exploration targets.

Moreover, the Latham Project’s appeal corresponds to the region being an attractive destination for major asset acquisitions and takeovers. Recent transactions within a 40-kilometer radius include Newmont’s 2021 acquisition of the Saddle North copper-gold porphyry deposit for $311 million and Newcrest’s investment in the Red Chris copper-gold porphyry deposit in 2019 for $804 million, underscoring industry acknowledgment of the region’s potential.

Market Opportunity

The World Gold Council, the industry association for the world’s gold producers, estimated in 2023 that the physical financial gold market, which is made up of bars, coins, gold ETFs and central bank reserves, is worth nearly $5 trillion.

The council reports that gold mine production adds approximately 3,500 tons of the precious metal to the world’s supply annually, equivalent to about 2% growth. This historical scarcity and relatively slow production of new supply, as compared to other commodities, is a primary reason gold has retained its value for millennia, according to the council.

Likewise, a report from Acumen Research and Consulting, a global provider of market intelligence and consulting services, valued the global copper market at $304.1 billion in 2022 and forecast that it will reach a market size of $496.8 billion by 2032, growing at a CAGR of 5.1% over the forecast period.

The report identifies a growing demand for copper in the electronics industry, as well as an expanding copper supply due to increasing production from existing mines and the rising number of mine development projects in developing nations, as driving factors in the rising value of the copper market.

Management Team

Malcolm Dorsey, P.Geo., is President, CEO and Director of Torr Metals. He brings over a decade of expertise as a seasoned exploration geologist and project developer, having been pivotal in driving the success of numerous diverse projects across North, Central, and South America. His comprehensive background spans early-stage exploration through to resource development and project acquisitions. His academic credentials include an M.Sc. in Geology and Geophysics from the University of Calgary, where his research characterized the district-scale structural influences affecting copper and gold mineralizing events in western British Columbia. Prior to his current role, he served as Senior Geologist for Benchmark Metals, where his contributions were instrumental in advancing the company’s gold equivalent resource from approximately 80,000 ounces to a maiden resource estimate of 2.92 million ounces.

John Williamson, P. Geol., is Chairman and Director of Torr Metals. He is a mining executive and investor with more than 30 years of experience as a founder, promoter and leader in the formation, financing and operation of private and public companies with exploration and mining interests worldwide. On more than one occasion his team’s efforts have been recognized for excellence by being named to the TSX Venture 50. He holds a B.Sc. in Geology and is a registered Professional Geologist (P.Geol.) with the Association of Professional Engineers and Geoscientists (APEGA) and the Geological Association of Canada.

Trillion Energy International Inc. (CSE: TCF) (OTCQB: TRLEF)

Trillion Energy International Inc. (CSE: TCF) (OTCQB: TRLEF), along with its consolidated subsidiaries, is a Canadian oil and gas exploration and production company with operations primarily focused in the Republic of Türkiye.

Headquartered in Canada, the company owns 49% of the SASB natural gas field, which is producing critical domestic supply of natural gas during Europe’s ongoing energy shortages. It also holds a 19.6% (except three wells with 9.8%) ownership interest in the Cendere Oil Field and has a farm-in agreement to earn 50% interest in three oil exploration blocks in southeast Türkiye called Cudi-Gabar.

Trillion Energy utilizes state-of-the-art technology and ingenious practices to produce and distribute oil and natural gas while still maintaining a commitment to sustainable and responsible operations. Whether through the development of new projects or optimizing existing assets, the company continues to seek new and innovative ways to drive growth and value for its stakeholders.

Headquartered in Vancouver, British Columbia, Trillion Energy is led by seasoned professionals who collectively boast over a century of energy exploration and development experience.

Projects

SASB Gas Field

The SASB Gas Field is producing and delivering critical domestic supplies of natural gas as energy shortages grip Europe due to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Located in the southwestern Black Sea, the SASB gas field consists of numerous conventional natural gas pools located in shallow water. The fields have produced over 43 billion cubic feet (BCF) since initial development in 2007 and continue to provide much needed energy to Türkiye and the EU. Total infrastructure to date, including production platforms, pipelines, initial wells and gas processing plant, cost in excess of $600 million.

Trillion Energy is redeveloping the field with a strategic planned program of approximately 17 wells which commenced in 2022. Phase B of the program, targeted for 2024/25, consists of the re-entry of five legacy wells to drill sidetrack development wells and one exploration stratigraphic well.

Cendere Oil Field

Trillion Energy’s Cendere oil field is a long-term, low decline, stable oil production field located in Türkiye. The company has a 19.6% interest in the field, except for three wells in which its interest is 9.8%.

Cash flow after operating costs from the field is $120,000 to $140,000 per month, with average current production netting the company 110-120 barrels of oil per day. Estimated remaining Cendere oil reserves total 1.5 million barrels (0.277 million barrels net Trillion Energy).

The gross value of Trillion Energy’s interest is estimated at $13.85 million (NPV10).

Cudi-Gabar

Trillion Energy’s 10-well oil exploration drilling program is occurring on three prospective oil blocks located in the prolific Cudi-Gabar oil province in southeast Türkiye. The total area of the three blocks is 374,325 acres.

Trillion Energy’s potential 50% working and revenue interest in the blocks is earned by paying 100% of the work program costs. The company will operate the exploration program.
During 2023/24, Trillion Energy will shoot 351 kilometers of 2D seismic (150 km already shot on the eastern block) and drill four wells. The remaining six wells will be paid 50% by Trillion and 50% by the company’s partner. The oil blocks are surrounded by more than 10 major oil discoveries, half of which are recent.

Market Opportunity

A January 2024 report by Emergen Research, a market research and consulting company, estimated the global natural gas market at $310.5 trillion in 2022 and projected the market will be worth $443.8 trillion by 2032, achieving a CAGR of 3.7% during the forecast period. Increasing global economic activity and rising electricity consumption are key factors driving revenue growth of the market, according to the report.

Trillion Energy reports strong demand for natural gas in Türkiye, which is the seventh-largest natural gas consuming country in the world. Türkiye currently imports 98% of the natural gas it consumes, with about 60% of those imports coming from Iran and Russia.

Management Team

Dr. Arthur Halleran is CEO and Director of Trillion Energy. He has a Ph.D. in Geology from the University of Calgary and 44 years of petroleum exploration and development experience. His international experience includes work in Canada, Colombia, Egypt, India, Guinea, Sierra Leone, Sudan, Suriname, Chile, Brazil, Bulgaria, Türkiye, Pakistan, Peru, Tunisia, Trinidad Tobago, Argentina, Ecuador and Guyana. Dr. Halleran has worked for Petro-Canada, Chevron, Rally Energy and United Hydrocarbon International Corp. In 2007, he founded Canacol Energy Ltd., now the largest natural gas producer in Colombia.

Al Thorsen is COO of Trillion Energy. He is responsible for production operations of the SASB gas field, as well as future drilling activities in Türkiye and abroad. Highlights of his career include Valeura Energy Inc. as operations manager in Türkiye; Journey Energy, leading a production team; Rio Alto Exploration as country manager and production manager; Zargon Oil and Gas as VP of Operations; Orleans Energy as VP of Operations; and Central Petroleum as COO. He holds a Bachelor of Science in Petroleum Engineering from Montana College of Mineral Science & Technology.

Turbo Energy S.A. (NASDAQ: TURB)

Turbo Energy S.A. (NASDAQ: TURB) designs, develops and distributes equipment for the generation, management and storage of photovoltaic energy in Spain, Europe and internationally.

Turbo Energy’s products include lithium-ion batteries and inverters. Additionally, the company recently launched its flagship product, the Sunbox, an all-in-one device that integrates most of the equipment required for a residential photovoltaic installation. The Sunbox is powered by AI and features a software system that monitors the generation, use and management of photovoltaic energy by analyzing large amounts of data related to energy generation, consumption, market prices and weather forecasts. This AI system optimizes battery usage, reducing electricity bills and providing peak-use reduction and uninterruptible power supply functions.

Turbo Energy currently sells its photovoltaic energy equipment primarily through distributors for residential consumers in Spain, but it possesses the expertise and international perspective to expand its product portfolio into industrial and commercial scale and markets, as well as advancing the internationalization process it has already started. The company plans to expand into the industrial photovoltaic sector with its new Sunbox, launched in 2023, in higher power and capacity variants. Its goal is to become a significant player in this sector and contribute to the growth of renewable energy solutions.

The company was incorporated in 2013 and is based in Valencia, Spain. It operates as a subsidiary of Umbrella Solar Investment S.A.

Products

Lithium-Ion Batteries

Turbo Energy is one of the leading companies that introduced lithium-ion batteries for photovoltaic energy storage in Spain. Primarily for the home energy storage market, the company’s batteries have capacities from 2.24 kWh to 5.1 kWh in 24 and 48 volts. In addition, its 48V / 5.1 kWh units are available in a dual battery system.

Inverters

The inverter converts the direct current produced by the photovoltaic panels into alternating current that can be used by household appliances. It also regulates battery charging and discharging based on energy needs and optimizes utilization of generated renewable energy. Turbo Energy currently offers multiple models that cover most household installations.

All-in-One Sunbox

This product incorporates inverters, batteries and the rest of the components necessary to operate and protect the photovoltaic installation. This saves installation cost and assembly and configuration time while preventing errors. Notably, the latest Sunbox models also offer an EV charging option.

Software System

In communication with the inverter, the company’s software monitors energy flows between the photovoltaic panels, household consumption, storage and an optional electric vehicle charging station. The software allows users to customize an automatic backup mode based on weather forecasts, or manually select which part of the battery will be reserved for possible power outages. It also allows the battery to be used in a peak shaving mode, which leverages AI to trigger battery power when grid energy is most expensive, effectively reducing the amount of high-cost power drawn from the grid.

Market Opportunity

According to a report by Fortune Business Insights, a global research and reporting firm, the solar energy storage battery market was estimated to be worth $3.33 billion in 2022 and is projected to reach a value of more than $20 billion by 2030, marking a CAGR of 24.2% over the forecast period.

These batteries are crucial components of renewable energy systems, allowing for the storage of excess electricity generated by solar panels, so it can be used during times of no or low sunlight. By storing energy and supplying it when needed, these batteries reduce reliance on the power grid and maximize self-consumption while helping users avoid peak electricity rates. They also contribute to the transition toward a cleaner and more sustainable energy future by enabling residential consumers and businesses to use solar power even when the sun is not shining.

Management Team

Enrique Selva Bellvís is the CEO and founder of the Umbrella Group. In addition, he serves as vice-president of the Valencian Association of Energy Sector Companies industry group. Before his career in the solar energy sector, he was the founder and CEO of Innova Ingenieros Consultores. He holds a degree in industrial engineering with a specialization in energy from the Polytechnic University of Valencia and completed the Management Development Programme at the IESE Business School.

Mariano Soria is the Chief Innovation Officer for the Umbrella Group and serves as General Manager of Turbo Energy. He was CEO of Punt Moble XXI S.L. and continues to serve on that company’s board. Before that, he was the General Manager of REJMAR S.A., a land development company. He received his degree in industrial engineering and industrial organization from the Polytechnic University of Valencia, and his MBA from the European University of Madrid.

Alejandro Moragues is CFO of Turbo Energy. Previously, he held the position of Senior Corporate Auditor for U.S. company Euronet Worldwide Inc. and was an external auditor for PricewaterhouseCoopers. He holds a bachelor’s degree in business administration and management from the Polytechnic University of Valencia.

Manuel Cercos is Chief Commercial Officer at Turbo Energy. Previously, he held positions at Técnicas Aplicadas en Baterías S.L., where he served as Sales Director and Sales Manager. Before that, he worked as a Sales Technician at DAISA.

Uranium Energy Corp. (NYSE American: UEC)

Uranium Energy Corp. (NYSE American: UEC) is a U.S.-based uranium mining and exploration company that controls one of the country’s largest historical uranium exploration and development databases. Founded in 2003, UEC is headquartered in Corpus Christi, Texas. Properties acquired by the company are primarily located within the United States, including Texas, New Mexico, Colorado, Arizona and Wyoming.

Through the use of historical exploration data, UEC has been able to target and acquire properties that have already been subject to exploration and development by senior energy firms in the past.

UEC is well-financed to aggressively pursue key developmental targets. The company is also well-positioned to capitalize on rising global demand for more uranium and more carbon-free energy, and it uses technology that contributes to a cleaner environment.

In-Situ Recovery (ISR) Technology

In-situ recovery (ISR) technology is a low-cost and environmentally friendly mining technology utilized by UEC at its fully licensed projects, including Palangana, Burke Hollow, Goliad and Reno Creek.

ISR technology involves the circulation of naturally occurring and benign groundwater through a uranium ore body. This natural water (that is unfit for any other use) plus oxygen is pumped into injection wells through the uranium ore body, where the uranium in the host sandstone is oxidized and solubilized. The uranium bearing groundwater continues to flow through the sandstone to the extraction wells, where it is pumped to the surface. This water proceeds to an ion exchange unit (like a big water-softener) for uranium removal, then is pumped back to the wellfield and again re-circulated through the ore body. This recirculation of the same groundwater continues over and over, until the uranium in the sandstone is depleted.

In the ion exchange process, the extracted uranium in solution is concentrated on resin beads for transport to the Hobson Processing Facility. There, the uranium then undergoes several simple processing steps before being dried and packaged as “yellowcake” that will be transported to a conversion facility, where its sold to UEC customers.

Hobson Processing Plant

Hobson is the centerpiece in UEC’s hub and spoke production strategy, with low-cost satellite ISR operations all within relatively short trucking distance. The plant is fully licensed and currently on standby with an annual production capacity of 2 million pounds of U3O8. The spokes of the UEC strategy include the Palangana, Burke Hollow, Goliad, Salvo and Longhorn ISR projects. With an improvement in uranium prices that justify production, UEC plans to restart the plant with uranium loaded resins originating first from Palangana and then followed by Burke Hollow. UEC has applied for a license amendment with the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality to increase the Hobson facility’s production capacity to 4 million pounds per year.

Current Projects

Uranium Energy’s current project portfolio includes:

• Texas – Hobson Processing Plant, Palangana Mine, Goliad, Burke Hollow, Salvo and Longhorn
• Wyoming – Reno Creek
• Paraguay – Oviedo, Yuty and Alto Paraná
• New Mexico – Dalton Pass and C de Baca
• Colorado – Long Park and Slick Rock
• Arizona – Anderson, Los Cuatros and Workman Creek
• Canada – Diabase

Uranium Market Outlook

The long-term fundamentals underlying the market continue to strengthen. Currently, UEC sees an annual gap of about 40 million pounds between uranium production and utility requirements. Current forecasts show this structural deficit persisting at least through 2026 and then expanding further to almost 70 million pounds per year by 2030. While secondary supplies have been filling the void, those supplies are not a sustainable long term supply source. There are different estimates on timing, but it is clear secondary supply (that includes inventory drawdowns) will be insufficient to fill the projected gap between supply and demand, and new production will be required. As this transition evolves, the market will become more production cost driven as opposed to inventory driven.

Higher priced contracts that have supported high production costs are continuing to roll out of producer and utility supply portfolios. These higher priced contracts are not replaceable, with current market prices below production costs for the vast majority of western producers. This will likely continue the trend of production cuts and deferrals until prices rise sufficiently to sustain long-term mining operations.

In the U.S., some of the foreign State-Owned Enterprise (“SOE”) supply that has been flooding the market will be reduced. Last year, the U.S. Department of Commerce negotiated an amendment to the Agreement Suspending the Antidumping Investigation on Uranium from the Russian Federation that reduces America’s dependence on Russian natural uranium concentrates by up to 75% from prior levels. Due to a prolonged weak pricing environment from an influx of price insensitive supply from SOEs, U.S. production is effectively zero, less than 1% of U.S. requirements.

On the demand side of the equation, further upside market pressure also appears likely to evolve as utilities return to a longer-term contracting cycle to replace expiring contracts. Over the longer term, there continues to be underlying and increasing demand building, as the globe continues a push toward carbon-free energy goals. Those goals will require the 24/7, base load, clean energy that nuclear power provides as part of the overall supply mix. A good example of that policy messaging came from Japan’s energy minister, who recently said he considers nuclear energy “indispensable” if the country is to meet its net-zero carbon emission goals.

Exacerbating the overall supply picture, lead times for new production typically range from seven to 10 years or longer. The market appears to be within the time frames required for investment to bring new supply online to meet those lead times. However, prices are not yet at levels that incentivize future production, increasing the probability of the potential for less supply than the market is currently pricing in. All things considered, UEC believes the supply and demand fundamentals should continue to exert upward pressure on uranium prices.

Management Team

Spencer Abraham is Chairman of the Board for UEC. He served as the 10th U.S. Secretary of Energy from 2001 to 2005. He is an honors graduate of Michigan State University and Harvard Law School, and he was a law professor at the Thomas M. Cooley School of Law. He was elected chairman of the Michigan Republican Party in 1983 and later served as deputy chief of staff in the office of the vice president and as co-chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee. In 1994, Mr. Abraham was elected to the United States Senate from Michigan and has also served as a director of Occidental Petroleum and as the non-executive chairman of AREVA’s U.S. board.

Amir Adnani is the Chief Executive Officer, President and Director of Uranium Energy. He advanced the company from concept to United States production within its first five years. Mr. Adnani has developed an extensive pipeline of low-cost and near-term production projects. He is the founder and Chairman of GoldMining Inc. (TSX: GOLD) (OTCQX: GLDLF), a gold-resources acquisition and development firm. He is also the Chairman of Uranium Royalty Corp. (TSX.V: URC). Mr. Adnani holds a Bachelor of Science from the University of British Columbia. He is a director of the University’s Alumni Association.

Scott Melbye is the company’s Executive Vice President. He is a 36-year veteran of the nuclear energy industry and has held numerous leadership positions in major uranium mining firms. He is also the current President, CEO and Director of Uranium Royalty Corp. He is an advisor to the Nuclear Energy Program at the Colorado School of Mines. Prior to his work at Uranium Participation Corp., Mr. Melbye worked for Cameco Inc. for 22 years. He received a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration with a specialization in International Business from Arizona State University in 1984.

Bruce Nicholson is the company’s Vice President of Corporate Development. He has spent 16 years as a specialist in the industry, serving major United States and European banks, broker-dealers and investment funds. Mr. Nicholson is a member of the Minerals Economics and Management Society, Minerals Industry Analyst Group, and the New York Society of Securities Analysts. He graduated with an MBA in Finance from Rutgers University in 1995 and is a CFA charter holder.

Vision Marine Technologies Inc. (NASDAQ: VMAR)

Vision Marine Technologies Inc. (NASDAQ: VMAR) is a global leader and innovator within the performance electric recreational boating industry. The company is engaged in designing and manufacturing electric outboard powertrain systems and related technology. It strives to be a guiding force for change and an ongoing driving factor in fighting the problems associated with waterway pollution by disrupting the traditional boating industry with electric power, in turn directly contributing to zero pollution, zero emission and a noiseless environment.

Vision Marine manufactures hand-crafted, highly durable, low maintenance, environmentally friendly electric recreational powerboats. The company’s business segments include the sale and rental of electric boats, with the majority of its revenue attributable to electric boat sales.

The designs and technology applied to Vision Marine’s boats result in enhanced performance, higher speeds and longer range. Put simply, Vision Marine boats offer a smoother ride than a traditional internal combustion engine motorboat.

The company is headquartered in Montreal.

Products

Vision Marine’s flagship E-Motion™ 180E electric marine powertrain is the first fully electric outboard powertrain combining advanced battery pack, inverter and high efficiency motor with proprietary union assembly between the transmission and motor. Vision Marine’s E-Motion and related technologies in this system utilize extensive control software and are uniquely designed to improve the efficiency of the outboard powertrain. As a result, both range and performance are enhanced.

More than a powerful electric outboard motor, the 180E is a complete powertrain package. The high-tech, marine-specific motor is equipped with multi-sensor captors and independent cooling, providing 180 horsepower.

An onboard charging system allows for quick and easy charging from any shore outlet, whether the vessel is in or out of the water. It implements cutting-edge marine battery packs that are IP67 certified and built to withstand the harshest marine environments. The system is glycol cooled with a controlled heat exchanger, ensuring optimal performance and longevity. A stainless-steel casing protects the battery from corrosion and physical damage over time.

The 180E is built to be integrated with many boat models produced by other marine manufacturers. Since boat manufacturers rarely build their own engines, instead choosing to source them from engine manufacturers, Vision Marine believes the 180E propulsion system can in the future end up powering nearly every recreational boat.

Market Opportunity

According to a report from Future Market Insights, a certified market research organization, the global electric boats market is expected to grow from a value of $5.6 billion in 2023 to $15.1 billion by 2033, achieving a CAGR of 10.4% during the forecast period.

Factors driving growth include rising seaborne commerce activities, a flourishing marine tourism industry and stringent emissions regulations aimed at reducing pollution. In addition, government support for electric speedboat adoption, advances in technological development and research and forecast expansion of needed charging infrastructure are credited as growth drivers.

An emphasis on reducing carbon emissions and encouraging consumer adoption of eco-friendly boats is also likely to drive expansion of the market, the report states.

Management Team

Alexandre Mongeon is Co-Founder and CEO of Vision Marine Technologies. He has served as CEO since 2014. Prior to that, he imported high-performance boats from the United States to Canada for more than 15 years. During much of that time, he also worked as a designer and contractor and managed several new construction projects on the waterfront in and around Montreal. He is a graduate of the School of Construction in Laval, Quebec, with a specialization in electrical systems.

Xavier Montagne is Chief Technical Officer at Vision Marine. Prior to joining the company, he was the CEO of Mac Engineering for six years. While there, he was the electric powerline architect of the Renault Trezor concept car (awarded 2016 Best Concept Car), technical designer of the Zoe E-sport race car driven in Formula-E races from 2016-2019 and senior battery designer for Forsee Power, SAFT, Renault and Peugeot in Europe, to mention a few of the many projects he headed. He received an electronic engineer diploma from IFITEP Paris Polytech in France.

Kulwant Sandher is CFO at Vision Marine. He is a Chartered Professional Accountant with more than 25 years of experience in business and finance. He has served as CFO of multiple public and private companies, including ElectraMeccanica Vehicles Corp., MineSense Technologies Inc., Alba Mineral Ltd., Delta Oil & Gas, Astorius Resources Ltd., Norsemont Mining Inc. and Intigold Mines Ltd. He graduated from Queen Mary College, University of London.

VistaGen Therapeutics Inc. (NASDAQ: VTGN)

VistaGen Therapeutics Inc. (NASDAQ: VTGN) is a biopharmaceutical company committed to developing and commercializing a new generation of medications that go beyond the standard of care for anxiety, depression and other central nervous system (CNS) disorders.

The company is headquartered in South San Francisco, California, the “Birthplace of Biotechnology,” among the largest cluster of biotechnology companies in the world.

New Generation Medications

VistaGen currently has three innovative CNS drug candidates in its pipeline: PH94B, PH10 and AV-101. With a differentiated mechanism of action and an exceptional safety profile in all clinical studies to date, each of VistaGen’s three drug candidates offers significant commercialization potential in multiple large CNS markets.

PH94B

Fast-acting (10-15 minutes), non-systemic and non-sedating in Phase 2 clinical studies, PH94B is a first-in-class neuroactive nasal spray that, administered in microgram doses, binds to chemosensory receptors in the nasal passage that trigger neural circuits responsible for suppressing fear and anxiety caused by stressful social or performance situations.

PH94B is currently being developed as an acute treatment of anxiety in adults with Social Anxiety Disorder (SAD). In December 2019, PH94B became the first drug candidate to be granted Fast Track designation by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for development of a treatment for SAD, positioning it to potentially become the first FDA-approved fast-acting acute treatment for adults with the anxiety disorder, if planned Phase 3 studies are successful.

A successful Phase 2 program has been completed, and, after achieving consensus with the FDA in mid-2020 that the design of its Phase 3 studies of PH94B in SAD may mirror the design of the highly statistically significant (p=0.002) Phase 2 public speaking study of PH94B in SAD, the company’s preparations for pivotal Phase 3 clinical development of PH94B are underway.

To support Phase 3 development and commercialization of PH94B for anxiety disorders in large anxiety disorder markets in Asia, VistaGen recently entered into a strategic licensing and collaboration agreement with EverInsight Therapeutics, a company formed and currently funded by a large global venture capital firm, CBC Group. The company received a $5 million non-dilutive upfront license payment from EverInsight in August 2020. If Phase 3 development is successful, VistaGen is eligible to receive additional development and commercial milestone payments of up to $172 million, plus tiered royalties on sales of PH94B in Greater China, South Korea and Southeast Asia. VistaGen retains exclusive rights to develop and commercialize PH94B in all other markets.

VistaGen is also assessing potential Phase 2A clinical development opportunities to evaluate PH94B in a range of other anxiety disorders, including:

• Adjustment Disorder with Anxiety
• Generalized Anxiety Disorder
• Postpartum Anxiety
• Perioperative Anxiety
• Panic Disorder
• PTSD

PH10

PH10 is an investigational fast-acting synthetic neuroactive nasal spray with therapeutic potential in a wide range of neuropsychiatric indications involving depression and suicidal ideation. VistaGen is initially developing PH10 as a potential fast-acting, non-sedating, non-addictive new generation treatment of major depressive disorder (MDD).

Upon self-administration, a microgram-level dose of PH10 sprayed into the nose binds to nasal chemosensory receptors that, in turn, activate neural circuits in the brain that lead to rapid-onset antidepressant effects, without side effects, systemic exposure or safety concerns that may be caused by FDA-approved drug treatments for MDD, including oral antidepressants and intranasal esketamine.

In a published exploratory Phase 2A MDD study, PH10 demonstrated rapid-onset and sustained antidepressant effects without the serious psychological side effects and safety concerns of ketamine-based therapy.

Following successfully completed Phase 2A development of PH10 for MDD, the company is currently preparing for a Phase 2B program in MDD.

VistaGen is also assessing the potential for Phase 2A clinical development of PH10 in a range of other depression-related indications, including:

• Postpartum Depression
• Treatment-resistant Depression
• Suicidal Ideation

AV-101

Part of a class of new generation investigational medicine in neurology and neuropsychiatry known as N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor (NMDAR) modulators, AV-101 is an oral prodrug of 7-chloro-kynurenic acid (7-Cl-KYNA), a potent and selective NMDAR glycine site antagonist. This drug candidate has the potential to serve as an innovative treatment for MDD and multiple neurological indications where current therapies are unsatisfactory.

VistaGen is currently evaluating AV-101, in combination with FDA-approved probenecid, in a range of neuropsychiatric and neurological indications, with both MDD and Neuropathic Pain already granted Fast Track designation by the FDA. The company is assessing the combination for a potential Phase 1B study to support a potential Phase 2A program in one or more of the following indications:

• Major Depressive Disorder
• Neuropathic Pain
• Levodopa-induced dyskinesia associated with Parkinson’s disease therapy
• Epilepsy
• Suicidal Ideation

CNS Therapeutics Market Outlook

The global CNS therapeutics market is estimated to reach $130 billion by 2025. The market was valued at approximately $82.3 billion in 2017 and is anticipated to grow at a healthy CAGR of more than 5.93% from 2018 to 2025. Even before the onset of the anxiety- and depression-provoking stressors from the COVID-19 pandemic, this growth was expected to be driven by a rise in mental illnesses and increased awareness of psychiatric disorders (https://nnw.fm/K2m0s) – all likely to be amplified by the diverse impacts of the pandemic.

The two most common mental health conditions – anxiety and depression – cost the global economy an estimated $1 trillion each year. The impact of these conditions is particularly devastating among the young. Industry data suggest that approximately 20% of the world’s children and teens are affected by mental health conditions, and suicide is the leading cause of death among 15- to 29-year-olds (https://nnw.fm/oftNb).

VistaGen’s mission is to help address the unmet needs of patients suffering from CNS disorders whose current treatments are either inadequate or generate debilitating side effects and serious safety concerns, including risk of abuse and death.

“Now more than ever, the new generation anti-anxiety and antidepressant medications we are developing at VistaGen – PH94B, PH10 and AV-101 – are relevant, necessary and demand the highly-focused and passionate efforts of our team and partners, with the support of our stockholders, to advance them to patients whose lives are disrupted by anxiety and depression disorders,” VistaGen CEO and Director Shawn K. Singh said in his closing remarks at the company’s 2020 Annual Meeting of stockholders.

Management Team

Shawn K. Singh, J.D. is the Chief Executive Officer and a Director of VistaGen. He has served on the company’s board of directors since 2000. He has nearly 30 years of experience serving in numerous senior management roles across multiple industries, including private and public biotechnology, pharmaceuticals, medical devices, venture capital, contract research and development, and law. Singh has a B.A. with honors from the University of California – Berkley. He has a J.D. degree from the University of Maryland Carey School of Law. He is also a member of the State Bar of California.

H. Ralph Snodgrass, Ph.D., is the Founder, Chief Scientific Officer and Director of the company. Snodgrass has more than 20 years of experience in the biotechnology field as a senior manager. He is recognized as an expert in stem cell biology, with over 28 years of experience using stem cells as biological research tools to promote development and drug discovery. He received a Ph.D. in immunology from the University of Pennsylvania. Snodgrass has published over 50 scientific papers with more than 17 patents and a number of patent applications.

Mark A. Smith, M.D., Ph.D., is VistaGen’s Chief Medical Officer He has over 20 years of pharmaceutical industry experience, primarily with CNS drug development. Smith has been a successful leader in the discovery and development of approximately 20 investigational new drugs. He has been a part of numerous CNS-related clinical trials. Smith received a bachelor’s and Master of Science from Yale University and a Doctor of Medicine and Doctor of Philosophy in Physiology and Pharmacology from the University of California – San Diego. He completed his residency in the psychiatry department at Duke University Medical Center.

Jerrold D. Dotson, CPA, is the Vice President, Chief Financial Officer and Secretary of VistaGen. He has over 25 years of experience in senior management positions in finance and administration at both public and private companies. Dotson is a licensed CPA in California and received his B.S. degree (Cum Laude) in business administration with a concentration in accounting from Abilene Christian College.

Mark A. McPartland is the company’s Vice President of Corporate Development and Investor Relations. He has over 20 years of experience in senior management roles in corporate development and investor relations at both public and private companies. McPartland received his Bachelor’s in business administration and marketing from Coastal Carolina University.

Vivos Therapeutics Inc. (NASDAQ: VVOS)

Headquartered in Denver, Colorado, Vivos Therapeutics Inc. (NASDAQ: VVOS) is an emerging global leader in the treatment of mild-to-moderate obstructive sleep apnea (OSA), a debilitating condition affecting nearly 1 billion people worldwide. The company utilizes proprietary, ground-breaking technology, a proven go-to-market strategy, and a powerful executive team dedicated to changing the face of health care by helping people of all ages properly breathe and sleep.

At the core of Vivos’ mission to rid the world of mild-to-moderate OSA is the Vivos System®, a revolutionary clinical breakthrough in the treatment of mild-to-moderate sleep apnea often caused by craniofacial anatomy development. The Vivos System® multidisciplinary treatment protocol involves collaboration between physicians, specially-trained dentists who have completed advanced training in craniofacial sleep medicine, and other ancillary health care providers.

In support of its growth strategy, Vivos has established contract manufacturing facilities in the U.S., Canada and Asia.

Market & Technology Overview

Craniofacial developmental deficiencies, such as underdeveloped upper and lower jaws, are among the leading causes of OSA. According to a 2019 analysis from researchers at the University of California, San Diego, an estimated 81 million adults in North and South America suffer from moderate to severe OSA. The United States has the highest amount of these patients, with approximately 54 million adults affected, according to the report.

Registered with the FDA as a Specification Developer, Vivos develops and markets a number of oral appliances. Its technology represents the first non-surgical, non-invasive and cost-effective treatment for the estimated hundreds of millions of people globally who suffer from mild-to-moderate OSA.

Vivos integrates its specially designed, customized appliances into a patient-specific, multi-disciplinary clinical protocol, giving trained dental and medical providers the tools and roadmap needed to address certain craniofacial conditions that studies have shown to be associated with sleep-disordered breathing—including mild-to-moderate OSA.

The system’s treatment protocol involves collaboration between physicians, specially trained dentists who have received advanced training in craniofacial sleep medicine, and additional health care providers. Vivos-trained clinicians can be found in almost every major city in the U.S. and in many countries throughout the world. The company’s oral appliances have shown to be effective in over 15,000 patients successfully treated worldwide by approximately 1,200 trained dentists.

A New Paradigm in Sleep Medicine

Vivos’ proprietary system poses the potential to be the biggest breakthrough in the treatment of mild-to-moderate OSA since CPAP.

The Vivos System has been specifically designed to promote the proper growth and development of the hard and soft tissues surrounding and comprising the oral cavity, nasal cavity, upper and lower jaws, and other tissues which together form and shape the upper airway. As these areas develop more fully using the Vivos System, a patient’s airway typically widens and expands, enabling them to breathe properly through their nose. With a more open and less obstructed airway, and easier nocturnal breathing, the symptoms of SDB tend to diminish over time, and patients often report they no longer suffer from the adverse effects of SDB or OSA.

Use of the Vivos System is variable and case dependent, but typically recommended to be worn daily for 12 to 16 hours starting in the early evening and continuing overnight. The total treatment time typically ranges from 12 to 24 months, with 18 months being the approximate mean treatment time.

Biomimetic Oral Appliance

Vivos Therapeutics believes that the Vivos System technology represents the first non-surgical, non-invasive and cost-effective treatment focr people with mild-to-moderate OSA.

Combining technologies and protocols that can alter the size, shape and position of the tissues of a patient’s upper airway, the Vivos System opens airway space and can significantly reduce symptoms and conditions associated with mild-to-moderate OSA.

The Vivos System treatment is typically less than $10,000 and is often reimbursable by medical insurance as an out-of-network benefit.

A potentially serious medical problem with an alternative treatment therapy available in the dental office.

Hard and soft tissues of the craniofacial complex can be non-surgically enhanced using the proprietary Vivos® System devices and clinical protocols.

Leadership

R. Kirk Huntsman – CEO, Director
With experience in strategic development, technology acquisition and product planning, key talent recruitment, and target market prioritization, Huntsman brings a broad vision paired with leadership and strategic planning skills. He has significant start-up experience in a diverse range of market sectors, including medical devices, dental management, dental practice valuations and transitions, multi-location retail, financial and capital formation, consulting, outsourced services, imports and exports (China), medical services, and software and technology.

Dr. Dave Singh – Founder, Director
A doctor three times over in dental medicine, craniofacial development, and orthodontics, Dr. Singh was educated primarily in England and has lectured in North America, Europe, Asia, and Africa. The Global Summits Institute recently named Dr. Singh as one of the Top 100 Doctors in Dentistry.

Wheaton Precious Metals Corp. (TSX: WPM) (NYSE: WPM)

Wheaton Precious Metals Corp. (TSX: WPM) (NYSE: WPM) is one of the largest precious metals streaming companies in the world. It generates revenue primarily from the sale of precious metals and cobalt while offering investors cost predictability, direct leverage to increasing precious metals prices and a high-quality asset base.

Wheaton seeks to be the world’s premier precious metals investment vehicle, delivering value through streaming to all stakeholders. The company has entered into agreements to purchase all or a portion of the precious metals or cobalt production from high quality mines for an upfront payment and an additional payment upon delivery of the metal. By crystallizing value for precious metals yet to be produced, Wheaton works with its partners to unlock and create value.

Wheaton currently has streaming agreements for 18 operating mines and 27 development stage projects. The company’s production profile is driven by a portfolio of low cost, long-life assets, including a gold stream on Vale’s Salobo mine and a silver stream on Newmont’s Penasquito mine.

With its portfolio of long-life, low-cost assets, Wheaton’s business model offers investors exposure to commodity prices and exploration upside with a much lower risk profile than a traditional mining company. Wheaton delivers among the highest cash operating margins in the mining industry, allowing it to pay a competitive dividend and continue to grow through accretive acquisitions. As a result, Wheaton has consistently outperformed gold and silver, as well as other mining investments.

The company is headquartered in Vancouver, British Columbia. Wheaton is committed to strong ESG practices and giving back to the communities in which its mining partners operate.

Business Model

The company’s 18 operating mines and 27 development projects in North, Central and South America; Australia; Europe and Africa produce gold, silver, palladium, platinum and cobalt.

Wheaton’s streaming advantage comes from investing in high quality assets with predictable production costs. As of July 2024, 93% of Wheaton’s current production comes from high margin mines operating in the lower half of their respective cost curves.

The company has contractually defined cost-per-ounce production agreements protecting it from inflationary cost pressures. This cost predictability, with delivery payments per ounce predetermined, translates into direct exposure to potential increases in precious metal prices, providing investors with some of the highest sustainable margins in the industry.

The company has entered into precious metals purchase agreements with 32 different mining companies for the purchase of precious metals and cobalt relating to 18 operating mining assets, in addition to 23 at various stages of development and four that have been placed in care and maintenance or have been closed. These mining assets are located across 16 countries.

Wheaton acquires mine production from its partners generally at or below the prevailing market price. The primary drivers of the company’s financial results are the volume of metal production at the various mining assets to which the precious metal purchase agreements relate and the price realized by Wheaton upon sale of the metals it receives.

Wheaton is actively pursuing future growth opportunities, primarily by way of entering into additional precious metal purchase agreements.

Market Opportunity

The World Gold Council, the industry association for the world’s gold producers, estimated in 2023 the physical financial gold market, which is made up of bars, coins, gold ETFs and central bank reserves, is worth nearly $5 trillion. The council reports that gold mine production adds approximately 3,500 tons of the precious metal to the world’s supply annually, equivalent to about 2% growth.

This historical scarcity and relatively slow production of new supply, as compared to other commodities, is a primary reason gold has retained its value for millennia, according to the council. In July 2024, the market price of gold was approximately $2,450 per ounce.

The Silver Institute, the association of the silver industry, reported in April 2024 that silver use in industrial applications set a new record high in 2023 at 654.4 million ounces (Moz). This figure excludes silver used in production of jewelry or in ornamental and decorative applications.