HeyBryan Media: Home maintenance should be easy, safe and a few app-clicks away

HeyBryan Media (CSE:HEY) has its sights set on becoming to the home maintenance industry what Uber Technologies is to the transportation industry – a genuine disrupter.

In 2018, technologist and entrepreneur Lance Montgomery created the HeyBryan app, which seamlessly pairs homeowners and tradespeople. In short, the handyman app gives harried homeowners instant access to reliable experts in their zip code who can handle everything from electrical repairs to plumbing, and more.

Every expert undergoes a background check to ensure a safe experience. Montgomery, who has a strong track record of taking companies public, has done a good job of propelling HeyBryan’s user base, with the company recently announcing average monthly customer growth of some 115% since the beginning of 2019. Having contractor and TV personality Bryan Baeumler playing a key role in the business has certainly helped to drive that growth.

Public Entrepreneur caught up with Montgomery recently to talk about how he is creating a carpe diem moment for the company by tapping Canada’s $50 billion home maintenance market, while eyeing the even larger US market.

Can you share the story about how HeyBryan Media started?

HeyBryan started from a personal experience, as do most successful startups. One day, I came home and the dishwasher was broken. I did what everyone does and googled “dishwasher repair Vancouver” and got served with paid ads. Frustrated, I tried Craigslist and wasn’t comfortable with what I found. I didn’t feel confident about who would come, and what I would be charged. Are they vetted? Will they even show up? These are things homeowners deal with every day; it’s the small tasks that we all need done and it’s hard to find help.

So, I decided to research the space and really didn’t find anything that worked in Canada. That’s how HeyBryan Media was born.

Tell us about your marketplace app and what it does.

HeyBryan connects homeowners to home maintenance experts in your area, on your schedule. All experts are vetted and verified. It’s really an end-to-end solution that brings the connection together. Everything happens in-app – scheduling, payment, chat, ratings, reviews and rescheduling.

On the expert side, we provide the opportunity to work when you want and where you want. They set their own rates and get paid fast through the app, with money deposited in their account. We bring the business to them and allow both sides of the marketplace to rate and review each other. This gives us great data on the quality of the work and where experts rank in our system.

How long did it take the company to develop the app and line up reliable experts?

The app started slowly with just our CTO and me working on it in our spare time. But as we raised money, we were able to get additional support to speed up the process. To go live in Vancouver, we did a 30-day recruitment, so all in all it was 12 months from idea to first city launch.

Typically, does the tradesperson vetting process take a lot of time?

We partnered with Certn, an AI-based company that does ID/criminal and background checks in real time. We then have our customer success team onboard them, so it’s fairly quick. We currently have around 600 experts on the platform.

What are your key markets and how do you expect them to shape up?

We are currently live in Vancouver and Toronto with plans to expand across Canada in 2020. Our marketing efforts are showing growth in both markets and the focus is now on repeat customers, referrals and new customer acquisition, but the growth is solid. Future plans call for entering the United States.

What are the hallmarks of an innovative company and does HeyBryan fit the bill?

I think innovation is solving or disrupting an industry. This small task space has been painted with a negative brush and our goal is to change this perception. We are adding technology to a very outdated industry and bringing value to both the homeowner and the experts — this is highly innovative.

How important is it to have a company like HeyBryan with an aging Canadian population?

Peoples’ homes are their biggest asset and research shows that people are staying in their homes longer and home maintenance is a massive market. As the population ages, it’s important to have a trusted solution for this demographic so they can get help around the house with no worry.

Is the HeyBryan app the number 1 app for averting DIY (do it yourself) mishaps?

Yes, with a trusted brand like Bryan Baeumler, we feel we are number 1. There’s always competition, but we share the same values as Bryan and want to be the go-to home maintenance solution. We focus on the small tasks, so we are not looking to get into large renos, but if you maintain your home properly, you can avert larger disasters. Take a car – if you maintain it, the car will last longer, and you can avoid the engine blowing up.

Talk to us about the business model for the company.

Everything is done in-house, and we have a full team looking after technology, creative, design, development, data, marketing, sales and customer service. Everything has been built in-house, which allows us to grow and scale as well as pivot when needed.

The revenue model is two-sided. We take 20% of every completed task from the expert and a 7.5% trust and support fee from the customer. The customer fee takes care of our hard costs such as insurance/payment processing fees. All in, our margin is 27.5%.

HeyBryan is already disrupting the home maintenance industry, but do you have plans for new products?

Yes, we are exploring many avenues both in strategic partnerships and complementary new revenue streams. The opportunities in the gig economy are endless and we’re excited about the future of the overall company.

You were successful in getting Bryan Baeumler to sign on as the name brand and face of your company. How does the celebrity endorsement help keep marketing costs in check?

Securing a celebrity endorsement was a massive win. Trying to build brand awareness and consumer confidence is expensive and time-consuming. Bryan brought that reputation, as well as awareness and trust. We can leverage Bryan’s following and his massive reach allows us to spend money in other areas to evolve and grow the business.

You have the entrepreneurial DNA to take your idea and build it into a business. What is one of the important lessons that you’ve learnt?

Be patient and don’t try to rush to market with a sub-par product. Do your research, plan and always expect delays. The other major thing I learnt was how critical it is to have the right people in the right roles. Surround yourself with the right people in the right roles and allow them to shine. We have built an amazing team and I couldn’t be prouder.

This story was featured in the Public Entrepreneur magazine.

Learn more about HeyBryan Media at https://heybryan.com/.

Public Entrepreneur Magazine: The Inspiration Issue – Now Live!

Welcome to the latest issue of Public Entrepreneur Magazine, your source for in-depth stories of entrepreneurs from a wealth of varying industries.

The first issue of the new decade shares captivating entrepreneurial stories, offering exclusive insights into how the featured business undertakers have harnessed the power of innovation to become genuine disruptors in their respective industries.

This magazine installment also takes a look back and reviews the many milestones achieved during the previous year, and provides an exciting outlook on what you can expect for 2020.

CSE-listed companies featured in this issue include:

HeyBryan Media Inc. (CSE:HEY)
New Wave Esports Corp. (CSE:NWES)
Versus Systems Inc. (CSE:VS)
AMPD Ventures Inc. (CSE:AMPD)
BevCanna Enterprises Inc. (CSE:BEV)

Check out the most recent edition of Public Entrepreneur below.

ICEsoft Technologies Canada: Modern elements key to engineering broader acceptance of life-saving community alerts

When a small-cap company launches a new product line, having an established legacy business in the background is a dream scenario. Count ICEsoft Technologies Canada (CSE:ISFT) amongst those lucky few. The company is already a leading global provider of critical enterprise software solutions for desktop and mobile enterprise, its rich Internet application products being used by more than 20,000 enterprises and 150,000 developers, with a subscriber base spanning more than 400 corporations.

Eager to do more with its mobile technology expertise, the company, which went public on the Canadian Securities Exchange in June, developed an affordable smart communication platform called Voyent Alert!.

Designed specifically for local and regional governments to alert and communicate with the public during both emergencies and non-critical events, Voyent Alert! is a great example of technology being used to make a meaningful difference in people’s lives…perhaps even saving them.

Public Entrepreneur spoke with ICEsoft President and Chief Executive Officer Brian McKinney recently about the Voyent Alert! platform and the company’s plans going forward.

Voyent Alert! sounds like something quite different for ICEsoft. What compelled you to develop a multi-purpose, mass-notification system? 

Our legacy business is profitable and it’s a very interesting business, but it’s also hyper-technical and certainly a maturing market. About 18 to 20 months ago we were tapped on the shoulder by some of our west coast clients and asked if we could repurpose some of our mobile technologies into a new kind of community-alerting system. That’s kind of the genesis of the pivot we undertook. It really represented the kind of next-generation platform that we wanted to go after.

What makes Voyent Alert! different from other mass-notification systems like the Emergency Alert System or AMBER alerts?  

Conventionally speaking, information tends to be issued in a very text-centric format. The text looks like a bunch of words kind of jumbled together. And one of the things we felt strongly about was that a lot of people won’t process that information, or they’ll read the first two lines of a bunch of text and then they’ll move on.

We felt that if we could make it more visual and provide a lot more context to the user, the alert would be far more valuable to them. It would allow them to process things faster and make better, more informed decisions more quickly. It’s one thing to know that there’s a fire on 6th and Main. It’s another to get a picture on your phone that shows you on a map here’s the fire, here’s your mother’s house, and it’s 500 metres south of the fire so she’s subject to an evacuation order. That’s very specific to you and very visual. And it’s our contention that that kind of alert would drive a higher level of community engagement.

Day-to-day communications with citizens are also leveraged through the service. It’s not just for emergencies. Our community clients can advise about snow removal plans, targeting specific communities and advising “you have to get your cars off the street, or they will be subject to tow.” Waste recycling pickup schedules have changed. Here are the city council meeting minutes. That sort of thing. If people learn to trust it at a municipal level, they’ll pay attention to it when it’s a real emergency.

Who is the target market for Voyent Alert!?

There are a number of players in the market right now, but the vast majority of them are focusing on large urban deployments. They’re looking to the Bostons, the New Yorks and Torontos to develop solutions for. And they tend to be larger more complex systems, heavy on the back end to accommodate system infrastructure integration.

Fifty percent of North Americans, for example, live in communities of less than 50,000 people. And conventional wisdom alone tells you that a solution that works for New York generally isn’t going to work for a community with a population of 50,000. As a result, a lot of these smaller communities weren’t being serviced very effectively or efficiently by the solutions that were available.

We decided we wanted to move forward with rich, personalized messaging and really focus on targeting smaller communities and more rural regional districts. Strategically, we want to dominate the smaller communities, as our peers basically target large urban deployments. We want to carve out for ourselves that dominant position in the small to medium-sized communities.

Our product is engineered for that service. It’s simpler and easier to use at a lower cost. It’s not like it’s a trivial market. We are focusing exclusively on building up a subscription base. This is a software-as-a-service play with a large recurring revenue stream. One of the advantages of these smaller markets is that they’re very sticky. You know when you get a client, you’re likely to have that client for six or seven years.

That’s a sticky client base indeed. How would you describe the typical entity that subscribes for Voyent Alert!? 

We basically sell to governments – cities, towns, regional districts, and counties. Those organizations purchase it on behalf of their citizens and then the citizens can download the mobile app and register for the service for free. We’re providing coverage to about 55 different communities in Canada that we’ve onboarded in the last 14 months. Since we launched, the number of communities that we’re servicing has been doubling quarter over quarter. We’re anticipating a launch into the US by the end of this year.

There are several competitors in the mass-notification alert sector. Who is your biggest rival and how does ICEsoft stack up against the competition? 

Roughly speaking, about 30-40% of the communities with less than 50,000 population have no solution whatsoever. The rest might have an older kind of solution that might be an e-mail alert system or something that’s a little bit more dated. Our primary competition comes from the market leader, which is a company called Everbridge out of the US east coast. One of the things we find gratifying is that probably the last seven or eight deals where we’ve been up against other competitors, Everbridge primarily, we’ve been winning those deals. It’s been well over a year since we’ve lost a deal to Everbridge. That says that something we’re doing is resonating with the client.

To wrap up, what’s the strategy for Voyent Alert! for the balance of 2019 and into next year?

We are looking very aggressively at other vertical opportunities that face similar challenges to the ones we are solving for our municipal clients. The residential home construction market is one of those opportunities. Residential builders and trades have a big problem keeping track of their people and ensuring their safety status as well as that of the worksite. There is a significant and clear value proposition here that makes the opportunity very attractive.

In addition to expanding into new market verticals we are also looking to broaden the market footprint for Voyent Alert!. This activity sees us focusing on expanding our presence across Canada between now and the end-of-year timeframe. We will then use that presence as a launching pad into the US market.

We’ll be selective about the markets we want to target in the US. We want to make sure they are the ones that would resonate with the value proposition we’re offering. It’s unlikely we’d go out and target eastern seaboard, high-density urban centers. The Midwest and the western states are the more likely candidates that we’re going to launch into. They are more rural and are faced with the kinds of challenges where we can make the biggest difference.

This story was featured in the Public Entrepreneur magazine.

Learn more about ICEsoft Technologies Canada at https://www.icesoft.com/.

GlobeX Data: There is no such thing as privacy in the online world anymore. Or is there?

GlobeX Data (CSE:SWIS) is on a mission to keep your data and communications safe, and in a world where each week seems to bring news of yet another large-scale data breach, it’s a mission of vital importance.

The Vancouver-based company offers a powerful product suite for cloud-based storage, document management, encrypted e-mail and secure communication with a few twists that differentiate it from the competition.  For one, data is stored in Switzerland (by Swiss partner GlobeX Data S.A.) in centres used by Swiss banks and organizations such as the United Nations. Switzerland is home to some of the strongest privacy protection laws in the world thanks to regulations such as the Swiss Federal Data Protection Act and the Swiss Federal Data Protection Ordinance.

GlobeX Data is readying a marketing push at a time when the cybersecurity market, by some counts, is set to exceed US$300 billion within five years, making the company’s recent debut on the Canadian Securities Exchange particularly timely.

In this interview with Public Entrepreneur, Chief Executive Officer Alain Ghiai explains why data is such a valuable commodity and why that means companies and individuals alike need to take more caution to protect themselves.

Can you give us a quick introduction to GlobeX Data and the company’s origins?

GlobeX Data has its origins in Switzerland and in payment processing. In 2008, during the credit crunch, most of the banks stopped lending to merchants. We used our technology to transform ourselves into a data backup company. In 2010, we started to develop a couple of products, the first of which became DigitalSafe, our secure backup file-share password manager. In 2012, I started GlobeX Data Inc. out of New York to expand in North America.

I was approached to license our technology to a CSE-listed company, which eventually became a shell company. When the licensing was supposed to be exchanged for funds the company didn’t have the money, so I called my board members and suggested listing on the CSE ourselves and formed GlobeX Data Ltd.  We raised money locally and set up an office in Vancouver. We started to receive a lot of interest from overseas and wanted to have an entity that handled everything outside of our Swiss-based private company. Vancouver was a perfect choice geographically to handle Asia and Latin America, our prime targets to start off our international business, and was also selected for the purpose of going public in an IPO on the CSE.

Our first major contract was with America Movil and its mobile division in Mexico called Telcel that has 75 million subscribers. Because they’re in 26 countries, we would eventually be able to sell services from the US all the way down through South America.  Over the last couple of years, we’ve signed deals with half a dozen partners. America Movil has close to 400 million subscribers, almost 300 million of them mobile users.

Why did it make sense to go public now?

Our goal in going public was to have a platform to raise more money and get wider recognition because when you are public it brings a level of transparency to the company that our partners like. Right now, data security and privacy is becoming a predominant subject in our society. People are the product now – the big companies are making money off our data. There is no real player that can offer the variety of services that we do when it comes to privacy and security. Our prime directive is to respect your privacy. We use the best security possible and have proprietary technology that other businesses don’t use because they think it’s too costly. Storage has become commoditized, but there’s no price for privacy.

I find that Canadians are quite conservative, almost too conservative to adopt new technologies. Also, they underestimate the value of security or privacy and the value that they hold. I think US investors value technology stocks a lot more than we do in Canada. This is why companies go to the US to get funding – investors there will pay for innovation. It’s a shame because Canada is a fantastic country with some great tech stories.  In order to attract more investors in the US, we plan to co-list in the US market by Q1 of 2020.

There’s a lot of talk out there that data is more valuable a commodity than oil. What’s your take?

I think data is even bigger than oil right now. The thing that makes it valuable is that a company or group can use it to create a profile and sell it to a third party to try and sell something to the consumer. Contrary to oil, which is a consumable, data can be repackaged and resold. Thanks to social media, the public is used to advertising their status every few minutes.

Why is it that people seem to be incredibly willing to give away their data for free?

When it comes to information, anything that is “easy” in the digital world is counterbalanced by the individual giving away more and more privacy. We live in a society where everything needs to be instant. If you want to have this instantaneous response, you are essentially giving away your data for free. Most people don’t realize the danger that this can cause because the average person doesn’t think they have anything to hide. It’s not about hiding from the government, it’s about keeping your data private so commercial companies don’t exploit you like a commodity.

How do the services work? Are they an alternative to popular instant messaging applications?

GlobeX’s services don’t use open source coding; instead, we use our own technology to add privacy and security by design. We try to offer what businesses and people need, which is a backup for their data and a file share and secure e-mail. DigitalSafe is like a Dropbox, e-mail and a password manager all in one. Our e-mail engine, Custodia, lets you send a message to an unsecured e-mail address and that service will not be able to read the content. PrivaTalk is a secure communications suite with chat, voice, video and e-mail. Our chat has a self-destruct timer that will disappear on the device. We never require your phone number because the minute you do that, hackers have an even higher ability to access your data.

We are also launching a product called Sekur, a service for high net worth individuals and corporations, in the fourth quarter of 2019. We were inspired to create the product from the Sony hack that happened a few years ago. This service is for any business for management to communicate without the in-house IT department knowing what’s going on.

What else is coming down the pipeline in the next few months?

We’ve already released DigitalSafe and PrivaTalk and plan to launch Sekur before the end of the year. In Mexico, we’ve launched and integrated DigitalSafe with America Movil and are planning to release PrivaTalk by the end of the year. Another product we’re excited about is PrivaTalk Messenger, which is similar to BlackBerry Messenger in that it’s a server-based closed-loop system. We’re going to launch PrivaTalk Messenger by the end of the year as well.

We’ve talked at length about the dangers of leaving data unsecured. What are some simple steps that we as individuals can take to protect our information?

The question that we need to be asking ourselves is how much is our data worth to us? The first thing I would advise is to reduce your social media footprint. Essentially, you are announcing to the world where you are and what you’re doing, and eventually artificial intelligence will put together a profile on you that can lead to hacking.

The second thing is to use secure services. There’s no free privacy or security. Use a paid service that will secure your information because at least then you have some sort of comfort or recourse that your data is safe.

This story was featured in the Public Entrepreneur magazine.

Learn more about GlobeX Data Ltd. at https://globexdatagroup.com/.

RIWI Corp: Getting one’s hands on insight nobody else has requires creative thinking…and 1.5 billion responses

RIWI Corp. (CSE:RIW) runs a business for the curious, the analytical, for governments of the world, and for financial services firms looking to develop an edge. It is a business that is never the same two days in a row and thus endlessly fascinating, with the potential to drive policy, influence strategy, and bring improvements to the world at large.

In short, the company performs global trend tracking and predictive analytics that provide previously unavailable insight into how people think and behave. Relying on the Internet, it conducts surveys and can also run ad tests assessing the efficacy of corporate marketing initiatives. The company has thus far analyzed over 1.5 billion responses in putting together reports for its clients.

RIWI’s client roster includes companies in the private sector, predominantly finance, as well as groups active in humanitarian aid such as the World Bank and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Security is another area of great importance to the company.

Public Entrepreneur caught up with Founder and Chief Executive Officer Neil Seeman recently for a discussion of RIWI’s role in today’s rapidly evolving digital landscape and a look into corners of the technology world we never even knew existed.

How has technology and the market you serve changed over the last decade or so?

The market for global data collection has really exploded in the last 10 years and we’re just at the cusp of it. I feel that we’re sort of in Web 3.0 right now. I was lucky enough to have been an investor in Web 1.0 (the early days of the commercial Web) and then Web 2.0 (the social Web). Now today with Web 3.0, where RIWI sits is the world of incalculable amounts of data, and more importantly, data for actionable insights.

It’s less about Big Data these days than it is about Smart Data and that’s where we focus. And the second titanic change, which is just occurring, and where RIWI sits at a leadership position, is the importance of being an ethical data broker and only collecting data free of personal identifiers. This is becoming a game-changing issue in the world of data collection. It’s a highly competitive marketplace but the total addressable market is pretty extraordinary.

Your technology uses machine learning. Can you explain in simple terms how you collect data?

RIWI invented a global platform such that anyone with access to a Web-enabled device can stumble into a RIWI survey or ad test as they navigate the Internet and enter an abandoned domain that doesn’t exist at that moment in time – they encounter a RIWI survey or ad test on a non-trademarked domain. We invented that and expanded our intellectual property and we continually learn which constellation of domains is able to capture a perfect mirror of the Web-using audience in any region of the world. This changes in real time and we understand why and how that happens. We have a decade of historic data so we understand the changing Internet infrastructure in every country and that is a form of intelligence that can be very valuable to understanding how we can solve client needs.

How does your technology differ from that of other companies? How do you position yourself against your peers?

It’s differentiated in a number of ways. The first is global access. We have single-button technology such that you can access eight or 180 countries, or 229 territories and countries using RIWI. Otherwise, you would have to go to online panel suppliers or different market research providers in the countries.

Secondly, we reach opaque or otherwise impossible markets. We are the only continuous data provider in terms of sentiment data and ad testing data in all cities and regions across China, for example.

Thirdly, we are random in our reach. We patented and then built out a global platform and cloud-based architecture called Random Domain Intercept Technology such that the recipients who are intercepted are random and RIWI is privacy-compliant such that we are not collecting any personally identifiable data, and this fourth aspect of RIWI is highly differentiated from other digital data collection tools.

Fifth, and most importantly, we’re being recognized for broadening the voices of people who participate in surveys and ad tests. In other forms, traditional or even modern forms of sentiment collection, whether it’s social media analytics or public opinion panel-based polling or natural language algorithms using artificial intelligence, you’re getting a very, very narrow slice of public opinion, whereas with us, the majority, and in some cases the vast majority, of the people whose opinions and behavioural reactions we collect have not answered a survey or ad test of any kind in the preceding month, nor are they regular posters online.

Who are your customers and how many do you have? Can you give me an example of where your data has been particularly impactful for a client?

We currently have several dozen major enterprise clients across our business lines. They range in size. We try to build recurring revenue-based clients such that they are either quarterly subscriptions or annual subscriptions that can be renewed, sometimes on a rapid-response basis. Within each of these, some are such that they have multiple sectors or country groupings.

In terms of impactful work, we have worked for G7 agencies on strictly confidential matters, but on the unclassified side we’ve done, for example, very impactful work for the Canadian government where we’ve measured the sentiment toward women and girls and how they are treated under ISIS in 18 Middle East countries. We’ve enabled some fascinating data that have helped educate people in all regions of the world about the brutality of how women and girls are treated under ISIS.

We’ve also done a lot of work on marginalized groups, populations that don’t participate in surveys and this is not only important in the humanitarian aid sector, it’s important, for example, to the finance sector, which is trying very much to understand the future consumer of technology adoption. We’re also the largest data collector in the world for changing attitudes toward LGBTQ communities, and for undocumented citizens and people in rural communities, even in America, whose voices are often left out of important debates. We like to say we give “voice to the voiceless” in any region of the world.

It’s impactful to me when we may only solve 2% to 5% of a company’s data challenges but we are embedded with them such that they thereafter understand the universe of their other data collection needs.

The possibilities for your data seem limitless. How big can you see this getting?

Our goal is to be the Booz Allen of global data collection. We want to be everywhere in terms of our continuous data collection, in fragile and conflict states, in opaque markets, and we want to deliver data that provides actionable insights in real time. We do that with real-time dashboards that are constantly being updated such that with the touch of a button, a decision-maker can understand the truth of what’s going on, whether it’s predictions about stock market turmoil, trade wars, or gang violence.

You’re clearly growing and have been turning in quite good performance numbers of late. What is your business model? Is it the case that when revenue grows so does profitability? Are your costs mostly fixed?

One of the beautiful things the math analysts like to observe about our company from a shareholder perspective is that as our revenues grow and as our profit grows, our costs associated with sales decline or stay relatively flat. This was always embedded in the vision of the company, such that we’re not, for one, selling people, we’re selling data and dashboards and analytics, but secondly, we’re a machine-learning platform such that the technology itself is embedded, or twinned, with shareholder value creation, because the machine-learning technology continually expands in its capacity for data collection and continually decreases the costs associated with data collection. Further, our offerings are “plug-and-play” for our clients – the same issues that confront our client Bank of America Merrill Lynch also confront Asia- or Europe-based hedge funds looking for a privacy-compliant information edge.

How do you go about landing new clients?

Two ways – there’s no secret sauce here. It’s about boots on the ground and hardcore sales, using a highly disciplined sales process. I’m an accidental entrepreneur because this grew out of a small research unit I had at a college associated with the University of Toronto, and we’ve changed the mindset by going from a creative think tank environment to a heavily sales-focused enterprise with sales-focused disciplines and systems and processes.

Secondly, the uniqueness of our platform and the uniqueness of our data – especially it being privacy compliant – and the nature of our clients means that we get a lot of attention, whether it’s media attention or public presentation opportunities, or thought leadership opportunities. Our Head of Research was selected to present this Fall at TEDxToronto. Our data collection tools to generate alpha for the finance community won us a global “Battle of the Quants” award that created buzz this year.

And we also win attention from new audiences because we are in this great situation where we can generate internal data in unusual parts of the world in rapid fashion, so we offer insights that we know will be valuable and get the attention of prospective clients whose eyes light up when they see it.

This story was featured in the Public Entrepreneur magazine.

Learn more about RIWI Corp. at https://riwi.com/.

XPhyto Therapeutics: Unique assets and a focus on Germany’s medical cannabis market set this opportunity apart

The art of successful investing is not about what is happening now, but rather figuring out what is on the horizon and set to emerge as the next big thing. Positioning oneself to make the most of that development is what gives competitors in any aspect of the business world an edge – the famed early-mover advantage.

Hugh Rogers and his team embraced this concept wholeheartedly when putting together XPhyto Therapeutics (CSE:XPHY), the company Rogers now leads as Chief Executive Officer, two years ago.

Armed with a legal background focused on corporate restructurings, plus experience in molecular biology from research work at the University of Toronto, Rogers agreed with his business partners that they wanted to participate in the burgeoning cannabis industry, yet not in the way everyone else seemed to be doing it.

Large-scale growing operations in the US and Canada did not interest the group. So, what was it that others were overlooking, something with greater potential than was to be found in the increasingly crowded North American arena?

“The vision for XPhyto was to foresee where the industry would be in two, four, and six years, and then position the company accordingly,” explains Rogers. “In the end, we decided that medical formulations and clinical validation in emerging European cannabis markets was the best place for us to be.”

That best place, to be precise, is Germany, where cannabis is legal for medical use and, according to XPhyto, not subject to the same stigma the drug suffers in North America and many other parts of the world.

“It’s a very open market in the sense that, in our experience, regulators at every level of government, and I would also say the medical community – physicians and pharmacists – are open to cannabis products,” says Rogers. “There is a history of botanical medicine in Germany where they are eager to learn but at the same time are looking for clinical validation.”

And no other entity, quite literally, is positioned in the German market the way XPhyto is to help cannabis achieve the level of formal validation that consumers expect of widely used pharmaceutical products. The company’s 100% owned German subsidiary, Bunker Pflanzenextrakte GmbH, possesses a German cannabis cultivation and extraction licence for scientific purposes issued by the German Federal Institute for Drugs and Medical Devices. To XPhyto’s knowledge, it is the only one in existence.

“We’re setting ourselves up to work with the government on the scientific side,” explains Rogers. “That means cultivation, extraction, remediation of oils, seed banks, tissue banks, clinical trials – all of the scientific knowledge.”

The XPhyto team has done an admirable job of building a company with top clinical talent both at the German operations and in Canada, including its recently announced cannabis research and development agreement with the Department of Biochemistry at the Technical University of Munich.

Soon to follow in Germany is a 10,000 square foot facility, half of which will house small-scale cultivation rooms, with the other half being for storage, manufacturing, and distribution. The company estimates it will be up and running with plants under cultivation in the first quarter of 2020.

Expect security levels to be high, given the structure that aptly named Bunker is renovating was once a military command centre. Bunker founder, and now XPhyto Vice President of European Corporate Development, Robert Barth will oversee the renovations. It was also Barth who brought the Technical University of Munich into the fold.

The German research bandwidth is augmented by two exclusive five-year engagements XPhyto has with the Faculty of Pharmacy at the University of Alberta. “Our primary goal in Canada is to focus on clinical validation,” says Rogers. “We have an ISO-certified clean room for our new extraction equipment for production of cannabinoid extracts and isolates. I think the first formula we’ll clinically study will be for topical dermatology followed by oncology pain management. Our expertise at the university is drug delivery and we have some unique applications for cannabis products.”

Clearly, the company’s main objective is clinical testing, and ultimately clinical trials, designed to provide the medical community with the same standard of product understanding and trust that many other prescribed treatments currently enjoy. In this way, doctors will know exactly what type of cannabis, or cannabis-derived product, to prescribe for a given condition, in what dose and for how long.

But investors and others new to the company shouldn’t conclude that the validation theme at the core of XPhyto’s model means that cash flow is something far off in the future. The supply/demand balance in Germany’s medical cannabis market features more of the latter than the former, and XPhyto is positioned to help.

“The German market is large and domestic production expected to come online in 2020 will meet only a small fraction of total demand. There is a deficit that will be made up through imports and that is an opportunity we are rapidly pursuing,” remarks Rogers.

“We are working to secure supply of ultra-premium flower in Canada,” he says in beginning to explain the import strategy. “The best premium growers are in Canada and the US. We are focused on Canada and are working with a number of great growers to source product.”

The XPhyto team believes that providing the best experience for patients must embrace testing for pesticides, heavy metals, and offering products in optimal packaging. If everything goes according to plan, product will be ready for shipping by Q1 2020.

Advancing this strategy on multiple fronts is the acquisition, announced in late August, of Vektor Pharma TF GmbH, which holds permits for cannabis importation and narcotics product manufacturing, among others. And in a possible sign of things to come, Vektor also has established itself in the research and manufacturing of thin-film strips for drug delivery, including transdermal patches and oral strips.

Said Rogers at the time of the acquisition’s announcement, “We believe that Vektor will add significant long-term value at every level of our business, from clinical trial expertise and drug manufacturing capability to their German cannabis and narcotics import licences and strong relationships with the German health authority.”

XPhyto’s strengthening German presence will be a source of many things, boots-on-the-ground intelligence being one that should enable the company to smoothly blend into the German supply scene with the long term in mind.

As an example, Rogers explains that if XPhyto has a certain volume of cannabis ready to sell it won’t necessarily put it all on the market as fast as possible. “What we want to do is build our distribution and demand through consistent supply so the physician knows when they prescribe our product that there is availability for three to six months. We would rather build our patient base slowly and steadily than flood the market – here is a whole bunch of supply and then, oops, it is not available next month. The end result when you take that approach is that physicians are less likely to prescribe your product.”

Having only made its trading debut on the Canadian Securities Exchange in August, XPhyto is a newcomer to the public markets. But asked why investors should be interested, Rogers is clear as to what sets the XPhyto opportunity apart. “It is important to understand that the cannabis industry is here to stay,” he concludes. “But at the same time, you must carefully consider where to allocate your investments. We have gone 100% into opportunities that were on the sidelines for a long time, and I think you are going to see medical applications, clinical validation, and European opportunities come to the forefront over the next two years. And that is exactly where XPhyto is positioned.”

This story was featured in the Public Entrepreneur magazine.

Learn more about Xphyto Therapeutics at https://www.xphyto.com/.

Nextleaf Solutions: Cannabis extraction technology takes the spotlight as edibles and beverages prepare to hit Canadian shelves

Nextleaf Solutions (CSE:OILS) is a BC-based cannabis extraction technology company that takes pride in doing things just a little bit differently.

When most cannabis companies were thinking of cultivation, Nextleaf had its intentions set on the future of the cannabis industry: infused products. Since 2017, the company has focused on developing and acquiring the technology, processes, and formulations around extraction and post-extraction for cannabis concentrates, the precursor to every cannabis-infused product.

Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer Paul Pedersen remembers the day he met soon-to-be Co-Founder and Chief Technology Officer Ryan Ko, who at the time was working on a novel extraction process aimed at producing highly refined oils derived from cannabis.

“When I met Ryan in 2016, he was doing things with extraction and molecular distillation that I had never seen before,” says Pedersen. “He was light years ahead of where large licensed producers were at with extraction and purification. That was the genesis of how it all started.”

The rest, as they say, is history.

With six issued patents – including the first issued US patent for industrial-scale extraction and purification of cannabinoids – and 23 pending in the United States, Canada, Mexico, Colombia, Jamaica, Europe, and Australia, Nextleaf’s intellectual property portfolio is growing quickly.

A glut of cannabis and hemp biomass in the market, coupled with a shortage of extraction and processing suppliers, means the company holds a notable position as one of a few extraction companies in Canada with a real solution.

“We have a head start,” says Pedersen. “Our strategy from day one was to be the absolute best at developing disruptive extraction technology, and to focus on the underlying methods that transform plant into product in a highly scalable way.”

Technology takes centre stage
Nextleaf’s patented technology covers a range of hardware and processes, and goes beyond traditional crude extraction, implementing additional processing measures aimed at higher standards of purity without sacrificing capacity.

The company produces a premium distillate and believes what differentiates its product from others is the additional purification and refinement steps found in its unique process. In short, it can turn failed crops of biomass into standardized, high-purity oil for use in a variety of infused products.

However, not all infused products are created equally.

Major issues with taste, smell, colour and even performance can be experienced when purchasing infused products found in unregulated markets. This is due to the chlorophyll, fats, lipids and other impurities in the crude extract used. Nextleaf’s highly concentrated THC and CBD distillates are odourless, tasteless, and standardized for potency – meaning the consumer will enjoy a reliable and repeatable experience with each product.

Scalability is key
Notably, the Nextleaf process is also truly scalable on an industrial level.

“Scalability gets massively overlooked,” explains Ko. “There are a number of companies that can produce an oil that is tasteless and odourless on a benchtop scale, but being able to do that on an industrial scale is key. We look at THC and CBD as ingredients. As with any ingredient, it comes down to the quality, and the cost to produce it.”

“Before you can formulate all these value-add products,” Ko states, “you’ve got to have that standardized element.”

Going beyond crude extraction allows the company’s PhD-led team to separate and isolate molecules, with the ability to reformulate those molecules to best suit the desired end product, whether that be edibles, vapes, gels, or other topicals.

Growing intellectual property
One area Nextleaf has remained hyper-focused on since 2017 is filing patents to develop and acquire the industry’s most advanced technology, processes, and formulations as related to cannabinoid extraction and purification.

“It’s been proven that the companies who get to enjoy the competitive advantage are the ones that have been first to secure unique intellectual property in their industry,” says Pedersen.

This summer, the company bolstered its IP portfolio by acquiring a US patent-pending hydrocarbon extraction process and award-winning formulation to make shatter, a cannabis concentrate.

For Nextleaf, 2019 and 2020 will focus on monetizing the company’s IP portfolio as consumer preferences switch from flower towards THC- and CBD-infused products, with the legalization of these products in Canada slated for this fall.

Through its commercialization partner, the company will provide processing solutions to licensed cultivators, and supply cannabis oil and extracts to qualified Canadian and international B2B partners under its own brand. Revenue will come from toll processing, white-label production, and licensing IP.

“We’ll start to commercialize our technology,” says Pedersen. “However, our primary focus remains on innovating and growing our intellectual property.” The company plans to double their portfolio in the next six months.

Pedersen also gave news of some major commercialization partnerships on the horizon.

One of those partnerships involves an exclusive supply agreement with BevCanna Enterprises, whose team brings experience in creating iconic beverage brands such as Mike’s Hard Lemonade and Vega.

“We have the technology to make water soluble distillate, and now, under their research licence, our partner BevCanna can begin to develop formulations and SOP’s for a portfolio of infused beverages leveraged through our IP,” adds Pedersen.

Promising future
The Canadian market for edibles and extracts is expected to reach more than $2 billion in 2020, according to a report from Deloitte. The report estimates that roughly $1.6 billion will be spent on edibles, followed by cannabis-infused beverages at $529 million and topicals at $174 million. It’s expected that the global market for alternative cannabis products will nearly double in the next five years.

With ample availability of cannabis and hemp biomass in Canada, and high-end extraction and processing capacity in short supply, Nextleaf is poised to take full advantage of what the company refers to as the next oil boom.

This story was originally published at www.proactiveinvestors.com on September 11, 2019 and featured in the Public Entrepreneur magazine.

Learn more about Nextleaf Solutions at https://www.nextleafsolutions.com/.

TruTrace Technologies protects intellectual property to send counterfeiters packing

Product validation is more important to the cannabis industry than you might think 

Instagram is a hotbed for selling knockoff fashion and cannabis, from fake Chanel bags to phony Gucci slides to counterfeit vapes, cannabis oils and edibles.

Loudpack Farms spent US$2.5 million on new packaging and hardware just to distinguish its award-winning Kingpen cannabis vapes from fakes. After Kingpen won 13 prizes, the company said knockoffs began proliferating at unlicensed dispensaries across California.

In a particularly brazen move, a counterfeiter went to cannabis cultivator THC Designs’ website, downloaded data that showed how its marijuana had fared on state certification tests, then stuck the lab results on the side of fake products to assert authenticity.

Fortunately for the legitimate cannabis industry, help is finally at hand. TruTrace Technologies (CSE:TTT) has developed the first blockchain-secured platform to track intellectual property for cannabis. The company provides DNA-based cannabis product validation and helps with intellectual property protection and product guarantees for patients and customers.

“It’s a combination of science, enterprise software, and blockchain technology,” says TruTrace Chief Executive Officer Robert Galarza. “By focusing on granular genetic, chemical and contaminant data, as well as motion and movement information and then merging that into a blockchain we are able to provide real-time data on each product being purchased.”

Galarza comes across as a veritable Renaissance man compared to most pinstriped CEOs. His background spans roles as a corporate attorney, movie producer, advertising executive, and entertainment lawyer. He’s even managed professional fighters and co-founded the enterprise technology company Spark Digital Technologies.

Channeling the power of blockchain
With TruTrace, Galarza now channels the power of blockchain to enhance trust and fix the grim realities of corrupted supply chains in the medical cannabis industry.

In a nutshell, TruTrace combines the power of big data with the security of blockchain to provide strain identification, registration and verification for cannabis at scale.

The firm’s immutable, cryptographically secure technology is the brainchild of Co-Founder and Chief Technology Officer Tommy Stephenson, who developed enterprise software platforms over two decades for companies such as Microsoft and Mercedes Benz.

Galarza says his favourite part of the job is traveling to Seattle to visit the development centre, which has “a Disney feel” to it. The engineers exude an “if we can dream it, we can build it” philosophy, he says.

The dream team in Seattle
“Tommy’s passion and genius percolates into the team. At our core, we are data nerds who love cannabis and understand the issues around moving this product around the world. When blockchain came on our radar, we knew it could be a powerful tool in data management,” says Galarza.

“Combining this with the immutable recording nature of blockchain also made it attractive as a protection method for intellectual property and creating a permanent lineage for cannabis strains.”

The Seattle team’s goal has been to build a framework to help licensed cannabis producers and micro-cultivators easily and inexpensively move their products through the mandatory testing process. TruTrace places that test data on the blockchain for its own protection and that of the company’s intellectual property.

In this way, TruTrace’s StrainSecure cannabis tracking platform establishes an accurate, single-source, validated, and permanent account for cannabis strains from seed source to market. A cannabis strain’s genetics are stored into an immutable ledger and information is added during each processing stage.

TruTrace’s seed-to-sale tracking technology
In short, TruTrace’s seed-to-sale tracking tackles two pain points in the cannabis industry: it modernizes the inventory tracking system and provides customers with details about a product’s lab test results and cultivar.

It’s been a busy year for TruTrace, which listed on the Canadian Securities Exchange in June. The company expects momentum to continue into the second half of 2019 driven by its medical cannabis pilot program with national Canadian pharmacy chain Shoppers Drug Mart.

“Our biggest inflection point has been the relationship with Shoppers Drug Mart and Loblaws. I’m not sure everyone fully grasps how much it means to have a company of their size, history, and reputation in the medical cannabis industry,” says Galarza.

Pilot program with Shoppers Drug Market
“Working alongside Shoppers changes the conversation about what our technology could mean for the industry because we are focusing on building a bridge between medical cannabis and the traditional medical industry – that’s a bigger divide than people like to admit. If we can help make cannabis a customary part of medical treatment, it could impact the trajectory of the industry in a positive way.”

In June, TruTrace announced a milestone deal with Shoppers Drug Mart for a pilot program to use its StrainSecure technology as a central hub for identity management, asset tracking, validation, and product authentication.

Licensed producers are also using TruTrace, in part to assure stakeholders that the medical cannabis industry is serious about offering a verified, standardized cannabis treatment option.

Harvest One Cannabis joined TruTrace’s master genome strain and clone registration program in February to verify its United Greeneries cannabis strains, becoming one of StrainSecure’s early adopters. The company said it turned to the platform so patients could enjoy an increased level of confidence in the consumption of its Satipharm branded cannabis sold through Shoppers.

Similarly, well-known medical cannabis producer WeedMD is a big believer. The Ontario-based company saw 40 of its cannabis strains undergo validation as part of the first phase of its pilot program with TruTrace.

Working with about 10 major producers
“We are working with about 10 major producers, with several others getting finalized at the moment. Although our focus has been in Canada throughout year one, we’re seeing some exciting momentum in South America and the US as well,” says Galarza.

In another recent move, TruTrace applied StrainSecure technology to cannabis water company NXT Water by fixing QR codes on its just-launched AKESO hemp-derived fitness water. A customer can now scan the QR code to learn instantly about the fitness water’s test results.

“This relationship was born out of a blind test they performed on several leading CBD water products in the US market. They found most of the products fell well below the advertised amount of CBD, with some having none at all,” says Galarza.

“Alternatively, the AKESO product was consistently testing out at around 12 milligrams of broad-spectrum CBD per bottle and NXT wanted to find a way to communicate this to their customers. They turned to TruTrace and started using the StrainSecure platform.”

Strong technology adoption
TruTrace has spent a lot of time, effort, and money perfecting its software. Now that the technology comprehensively solves a very real problem, long-time supporters are experiencing the moment they knew eventually had to come.

“The hallmark for an innovative technology company is adoption at various levels of industry. A great idea without customers unfortunately will remain nothing more than an idea that never panned out,” points out Galarza.

“We believe TruTrace has achieved this in its young history. From Shoppers Drug Mart and Deloitte, to WeedMD and NXT Water, we’ve found great adoption at many levels. We believe that sets us up for long-term success.”

As adoption grows with each new user, TruTrace further stakes its claim as a technology game-changer for the cannabis industry.

This story was originally published at www.proactiveinvestors.com on September 13, 2019 and featured in the Public Entrepreneur magazine.

Learn more about TruTrace Technologies at https://trutrace.co/.

DealMaker Deals: Deconstructed

Our first instalment of Deals Deconstructed celebrates a groundbreaking raise from Stately Cannabis Brands Ltd. (“Stately”), a US focused cannabis strategic acquisition company founded by three serial entrepreneurs.

Trent Kitsch, Jeff Barber, and Ryan Foreman have already founded, scaled, and commercialized several Canadian success stories, including DOJA / HIKU (a vertically integrated cannabis lifestyle brand and brand house) and SAXX (premium apparel).

Stately plans on tapping into its deep network and leveraging its team’s proven expertise in cannabis, branding and consumer packaged goods to identify an emerging cannabis brand that has the potential to become a market leader and nationally recognized brand.

So, when it came time for the seasoned entrepreneurs to capitalize their newest venture, speed, efficiency and a broad reach driven by digital marketing was top of mind.

That’s where DealMaker makes new realities possible.

The deal was quarterbacked by Pushor Mitchell LLP, a premier regional firm based in British Columbia.

Using DealMaker, Stately and Pushor Mitchell were able to reach and close retail investors based around the world – leveraging the power of the internet. In just a matter of weeks, the company brought in approximately $9.6 million from over five hundred investors, all while based in their hometown of Kelowna, British Columbia.

Investors from
73 cities
across
4 continents
subscribed to Stately through DealMaker.

154 investors
completed their subscriptions within
24 hours
of receiving their e-mail invitations.

289 investors
closed their subscriptions
completely online
without needing to print or fax a single piece of paper.

Like many entrepreneurs, Trent, Jeff and Ryan like to be “hands-on,” so DealMaker’s real-time progress updates and data insights were much appreciated.

“We had access to an unprecedented depth and richness of insight with DealMaker. The ability to understand and adapt to our investors’ progress was a real game-changer.”
– Jeff Barber, founding partner and CEO, Stately Brands Cannabis Ltd.

DealMaker also unlocked tremendous efficiencies for the issuer’s counsel, Pushor Mitchell.  DealMaker helped the firm deliver nimble, cost-efficient solutions to a key client, while focusing its attention on providing high-value legal advice rather than pushing paper – a game-changer for capital raises.

“The use of the DealMaker platform reduced the number of email exchanges and phone calls, resulting in a more efficient process overall. DealMaker made it easy to keep track of the progress of our client’s financing.”
– Keith Inman, Partner, Pushor Mitchell LLP

Trent, Jeff, and Ryan know how to create excitement, they know how to operate efficiently, and they know how to build a business. And for Keith at Pushor Mitchell, reputation, client service and excellence are paramount.  Where speed, efficiency, and quality are critical, issuers and counsel need a reliable solution that keeps up with the pace of the markets. DealMaker delivers.

Want to learn more about Stately?

Stately Cannabis Brands can be reached at https://www.statelybrands.com and [email protected].

Are you ready for DealMaker?

If you’re ready to take advantage of the groundbreaking DealMaker platform, feel free to contact DealMaker at [email protected] or  +1 855 550 1683.

Visit dealmaker.tech

Acreage Holdings: The most transformative deal in cannabis history is worth taking the time to understand

A lot has been written about the game-changing deal between Canopy Growth and Acreage Holdings (CSE:ACRG.U) announced on April 17 of this year. Much of it is complex.

Most observers assume that final consummation of the megadeal is predicated on a single, very specific occurrence: federal legalization of cannabis in the United States. But Acreage Chief Financial Officer Glen Leibowitz and Vice President of Communications Howard Schacter say this actually is not quite the case.

One thing for sure, though, is that once the acquisition of Acreage Holdings by industry giant Canopy Growth Corporation is finalized, it has the potential to cause a sea change in the way companies structure business deals in the cannabis space.

Deal structure

Here are the facts as they stand today.  Canopy and Acreage have entered into an agreement that will grant Canopy the right to acquire 100% of Acreage’s shares at such time that cannabis production and sale becomes federally permissible (remember that term) in the United States.

As part of the transaction, Acreage shareholders will receive an aggregate payment of US$300 million, which works out to approximately US$2.51 – $2.63 per share.  The payment is to be made immediately following the receipt of approval from shareholders of both Acreage and Canopy, plus the Supreme Court of British Columbia.

Later, once the “federally permissible” condition is met, Acreage shareholders would receive 0.5818 of a common share in Canopy for each Acreage share held. Canopy has stated that it intends to waive the requirement when a change in rules policing the New York Stock Exchange and Toronto Stock Exchange would enable the acquisition to occur.

US footprint

To understand how the deal came about, a bit of background is necessary. Acreage’s roots started in 2011 when Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Kevin Murphy, a Wall Street veteran, began making moves in cannabis with a minority investment in Maine. By 2017, the company, at the time called High Street Capital, was rebranded as Acreage Holdings, welcoming former US Speaker of the House John Boehner to its board. There were several rounds of private raises, including a US$119 million financing that represented the largest in the industry at the time, culminating in a reverse takeover on the Canadian Securities Exchange last year.

Today, the multistate operator has a footprint in 20 states, making it one of the largest cannabis companies in the US. Its April 2019 acquisition of Form Factory, a manufacturer and distributor of virtually any type of ingestible cannabis product, propelled Acreage into the big leagues of the mainstream consumer packaged goods industry for cannabis products. With the acquisition under its belt, Acreage hopes to become the first port of call for traditional CPG companies like Kraft and Mars if they decide to enter the cannabis space.

In that context, it’s easy to see why Canopy saw Acreage as an ideal partner in its US expansion plans. Canopy’s $5 billion deal with Constellation Brands, which manufactures spirits such as Corona Extra, Modelo Especial, Robert Mondavi, Kim Crawford and SVEDKA Vodka, is a clear sign that global CPG companies are already making moves into cannabis.

The Canopy-Acreage deal is about creating a multinational cannabis brand, gaining consumer recognition and customer loyalty in the same way as a company like Constellation has with its product portfolio. According to Leibowitz, Acreage’s main focus prior to combining the entities is to be the number one player in every state and every market that Acreage operates in. Canopy’s intellectual property and flush treasury would certainly make it easier to reach those goals.

“We’re seeing the birth of a global cannabis brand, which doesn’t exist,” says Leibowitz. “Long term, that consumer loyalty and brand recognition is the value of the deal.”

Trigger events

There are clear synergies between Canopy and Acreage, but investors are still trying to wrap their heads around how a multibillion-dollar deal can hinge on US federal permissibility of cannabis.

The truth is there are multiple pathways, or “trigger events,” that could see the final combination of the companies take place.

“The trigger event would spur Canopy’s obligation to complete the acquisition, but they have said they would do it at their discretion if the exchanges indicate that they will approve the deal,” explains Schacter.

In terms of permissibility, the STATES Act in its current form would not necessarily constitute a trigger event, according to Acreage. The trigger event is about change to federal law, which could include new law that would make it permissible to cultivate and/or distribute cannabis in the US. That’s not necessarily federal legalization but rather a change in law that speaks to permissibility.

That’s not to say that the decision is entirely in Canopy’s hands. If Acreage believes that the trigger event has occurred, it can put the shares to Canopy. “It’s not just an exclusive option for Canopy to pull the trigger,” Leibowitz says.

Valuation

Many investors have also voiced confusion as to the value of the transaction. At the time the deal was signed, it was valued at nearly US$3.4 billion, a 41.7% premium over the 30-day volume weighted average price of Acreage shares.

The figure only illustrated the value of the deal if it were to close on the day the announcement was made, says Schacter. “Admittedly, our news release could have been more explicit in that regard,” he acknowledges. “The true value of the deal won’t be known until it closes.”

A host of factors that affect the share price of either company could change that valuation by the time the deal is finalized, one of the clarifications that Leibowitz wants investors to understand.

“There’s a lot of confusion around the value that the transaction was agreed to,” he says. “I want to be clear that the shares of Canopy and Acreage do not move in tandem. There could be opportunities where Acreage shares will move up in value and don’t necessarily correlate to Canopy’s share price.”

To calculate the implied value, take the Canopy stock price on the closing date and multiply by 0.5818 to reach the ascribed value of the Canopy shares. Add the approximate $2.51 – $2.63 upfront per-share payment to Acreage shareholders, then multiply that by Acreage’s current outstanding fully diluted shares (currently 117 million fully diluted outstanding shares). The resulting amount will be the implied value of the acquisition.

The value has fluctuated since the April announcement in a possible sign that not all investors are keen on the transaction. According to Leibowitz, that is likely a result of the groundbreaking structure of the deal.

“A lot of the conversations that we have on the institutional side are people asking about the models we used,” says Leibowitz. “They can model a lot of these transactions pretty easily. The problem is this doesn’t have any certainty to it, so they can’t calculate the premium and arbitrage. The result is that institutions will say the risk is too great.”

On the retail side, investors have never seen a transaction structured this way before. “It’s a game changing, innovative deal that has taken time to digest in order to effectively understand the value to both companies,” Schacter explains.

Once the deal is agreed to by Acreage and Canopy shareholders, Acreage becomes Canopy’s exclusive pipeline in the US, ascribing value to the shareholders of both companies.

Global cannabis brand

Whether the trigger is federal legalization, or relaxed restrictions on the New York Stock Exchange, or the passage of a new law, it’s clear that Acreage and Canopy are committed to acting together to create a global cannabis brand.

In the meantime, Acreage maintains the flexibility to conduct further acquisitions through the ability to issue 63 million new shares that will be convertible to the more liquid Canopy stock.  That amounts to approximately “$1.4 billion of dry powder for M&A activity,” says Leibowitz.

Leibowitz says the phones are ringing with calls from companies wanting to be a part of the promise of an Acreage-Canopy merger.

“The combination of the number one player globally with the number one player in the US creates a superpower in this industry.”

This story was originally published at www.proactiveinvestors.com on June 14, 2019 and featured in the Public Entrepreneur magazine.

Learn more about Acreage Holdings at https://www.acreageholdings.com/.