TinyGems

Tiny Gems - January 2024

TinyGems
Monthly Picks

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.

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.

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.

Cepton Inc. (NASDAQ: CPTN)

Cepton Inc. (NASDAQ: CPTN) is a developer of lidar-based solutions that help enable ADAS, autonomous vehicles, smart cities, smart spaces, and smart industrial applications. The company's products are currently used in a variety of use cases including monitoring airport terminals, enhancing efficiency at highway tolling stations / railways, and securing high value infrastructure. In 2021, Cepton announced it was awarded the largest known ADAS lidar series production award[1] to support General Motors' (NYSE: GM) Ultra Cruise program and expects to have its lidars in select GM models starting next year. In addition, Cepton is currently engaged with all other top 10 global automotive OEMs.

Cepton was established in 2016 by Co-Founders Dr. Jun Pei and Dr. Mark McCord and has 151 employees. The company is headquartered in San Jose, California, with a newly opened Center of Excellence in Metro Detroit, Michigan, and an international presence spanning North America, Germany, Japan, India, and China.

Patented Micro Motion Technology (MMT®)

Cepton was built from the ground up to address key lidar industry challenges for mass market adoption. The 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 scaling-up to high manufacturing volumes is easily attainable

Due to 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.

Strong Partnership with Koito, a Leading Tier 1 Supplier

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 a $50 million Series C 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 and Koito were 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.

The two companies deepened their relationship in August 2021 when Koito committed to invest an additional $50 million in Cepton's business through a Private Investment in Public Equity (PIPE) transaction in support of Cepton's business combination with Growth Capital Acquisition Corp.

On June 27, 2022, Cepton and Koito jointly announced their intention to expand their existing collaboration efforts to include select future Cepton lidar products and go-to-market activities.

Advancing ADAS in 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[1]. It was later clarified that the OEM was General Motors, and Cepton's lidar is part of GM's Ultra Cruise program.

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."

Increasing Applications Across Smart Infrastructure

In addition to its work with leading automotive OEMs, Cepton has entered into partnerships around the world leveraging its lidar-based solutions to improve infrastructure efficiency and safety.

Some recent examples include:

  • Traffic Challenges in Cape Town, South Africa – Cepton and Fibre Based Integrations, an established fiber optics systems house, are working together to develop lidar-based vehicle detection solutions to enable citywide smart transportation infrastructure
  • Vehicle to Infrastructure (V2I) Solutions in West Midlands, United Kingdom – Cepton and Vortex IoT, a UK-based IoT solutions company, teamed up to turn UK buses into real-time road inspection tools
  • Security & Safety Systems in the U.S. – Cepton partnered with Barrier1 Systems, a top perimeter security solutions provider, to enable the next-generation of early-warning intrusion detection and onsite safety applications
  • Smart Railway in Europe – Cepton teamed with Lithuania-based system integrator Belam to improve road user and rail passenger safety by deploying lidar-enabled obstacle detection at railway level crossings
  • Real-Time Crowd Analytics at Orlando International Airport – The Indoor Lab, a leading provider of lidar-based real-time foot traffic monitoring, implemented Cepton's award-winning Helius™ Smart Lidar System in a crowd analytics solution that helped Orlando International Airport create one of the world's safest terminals during the COVID-19 pandemic
  • Free-flow E-tolling – Cepton partnered with Red Fox ID to deploy lidar as part of their free-flow e-tolling solutions. Deployments include a major highway turnpike crossing multiple states in the United States, and various sites across North America, EMEA, and Asia.

Market Outlook

The global lidar market is forecast to experience considerable growth over the coming years, driven by increased development and adoption in automobile safety applications, environmental mapping, and 3D-modeling. 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.

The lidar automotive end market also has high barriers to entry, because it can take substantial time, spanning multiple years, for automotive OEMs to vet and award a production win to a lidar company. It is a commonly held view that the fragmented universe of lidar companies will inevitably consolidate into a handful of companies.

Cepton is uniquely positioned to capitalize on this market growth in the years to come given its head start and established partnerships with leading global OEMs.

Opening a New Center of Excellence in Metro Detroit

On June 16, 2022, Cepton announced the opening of its new corporate office in Metro Detroit (Troy, Michigan). As detailed in the release, the new office will serve as the company's automotive hub as it continues to expand active engagements and initiatives with OEMs.

"I'm incredibly proud that our Silicon Valley company, Cepton, has earned Detroit's trust," Dr. Jun Pei, Co-Founder and CEO of Cepton, stated in announcing the new office. "As we continue to expand our engagements with all of the top ten global OEMs, locating our experienced team in Detroit will serve us well."

Cepton's new office will house members of its senior leadership team, as well as team members engaged in product development, program management, business development, application engineering, sales, and corporate marketing.

Experienced 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.

Hull Xu is the company's CFO. He is a seasoned investment banker and electrical engineer who has previously held leadership positions with RBC Capital Markets, Barclays Investment Bank and GE Capital. Mr. Xu has an M.B.A. from the Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley, an M.S. in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University, and a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from the University of California, Davis.

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

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).

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 value to our customers 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. Founded in 1999, D-Wave is the world's first commercial supplier of quantum computing solutions.

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), Ocean™ (full suite of open-source programming tools) and Quantum QuickStart™ (quantum programming training).

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 – our customers include more than two dozen of the Forbes Global 2000 companies.

D-Wave's commercial customers include blue-chip industry leaders like Volkswagen, Mastercard, Deloitte, ArcelorMittal, Siemens Healthineers, Unisys, Accenture, BBVA, NEC Corporation, Pattison Food Group Ltd., DENSO and Lockheed Martin. The company owns one of the largest quantum computer intellectual property portfolios in the industry including more than 210 issued U.S. patents. In addition, it has published more than 100 peer-reviewed papers in leading scientific journals.

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 applications. 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 at the company's facilities in British Columbia, Canada, have been available to North American users through its Leap™ quantum cloud service since 2018. Over the last two years, D-Wave has since introduced new Advantage systems located in Julich, Germany and Marina Del Rey, California, which marked the availability of the first Advantage quantum computer physically located in the United States. This system 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.

Leap Quantum Cloud Service

D-Wave's customers interface with the Advantage quantum computer 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 even weeks, to get good answers to a broad array of problems, D-Wave is helping businesses accelerate solutions to their complex computing problems.

The Leap quantum cloud service is available directly from D-Wave and also in AWS Marketplace.

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 a 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 essentially 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).
  • 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 helped BBVA with financial portfolio optimization, using D-Wave's quantum technology to identify a portfolio with 15% risk that yielded a 60% return on investment.
  • Logistics – SavantX is using the D-Wave Advantage system to optimize operations at the Port of Los Angeles. By using our quantum technology, SavantX improved cargo handling efficiency at Pier 300 with rubber tyred gantry (RTG) cranes by 60%, and the turnaround time for the trucks picking up those cargo containers by 12%

Market Opportunity

The quantum computing total addressable market is projected by the Boston Consulting Group to grow to between $450 billion and $850 billion over the next 15 to 30 years. For quantum hardware, software and service providers, the near-term TAM (3 to 5 years) is expected to be $400 million to $1 billion, growing to $90 billion to $170 billion over the long-term (15-30 years). 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 Hyperion Research, 80% quantum early adopters are planning to increase their commitment to quantum in the next two to three years, and one-third are planning to invest at least $15M USD in quantum efforts.

D-Wave is strategically positioned – in an industry with significant barriers to entry – as evidenced 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. As one of very few quantum companies 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.

Prior to listing on the NYSE in August 2022, D-Wave raised over $300 million as a private company with significant investors including 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 has served as D-Wave's CFO since 2021. He brings over 25 years of experience serving as CFO for 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. Mr. Markovich holds a BS in Business from Miami University and an MBA from the Michigan State Graduate School of Business.

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. Ranked among the world's top 10 CEOs for 2020, 2021 and 2022 in 'The World CEO Rankings Awards' by Adria Management LLC, Mr. Esposito is the founder and CEO of Esposito Intellectual Enterprises LLC (EIE). An award-winning serial entrepreneur and business leader, his holding company consists of 110+ entities and 200+ joint ventures, proudly operating in 25+ industries and in over 25 cities around the world. In December 2019, as well as in August 2022, he was featured in The Corporate Investment Times, the next-gen investment magazine in the Middle East, and he was recognized as a 'Top 100 In Real Estate' in 2021, as well as being among the 'Top 100 Innovators and Entrepreneurs' in 2022. Mr. Esposito brings a wealth of knowledge and experience to any team with his drive, ethics and passion for connecting companies with growth opportunities.

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.

Marty Pompadur has more than 50 years of experience in the media and entertainment industry. He began his career at ABC Inc. in 1960, holding a variety of positions culminating with his becoming a member of the ABC Inc. board of directors. In 1985, Mr. Pompadur, as advisor to News Corporation, helped acquire for News Corporation the Metromedia television station group and wrote the business plan for the start-up of the Fox Television Network. He has previously served on the boards of IMAX Corporation, Ziff Corporation, News Corporation Europe, Sky Italia, News Out of Home, BSkyB and Metromedia International Group, and he is a current board member of Nexstar Broadcasting Group and Truli Media Group.

David Meltzer is the Co-Founder of Sports 1 Marketing and formerly served as CEO of the renowned Leigh Steinberg Sports & Entertainment agency, which was the inspiration for the movie Jerry Maguire. He was named a 'Top 100 Business Coach' by Marshall Goldsmith and regularly speaks at the world's biggest business, sports, technology and motivational events.

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

Eloro Resources Ltd. (TSX: ELO) (OTCQX: ELRRF) is a publicly traded exploration and mine development company focused on the Iska Iska Property in Bolivia. The company has an option to earn a 99% interest in the highly prospective property.

A recent NI 43-101 Technical Report on Iska Iska, completed by Micon International Limited, is available on Eloro's website and under its filings on SEDAR.

The company also has legacy holdings in Peru and Northern Quebec. It is led by a strong management and technical team working diligently to uncover the value of its portfolio.

Eloro is based in Toronto, Canada.

Iska Iska Project

Iska Iska silver-tin polymetallic project is a road accessible, royalty-free property that's wholly controlled by title holder Empresa Minera Villegas S.R.L. It is located 48 km north of Tupiza city, in the Sud Chichas Province of the Department of Potosi in southern Bolivia.

Iska Iska is a major silver-tin polymetallic porphyry-epithermal complex associated with a Miocene possibly collapsed/resurgent caldera roughly 1.6 km by 1.8 km in dimension with a vertical extent of at least 1 km. Its mineralization age is similar to Cerro Rico de Potosi and other major deposits, such as San Vicente, Chorolque, Tasna and Tatasi, located in the same geological trend.

Eloro began underground diamond drilling from the Huayra Kasa underground workings at Iska Iska on September 13, 2020. On November 18, 2020, Eloro announced the discovery of a significant breccia pipe with extensive silver polymetallic mineralization just east of the Huayra Kasa underground workings and a high-grade gold-bismuth zone in the underground workings. On November 24, 2020, Eloro announced the discovery of the SBBP approximately 150 m southwest of the Huayra Kasa underground workings.

Since the initial discovery hole, Eloro has released a number of significant drill results in the SBBP and the surrounding mineralized envelope, which, along with geophysical data, has defined an extensive target zone. In its September 20, 2022, press release, the company reported that new downhole geophysical data has significantly extended the strike length of the high-grade feeder zone at Santa Barbara a further 250 m along strike to the south-southeast from existing drilling.

The 3D inverse magnetic model, which correlates very strongly with the conductive zone, suggests that the high-grade feeder zone may extend across the entire caldera for as much as a further 1 km along strike for a total potential strike length of at least 2 km. As a result, the estimated completion date for the maiden NI 43-101 mineral resource has been pushed back to the end of Q1 2023.

On November 22, 2022, Eloro announced the acquisition of the Mina Casiterita and Mina Hoyada properties covering 14.75 km2 southwest and west of Iska Iska. Following the acquisition, the total land package in the Iska Iska area to be controlled by Eloro will total 483.75 km2.

Recently completed magnetic surveys by Eloro have outlined an extensive, near surface, magnetic intrusive body on the Mina Casiterita property, immediately southwest of Iska Iska. This intrusive hosts the previously mined high-grade tin veins and is very likely the continuation of the porphyry tin intrusion projected to be below the epithermal Ag-Sn-Zn-Pb mineralization at Iska Iska.

Drilling is planned on Mina Casiterita in Q1 2023, with geological mapping, sampling and geophysical surveys now in progress on the full land package across the Iska Iska region.

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.

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.

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.

Fintech Ecosystem Development Corp. (NASDAQ: FEXD)

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

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

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

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

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

Acquisition Targets

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

Rana Financial

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

Mobitech International LLC

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

Market Opportunity

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

Management Team

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

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

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 is in discussions with the FDA and plans to meet with the agency in an effort to have HeartBeam AIMI cleared in line with its Q1 2023 timeframe, as detailed in a corporate update issued in December 2022.

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 HeartBeam 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 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, HeartBeam 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 HeartBeam 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.

Robert P. Eno, President of HeartBeam, brings over 28 years of experience with a proven track record of developing markets and commercializing disruptive medical technologies. He has created go-to-market strategies for multiple breakthrough products, including noninvasive FFRCT diagnostic for coronary artery disease, laser cataract surgery, scanning laser photocoagulation and intravascular brachytherapy. Before joining HeartBeam, Mr. Eno was Chief Executive Officer of Preview Medical Inc., a diagnostic equipment company creating a new category of real-time, in vivo tissue classification for solid tumor cancers using machine learning and proprietary optical signals. Previously, he served as Senior Vice President of Marketing for HeartFlow Inc., leading all aspects of the marketing and product functions for a new category of personalized, noninvasive testing for heart disease, including its initial product, HeartFlow FFRCT. He has also held senior marketing and sales leadership roles at OptiMedica (acquired by Abbott), NeoGuide Systems (acquired by Intuitive) and Avantec Vacular (acquired by Goodman Co. Ltd). Mr. Eno began his career at Guidant, where he held a series of marketing and strategic planning roles in the Vascular Intervention business. He holds an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business and a BA, with Honors and Distinction, from Stanford University, where he was Phi Beta Kappa.

Peter J. Fitzgerald, MD, Ph.D., HeartBeam's Chief Medical Officer, is the Director of the Center for Cardiovascular Technology and Director of the Cardiovascular Core Analysis Laboratory at Stanford University Medical School. He is an interventional cardiologist and holds a Ph.D. in electrical engineering. Dr. Fitzgerald is Professor Emeritus in the Departments of Medicine (Cardiology) at Stanford University and has led or participated in over 175 clinical trials and published over 650 manuscripts/chapters and lectures worldwide. Over the past two decades, he has trained over 150 post-doctoral candidates in engineering and medicine. Dr. Fitzgerald has been principle and founder of 24 medical device companies in the San Francisco Bay area, transitioning 18 of these start-ups to medium/large-cap life science companies. In 2009, he co-founded TriVentures, an Israeli-based incubator/venture fund for early-stage medical technology and digital health. He has also been a consultant to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for the past 20 years, focused on medical technology and data driven health analytics.

Jon Hunt, Ph.D., HeartBeam's Executive Vice President and Chief Business Officer, 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.

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 37 granted patents and many patents pending worldwide. 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 oral cannabinoids, GLP-1 drugs, and other APIs.

Market Considerations

Lexaria is focusing ongoing research and development efforts on the advancement of product candidates across several key segments:

  • Tobacco [1] – Valued at $887.2 billion in 2023, this market is forecast to reach $1,057.6 billion by 2032
  • Nicotine Replacement [2] – Valued at $69.1 billion in 2023, this market is forecast to reach $198.7 billion by 2030
  • Diabetes [3] – Valued at $79.3 billion in 2023, this market is forecast to reach $134.1 billion by 2030
  • Cardiovascular Drugs [4] – Valued at $85.8 billion in 2023, this market is forecast to reach $115.8 billion by 2028
  • GLP-1 [5] – Valued at $18.0 billion in 2023, this market is forecast to reach $100 billion by 2028
  • CBD [6] – Valued at $9.4 billion in 2023, this market is forecast to reach $31.9 billion by 2027
  • Epilepsy [7] – Valued at $7.0 billion in 2023, this market is forecast to reach $9.5 billion by 2032
  • Human Hormones [8] – Valued at $3.7 billion in 2023, this market is forecast to reach $7.3 billion by 2032
  • PDE5 Inhibitors [9] – Valued at $3.4 billion in 2023, this market is forecast to reach $6.1 billion by 2032

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.

Julian Gangolli is a strategic advisor to Lexaria and is a proven and respected senior executive with a visible and successful track record at highly regarded publicly traded companies. He joined Allergan in 1998 and was North American President when it was sold in 2015, after becoming one of the leading specialty pharmaceutical companies in the United States. Mr. Gangolli joined GW Pharmaceuticals in 2015 as U.S. President. As President, he oversaw the approval of the first CBD drug by the FDA and the subsequent successful commercialization of Epidiolex® in the US. Epidiolex® is indicated for the treatment of refractory epilepsies and seizures in children. The commercial success of Epidiolex® in the U.S. led to the acquisition of GW Pharmaceuticals by Jazz Pharmaceuticals in 2021 for over $7 billion.

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.

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.

Forward-Looking Statements

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: [email protected]

Date prepared: August 31, 2023

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.

Renovaro BioSciences Inc. (NASDAQ: RENB)

Renovaro BioSciences Inc. (NASDAQ: RENB), formerly Enochian BioSciences Inc., is an advanced, pre-clinical biotechnology firm in cell, gene and immunotherapy focused on solid tumors with short life expectancy. The company aims to unlock potentially long-term or life-long cancer remission in some of the deadliest cancers, and to potentially treat or cure serious infectious diseases such as Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) and Hepatitis B Virus (HBV) infection.

The oncology platform is now at the forefront of Renovaro's development activities. While Renovaro's current efforts focus primarily on pancreatic cancer, it plans to include other solid tumors with short life-expectancy in the first in human Phase I/IIa studies that are on track to start by mid-2024. The company's Pre-Investigational New Drug (pre-IND) submission included a human study plan covering pancreatic cancer, as well as other cancers that are difficult to treat, potentially including triple-negative breast cancer, head and neck cancers and mesothelioma.

Renovaro's proprietary, novel technology uses cell- and gene-therapy to promote a renewed immune response against solid tumors. Important confirmatory results from two humanized mouse models using the company's novel dendritic cell-based therapy, independently conducted by Dr. Anahid Jewett, a renowned cancer researcher in the field of immunotherapy at UCLA, were presented previously at two scientific conferences and were the foundation supporting a pre-IND submission to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Notably, Dr. Jewett's findings from these studies consistently demonstrated 80% to 90% pancreatic tumor reduction in size and weight that was correlated with significant enhancement of key aspects of the immune response.

Renovaro is headquartered in Los Angeles, California.

RENB-DC11

Renovaro's product development strategy is anchored in the use of "non-self" or allogeneic cells that enhance targeted immune response. Its lead candidate, RENB-DC11, is an innovative therapeutic vaccination platform that could potentially be used to induce life-long remissions from some of the deadliest solid tumors.
Treatment with RENB-DC11 has now been shown to significantly reduce the size of human pancreatic tumors in humanized mice in three independent studies. The reduction in tumor size correlated with statistically significant increases in key components of an immune response.

Pre-IND was completed in June 2023, with IND filing forecast for first half of 2024. First in-human Phase I/IIa trials are predicted shortly after in H1 of 2024, including pancreatic and other solid tumors with poor treatment options and life-expectancy.

Renovaro believes that RENB-DC11 could represent the most promising and effective strategy to achieve life-long remission for a number of common and deadly tumors.

Other Development Candidates

In addition to its lead oncology platform, Renovaro's development pipeline includes a platform targeting infectious diseases, including:

  • RENB-HV12 – An engineered allogeneic T-Cell vaccine, this therapeutic HIV vaccine candidate enhances immune infiltration, immune killing and immune surveillance. Potential pre-IND submission is planned for first half of 2024, with IND-submission expected in second half of 2024.
  • RENB-HV21 – Leveraging allogeneic NK plus Gamma Delta T (GDT) cells as potential therapy for HIV, ENOB-HV21 shows promising preliminary results without confounding factors. Renovaro owns an exclusive license and has completed the Pre-IND submission, with a potential IND submission and human trials expected in 2024.
  • RENB-HV01 – Caring Cross, a non-profit corporation, has shown that its proprietary CAR-T cells cure HIV in a mouse model. Studies in humans have begun. Renovaro has entered into a profit-sharing sublicense with Caring Cross and would share in profits if the product is commercialized.
  • RENB-HB01 – This therapeutic approach aims to eliminate all HBV rapidly ("seek and kill") with a two to three dose treatment regimen. It is expected to be applicable for early disease to maximize impact with low risk of toxicity. Pre-IND comments have been received from the FDA for its AAV-delivery system.
    LOI to Merge with GEDi Cube International Ltd.

On August 9, 2023, Renovaro announced its execution of a binding, exclusive letter of intent to merge a subsidiary with cutting-edge health AI company GEDi Cube International Ltd. The combined company is expected to create a potential multiplier effect to accelerate earlier diagnosis, more effective therapy, and precision in silico drug discovery.

GEDi Cube's innovative technology, developed over nearly a decade, has already validated earlier diagnoses of lung cancer in humans at a leading university hospital. GEDi Cube has likewise created the early diagnosis technology for 12 additional cancers, including pancreatic and breast cancer.

"I believe joining forces with GEDi Cube could enhance the efficacy of our upcoming trials and speed up the discovery of novel treatment approaches, thereby extending our life-saving technology to more cancer patients and renewing hope for them and their families," Dr. Mark Dybul, CEO of Renovaro, stated in the news release.

GEDi Cube is led by CEO Craig Rhodes, who brings to that company tremendous industry experience leading life sciences groups at industry leaders Intel, Oracle and NVIDIA.

Market Opportunity

Pancreatic cancer alone is diagnosed globally in approximately 495,000 people each year, including roughly 64,000 in the U.S. Nearly 466,000 of those patients die annually, including approximately 51,000 in the U.S. Because of limited treatment options, life expectancy is very poor – with an approximately 10% patient survival rate at five years after diagnosis.

The global pancreatic cancer treatment market was valued at $2.15 billion in 2021 and is projected to grow from $2.48 billion in 2022 to $6.85 billion by 2029, according to Fortune Business Insights. That growth represents a CAGR of 15.7% for the forecast period.

A separate report from Fortune Business Insights projects that the global HIV drug market will grow from $30.46 billion in 2021 to $45.58 billion in 2028, recording a CAGR of 5.9% over the forecast period.

According to GlobalData, the value of the market for hepatitis B treatment is forecast to experience a significant increase in the coming years, with revenues expected to grow from $1.6 billion in 2022 to $10.5 billion in 2029. That represents a very rapid CAGR of 30% over the period. An estimated 296 million people suffer from the condition worldwide.

Management Team

Dr. Mark Dybul is the CEO of Renovaro. He has served as a tenured professor in the Department of Medicine at Georgetown University Medical Center since June 2017. He also served as Faculty Co-Director of the Center for Global Health and Quality from 2017-2021. Dr. Dybul has worked on HIV and public health for nearly 30 years as a clinician, scientist, teacher and administrator, including as an architect and eventually the Global Ambassador of the U.S. President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief and the Executive Director of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria from 2013 through May of 2017, and as the co-director of the Global Health Law Program at the O'Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law from 2009 through 2012. He is a member of the U.S. National Academy of Medicine.

Luisa Puche is the company's CFO. She has served as a senior accounting and financial advisor and president of Puche Group LLC from 2015-2019. She served in various key executive roles, including Interim Chief Accounting Officer, at Brightstar Corp., a $10 billion global wireless device services provider. Ms. Puche began her career at Ernst & Young, where she served for approximately 10 years. Leveraging her broad global audit, advisory and corporate expertise, she has provided strong cross-functional leadership experience managing small and large projects for both publicly traded and privately held companies in various industries, including a global implementation of the latest revenue recognition accounting standard for Del Monte, as well as the global implementation of their SOX-404 program.

Francois Binette, Ph.D., is the Chief Operating Officer and Executive Vice President of Research & Development at Renovaro. He has over 25 years of product development expertise in Advanced Therapies and Regenerative Medicine. His broad industry experience spans a wide range of serious medical conditions, from orthopedics to ophthalmology, CNS and immuno-oncology. His career includes positions at Genzyme, Biosyntech, the DePuy Franchise of Johnson and Johnson, Medtronic and Lineage Cell Therapeutics. He received his Ph.D. from Laval University in Québec, followed by post-doctoral training at the Sanford-Burnham Institute in La Jolla and Harvard Medical School in Boston.

Ucore Rare Metals Inc. (TSX.V: UCU) (OTCQX: UURAF)

Ucore Rare Metals Inc. (TSX.V: UCU) (OTCQX: UURAF) is a critical metals ("CM") separation technology company executing an ESG-centered plan toward establishing a comprehensive North American critical metals supply chain. The company has developed a transformative commercial-ready technology, RapidSX™, for separating and purifying critical metals. Ucore intends to deploy this technology in pursuit of a CM supply chain independent of China for Western original equipment manufacturers ("OEMs"), most notably in the automotive and renewable energy industries.

Ucore's vision is to become a leading advanced technology company providing best-in-class metal separation products and services to the mining and mineral extraction industry. Its initial focus is on processing heavy and light rare earth elements ("REEs"), disrupting a supply chain that is dominated by China.

China currently controls about 80% of the world's access to REE mining projects and over 90% of the world's REE processing capabilities, and it produces about 95% of the goods containing REE components.

Ucore is working to scale Western supply needs by establishing REE separation and rare earth oxide ("REO") production capabilities in cooperation with strategic upstream supply and downstream offtake partnerships. The company, along with its industry partners, aims to unlock access to Western REEs for current consumer, energy, manufacturing and military sectors.

By 2025, Ucore expects to commercially separate U.S.-friendly sources of REEs and supply OEMs with REOs required to produce rare earth permanent magnets ("REPMs") – the essential component of electric motors and generators required to support the world's transition to electrification and sustainable energy sources.

The company intends to contribute to this initiative through the near-term development of a heavy and light rare-earth processing facility in Louisiana and subsequent development of Strategic Metals Complexes (SMCs) in Alaska and Canada, as well as through the longer-term development of its 100%-owned Heavy Rare Earth Element (HREE) mineral resource property at Bokan Mountain on Prince of Wales Island, Alaska.

Ucore is headquartered in Halifax, Nova Scotia.

Projects & Technology

RapidSX™ Demonstration Plant

The Kingston, Ontario, RapidSX™ Demonstration Plant commissioning process is underway. Once commissioned, the plant is designed to demonstrate the commercial capabilities of the RapidSX technology platform.

The RapidSX demo plant will show:

  • The techno-economic advantages of the RapidSX technology platform
  • The processing of tens of tons of heavy and light mixed rare earth element concentrates in a simulated production environment
  • The platform's ability to operate for thousands of semi-continuous run-time hours
  • Production of high-purity NdPr, praseodymium, neodymium, terbium and dysprosium rare earth elements for early OEM product qualification trials

The demo plant is located within Ucore's 5,000-square-foot RapidSX Commercialization and Demonstration Facility and is run by its laboratory partner, Kingston Process Metallurgy Inc. ("KPM").

RapidSX™ Technology

Innovation Metals Corp., acquired by the company in 2020, developed the RapidSX separation technology platform with early-stage assistance from the United States Department of Defense, later resulting in the production of commercial-grade, separated rare earth elements at pilot scale.

RapidSX combines the time-proven chemistry of conventional solvent extraction (SX) with a new column-based platform that significantly reduces time to completion and plant footprint, as well as potentially lowering capital and operating costs. SX is the international REE industry's standard commercial separation technology and is currently used by all REE producers worldwide for bulk commercial separation of both heavy and light REEs.

Utilizing similar chemistry to conventional SX, RapidSX is not a "new" technology, but it represents a significant improvement on the well-established, well-understood, proven conventional SX separation technology preferred by REE producers.

Strategic Metals Complex

Ucore, engineering partner Mech-Chem Associates Inc. and KPM are developing the full-scale engineering for the company's first Strategic Metals Complex (SMC). The SMC is a planned REE separation and rare earth oxide production plant slated to commence construction in Louisiana in 2023. It is scheduled to initially process 2,000 tons of total rare earth oxides by the end of 2024, increasing to 5,000 tons in 2026.

The company has three initial U.S.-friendly feedstock agreements in place for the Louisiana complex, along with multiple developing offtake agreements. It received a C$16 million+ incentive package offer from Louisiana Economic Development to support construction of the SMC.

Bokan-Dotson Ridge REE Deposit

Ucore has invested over C$35 million to establish and validate the Bokan-Dotson Ridge resource in preparation for mine design and permitting. Initial drilling is complete, and a Preliminary Economic Assessment has been issued. Next steps for the project include a feasibility study, detailed mine design and permit acquisition. The project can be "near shovel ready" for construction in less than 30 months after receipt of the next stage of development funding.

Market Opportunity

According to a report by Grand View Research, the global rare earth elements market was valued at $2.8 billion in 2018 and is forecast to reach a value of $5.6 billion by 2025, achieving a CAGR of 10.4% during the period. Market growth is driven by increasing demand for these elements in the manufacturing of magnets and catalysts for the automotive industry. Rising demand for electric vehicles to reduce CO2 emissions is expected to propel the use of permanent magnets in the production of EV batteries.

China is the major producer and consumer of REEs. To maintain self-sufficiency and to meet future demand, China has been raising the export tariffs on rare earth elements shipped to various countries, including the U.S., Japan, India, Brazil and the European Union. This led to the current supply-demand gap in these countries, as they rely on imports from China.

China reduced the exports of REEs by 72% in the second half of 2010 to preserve its reserves of these elements and continues to export REEs at reduced levels, thereby affecting industries such as automotive, oil and gas, and electronics, which require an ample amount of rare earth elements.

Management Team

Pat Ryan, P.Eng., is Chairman and CEO of Ucore Rare Metals. He began as a director with the company when he developed a heightened interest in critical metals. Before joining Ucore, he founded and led a multimillion-dollar automotive OEM design and lean manufacturing company. His understanding of complex supply chains across international markets has led to a prime positioning as the global auto industry transitions to vehicle electrification. He holds a Bachelor of Engineering degree from Dalhousie University.

Peter Manuel is Vice President and CFO of Ucore. Prior to joining the company, he practiced as a Chartered Accountant for more than 17 years, providing consulting services to companies in a range of industries, with a focus on the financial services and resource sectors. He spent 10 years in England and Ireland providing assurance, strategic planning, corporate finance and other consulting services to a portfolio of both public and private entities. He holds a Bachelor of Commerce Degree from Dalhousie University.

Michael Schrider, MEng, P.E., is Vice President and COO of Ucore. He is a multidisciplinary engineer who has been involved in manufacturing, engineering and managing complex structural and mechanical systems projects since 1989. He was the Founder, President and Chief Engineer of Schrider & Associates and Alton Bay Design, both engineering services firms. He holds a bachelor's degree in naval architecture and marine engineering from the University of New Orleans and a master's degree in mining, geological and geophysical engineering from the University of Arizona.

Mark MacDonald is Vice President of Investor Relations at Ucore. He has over 25 years of experience implementing award winning business development and marketing programs at regional and national levels. As Vice President of Sales, he was responsible for Mediapro Communication's growth as AT&T Canada's leading B2B sales partner. He subsequently became Atlantic Regional Vice President of AT&T Canada Corp. He holds a Bachelor of Commerce degree from Dalhousie University.

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