High-tech Investment Opportunities in Canada

While at the fourth CanTech Investment Conference, I met some promising Canadian high-tech companies. CanTech is the Canada’s largest technology investment conference organized by Cambridge House International. 

Photo source: Cambridge House International

Toronto Waterloo corridors are considered as Canada’s Silicon Valley, one of the largest technology hubs in North America. Overall, Canadian high-tech funding is on the rise as per CB insights report 2011- 2016 below. In 2016, there were 358 deals with the disclosed funding of $1,447 million. 

 Photo source: CB Insights

Some Canadian high-tech companies have done well in 2016:

Maluuba, a Montreal/Waterloo based startup focusing on deep learning, a type of artificial intelligence, has been acquired by Microsoft recently.

Shopify, a cloud-based, multichannel commerce platform designed for small and medium-sized businesses headquartered in Ottawa, had a 95% increase in revenue in Q3 2016. Its stock is up over 200% year to date.

 High-tech Investment Opportunities in Canada

Canada has never been short of the high-tech investment opportunities. However, the overall capital markets need to learn new technologies fast enough to be able to evaluate the demand/market size and forecast revenues/profits for each high-tech opportunity. Here are some sectors worth paying attention to:

 Quantum Computing

Quantum technology is a priority for Canada. University of Waterloo has launched the Institute for Quantum Computing (IQC), a world-leading research centre in quantum information science and technology a decade ago.

D-Wave Systems, a Burnaby-based quantum computing company, is the first company in the world to sell quantum computers. It has designed a quantum computer that is 100 million times faster than its conventional computing counterpart. The big names including Google and NASA has invested heavily into the technology.

  

BioTech

The Canadian biotech industry has largely suffered from difficulty raising capitals. In the United States, investors have supported numerous biotech projects that are in the stage of discovery and development. In Canada, I saw many biotech entrepreneurs pulling their hair off to find funding for promising projects.

Here are local biotech companies that have sustained in Canada:

RepliCel is a Vancouver-based regenerative medicine company developing autologous cell therapies to treat conditions linked to a deficit of healthy cells required for normal healing and function. It mainly treats chronic tendinosis, UV-damaged or aged skin, and pattern baldness. RepliCel has signed a deal with Shiseido Company, a Japanese multinational personal care company.

ProMIS Neurosciences Inc., is a Toronto-based development stage biotech company that discovers and develops game changing precision therapeutics for treatment of neurodegenerative diseases, in particular Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS).

To explore more Canadian biotech companies, visit BIOTECanada, the national industry association with over 200 members located nationwide, reflecting the diverse nature of Canada’s health, industrial and agricultural biotechnology sectors.

 Photo source: BIOTECanada

 Commercial Drones

The Sky Guys, a Toronto based drone company, offers a wide range of commercial and industry drones services for various industries. Here are a few use cases:

• Oil and gas, onshore/offshore field inspection
• Unmanned inspection for power and utility assets: Hydro Poles, Transition Lines and Power lines, Solar Installations, Wind Turbines, and Nuclear Facilities, etc.
• Commercial and residential real estate, condos, high rises

In the near future, the competitive advantages of a drone company will rely heavily on the capability to capture data, maintain the data security, and interpret data into meaningful business intelligence, besides integration of the innovative technologies.

IoT, Blockchain, and Fintech

There has been a lot of interest in IoT, blockchain, and Fintech. Cortex Business Solutions is a Calgary-based B2B Network-as-a-Service that combines blockchain, IoT, and Fintech to enable scalable e-invoicing.

The future of Canada has relied and will continue to rely on the prosperity of high-tech sectors. With numerous creative high-tech talents, pipelines for entrepreneurs to grow and national/international investment funds in place, there will be a tech boom across nationwide.

Resources

For investors, visit Invest in Canada.

For entrepreneur and startup support, visit Banting & Best Centre for Innovation and Entrepreneurship, Cossette Labs, Founder Institute Toronto, and Highline. 

For marketing, business development, and investment services, visit Mans International.

A glimpse of innovative tech products at CES 2017

2017 is the 50th year of CES (Consumer Electronics Show), an annual trade show organized by the Consumer Technology Association (CTA). CES 2017 was held in Las Vegas from January 5 to January 8, showcasing the latest technology products and trends to the world.

                                                            Photo source: CES Tech

VR is still hot, but no big surprises. Both HTC and Oculus decided not to demonstrate their latest version.

This year, the smart home products using AI (Artificial intelligence) technologies are attracting attention.

Sleep Number 360 smart bed

I have seen many smart beds, but Sleep Number 360 is intriguing:

• Preheat the bottom part of the bed to warm your feet and make you fall asleep faster
• Automatically adjust the firmness of the mattress according to your movement
• Take the roar out of the snore by gently raising your partner’s side to reduce his/her volume
• Identify your best sleeping temperature and adjust the room thermostat
  
                                                 Photo source: Sleep Number 360

Cota Tile

Selected as one of the CES 2017 Best Innovation Awards products, Cota Tile is designed by Ossia to deliver real wireless power to electronic devices like mobile phones without wires, charging pads or plugs. It can be embedded in the ceiling with a radiation range around 30 feet. It is very convenient whether you are in an office, a hospital, a cafe or at home.

                                                          Photo source: Sleep Number 360

Little Fish -  AI digital Assistant With A Touchscreen & Camera

Little Fish is a cool AI digital assistant designed by Ainemo Inc. It’s a voice controlled family robot using Baidu’s AI operating system DuerOS. It’s the world’s very first AI digital assistant with a combination of touch screen, voice and camera. You can ask Little Fish to search information, order takeaways, and set alarm clocks, .etc. With a touch screen, you can scroll from left to right to find out all the search results and pick the one you want to explore more. Moreover, the camera on top of the screen can automatically track your gesture and ensure that the screen faces you all the time. However, Little Fish only recognizes Chinese at this stage. It will launch in March 2017 in China with a price at 2,699 RMB, about CDN $540.

                                                         Photo source: Baidu

Beam

Beam is a portable smart projector that can simply turn any flat surface into a big screen, controlled by an Apple or Android app. You can screw it into any light socket or use the included cable to place it at any places you like. I used to image the scene that I can pretend to be a good cook with a secret weapon - the recipe demonstrated on the kitchen counter top. Now the dream comes true. You can buy Beam at 499 euro, about CDN $696 on its website. 

                                                        Photo source: Beam Labs Inc.

Autonomous Driving System at $5,000

The ex-Tesla partner Delphi and Mobileye showed off the CLSP autonomous driving system.  Delphi is a world leader in automated driving software, sensors and systems integration. Mobileye is a world leader in computer vision systems, mapping, localization and machine learning focused on the automotive domain.

According to Delphi, three factors will separate the leaders from the pack in the race to offer driverless vehicles:

1. Perception sensors such as cameras, radar and LiDAR
2. Automotive experience
3. Computer processing speed

They expect mass production in 2019, priced at around $5,000.

For more information about the cool products at CES 2017, visit CNET.com.

As more and more new technology will hit the streets in 2017 and thereafter, how can innovative technology companies stand out? Some startup entrepreneurs are questioning whether they should spend money on improving product features than on marketing campaigns, i.e. attending trade shows like CES. They make a good point. Exhibition venues are very crowded and small exhibitors may go unnoticed. However, companies need to find a suitable platform/channel, not necessarily the CES, to increase their brand awareness and grow market share before the competition draws market attention with similar products/services.