CIBC Tech & Innovation Market Update – March 2024

Canadian technology sector performance and valuation

Source: FactSet and Pitchbook as at February 29, 2024; in C$ unless otherwise noted. 
1 Please refer to the end of the document for technology group constituents.

Canadian venture capital market monthly recap

February 2024

Aggregate deal value

$321M
(vs. $408M in Jan-24)²
YTD: $729M
(vs. $762M YTD-23)³

Number of deals

43
(vs. 29 in Jan-24)
YTD: 72
(vs. 179 YTD-23)

Avg. deal value

$16M
(vs. $19M in Jan-24)²
YTD: $17M
(vs. $8M YTD-23)³

Most active province by value ($ / #)

Quebec
($141M / 8)
YTD: Quebec
($425M / 14)

Most active province by count ($ / #)

Ontario
($133M / 22)
YTD: Ontario
($215M / 39)

Most active sector

Software
(51% of funds raised)
YTD: Software
(77%)

2 23 deals in Feb-24 and 7 deals in Jan-24 with no announced values are omitted from deal values.
3 30 deals in YTD-24 and 88 deals in YTD-23 with no announced values are omitted from deal values. 

Noteworthy Canadian deals

Company Size Financing round Sub-sector Lead investors
Levio C$125M Growth Equity Funding Digital Consultancy Firm CDPQ
Ideogram US$80M Series A Generative AI Andreessen Horowitz
Helcim C$27M Series B Software - Payments Headline
Helius C$13M Series A Software - Crypto Foundation Capital

T&I @ CIBC

Deal activity

Drips Holdings, LLC

Undisclosed
Growth Capital Financing
CIBC Innovation Banking acted as Sole Provider

Drips Holdings, LLC – Growth Capital Financing

CIBC Innovation Banking provided growth capital financing to Akron, Ohio-based Drips, an innovative conversational outreach company powered by AI technology. Drips plans to utilize the financing to bolster product development and facilitate expansion into diverse industry verticals within U.S. markets.

InsightRX

Undisclosed
Growth Capital Financing
CIBC Innovation Banking acted as Sole Provider

InsightRX – Growth Capital Financing

CIBC Innovation Banking provided growth capital financing to San Francisco-based InsightsRX, a software company leveraging quantitative pharmacology and AI to improve therapeutic decision-making in clinical trials.

In The News @ CIBC

Sean Duffy, Managing Director at CIBC Innovation Banking’s UK office provides his recommendations to attract VC funders to your business.

Learn more

Technology & Innovation in‘sites’ with CIBC Equity Research

T&I 'Bits and Bytes'

Parental controls – Utah’s push for social media age limits

Not long after the child safety hearing that took place on Capitol Hill concluded with no clear resolution, the State of Utah is pushing ahead a piece of legislation that would restrict social media access by individuals under the age of 18. The law has been the subject of controversy since it was first put forward in early 2023; pushback from critics has centred around privacy matters tied to how the law would be enforced. Age verification will require access of sensitive personal information of minors by the tech companies, which may pose even more risks to the impacted users. The main changes in the revised bill include clearly identifying the harms, and including a safe harbour for social media companies that shields them from civil litigation provided they adhere to the guidelines. News reports expect the law to be passed in the next two weeks; however, its overall impact will ultimately remain in the hands of the parents providing consent.

Hallucinating in flight – Air Canada’s faulty chatbot

Recently, the Canadian Civil Rights Tribunal (CRT) ruled against Air Canada in a case where the company had argued its AI-powered chatbot was liable for providing false information to customers, rather than the airline itself. In 2022, an Air Canada customer used the airline’s chatbot for information on the company’s bereavement policy for last-minute airfare. The chatbot provided the customer with information that included applying for a refund retroactively; however, this response turned out to be fabricated (commonly referred to as an AI hallucination). Air Canada argued that the chatbot is a separate legal entity and the company should not be liable for the information it provides, but the CRT ruled that Air Canada failed to provide reasonable care to ensure its representations are accurate and not misleading. The case sheds a light on some of the issues still underlying GenAI: the possibility of hallucinations, and who is responsible for them.

Chips rip – The semiconductor rally

Nvidia was a clear market darling last year: the company’s share price more than tripled and ended the year up ~240%, leaving many investors with investment “FOMO”. Nvidia is up a further 49% year to date as of yesterday’s close; however, the chip designer is no longer the star semiconductor stock in 2024. In what appears to be a hunt for the next golden chip stock, Arm Holdings’ (which went public in September 2023 at $51/share) shares are up 69% year to date after the company reported better-than-expected quarterly results and a strong outlook that was well above Street expectations. The PHLX Semiconductor Index is up 80% since the beginning of 2023, significantly outperforming the S&P 500, which was up 31% over the same period.

Dividend dreams – Facebook’s first dividend: the start of a trend?

Dividend investors have typically shied away from the tech sector for obvious reasons: technology has long been synonymous with growth. While there are still a myriad of high-growth, unprofitable tech companies (and more arising as the AI wave continues) that continue to gain the attention of growth investors, the technology sector may now be attracting a new type of investor. As we move deeper into the 21st century and away from the dotcom boom, more and more technology companies are reaching a mature stage, demonstrating healthy margins and stable cash flows all while maintaining a strong growth profile. Such is the case for Meta, which recently rang in Facebook’s 20th birthday by declaring the company’s first-ever dividend.

Recent technology news

OpenAI has started to show off its new generative video model called Sora, meaning sky in Japanese, and the results are pretty startlingly. With only a short text description, Sora has the power to create high definition videos up to a minute long. While its launch is still undetermined as the firm looks to safeguard from potential misuses, the company was ready to share four of Sora’s generative videos publicly.

Read the full article at MIT Technology Review.

While details remain scant, Neuralink Corp. has reported that they have successfully implanted a brain chip in its first human patient – with them making a full recovery from the procedure and gained the ability to control a computer mouse using their thoughts. While the treatment is promising, the scientific community remains skeptical about the device’s long-term efficacy and safety.

Read the full article at yahoo!Finance.

Joining Apple, Microsoft, and Saudi Aramco, Nvidia is now one of four companies worth over $2 trillion. The company has been on a phenomenal growth trajectory since 2018 when it was worth around $100 billion. From its start into video games, to crypto mining – Nvidia now looks poised to become a market leader in AI.

Read the full article at Vox.

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Tech & Innovation Key Contacts

Roman Dubczak
Deputy Chair
Susan Rimmer
Managing Director And Head, Global Corporate & Investment Banking
Kevin Li
Managing Director and Head, Global Investment Banking

Global Investment Banking

Kathy Butler
Vice Chair and Head of CIBC Capital Markets – B.C.
Colin Ryan
Managing Director, Head of Technology & Innovation, Global Investment Banking
Adam Noily
Managing Director, Head of U.S. Technology & Innovation, Global Investment Banking
Daniel Lee
Managing Director, Technology & Innovation, Global Investment Banking
Emilie Bissonnette
Managing Director, Global Investment Banking
Rob Magwood
Managing Director, Equity Capital Markets
Frazer Wong
Executive Director, Technology & Innovation, Global Investment Banking

Innovation Banking

Mark Usher
Executive Managing Director, Innovation Banking
Paul McKinlay
Vice-President and Head of U.S. Origination, Innovation Banking
Amy Olah
Managing Director and Head of Canadian Origination, Innovation Banking

Canadian Technology Constituents

High-Growth Canadian SaaS
  • Ceridian
  • Copperleaf
  • Coveo
  • Descartes
  • Docebo
  • Kinaxis
  • Lightspeed
  • Shopify
  • Thinkific
Large Cap Canadian Tech
  • Altus
  • Blackberry
  • Celestica
  • CGI
  • Constellation Software
  • Converge Technologies
  • Dye and Durham
  • Enghouse
  • Evertz Technologies
  • Nuvei
  • OpenText
  • Softchoice
  • Well Health
Mid Cap Canadian Tech
  • Calian
  • Computer Modelling Group
  • D2L
  • Kneat
  • Payfare
  • Real Matters
  • TECSYS
  • Tiny
  • Vecima
Small Cap Canadian Tech
  • Alithya
  • Baylin Tech
  • BBTV
  • Blackline Safety
  • Farmers Edge
  • Optiva
  • Pivotree
  • Quarterhill
  • Sangoma
  • Sylogist
  • Terago
  • VerticalScope
  • Vitalhub
  • Voxtur

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