CIBC Tech & Innovation Market Update – May 2024

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CIBC Technology and Innovation Conference 12.0

CIBC Capital Markets’ leading annual tech conference is fast-approaching, taking place on May 22, 2024 in Toronto. Hear from innovative North American tech companies and discover new opportunities. Rounding out the agenda is an exciting keynote:

  • The State of North American Growth Equity Technology Investing with Mark Haller, Managing Director, Sumeru Equity Partners, and Lisa Melchior, Founder and Managing Partner, Vertu Capital.

This event is by invitation only. Please contact your CIBC representative for more information.

Canadian technology sector performance and valuation

Source: FactSet and Pitchbook as at April 30, 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

April 2024

Aggregate deal value

$219M
(vs. $96M in Mar-24)²
YTD: $1.04B
(vs. $2.05B YTD-23)³

Number of deals

42
(vs. 34 in Mar-24)
YTD: 148
(vs. 323 YTD-23)

Avg. deal value

$11M
(vs. $5M in Mar-24)²
YTD: $13M
(vs. $1M YTD-23)³

Most active province by value ($ / #)

Ontario
($102M / 22)
YTD: Quebec
($469M / 26)

Most active province by count ($ / #)

Ontario
($102M / 22)
YTD: Ontario
($391M / 78)

Most active sector

Fintech
(29% of funds raised)
YTD: Software
(68%)

2 22 deals in Apr-24 and 16 deals in Mar-24 with no announced values are omitted from deal values.
3 68 deals in YTD-24 and 131 deals in YTD-23 with no announced values are omitted from deal values. 

Noteworthy Canadian deals

Company Size Financing round Sub-sector Lead investors
Brim Financial C$85M Series C FinTech Export Development Canada
UniUni US$50M Series C Logisitics DCM
Clariti US$18M Capital Raise Software - Government Vistara Growth

T&I @ CIBC

Deal activity

Dye & Durham

C$1.3 Billion
Refinancing Transactions
CIBC Capital Markets acted as Joint Bookrunner to Dye & Durham

Dye & Durham – C$1.3B Refinancing Transactions

CIBC Capital Markets acted as a joint bookrunner to Dye & Durham on the refinancing of their senior secured notes, term loan B facility, and revolver.

Rubrik

US$725 Million
Initial Public Offering
CIBC Capital Markets acted as Co-Manager to Rubrik

Rubrik – US$725 Initial Public Offering

CIBC Capital Markets acted as a co-manager on Rubrik’s US$725 million IPO on the NYSE.

Q4

Undisclosed
Credit Facilities
CIBC Innovation Banking acted as Sole Provider

Q4 - Credit Facilities

CIBC Innovation Banking provided credit facilities to support Sumeru Equity Partners’ strategic investment in Toronto-based Q4 Inc., the first AI-driven Investor Relations Operations Platform.

CertifID

Undisclosed
Growth Capital Financing
CIBC Innovation Banking acted as Sole Provider

CertifID – Growth Capital Financing

CIBC Innovation Banking provided growth financing to wire fraud protection company, CertifID, which will use the financing to further expand its portfolio of wire fraud prevention services.

Technology & Innovation in‘sites’ with CIBC Equity Research

T&I 'Bits and Bytes'

Q1/24 US tech earnings recap – Beats on cloud and advertising, with capex closely watched

Q1 financial results from the U.S. software companies we track have been solid on both the top and bottom lines. All of the tech names this quarter beat Street revenue estimates and all but one beat on EPS. Investors continue to watch cloud revenue as big tech competes for market share, as well as capex spend as they continue to spend big on AI. Strength in cloud and advertising revenues helped drive positive stock movements at Microsoft and Google, with Amazon set to report next week. Meta’s ad revenue beat was overshadowed by increased capex guidance, driving a negative stock price reaction.

Demand deep dive – Digging into the outlook for the IT & business services

We expect 2024 to be a soft start for the IT Solutions/Business Services sector, beyond what is already typically a seasonally weak quarter. Persistent inflation, higher-for-longer interest rates, and added uncertainty from geopolitical tensions have pushed out the timeline for an expected recovery in enterprise spending and capital deployment. With the first rate cut now expected no earlier than June, we expect sales and EBITDA growth to be second-half weighted for the IT Services/Business names in our coverage.

The AI highway – Canada unveils $2.4 billion AI spending plan

Canada’s Federal government unveiled a $2.4 billion spending plan to bolster access to critical artificial intelligence infrastructure, build domestic computing capacity and create safeguards against the potential downside of AI technology. The majority of the budget is allocated to providing the infrastructure needed for running AI models. While Canada is known globally for its AI talent (home to leading AI experts such as Geoffrey Hinton, Yoshua Bengio, and Richard Sutton), the country has been falling behind when it comes to compute capabilities and access. Canada is ranked fifth in the world for its AI capacity according to the Tortoise Global AI Index in 2023 but falls to twenty-third when ranked on AI infrastructure. With this context, some industry experts have praised the investment; however, others remain focused on AI regulation. News outlets also reported this week that the federal government has already used AI in almost 300 projects and initiatives despite the fact that Canada’s Artificial Intelligence and Data Act (AIDA) bill, aimed at regulating AI, has not yet passed the House of Commons.

Free speech – Scotland’s new hate crime law comes into effect

Earlier this month, a controversial hate crime law came into force in Scotland. The Hate Crime and Public Order Act was passed in March 2021 and became effective on April 1, resulting in an online uproar from critics and an outpouring of hate crime complaints filed with the Scotland Police within the first few days of the Act being enforced. While the bar for criminality is high and enforcement currently lies in the hands of the Scottish Police, we see the potential for the law’s introduction to drive some demand for content moderation from law enforcement agencies over time.

Recent technology news

The federal government’s plan to increase capital gains tax to 67% from 50% has already faced backlash from many professional associations and small business owners, but John Ruffolo of Maverix Private Equity is concerned on its effect to Canada’s tech economy. His worry is that Canada will be a less attractive for tech investors, making it harder for innovative companies to raise capital, and overall contribute to slower productivity within the sector.

Read the full article at Financial Post.

Currently, there are 170 million Americans users that could be affected by the potential shutdown of TikTok after President Joe Biden signed a bill ordering them to divest from its China-based parent company ByteDance within a year or otherwise be banned in the country. TikTok has already issued a statement that they plan to contest the bill, characterizing the ban as an infringement on free speech rights of its users.

Read the full article at Wired.

Phill Moran and Chamin Bellana, founders of Lexington Innovations in Toronto, explore the benefits and costs of AI within Canadian financial institutions. While adoption of AI is still quite early, all major Canadian financial services use AI in their anti-money laundering and fraud programs, with further integration expected within banks’ call centers, broker management and social media screening in the future.

Read the full article at BLG.

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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
Executive Managing Director and Co-Head
Amy Olah
Managing Director, Head of Canada & US West Coast Venture Banking, 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
  • Optiva
  • Pivotree
  • Quarterhill
  • Sangoma
  • Sylogist
  • Terago
  • VerticalScope
  • Vitalhub
  • Voxtur

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