Vancouver Technology Investor Day 2016: Notes From The Floor

This year’s TSX Technology Investor Day in Vancouver began in the afternoon of May 16.
After opening remarks, the conference took flight with a variety of company presentations—including some from start-up companies—in front of a packed room.
Needless to say, there were plenty of interesting presentations. And while the TSX and TSXV have traditionally been somewhat resource-heavy, it appears that the Canadian exchanges are attracting listings from the tech sector as well.
The Investing News Network (INN) attended the latter part of the afternoon’s conference, where company presentations included:

• Solutions to commercial and government organizations around the world;
• Real-time electronic identity verification solutions;
• Cloud-based digital asset management;
• A cloud-based platform that allows companies to build and engage secure communities of customers; and
• Cloud-enabled services for global equity administration.

While some of the companies are similar in nature, what they bring to the table varies slightly. Let’s take a closer look at what they each discussed at the conference and what they offer:

MacDonald, Dettwiler and Associates (TSX:MDA)

MacDonald Dettwiler was the first company on the docket for the late afternoon slot. Steve Oldham, the company’s vice president stepped up to the plate for the presentation.
MDA is a global communications and information company that provides solutions to commercial and government organizations worldwide. They are active in two markets, which are communications and surveillance and intelligence.
The communications sector offers space-based solutions for global delivery of direct-to-home television, satellite radio, broadband internet and mobile communications. Surveillance and intelligence deals with solutions to manage changes and activities worldwide.
Oldham said they are the leading provider of commercial satellites.
“When you’re flying across Canada, you’re flying in software written by MDA,” Oldham said in his presentation, adding their software is also used in things such as parking tickets.

Trulioo (privately held)

Next on the list was privately held company, Trulioo. The presentation was done by company president Jon Jones.
Jones said Trulioo started up just five years ago, in 2011, and has grown to over 400 clients in that time frame. Trulioo is a global ID verification company, driven on providing advanced analytics based on “traditional information” such as public records, credit files and government data, among other things.
Jones added their identity verification solution, GlobalGateway, covers over four billion people in over 40 countries, including coverage in markets such as China, Russia and Brazil. They are driven on increasing trust and safety by providing verified identities across the world, regardless of an individual’s circumstance.

MediaValet (TSXV:MVP)

The third presentation was given by David MacLaren, founder and CEO of MediaValet.
Their vision began in 2009 as VRX Studios, a photography and content service provider for global hospitality and the travel industry looking for a digital asset management solution. MacLaren said the company “turned to the cloud” in 2010, and was the first 100 percent cloud-based digital asset management built from scratch.
“How does this differ than something like Dropbox?” MacLaren asked during the presentation. He added the company has the capacity to deal with large files, documents or images from any organization no matter where in the world they are.
MacLaren exampled the New England Patriots as one of their biggest clients.

Vision Critical (privately held)

Next was Vision Critical, whose presentation was done by its CEO, Scott Miller.
Vision Critical has been around since 2000, and is a cloud-based customer intelligence platform with a focus on ensuring their clients build their customers in “continuous conversation” with ongoing real-time feedback and insight. Vision’s technology allows for large customer-centric enterprises to discover what their customers want so they’re able to get what they’re looking for.
In the presentation, Miller said approximately 30 percent of feedback surveys don’t get answered anymore because “there’s no context,” which is one reason why Vision is driven on real-time feedback and insight.
Miller said they currently have approximately 750 customers using their platform with a target growth of 30 percent. He added their annual revenue is approaching $110 million.

Solium Capital (TSX:SUM)

The last presentation of the day came from Mike Broadfoot, former CEO of the company and current managing director. Solium Capital is another cloud-enabled service for global equity administration.
With offices in Canada, the US, United Kingdom and Australia, the company has so far accumulated over 3,0000 clients. According to Broadfoot, about half of them private and the other half public. He added the clients’ revenue ranges from a few thousand dollars to over $100 million.
Broadfoot said they are looking to become a market leader in their field while keeping “investors first.” He added they company has plans to continue focusing on geographic expansion and are trying to pick a cross section in Western Canada.

Securities Disclosure: I, Jocelyn Aspa, hold no direct investment interest in any company mentioned in this article.