8 Top Technology Stocks on the TSX Venture 50

Every year the TSX Venture releases its top 5o list, making it a good place to start for investors looking to expand their portfolios.

The TSX Venture 50 list ranks the top performing companies on the exchange throughout each calendar year, with 10 companies from five industry sectors, including: clean technology and life sciences, diversified industries, energy and energy services, mining, and–of course–technology.

In order to be considered for inclusion on the list, companies chosen are selected based on three equally-weighted criteria: market capitalization growth, share price appreciation, and trade volume amount. Companies were also to be listed on the TSXV for more than one year as of December 31, 2017 with market caps of more than $5 million.

On that note, the eight technology companies listed below certainly made an impression on the TSX Venture 50 with some new comers to the list but also some familiar faces. The companies are listed in order of the ranking on the TSX Venture list, with all numbers and figures current as of market close on February 26, 2018.

1. Identillect Technologies (TSXV:ID)

Market cap: $13.37 million; current share price: $0.19

The first tech company on the TSX Venture’s top 5o list is California-based Identillect Technologies, a company that provides email security to a range of email platforms that includes: Gmail, Outlook and O365, to name a few.

In the company’s video to the TMX Group, Todd Sexton, president and CEO of Identillect Technologies, said the company’s growth in 2017 could be attributed to more technologies the company is bringing to the market. Some of the technologies the company has ranges from secure scan, eSign, eSign business, a gmail plugin, Office 365 Add-in and an outlook plugin.

“We did this so we could address a lot of wire transfer fraud that’s been happening in the US and abroad,” Sexton said. Looking ahead to 2018, Sexton said this year the company should expect growth in both the real estate and legal sectors.

2. Millennial eSports (TSXV:GAME)

Market cap: $94.40 million; current share price: $0.66

Millennial eSports is a video game publishing company that operates millennialesports.gg which is an esports platform and online community. The company is focused on the mobile web side of things, targeting mobile racing. In addition to millennialesports.gg, the company’s products include: IDEAS+CARS, Eden Games, O’Gaming TV, thE Arena, and Stream Hatchet.

Alex Igelman, CEO of Millennial eSports, said in the company’s TSX Venture video presentation that 2017 was an “important year” because the company consolidated some important assets on the company’s racing side.

Looking into the rest of 2018, Igelman said it will be a “key year” because Millennial eSports will focus on its core racing title asset, further build the company and focus on racing.

3. BTL Group (TSXV:BTL)

Market cap: $170.77 million; current share price: $8.01

The list wouldn’t be complete without a blockchain-related company.

BTL Group is the creator of a blockchain development platform called Interbit, which provides solutions to business in a wide range of different industries that is specifically designed to be user-centric, scalable, private and secure.

Tom Thompson, CTO of the company said last year’s growth came at the hands of an increase in interest in the blockchain sector and that BTL was “very well placed” to receive such interest.

“The main growth … was the anticipation of our launch of the platform,” Thompson said, which he added will launch this year with the first round of applications already being built.

4. NexOptic Technology (TSXV:NXO)

Market cap: $159.34 million; current share price: $1.27

NexOptic Technology provides lens design and consumer product design, whose primary product is Blade Optics. Blade Optics is the company’s range of optical technologies that includes lens designs, algorithms and mechanics. The company’s technology can be applied in mobile, sport optics, industrial, aerospace, security and medical.

John Daugela, CEO of NexOptic said in the TSX Venture company video presentation the company’s growth in 2017 came thanks to its prototype proof-of-concept and its first commercial smartphone lens.

Moving into 2018, Daugela said investors should look to see the first Blade Optic smartphone prototype.

5. AnalytixInsight (TSXV:ALY)

Market cap: $29.20 million; current share price: $0.42

AnalytixInsight develops artificial intelligence and machine learning platforms that processes a large amount of data, rulesets, analysis models and logical arguments to help generate insights.

Prakash Hariharan, chairman and CEO, said the company’s 2017 growth came as a result of a “broad acceptance” of the company’s artificial intelligence platform, a conversion of a licensing deal and commercial revenues.

“2018 will be a further validation of our AI platform and a further validation of our banking partnerships we announced in 2016 and 2017,” Hariharan said, adding the company will also continue seeing growth as commercialization of its revenue continues growing.

6. Edgewater Wireless Systems (TSXV:YFI)

Market cap: $65.28 million; current share price: $0.44

Edgewater Wireless Systems specializes in commercializing technologies and intellectual property for wireless communications. More specifically, Edgewater Wireless Systems’ product line is a multichannel WiFI access point called WiFi 3, and operates three separate business units: high-density WiFi Solutions, Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) and Licensing, and Internet Protocol Monetization.

In its company video presentation to the TSX Venture exchange, Andrew Skafel, president and CEO said the company is “pushing WiFi beyond its limits.”

In terms of the company’s growth in 2017, Skafel said Edgewater notched a deal with some large retailers in the US, which helped transformed the company’s revenue last year. In 2018, the company looks to continue growing its partnership with Kroger (NYSE:KR) and begin rolling out across the US.

7. Siyata Mobile (TSXV:SIM)

Market cap: $42.19 million; current share price: $0.45

Siyata Mobile is in the mobile phone and smartphone business with a focus on commercial vehicles such as commercial fleets, trucks and busses, RCMPs, police cars and so on. Its products include: Truckfone, Voyager and Bagfone.

Marc Seelenfreund, the company’s CEO, said the company is the next generation of two-way radio or land-mobile radio. Last year, the company’s success was driven by an increase in customers and the number of products it launched. Moving into 2018, Seelenfreund said the company will have products for the push-to-talk-over satellite market.

“We’re launching a lot of new products in the first quarter of this year,” he said.

8. Photon Control (TSXV:PHO)

Market cap: $197.32 million; current share price: $1.78

Closing out the list is Photon Control, a company that provides engineering services for customized optical measurement systems. Its main products include fiber optic temperature sensors, spectroscopy and Focus2.0 optical gas flow meter.

The company is also working on designing and manufacturing the world’s largest Wafer Fabrication Equipment (WFE) and Original Equipment Manufacturers. The company, however, didn’t have a video statement for the TSX Venture to describe what lead to its success over 2017.

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

Editorial Disclosure: Millennial eSports is a client of the Investing News Network. This article is not paid for content.