Investor Newsletter H1 2022
August 11, 2022
Welcome to our Semi-Annual Investor Newsletter edition for the first half of 2022. This Newsletter will present an update on the investment activity of the Wesley Clover Global Ecosystem of Technology companies as well as updates on the expansion of New Funds, LP participation opportunities of the Alacrity Global program and what trends we are watching in technology, investment, and policy.
In this Edition:
- 5G Thought Leadership Article
- Our Latest Watch List
- Portfolio Investment Highlights
- New Initiatives
- Investment Spotlight
- Alacrity Entrepreneurship News
- Upcoming Events
Why 5G Drones? How 5G moves the needle in drone use cases
There is much anticipation and excitement around the new and enhanced capabilities that 5G will bring to wireless communication and an associated wide range of new services and solutions. 5G is not just another G or ‘generation’ of mobile technology but it will leapfrog previous versions into a new dimension of possibilities. The unique technical functionality that 5G promises is indeed impressive: exceptionally faster speeds (up to 10X faster than 4G/ LTE) with expansive bandwidth and capacity; ultra-low latency with goals of less than 10ms of latency/delay and the promise of 99.999% ultra reliability; massive IoT capacity that will support more than 1 million IoT devices in 1 square KM.
Combining these 5G capabilities with other enabling technologies such as multi-access edge computing (MEC), artificial intelligence (AI), video analytics and others will result in an endless number of possible use cases across many verticals. Click the link below to read the full article Why 5G Drones? How 5G moves the needle in drone use cases Amy Karam TELUS 5G thought leader
Click the link below to read the full article Why 5G Drones? How 5G moves the needle in drone use cases
Amy Karam
TELUS 5G thought leader
Our Watch List
- Cyber Security: HYAS – Your Existing Security and Visibility is Not Enough
- IoT: Teldio: Catching the IoT Automation Wave
- Ottawa-Kanata 5G Ecosystem: TELUS, CENGN, KNBA Partner to Launch 5G Innovation Zone in Kanata North
Wesley Clover & Alacrity Content
Content for global investor, entrepreneur, and partner audiences.
Wesley Clover issues updates on the portfolio each Quarter on Technology,
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Find information related to Alacrity Funds, Hubs, and Companies.
Portfolio Investment Highlights:
The Alacrity Global Ecosystem has had 2 exits since the previous update. The cumulative funds raised for this year have been over $50M USD. The tech verticals of Exits were in EdTech, and Mobile Payments. The greatest follow-on investment attraction in the first half of 2022 was in the areas of AI/Big Data. You can follow the links below for details:
- L-SPARK Portfolio Raises: Paidiem $3.75 Million.
- L-SPARK Exit: Hangry, Undisclosed.
- L-SPARK Portfolio Company: Mydoma made first acquisition.
- Alacrity UK Raises: Talkative £468,000,
- Alacrity Canada Portfolio Raises: Certn US $50 Million.
- Alacrity Canada Portfolio Company: Certn acquires Credence.
- Alacrity Turkey Exit: English Ninjas Undisclosed.
5 initiatives we are working on this year are:
- New Alacrity Funds & Accelerators under development: UAE, ASEAN, India, and South America
- Attract LPS for Alacrity Secondary Funds
- Support the acceleration of Pre-seed companies to investible revenue levels.
- Enhance engagement with Global Investor and Industry Analyst community via briefings and informative content.
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Deal Book: Investment Spotlight
Over the next 8-12 months we are anticipating further Early-Stage Investment attraction specifically in the area of IoT, HealthCare IT, FinTech, Management Software, HRTech, MarTech and Security & Monitoring. Companies have continued to grow in 2022 and are looking to accelerate global growth further. We have 7 companies looking to raise funds over the next 6-8 months: BilliApp, Cliniconex, ThinkRF, Teldio, Thrive and SaaSquatch. Find the investment profile details below:
Billi
Website: https://billi.app/
Industry/Vertical: FinTech, Financial Services, Personal Finance
Location: North America
Investment Timeline: Fall 2022
Active Users: 40,000+3K waiting list
Funding Target: Seed, $3 Million
Investor Targets: VC
Billi is on a mission to become the operating system of personal money management. The company helps its members track bills, avoid bank fees, save money, and lead more financially mindful lives by offering tools such as predictive cash flow, spending insights, categorization, and unified account aggregation. Through proprietary data analysis Billi is set to help 18M+ employed Canadians to unlock early payroll to help avoid the billions in fees collected by major banks and predatory payday lenders.
Current Investors: Founder, Wesley Clover, Angels, Debt
Strategic Customers: DC Bank Plaid, Flinks
Cliniconex
Website: https://cliniconex.com/
Industry/Vertical: Healthcare Technology, Ambulatory & Long-Term Care.
Location: North America
Investment Timeline: Nov 2022-May 2023
Estimated ARR CAD: 4 Million+
Funding Target: Series A, $10 Million
Targets: VC and Corporate Venture
Serving medical professionals, patients, and their families Cliniconex is one of North America’s fastest-growing healthcare engagement solutions with an accelerated increase in year over year growth for the last three years. Our solution coordinates the exchange of information and communications from more than 5,000 medical professionals and 1,600 senior care providers, to trigger more than 800,000 meaningful engagements each month.
The Cliniconex software provides a host of services that automate repetitive tasks so staff can focus on caring for patients and/or residents. Digital transformation in healthcare is growing rapidly with national health spending projected to reach $6.2 trillion by 2028* in the U.S. alone. Cliniconex is seeking capital to accelerate expansion: 1) within existing strategic partnerships, 2) to adjacent senior care segments in new markets through product extension.
Current Investors: Angels and Strategic Investors.
Strategic Customers: PointClickCare, Loblaws, Telus Health
Teldio
Website: https://www.teldio.com/
Industry/Vertical: B2B, SaaS, Workflow Automation
Location: North America
Investment Timeline: June 2023
Estimated Annual Revenue CAD: $2.5 Million+
Funding Target: Series A, $6 Million+
Investor Targets: VC and Corporate Venture
Teldio enables enterprises to quickly and cost-effectively integrate systems that power their business. The company’s platform Hyphen automates routine tasks and improves operations using workflows that connect these systems, in the cloud or on-premise, resulting in dramatic productivity improvements.
Teldio sells in a subscription model to the global enterprise workflow automation market. Company is growing 2x 2020 to 2021 and projected to accelerate 3x in 2022 and beyond. The plan is to utilize the funding to accelerate organic growth and go public in five years with over $100M in ARR.
Current Investors: VC, Corporate, Angel
Strategic Customers: Amazon, Pfizer, Marriott, P&G, 3M, GE, Nissan, Cargill, Tyson Foods, NYSE, Honda, SpaceX
thinkRF
Website: https://www.thinkrf.com/
Industry/Vertical: Security & Monitor, Software-defined spectrum analysis platform
Location: North America
Investment Timeline: November 2022 – March 2023
Estimated ARR CAD: $2.7 Million+
Funding Target: Pre-Series, $6 Million+
Investor Targets: Institutional Angels, Angels
Website: https://thinkrf.com/
Industry/Vertical: Security & Monitor, Software-defined spectrum analysis platform
Location: North America
Investment Timeline: Nov 2022-Mar 2023
Estimated Annual Revenue CAD: $2.7 Million+
Funding Target: Pre-Series, $6 Million+
Investor Targets: Institutional Angels, Angels
Wireless spectrum is a scarce and expensive resource. Wireless operators in Canada paid $3.5 billion for spectrum licenses in 2019. These operators have little actionable intelligence about what spectrum to license and where to license it. These challenges are worsened by the complexity of next generation 5G deployments.
ThinkRF built its reputation designing and selling highly accurate low-cost spectrum analyzers delivering capacity of 8kHz to 45GHz, these ranges of network are extremely important to wireless networked sensors in the world of 5G. ThinkRF is currently working with leading Operators to instrument cities around the world, collecting data about what is happening in the spectrum, and using AI to create actionable intelligence. ThinkRF sells multi-year subscriptions to these insights to operators and regulators. To further develop this offering, ThinkRF is seeking $3M in the short term to bridge to a larger VC round later this year. Having grown revenues 3x last year, the plan will be to go public in five years with over $100M in ARR.
Current Investors: VC, Corporate, Angel, Institutional Angel
Thrive
Website: https://thrivemycareer.com/
Industry/Vertical: HRTech, Career Management
Location: North America
Investment Timeline: November 2022 – February 2023
Estimated Annual Revenue CAD: $2.4 Million+
Funding Target: Series A, $10 Million
Investor Targets: VC and Corporate Venture
Thrive Career Wellness platform is an enterprise career marketplace built to help any individual advance their career. Employers deposit dollars into the platform which individuals can use to access over 70+ services in our integrated marketplace. Thrive is used by employers for career transition, internal redeployment, and career management. Thrive is growing over 100% Year over Year and has customers in eight different countries around the world. Thrive is seeking capital to increase investment in enterprise customer requirements while growing and building direct sales and customer service teams across active geographies.
Current Investors: Angels, Institutional Angels, VC
Strategic Customers: Walmart, Scotiabank, Lowes Canada
More Details
SaaSquatch
Website: https://www.saasquatch.com/
Industry/Vertical: MarTech, Customer Engagement, Advocacy, Rewards & Loyalty
Location: North America
Investment Date: May-Nov 2022
Estimated ARR USD: $2 Million+
Funding Target: Series A
Targets: VC
SaaSquatch is a loyalty, referral and rewards platform helping B2C and B2B companies across industries such as SaaS, Finance, Media, Telecom, and other online businesses grow through incentive marketing. SaaSquatch has increased revenue by 50%+ in the last 5 months and is forecasted to increase revenue 2.5 X this year. SaaSquatch is raising funds to accelerate sales and marketing while advancing the SaaSquatch platform to better serve Enterprise clients.
Current Investors: Founder, Institutional Angel, Debt
Strategic Partners/Customers: Western Union, Ring Central, PluralSight, Self Financial
Alacrity News
Alacrity Canada
Alacrity Canada runs programs in support of early-stage technology companies. To-date these programs have supported the development of companies with value greater than $700M. Given the success of the Alacrity program the Emend Vision Fund is being developed with the intent to invest in high potential early-stage companies with strong environmental and sustainability impacts. The fund will focus on emerging opportunities through Industrial Transformation, Big Data and Critical Infrastructure, Clean Water and Food Security. For more information contact the Emend Fund on how you can support.
Alacrity France
Alacrite France is supporting the development of 12 active NewCos to-date, each received Startup funding of €800K+ in average. There is 1 additional project in incubation expected to be graduated to Newco status later this year. Series A raise of select NewCos are anticipated to be announced in mid to late 2023. Alacrite France II is under development and targeted to be initiated in 2023.
Alacrity Affiliate: L-SPARK
The L-Spark portfolio has attracted $3+ Million USD follow-on funding in the first half of 2022 and 1 exit. To-date L-Spark has exited 7 companies with a cumulative exit value over $200 Million USD. Late September Cohort 9 will begin the acceleration program.
Alacrity Mexico
Alacrity Mexico continues to support the development of 4 portfolio companies in the Enterprise Contract Lifecycle Management software (CLMS), Fintech, Logistics and SecureTech for eCommerce. The first private outside funding round is expected in early-2023
Alacrity Ottawa
Alacrity Ottawa was launched last year in partnership with the University of Ottawa and L-Spark and will be recruiting its first cohort of entrepreneur to lead future Startup tech companies in 2022-23.
Alacrity Turkey: Fund II Under Development
Alacrity Turkey is launching its second fund, a $30M USD seed-stage “SaaS Globalization” Venture Fund II to invest in Turkish B2B SaaS start-ups.
Alacrity U.K.
Alacrity UK in the first half of 2022 has attracted £4M to expand Startup programmes to include:
- Digital Customer Acquisition course
- Wales Cyber Hub
- Community Renewal Fund
- Media Hub commercialisation programme
The current Alacrity portfolio has grown to 17 active NewCos, each NewCo receiving seed funding of £250K+.
The Cyber Security Program launched in 2020 has now graduated 2 NewCos and 3 more are in development.
More Information
Alacrity ASEAN New Fund Under Exploration
Wesley Clover undertaking exploration of a new fund in the ASEAN region. Early-Stage Venture Builder model for SAAS technology 5 ++2 years, targeted fund size of $10 Million USD.
Alacrity India, New Delhi New Fund Under Exploration
Wesley Clover undertaking exploration of new fund in the New Delhi. Early-Stage Venture builder in Alacrity India model for SAAS technology 5 ++2 years, targeted fund size of $10 Million USD.
Alacrity South America New Fund Under Exploration
Wesley Clover undertaking exploration of a new fund in South America. Early-Stage Venture Builder model for SAAS technology 5 ++2 years, targeted fund size of $10 Million USD.
Alacrity UAE New Fund Under Development
Wesley Clover undertaking exploration of a new fund in the UAE. Early-Stage Venture Builder model for SAAS technology 5 ++2 years, targeted fund size of $10 Million USD.
Upcoming Events
- SaaS North
November 16th – 17th 2022
For more information contact Joshua Seerattan.
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Thank You
For any Investment related enquiries on portfolio companies, Alacrity Funds or for a Wesley Clover Briefing please contact Joshua Seerattan.
About Wesley Clover International
Wesley Clover International is a private, global investment management firm and holding company with over a Billion Dollars of Assets Under Management in Real-Estate & Technology. The focus is to fund and grow successful technology companies. More than 100 firms have been created to-date by Wesley Clover with more than $1.0B in direct investment. The portfolio regularly has more than 40 investments under active management around the globe. All are committed to next-generation Cloud and SaaS applications for fixed and mobile communications, video analytics, security, customer engagement, business enablement and more. Deal flow includes companies within the Enterprise Accelerator, L-SPARK, as well as the Alacrity Global Ecosystem of technology partnership funds which have been deployed in 6 international regions.