Q4 latest Canadian tech firm to file for IPO
• Toronto-based Q4, a software firm which counts Walmart, Mcdonald’s and Netflix among the users of its cloud-based investor-relations platform, has filed to go public on the Toronto Stock Exchange.
The firm sees billions of dollars in global opportunity for its service amid industry trends, including a shift to virtual investor relations thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic. The initial public offering has yet to be priced, but the firm plans to trade under the symbol QFOR. “The number of common shares to be sold and the price per common share have not yet been determined,” wrote Q4 spokesperson Karen Greene in an email to The Logic. She declined to provide further comment.
“Becoming a great public company has been an objective of ours for many years,” wrote founder and CEO Darrell Heaps in a letter included in the company’s prospectus. “The time to partner with public investors to execute on our growth strategy is now.”
Q4 hopes to become the world’s largest capital-markets-communications platform. It connects public companies, investment banks and investment managers for functions including investor relations and research. Its cloud platform helps corporate investor-relations teams build and manage websites, host virtual events and view analytics. Its platform also offers services to both sellside and buy-side customers. “If you have visited a public company’s investor relations website or joined an earnings call in recent years, you have likely used Q4’s software,” Heaps wrote.
It is the latest in a string of Canadian tech companies going to the public markets. Toronto-based information-technology company Softchoice filed earlier this month. The company, which first went public on the TSX in 2002 before going private in 2013, is looking to raise $350 million.
The filings come after a run of successful Canadian tech offerings in late 2020 and early 2021, then some apparent waning interest that ensnared Canadarm maker MDA, which raised 20 per cent below its target at the start of April. Vendasta Technologies has not updated its filings since reportedly considering downsizing its $100-million IPO.
According to the prospectus, Q4 is not yet profitable, and its losses have grown in recent years. In the year ended Dec. 31, 2020, it reported a net loss of roughly US$13.1 million, up from about US$11 million in 2019. For the three months ended March 31, 2021, the company saw a net loss of almost US$12.3 million, up from about US$2.4 million in the same time the previous year. It attributes the losses to “substantial investments we made to grow our business.”