Vancouver equity research company Canalyst closes $2.7 million seed round

Vancouver-based Canalyst, an equity research tool developer aimed at institutional finance professionals, has closed a $2.7 million oversubscribed seed financing round, led by Vanedge Capital, a VC fund focused on the enterprise software, IT security, and digital media sectors.

Canalyst provides on-demand access to complete financial models for all publicly listed Canadian equities, and is aimed at portfolio managers, investment advisors, sellside analysts, and investment bankers.

“We’re absolutely thrilled to be working with Vanedge,” said Canalyst CEO Damir Hot. “In Vanedge, we have a partner who appreciates the magnitude of the opportunity in institutional-focused fintech, and shares our vision for modernizing the equity research function. Plus, they have a fantastic track record of enabling early-stage disruptive technologies to scale and expand into new markets.”

The funding will allow Canalyst to accelerate its entry into the Canadian and US markets, while also expanding its platform’s coverage and capabilities through new investment in cloud-based product R&D.

“…the industry today is under tremendous pressure, trading revenues have plummeted, and forward-looking analysis is available on an ever-shrinking coverage universe. Investors are looking for quality independent research on the full range of public equities so that they can compare, contrast, perform scenario analysis, and affect investment strategies accordingly.”

Founded in 2015, Canalyst transforms the unstructured data of Canadian public company filings into user-friendly, working models accessible through a Software-as-a-Service subscription.

“Canalyst has saved our investment team many hours in critical situations by allowing us to focus on investment strategies and themes rather than building spreadsheets,” said Dan Lloyd, Portfolio Manager of Sui Generis Investment Partners. “Once in the stock analysis stage of our process, we confidently rely on Canalyst models; they are exceptionally detailed and intuitive – a very unique combination.”

Canalyst represents an online library of more than 600 full working financial models on every Canadian public equity valued at more than $30 million in market cap and revenue, each laid out in a downloadable, unlocked Excel document.

Each model provides an analyst with detailed, up-to-date historical financials, as well as linked, working forecasts with clearly defined key drivers specific to each company, historical equity pricing and valuation data, cash flow statements and a working balance sheet.

“The brokerage industry has traditionally been a key source of financial analysis for investors,” noted Paul Lee, CFA, Managing Partner of Vanedge Capital. “However, the industry today is under tremendous pressure, trading revenues have plummeted, and forward-looking analysis is available on an ever-shrinking coverage universe. Investors are looking for quality independent research on the full range of public equities so that they can compare, contrast, perform scenario analysis, and affect investment strategies accordingly. We believe Canalyst can provide the tools and forward-looking financial models that these investors need. We are excited by what has been accomplished in Canada so far and encouraged by the progress toward their US product launch this fall.”

Last year, Vanedge invested in payment analytics company Control. This investment in Canalyst is their second in the fintech space.

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