Two of the biggest trends this decade are electric vehicles (EVs) and artificial intelligence (AI). Together they make a powerful combination. Just take a look at the chart below for Exro Technologies Inc. (CSE: XRO | OTCQB: EXROF) (“Exro”). Exro’s stock price is up over 400% in the past year, which coincides with the time that CEO Sue Ozdemir has been with the company.

Exro Technologies (CSE: XRO) stock price is up 413% over the past 1 year

Source

Exro Technologies is a software design technology and smart energy company that creates a software module called a “Coil Driver” that uses AI to make electric motors function better. In an electric car, the Coil Driver acts like gears do on a conventional car, boosting an EV motor’s range and performance by using two separate torque profiles for a motor. The first is calibrated for low speed and high torque, while the second provides expanded operation at high speed.

Reflecting on the past year and why Exro has done so well

Over the past year Exro has made very significant steps in commercializing their technology, securing several significant partnerships along the way. Here is a brief summary of Exro’s partners/agreements:

• SEA Electric Pty Ltd. – In July 2020, Exro announced a partnership to enhance electric powertrain technology for heavy-duty trucks and delivery vehicles.
  
• Zero Motorcycles (“Zero”) – In June 2020, Exro announced a collaboration agreement with Zero to evaluate Exro’s patented Coil Drive technology using Zero’s SR/S powertrain platform. Zero is a big name in electric motorbikes.
• Clean Seed Capital Group Ltd. – On April 28, 2020, Exro announced it has signed a collaboration and supply agreement with Clean Seed Capital Group Ltd. (TSX-V: CSX) to integrate Exro’s technology into Clean Seed’s high-tech agricultural seeder and planter platforms, advancing the electrification of the world’s heavy-farm equipment.
• Motorino Electric – In December 2019, Exro partnered with Motorino Electric. Exro’s engineered technology provided a torque and acceleration increase of 25% for the Motorino e-bike.
• Templar Marine – Exro has a pilot project running with Templar Marine’s water taxis. The marine sector is a multi-billion dollar industry that can stand to benefit enormously from Exro’s technology as they increasingly switch across to electric motors for a cleaner environment.
• Aurora Powertrains – Exro has partnered with Aurora to improve the Aurora’s all-electric snowmobile.
• Potencia Industrial – Exro has contracts with Potencia Industrial, which is one of Mexico’s leading motor manufacturers. Potencia designs and manufactures special application, high efficiency, electrical motors and generators. One of their projects involves converting internal combustion engines in Mexico City’s taxis to electric motors, as part of a city-wide initiative to green the city’s 250,000 taxi fleet. Exro works to integrate its hardware and software technology into Potencia’s motor drives. The Exro customized driver will be used as the inverter for Potencia’s Pronto Power Flexible Powertrain.

“It’s hard to believe that is has been a year since I joined Exro,” said Exro CEO Sue Ozdemir. “The past 12 months has been so rewarding as we innovate and transform our business. We are positioning ourselves to become leaders as we use the power of our technology to transform the way the world looks at energy consumption. I believe we now have the ideal platform to be successful.” As for future plans, Ozdemir said: “Our team is continuing to focus our attention on co-development with our partnerships. We have a strong pipeline and are optimistic in our ability to meet our commitment to eight deals by the end of 2020. Further, we are gaining global presence as our partners deliver applications in North America, Australia, and Europe.”

As most experienced investors know it is one thing to have a good idea or product, but it is another thing to successfully market, commercialize, and make profits. Exro is already doing the first two, and revenue is forecast to soon follow in 2021, growing in 2022.

Exro Technologies financials and forecast financials

Source

Catalysts

In a September corporate update Exro set out the following near term events for the company:

“November 2020 – Delivery to Potencia (electric car application). This is an especially pivotal project for Exro as it will become the platform design, reducing design time for future partnerships. It also serves as our first in-car application, demonstrating our ability to transform the automotive power electronics industry.

December 2020 – the IBMS (Intelligent Battery Management System) proof of concept. With the research phase now behind us, this technology development will allow us to provide test bench data to support our simulations and confirm that we are able to provide a solution for first life batteries to be used in second life applications, such as stationary storage for example.

Q4 2020 – We expect the 8^th deal will be yet another representation of the versatility and scope of our innovation. We put a lot of effort into how each partnership contributes towards our future growth plan. Finding partners that deliver a new segment, new geography or new application is part of securing our footprint in many market segments. This will position us for a robust and sustainable future.

Early 2021 (Q1) – Delivery to Zero Motorcycle (“Zero”) (electric motorcycle application).”

Closing remarks

There is no doubt that Exro Technologies has had a busy year. Their technology is clearly being very well received by the market and the steps to commercialize the technology are now being put in place. When we consider the massive size of the electric motor market, in particular the new and surging demand for EVs, it is not surprising when Exro CEO Sue Ozdemir says “we have a lot of room for growth”. I think that is a huge understatement.

For their investors it has been a great year. Given that Exro trades on a market cap of just C$114m, if they succeed in the next step of rapidly raising revenues, this could be just the beginning.  I will be very interested to see how Exro Technologies goes over the year ahead.

Using artificial intelligence to mass screen for COVID-19

“It’s about the different verticals that we are addressing with Predictmedix,” says Dr. Rahul Kushwah, Co-Founder and COO of Predictmedix Inc. (CSE: PMED | OTCQB: PMEDF). “We are an artificial intelligence company and we are solving real-world problems.”

In an interview with InvestorIntel’s Tracy Weslosky, Dr.  Kushwah explains three of their vertical markets: “COVID-19 pandemic, we are all in the midst of it and we have a technology which is to mass screen for COVID-19. Similarly, impairment is a big issue when it comes to workplace and law enforcement and we have a solution for that. And the third vertical is mental illnesses. $300 billion spent in the US last year and there is so much subjectivity that goes into diagnosis and we are developing a solution to diagnose mental illnesses.”

“We have developed modules which look like metal detectors,” Dr.  Kushwah continued. “You walk through these modules and on the other end you have a green or red light. If someone is identified to be positive for COVID-19 symptoms a red light goes off – if not then you get a green light.” He continued, “it is a tool that you can use for mass screening in airports, transit hubs, malls, office building, government buildings, or anywhere you can imagine where you have big flow of people.” Dr. Kushwah also discusses the pitfalls of current telehealth and telemedicine platforms, and Predictmedix’s innovative solutions.

To access the complete interview, click here

Disclaimer: Predictmedix Inc. is an advertorial member of InvestorIntel Corp.

“We have developed a technology to screening for COVID-19 and the key is, it is a mass screening technology. The technology works with multispectral imaging and our AI algorithms, which are patent pending and sit on a cloud, and they communicate directly with the multispectral cameras. These cameras can be installed and as people are passing by, the technology will just screen them for COVID-19.” States Dr. Rahul Kushwah, Co-Founder and COO of Predictmedix Inc. (CSE: PMED | OTCQB: PMEDF), in an interview with InvestorIntel’s Tracy Weslosky.

Dr. Kushwah went on to say that the technology can be deployed in places where there is movement of large number of people like airports, shopping centers, malls, arenas, transit hubs, etc. He added, “If you want to control the next wave you have to ensure that there is no transmission of infection and the only way you can do that is by containment and to contain you have to identify.”

Dr. Kushwah also provided an update on the appointment of Microsoft Director of Business Development for AI solutions, Kapil Raval, as the Chairman of the Advisory Board. He said that Predictmedix is working very closely with the Indian Institute of Technology to scale up its technologies. Dr. Kushwah also said that Predictmedix has deployed its mass screening technology for COVID-19 with Max Healthcare. He continued, “Max Healthcare is one the largest healthcare group in South Asia…They have 14 hospitals with over 3000 doctors, and we have deployed our technology at their facilities. That is a phenomenal validation to what we have developed.”

To access the complete interview, click here

Disclaimer: Predictmedix Inc. is an advertorial member of InvestorIntel Corp.

There seems to be a misguided notion (with some) that isolation means we have more time to waste. Far from reality, I am certain that many of you, like me are looking at your inbox wondering where or how to wade into the depth of quality deals and opportunities upon us…

Would like to kick your morning coffee off with a special nod to our longstanding friends from Avalon Advanced Materials Inc. (TSX: AVL | OTCQB: AVLNF) whose $AVL soared 50% yesterday. We have been supporters of #Avalon since Don Bubar first did an interview with me in 2009 (with Jack Lifton) and introduced me to rare earths. And indeed, there is news flow in the rare earths a-n-d throughout the critical materials sector that is literally ricocheting from source-to-source online…

How to follow?

Jack Lifton, Clint Adam Smyth and I just launched the TechnologyMetals.com site to manage the influx of critical materials’ news (and experts) we are communicating with regularly. Jack’s interview with Dr. David Dreisinger on Search Minerals Inc. (TSXV: SMY) last week was purely outstanding (in my opinion) as he describes David as “the leading authority on solvent extraction process”. This is a hot topic that we touch on in our weekly update that we just started…click here to access a preview

And associated technologies relating to cleantech? We saw Exro Technologies Inc. (CSE: XRO | OTCQB: EXROF) stock move up 30% yesterday! Interviewing CEO Sue Ozdemir on how Exro makes “electric motors faster, stronger and greener” for InvestorIntel on Wednesday: we will get this up live as fast as we can!

Uranium continues to maintain a much-deserved interest, let me point you in the right direction for a quick update – Matt Bohlsen’s piece from last week titled, The DoE’s plan to rebuild the uranium sector and ‘pull America’s nuclear industrial base back from the brink of collapse’… reinforces the sustainability themes we are touting on the Technology Metals Show. Arranging interviews as we speak with Mark Chalmers of Energy Fuels Inc. (NYSE: UUUU | TSX: EFR) and Jeff Klenda of Ur-Energy Inc. (NYSE: URG | TSX: URE) as they “stand to be the major beneficiaries, especially given they started the whole S232 petition back in January 2018” you should see those live on InvestorIntel next week.

And yes, we are following the biotech and life sciences market. If you subscribe to our AI driven market updates on InvestorChannel.com – you can catch the 20 companies, we are following in the race for vaccinations…click here

Speaking of AI technology, we would like to ensure that you are aware of the news that was put out by Predictmedix Inc. (CSE: PMED | OTCQB: PMEDF) yesterday titled — Predictmedix Files Patent for Mass Screening for Infectious Diseases Such As #COVID19

And speaking on the war against the COVID-19, StageZero Life Sciences Ltd. (TSX: SZLS) put out the following news on April 20^th StageZero Life Sciences Initiates Testing for COVID-19 In the USA

Remember, click here to subscribe to the InvestorChannel for daily market updates on the Canadian, US and Hong Kong markets – and to follow InvestorIntel’s stock watchlist for Gold, Uranium, Rare Earths and of course, COVID-19…

“Even now there is nothing out there. Any tools that are in development are designed to measure THC. Just because you can measure THC does not mean you are looking at impairment. That is a big pandora’s box that no one is addressing. We are the first one in the space that is tackling impairment.” States Dr. Rahul Kushwah, Co-Founder and COO of Cultivar Holdings Inc. (CSE: CULT), in an interview with InvestorIntel’s Peter Clausi.

Dr. Kushwah went on to say that Cultivar is a cannabis technology company that has developed an artificial intelligence based impairment detection technology for the workplace and law enforcement and it is targeting both cannabis and alcohol. The technology looks at a few hundred parameters on face and voice to identify if a person is impaired or not. The technology is very adaptable and has the potential to be rolled out anywhere on a massive scale. Dr. Kushwah also said that Cultivar is going to launch its impairment detection technology and is expecting to be revenue positive with its technology this year. He added that the company already has two agreements in place with multi-billion dollar companies like Tech Mahindra and Hindalco.

To access the complete interview, click here

Disclaimer: Cultivar Holdings Inc. is an advertorial member of InvestorIntel Corp.

It was revealed last week that Cambridge Analytica abused personal information from 50 million Facebook accounts in early 2014 to build a system to profile individual American voters for the 2016 presidential election. The goal was to then target the users with personalised political advertisements attacking Hilary Clinton and loving The Donald. It’s still not clear whether this was illegal or merely repugnant.

Most people are focussing on the fact that Cambridge Analytica was headed at the time by Steve Bannon, which provides yet another malodorous link to Trump. Facebook’s share price is down about 12% but so far there has been no accountability apart from the inevitable class action litigation lawyers circling. What matters the most here is that we are becoming de-sensitized to data breaches like this.

$300M of Etherium permanently lost. Hey, it’s just crypto and it wasn’t mine, so who cares?

Do you know anyone who lost sleep over 143 million Americans and 100,000 Canadians that were exposed by Equifax’s massive data breach.

Every Yahoo account was compromised in 2013, which Yahoo did not figure out until 2017. That was 3 billion accounts. You likely had one of those accounts. Did you complain about it?

Citibank failed to protect the personal data (including birthdates and Social Security numbers) of approximately 146,000 customers who filed for bankruptcy between 2007 and 2011. That’s adding insult to injury.

40 million Target customers were exposed in 2013. The remedial cost to Target, not including the class action litigation, was roughly $252M. Did you join the class to get your rightful piece of the settlement?

$81 million stolen from the Bank of Bangladesh by compromising the Swift system in 2016. This was the second time Swift was used as a medium of theft. But hey, that could never happen over here in the civilized world, right?

Look at the lists here and here and here for some of the largest data breaches of all time. How many of these do you remember, or care about?

Even worse, according to the Online Trust Alliance in its terrifying Cybersecurity and Breach Trends Report from January of this year, is that 93% of these breaches were self-inflicted and easily preventable. Apathy is our real enemy.

And next up are the assaults from Artificial Intelligence.

AI spans a broad area. A Nest WiFi-enabled thermostat can self-regulate if it feels the sun directly on it rather than air in the home environment – is that ‘intelligent’ or just good programming? Cruise control on your car? A video game that gets harder the further you go and that learns your favourite moves? Neural networks? Deep learning? The hated robo-advisor? Predictive weather analysis? Smart tokens in the ICO universe?

AI is just a software operating in a hardware environment, but somehow it has gained noble status. Perhaps it’s the use of the word “intelligence” that lulls us into thinking that the software is actually alive.

It’s not. It’s just software, a compendium of zeros and ones that open and close circuits inside chips. Software is vulnerable to coding errors, intentional or negligent. It’s vulnerable to breakdowns in its hardware. And it’s entirely vulnerable to malicious third parties for cryptojacking.

Our courts and insurers will have to address who becomes liable when those things go wrong. The worse situation is where software causes death, like earlier this week when a self-driving car killed a woman in Tempe, Arizona. Elaine Herzberg was walking her bicycle when she was hit by a vehicle in autonomous mode going 40 km/h. It doesn’t take a crystal ball to see Mr. Herzberg is the first of many such deaths.

Who will carry the financial burden of the error when smart tokens co-ordinate a contract for one billion rolls of toilet paper when the intention was for 100 rolls of paper towel? Is this contract law or negligence? Can you contract out of liability? Medical diagnostic software misses an obvious cause resulting in patient death? Who pays the repair bills when Skynet finally goes live and the Terminator kicks in your door?

Vernor Vinge’s 1993 short paper The Coming Tehnological Singularity is a marvel of literature that manages to inspire and terrify at the same time. Should something we created actually develop its own intelligence, the pace at which technology would from that point develop would be inconceivable to humans. The human era would be over.

Back to the breaches, both malicious and self-inflicted. Incompetence and thievery have been with humanity for recorded history. The first trojan horse was the serpent surreptitiously attacking the Old Testament God by way of his human creations and an apple. Sadly, we do need various levels of government to help us defend ourselves. This will require some levels of regulation, even if unwanted.

The CryptoCrowd may not like it, but regulation is needed and it’s coming. At least there seems to be some regulatory recognition that data is a different world requiring a different set of regulatory parameters. See for example the British Columbia Securities Commission’s 2018 outreach efforts seeking innovation while maintaining confidence in the capital markets.

This apathy is a strange mindset, especially since the business world otherwise takes confidentiality seriously. We sign confidentiality agreements and NDA’s. We expect our employees to leave our IP at the office. Securities laws exist to prevent insider trading and to protect the dignity of the market. Larger boards have committees specializing in privacy and data protection. There are few things more valuable to any company than the integrity of its data.

So we should be outraged by these ongoing assaults on us, our data and our companies. We should be in the streets, with torches and pitchforks, demanding that heads roll and attackers be found. Instead, we shrug and say “What can we do? I’m just one helpless person. The government will protect us.” That only goes so far.

We have to use what the government gives us. CASL (Canada’s AntiSpam Legislation) is a horribly mis-named piece of legislation that has teeth. It codifies an individual’s right to control the inbox. It isn’t about spam, it’s about your digital liberty.

The GDPR is the European Union’s approach, and it’s a good one. A prior article explaining GDPR is here. Recent recommendations from House of Commons Standing Committee on Access to Information, Privacy and Ethics indicate that Canada will adopt an approach similar to GDPR to give you the tools to protect yourself. So use them.

Ultimately, it’s up to you. Be vigilant. Protect your local network. Follow good protocols. Don’t be sloppy. And be angry over every breach. Demand accountability. Next time it could be you.