5 Canadian Tech Companies To Watch As US Companies Continue to Seek M&A

The COVID-19 pandemic has fueled a boom in tech stocks and the Nasdaq has rocketed up 42% since January 2020.

What Happened: Companies in the technology sector have benefited from the realities of the pandemic. Organizations have been forced to quickly digitalize their operations to allow employees to work from home. Technology is quickly advancing in electric vehicles, autonomous driving, space exploration and online shopping.

Why It Matters: Mergers and acquisitions within the tech industry have been picking up in pace. In December 2020, salesforce.com, inc. CRM acquired Slack Technologies Inc WORK for $27.7 billion and this month Okta Inc OKTA agreed to purchase competitor Auth0 in a deal valued at approximately $6.5 billion.

As U.S. tech giants continue to grow, they can look north of the border to acquire smaller Canadian tech companies.

See also: 5 Canadian Mining Companies To Watch As US Looks North For EV Battery Minerals

Tucows Inc TCX is a Toronto-based internet services and telecommunications company. It is also the second-largest domain registrar in the world. Tucows has already begun expanding into the U.S. and Europe. On March 16, the company announced its next-generation fiber-optic internet is now available in Encinitas, California.

Tucows has a market cap of $866 million and as of Friday afternoon, shares traded at $81.47.

Mogo Inc MOGO, a Vancouver-based fintech company, offers investment services, mortgages, personal loans, identity fraud protection and credit scores. The difference between Mogo and other similar companies is that it allows its customers to invest directly in Bitcoin BTC/USD through Mogo’s online platform.

Mogo has a market cap of $480.83 million and as of Friday afternoon, traded at $8.48 a share.

MCloud Technologies Corp MCLDF is based in Calgary, but has offices in the U.S., Asia and Europe. MCloud has developed artificial intelligence and data analytics technology to help businesses manage energy assets. MCLoud's technology is currently used by Starbucks Corporation SBUX, Cinemark Holdings, Inc. CNK and TELUS Corporation TU.

MCloud has a market cap of $20.57 million and traded on Friday afternoon at $2.59 a share.

Oculus VisionTech Inc OVTZ, a cybersecurity company based in Vancouver, is a leader in forensic watermarking solutions. While still in a development phase, its SmartMarks technology is used by 20th Century Fox, owned by Walt Disney Co. DIS, for video piracy protection. Oculus is currently developing two products, Cloud DPS, which can authenticate and protect digital documents, and Forget-Me-Yes (FMY) software as a service platform that manages the location, organization and management of personal data.

Oculus VisionTech has a market cap of $65.83 million and traded at 75 cents a share on Friday afternoon.

Hapbee Technologies Inc. HAPBF, a Vancouver-based technology company, has designed a wearable headset that allowing the user to choose how they feel. The headset broadcasts low-energy magnetic fields that send signals to the brain to promote a desired mental state such as happiness, sleepiness or increased focus. Hapbee is currently in the development phase of a product for beds, which would deliver magnetic fields to different parts of the body.

Hapbee has a market cap of $24.87 million and traded at 54 cents a share on Friday afternoon.

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