Each week, we provide an overview of insider trading, investment in local businesses and news from publicly traded companies.
Founded by François Gaouette in 2009, Amilia has just closed a $30 million financing round involving Investissement Québec, the Business Development Bank of Canada and a fund belonging to a group of major Canadian financial institutions. Amilia offers a web-based recreation registration platform used by 1,200 community organizations, businesses and municipal recreation departments in North America. The funding should notably allow the Montreal company to increase its workforce from 120 to 150 people.
CGI’s chief human resources officer, Bernard Labelle, made a profit of more than $435,000 by exercising stock options in the Montreal multinational last week. For his part, Cogeco’s chief legal officer, Christian Jolivet, made a gain of nearly $395,000 by exercising options on the Quebec telecommunications company this week.
Montreal-based Worximity has just completed the largest round of financing launched since its founding by Yannick Desmarais in 2011. It raised $14 million from Investissement Québec, the Fonds de solidarité FTQ and Marel, a major Icelandic supplier of equipment for the poultry, meat and fish processing industries. Worximity offers artificial intelligence-based technologies to improve the productivity of food factories, a particularly important issue at the moment with rising inflation and labor shortages.
Luc Bertrand, who has served on the board of 5N Plus since 2016, bought more than $455,000 worth of shares in the Montreal company since last week. Former big boss of the Montreal Stock Exchange, Mr. Bertrand is currently a strategic advisor to the National Bank in addition to chairing the board of Groupe CH (Canadians of Montreal). He currently owns $2.5 million worth of 5N Plus stock. The company, which saw its stock plunge 30% earlier this month after the release of mixed financial results, specializes in the production of specialty semiconductors and ultra-pure materials.
Financial startup Hardbacon raised more than $400,000 in 24 hours this week in a round of funding conducted through the FrontFundr portal. More than 200 small investors participated in the campaign. The company hopes to raise a total of $500,000 by the end of June, which would bring the total funds raised since its founding by Julien Brault in 2018 to around $2.5 million. a mobile app, Hardbacon offers a variety of personal finance management tools.
