Quarterly Newsletter | April 2024

Dear Syniad Readers,

Syniad had a strong end to 2023 and a very positive first calendar quarter in 2024.? Hard work in challenging market conditions is being rewarded with progress across the portfolio. What’s especially pleasing to note, is that within our investment thesis, our first cluster of ventures based on bio-inspired surface chemistry has really taken off, with notable progress in Anodyne Chemistries, Gemina Labs, and Brokkr.?

Syniad is committed to its chemistry & simulation investment thesis, and to defining sub-themes within that overall thesis. ?It’s becoming a knowledge base that enables us to launch ventures in clusters and to transfer learnings from one venture into another - a learned capital strategy that we’re really benefiting from.?

Looking ahead to the rest of 2024, Syniad is committed to expanding outside of Canada.? We’re targeting the development of relationships with some of the World’s best-known universities and research laboratories. Accompanying this focus on international academic engagement is a continuous effort to connect our ventures to industrial receptors all over the world.

Assuming macroeconomic conditions fall into “soft-landing” territory, we will be poised for strong growth in the year ahead. During the market downturn in 2022 and its 2023 after-effects, we’ve successfully built the foundations of a portfolio that is now well timed to raise growth capital.

John Davies, CEO

SYNIAD NEWS

We have been working steadily to increase our engagement with the defense sector, especially around non-dilutive funding streams under Canada’s Industrial and Technological Benefits Policy.? We’re delighted to report that Raytheon Company, with whom we completed a $4.9m non-dilutive funding cycle in 2023, has transacted with us again, for an additional $5.4m at the start of 2024.?

Our pipeline of additional non-dilutive funding opportunities in 2024 is robust and we are in negotiations with several new potential partners to gradually expand this area of Syniad’s business.? At the end of last year, Martin Cronin, Syniad’s Executive Chairman, was a speaker at the Industrial Participation Association of Canada (IPAC) annual conference on the Changing Landscape of Industrial Participation in Canadian Defense Procurements, underlining Syniad’s role as a thought leader around the interface between defense procurement and innovation impacts.

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PORTFOLIO NEWS

At the start of April, Anodyne Chemistries announced that it had closed its seed capital round. ?The round, which was fully subscribed, is a testament to outstanding technical progress. Anodyne has been able to demonstrate how its enzymatic chemistry platform is able to convert CO2 into a range of valuable chemicals that, traditionally, have been made from fossil fuels.? It’s progress that has attracted early industry attention and as a result, Anodyne is able to start planning its transfer to pilot scale production.

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Anodyne’s catalysis technology harnesses naturally occurring enzymes. In a scientific first, the venture has demonstrated that it can reach beyond the naturally occurring library of enzymes. By simulating enzymes, and then improving them using AI, quantum chemistry, and molecular modeling, Anodyne has successfully designed de novo enzymes – never before existing proteins to accelerate biochemical reactions.? With the AI-powered method proven, the door is now open to creating a wide array of catalytic enzymes.

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Anodyne has always been successful at attracting non-dilutive grant funding. At the end of last year, it won two important awards from the BC Centre for Innovation and Clean Energy and the internationally renowned Biomimicry Institute.? The Company also attended COP28 in December 2023, funded under another competitive award, this time from the AWS Clean Energy Accelerator Program.? And at the end of March Anodyne was informed that it had secured a further funding award, this time from Natural Products Canada.?It’s an enviable profile of recurring validation.

At the start of 2024, 3R Circuits formally changed its name to Brokkr Mineral Resources Corporation. (Brokkr is the name of a blacksmith in Norse mythology). ?With strong technical and commercial progress in 2023, Brokkr is now mulling over its first equity raise.

https://www.brokkrresources.com

Over the last quarter Patronus has significantly strengthened its AI team. Conducting advanced materials development demands the use of cutting edge modelling tools. In a departure from the traditional physics-based models of the past, modern materials R&D is now able to apply probabilistic AI models to the challenges of discovery and manufacturing scaling. These are exciting times in the field and Patronus is now richly served by a cadre of modelling experts with enviable track records in AI and heterogenous materials modelling.?

In other developments, Patronus has entered into a license agreement with respect to novel lightweight steels. In this instance, the IP in question was developed in western Finland (a centre of excellence for steel production).?

It has been a significant quarter for Gemina Labs, as is always the case when an early-stage venture hits its first commercial milestones. Gemina has made three important announcements recently – the completion of a bridge round on 18 March, a strategic update to the market on 21 March, and on 2 April, the announcement of its first major partnership agreement. It’s the culmination of 3 years of dedicated effort from the team and we are absolutely delighted that Gemina has reached this point. What’s so encouraging is Gemina’s confidence around additional commercial progress in the future and the expansion of its technology platform from lateral flow tests to molecular diagnostics.

Bridge Round News

Partnership News

Islay Power

Finally, Syniad has signed a term sheet with Islay Power, a venture based on IP emanating from the Pacific Northwest National Lab (“PNNL”). Islay was established to develop an AI software platform that enables the creation of virtual power plants by aggregating small-scale power producers and re-distributing their surplus power into wholesale energy markets to reduce peak loads. It’s Syniad’s first venture based on IP developed at a US research institution and yet another milestone we can be pleased to have met.