IoT solutions company raises cleaning standards
stockhouse.com
The following is a transcription of the above video, and The Market Online Canada has edited it for clarity.
Our next company is Visionstate Corp. (TSXV:VIS), headquartered in Edmonton. The company is focused on delivering data-driven, innovative and sustainable IoT (internet of things) solutions.
We sat down with CEO John Putters, who recently spoke about the company and its recent projects.
TMO: For our listeners who may not be aware, can you provide a brief overview of Visionstate?
Putters: Absolutely, Visionstate is a publicly traded company on the TSX Venture Exchange, under the symbol VIS. Its core business is technology focused on IoT solutions in the facility management space. The company’s software tracks cleaning and maintenance activities in large facilities providing in-depth analytics and AI insights.
The company’s main product is branded as WANDA™?, and it’s actually the first line of defense in fighting infection by providing and ensuring a better cleaning environment.
TMO: Tell our audience about the company’s WANDA™? technology and how it’s different than the competition.
Putters: The technology is fairly straightforward, and you know, some of the best advantages are like that.
The technology uses a mobile app with QR codes. QR codes are installed in facilities, its strategic locations and kitchens, hallways, that sort of thing. And the staff use those codes to scan with their phone, which timestamps their presence at that location, gives them a list of activities, what we call cleaning protocols.
In conjunction with this, we all also have sensors, for example people-counting sensors. And that data is also fed into our analytics. Once the cleaning staff completes a cleaning activity in a room, this information is submitted, and it goes into a database which provides actionable insights to the facility.
I think our main competitive advantage outside innovation, because I know a lot of companies say, well, we’re innovative, that makes us different, is really the fact that we have a global partner. And what this means is that, first of all, they’re focused in this area specifically in cleaning and hygiene, but it provides us access to a global market through their sales force.
And so as a consequence of this we are growing very quickly, and we believe that market share will be a significant factor in our ongoing competitive advantage.
TMO: What’s the approximate market size for the WANDA™? technology?
Putters: Well, actually the market size is enormous, it’s in the hundreds of millions, literally. The reason being is that it really includes any type of facility in the world, you know, including office buildings, school divisions, airports, hospitals, universities, hospitality sector, shopping centres, and many others.
And, basically, Wanda™? is designed to track protocols to ensure cleaning standards are met. This is an issue in basically every large facility, no matter what type of facility it is. So, the market for us is extremely, extremely large.
TMO: Moving on to growth, what contributed to the company’s growth over the past year?
Putters: Well, specifically, I mentioned that we do have a global partner that is passionate about IoT solutions. We re-signed our agreement with our global partner just recently, in October 2023.
Part of that is an annual retainer that they pay us on exclusive rights to distribute the product in Canada. And that doubled in that contract, but it also expanded the reach to Europe and the U.K., and we’re already doing projects in those markets. So, our business has accelerated significantly as a result of that contract. The partner we have doesn’t have a presence in the U.S. yet, so we’re also doing direct sales into the U.S.
We have a very large customer there called Blackstone Real Estate. It’s one of the largest private equity real estate companies in the world. And you would see WANDA™? in their Class A buildings in Manhattan. They continue to expand as well. The company’s actually growing at a phenomenal pace. And our focus is actually on customer acquisition because we are a residual company or software as a service, as many know it as.
TMO: From a broader outlook, what does the company have planned for 2024?
Putters: We have several focuses for 2024 in Canada. The company is going to maximize its distribution agreement with its global partner by continuing to install in large facilities. And of late, we’ve been doing a lot of universities and, and part of the reason for that is, you know, the university wants to provide a clean, safe environment for students.
And this is one way of doing that and proving it. We’re going to maximize our opportunities in the U.S. in the meantime. We’re doing direct sales into the U.S., leveraging our existing customer base, but we’re also doing lead generation advertising and that sort of thing.
So, there’s a real focus on that, which aligns with our broader IoT solutions focus. Then, because of the new agreement, there’s this whole new market with Europe and the U.K. We’re putting in the infrastructure to grow that. But we’ve also got some ongoing installations that we’re working on right now, including (the) Uber head office in London, England.
So, they’re exciting projects and we’re starting to get a foothold there. We see 2024 is very exciting and a real growth year for the company. |
