The spread of coronavirus (COVID-19) and its variants has bought to the fore the world of contact tracing technology in the guise of vaccine passports, which are becoming key to everyday business, travel, and social life.
Companies that are involved in developing this technology have understandably gained prominence and investors have been paying them more attention.
One firm which has got involved in the area is CSE-listed Contakt World (CSE:HELP) Technologies Inc which was formed to develop and deliver SaaS (Software-as-a-Service) solutions for the public and private sectors. The company integrates data collection and management, communications, advertising, and IoT devices for the healthcare sector and is committed to improving health equity and disease management.
Smart Health RM, a relationship management software built from the ground-up was Contakt World (CSE:HELP)'s first SaaS software application for public health agencies designed with a particular focus on contact tracing and community engagement communication channels leveraging AI technology.
Contakt World acquired its second platform, HealthCheck, a symptom management tool that helps HR departments and healthcare professionals monitor the well-being of those who report to work or school each day, in August 2021.
Then in October 2021, Contakt World moved to provide access to vaccine passport technology through a partnership with Portum, which provides a secure proof of vaccination for monitoring guests’ access to events or venues. Contakt World will offer the Portum platform to commercial and government customers to meet and monitor vaccine mandates in public and private settings, exposure notification, symptom checker, secure vaccine wallet, and distancing notifications.
The one-year-old company went public in July 2021, with Zayn Kalyan, a partner at venture capital firm, and one of the company’s founding investors, Altus Capital serving as its CEO on an interim basis.
Proactive caught up with Kalyan to find out more about the company.
Proactive: Contakt World was formed in 2020 as a contact tracing company with health equity in mind. Has its mission changed in light of the coronavirus (COVID-19)?
Zayn Kalyan: So, the business has evolved since its original founding beyond just focusing on contact tracing. We have broadened our scope to focus on delivering software solutions for the health and wellness space beyond just pandemic response. But, that said, our core business is the HealthCheck product and what that basically does is provide symptom screening and vaccine passport validation tools for medium to large enterprises. We like to call it a “Covid Compliance” solution.
Right now, in the US there is a big push towards having businesses ensure that all of their employees are vaccinated, and to ensure that all employees are regularly reporting their symptoms on a daily basis. And while it might not seem like the sexiest business, there is a very high demand for it. Even in the face of having broad vaccine mandates shut down by the US Supreme Court, there still is a very large push by private enterprise towards having all of their staff vaccinated and validating that vaccination, as well as ensuring regular symptom screening.
Primarily it is often for insurance purposes. Just ensuring that all of their staff are able to meet the requirements of their insurance, they need to regularly be checking with their employees to ensure that they are vaccinated, and that they do not have symptoms. On a broader scope, however, I'd say that the company is really focused on delivering SaaS solutions, not only in terms of pandemic response, but also beyond that.
So, we're looking throughout the health tech space to find businesses that we can acquire or that we can partner with to really broaden our portfolio and continue to deliver solutions. Right now, we have over 800 clients, and over 100,000 users on our platform. And we think that's a massive opportunity to be able to market other solutions to that network.
So, what sort of areas would the company be looking to expand into?
I think initially we're obviously very focused on the health tech space, and that includes telehealth. We're looking very critically at long-term care and home care, and how we can innovate those sectors with technology. And in other areas such as on-demand nursing as well. Then beyond that, we are also looking to see how we can be very innovative. I think there's lots of opportunity in delivering solutions, leveraging VR and AR in the metaverse, and also there's lots of opportunity in the blockchain space as well. We want to be on the cutting edge of that.
You are serving as Contakt World CEO on an interim basis, being a partner at venture capital firm, Altus Capital, one of the company’s founding investors. So, what do you think you bring to the firm yourself?
So, my background is actually in software development. I started my career as a software engineer. Through a number of companies, I kind of made my way into venture capital and merchant banking and I've been with Altus Capital for nearly just over four years. I think I'm looking to kind of shepherd the company as it evolves beyond just being Contakt World and looks to acquire other assets and put those assets together to build a more diversified software and SaaS technology portfolio.
So, I'm looking to continue and stay with the company over the next couple months as we build that out, all the while looking for a strong management team that can continue to build the business beyond my tenure.
Is that something that would be done internally? Or do you see external appointments?
I think it will happen via acquisition. As we look at other companies to acquire and other companies to build the business out, I'm sure that we'll find the key management players that we need through that process.
So, what should investors expect from the company in the next near to medium term?
I think it's an exciting year. HealthCheck has done a great job over the past couple of years. The company's done nearly C$1.35 million in the last calendar year and it's continuing to grow. There is growing demand for the products, and very healthy margins, being a SaaS business. I think as we look to acquire other businesses, there will be a great string of news and really great partnerships with larger companies, and all in the face of more revenue and more profit in that area.
I think we're in a great spot in tech right now, on a macro level. Big tech is having some trouble in the capital markets, and I do think that this is an opportunity to find acquisitions that are accretive at fair valuations that we can add to our top line and bottom line.
And so, what do you envisage from the Contakt World share price?
I think coming out of 2020, we were trading a discount to our true value in the context of the rest of the tech market, with people considering us just a COVID deal and not understanding the business as it exists today and the number of customers that we have, as well as the number of active daily users that we have.
I think as we build out coming into 2022, we will continue to educate the market and I think that as we do more acquisitions and build the portfolio that will reflect positively in our share price. We're pretty excited coming into 2022. As I said, I think there's a lot of opportunity, not only in the health tech space, but also beyond that, and we're looking to make some really great strategic acquisitions in the coming months.
Contact the author at jon.hopkins@proactiveinvestors.com