CONNECTING INVESTORS AND COMPANIES THROUGH TECHNOLOGY

de Winter is the CFO and COO

Other Capital Market Participants

The current investment climate is tough. Markets are unstable, and finding the right investors to partner with businesses is a challenge. But one company, Q4 Inc., is addressing those market difficulties with its unique array of offerings and experiences.

In a nutshell, Q4 Inc. is a technology and software platform company with a unique set of solutions primarily for its corporate issuer clients. It is focused on capital markets, and its offerings impact investor relations programmes, investor relations (IR) strategies, and, therefore, financial valuation of 2,700 public companies in its client base.

Q4’s solutions include IR websites, IR virtual events, capital market events, CRM and Analytics for investor management and investor pipeline management. It also provides analytics through its technology platform, with unified data and increasing functionality on a capital markets platform.

Through these solutions, Q4 enables all sides of the capital markets to enter and connect with the other in suitable investment relationships.

Core aims for sound investor relations

At its core, Q4 serves investor relations on the corporate issuer side. The company’s mission is to help corporate issuers win in the capital markets.

This takes careful strategy but reaps great rewards because winning in the capital markets enables businesses to have access to the right investors at the right moment in their journey.

Explaining the company’s core aims, Q4’s CFO and COO, Donna de Winter, states that democratising the investor relations space is Q4’s biggest motivator, because it enables companies that would otherwise be left out of the investor loop to engage with investors that suit their agenda.

Describing the process, de Winter says Q4 is a big disruptor because it offers an alternative to the traditional model.

“You have the corporate issuers and you have buy-side or portfolio managers, and the two shall only meet through the sell side connector. It was the sell side deciding to bring corporate issuers in front of the buy side, and the buy side deciding whether to take a position or not. That's how it's worked for a long time.”

“Now, between regulation and the economic model, the banks (the sell side), have had to move up and up and up in market cap to who they serve. This has left a good portion of capital markets unable to access the buy side and unable to access the money. So there's inequity in how they find the right money for their story, for their strategy.”

It’s important to note that Q4's vision is not to replace the sell side; rather, it is to democratise capital markets by levelling the playing field via its technology platform, where all sides of the market can meet. It enables equity of any size to meet with the right buy-side money.

Donna De Winter

TITLE: CFO & COO

COMPANY: Q4

INDUSTRY: FINANCIAL SERVICES

LOCATION: ONTARIO, CANADA

Donna de Winter is an industry veteran with a proven track record of success in strategy, finance, and operations at leading technology companies across North America. Donna joined as COO to help scale the customer-centric service model globally. Prior to joining Q4's executive team, she worked with Q4 as a consultant and has worked in a number of leadership roles across the technology sector including CFO of Vision Critical and CFO of Varicent where she led the company's sale to IBM. Donna received her Master's in