TraceSafe Inc. (TSF:CSE), a Vancouver-based company focused on location-aware Internet of Things (IoT) platforms for large-scale businesses, is bringing its tracking platform and suite of wearable tech to people in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, as the country begins a buildout of new Smart Cities that will need software solutions to solve day-to-day problems.
TraceSafe has signed a partnership with Arabian Internet and Communications Services Co., better known as Solutions by STC, a $7-billion information technology (IT) communications company that trades on the Saudi Stock Exchange.
As a subsidiary of Saudi Telecom Co. — Saudi Arabia’s equivalent of AT&T — Solutions by STC will be the leading the Smart City buildout in the biggest economy in the region through its three core businesses: cloud services, cybersecurity, and digital services.
'Tracesafe is therefore regarded as an attractive speculative play here, especially because the current low price creates the potential for large percentage gains even on a relatively modest advance from here.'
— Technical Analyst Clive Maund
The partnership gets TraceSafe in on the ground floor of the biggest smart infrastructure buildout to date and will allow TraceSafe and Solutions by STC to bring their respective “toys” into the sandbox to create new hardware-assisted software solutions.
““The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is the epicenter of Smart City activity globally right now — and we are the wearables partner of the biggest integrator in the country. And we hope that partnership is only going to get deeper as we work together. TraceSafe has sensors and all sorts of other technology in the Smart City landscape,” TraceSafe CEO Wayne Lloyd told Streetwise Reports.
Partnership in Malaysia
TraceSafe made its first foray into the Smart City market in April when it did a deal in Malaysia that covers a 25-acre area known as KL Eco City.
The company says its full suite Smart Building solution called SafeTown will offer “unprecedented connectivity” and operational insights to large-scale projects like KL Eco City.
The project will be rolled out in partnership with Dynamo Singapore, a facility management and engineering firm.
The partnership in Malaysia was something of a signpost moment for the company as it pivoted from being a player in the contact tracing market (hence the company’s name) during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, to using a tightly modified version of the same platform to bring added security and function to the Smart City concept.
The partnership with Solutions by STC builds on its Malaysian deal and is a sign of things to come as countries like Saudi Arabia begin to build cities from scratch, with an eye toward creating the next Dubai and beyond.
Allied Market Research predicts that the Saudi Arabia Smart Cities market will grow at about 20% per year to reach $14.7 billion by 2027. It’s currently valued at around $3.6 billion.
Technical Analyst Clive Maund has been following TraceSafe and notes that despite being a victim of the risk-off sentiment permeating the broad market in 2022, there are signs that the worst is over.
“The 6-month chart is looking increasingly positive with the brutal bear market seemingly ending with a pronounced bull hammer early in July whose intraday low provided support for the price this month and it is suspected that the low of about a week ago marks the 2nd low of a Double Bottom with the early July low. If so then the minor dip on Friday has presented a good point to buy near to the lows after the rather bullish “dragonfly” candle,” Maund wrote.
He added: “Tracesafe is therefore regarded as an attractive speculative play here, especially because the current low price creates the potential for large percentage gains even on a relatively modest advance from here.”
The Line
The growth projections for the Saudi market do not The Line, an ambitious $500-billion project that proposes to accommodate some 9 million people in an emissions-free city tucked inside a glass-shielded “line” roughly 600 ft. high and 105 miles long.
The city would run on renewable energy and integrate homes, businesses, services and recreational facilities under the same roof. The Line fits into the Kingdom’s larger goal of investing $150 billion into local real estate projects every year until 2025.
The Line is also part of Saudi Vision 2030, a long-term vision statement by Kingdom officials that aims to lower the country’s dependence on oil and gas by creating sustainable urban environments.
That is also part of what TraceSafe brings to the table.
Earlier this month TraceSafe launched ShiftCarbon, a carbon management platform that uses fractionalized credits from TraceSafe’s Carbon Pool —a reserve of verified credits.
ShiftCarbon allows customers of all sizes to offset their carbon footprint by tailoring a plan to their specific situation and embedding carbon removal into their workflow. Lloyd believes it’s something businesses will have to do — and soon.
“It seems clear that governments are going to be using carbon outbput as a metric to levy taxes. In 10 years, I can imagine a world where tax is calculated based on carbon utilization rather than revenue. That's a clear policy trend and if you can't meet your reductive goals, you're going to get penalized,” Lloyd told Streetwise Reports.
All Aboard Cruise Ships
In addition to offsetting carbon in Smart Cities, TraceSafe will target cruise lines.
TraceSafe’s wearables are already aboard Royal Cruise Lines, MSC Cruises and Viking Cruises — traditional businesses that are playing catchup when it comes to offsetting their carbon footprint.
TraceSafe entered the cruise line business mid-2021 when it began working with Royal Carribean International’s Innovation Team, TraceSafe and developed custom wearable devices and bands that are equipped with long-lasting batteries and RFID modules.
The companies worked closely together to design and manufacture an exclusive, sleek wearable that can meet both Royal Caribbean's high standards for comfort and the cruise line’s commitment to sustainability. The product looks similar to Disney’s Magic Band that is used for access, payments, and other unique guest experiences.
The ShiftCarbon platform would allow cruise ships buy carbon credits that have been “fractionalized” or broken down into thousands of smaller units by TraceSafe. These carbon bits would be resold to cruise line customers as a charge with their ticket price — all of it documented and managed by the TraceSafe platform.
Who Controls Carbon Credits?
But where does TraceSafe get its carbon?
A handful of large companies control most of the world’s carbon credits. These include commodity traders Trafigura Beheer BV and Glencore (GLNCY:OTCMKTS), financial management firm Blackrock (though it’s on the smallish side at this point) and the gorilla in the room, Royal Dutch Shell Plc (RDS.A:NYSE; RDS.B:NYSE) — the Dutch oil and gas conglomerate that probably controls two-thirds of the world’s carbon credits.
The monolith is constantly finding ways to add to its carbon credit portfolio.
For instance, Shell will buy a piece of undeveloped land in Australia, which will be certified by one of two global agencies that officially verify carbon credits: Verra and Gold Standard. Once it’s verified, Shell uses these credits to offset its oil and gas sales to customers but there are credits left over.
Shell sells those credits in bulk to companies like TraceSafe, which then breaks them down into much smaller credits that can be used by different businesses to offset their carbon footprint — something governments are increasingly mandating.
TraceSafe is currently working on an agreement to secure carbon credits in the wholesale space.
The Vancouver-based firm had $12.9 million in sales in 2021 and has sold more 1 million wearable units.
The company has about 45.6 million shares issued and outstanding, but there are almost 5 million warrants and another 7.8 million options. Fully diluted the company has around 72.1 million shares, of which some 10-12 million are free floating.
TraceSafe trades in a 52-week range of $0.94 and $0.10. It closed at $0.13 on Aug. 19.
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Disclosures:
1) Brian Sylvester wrote this article for Streetwise Reports LLC and provides services to Streetwise Reports as an independent contractor. He or members of his household own securities of the following companies mentioned in the article: None. She or members of her household are paid by the following companies mentioned in this article: None.
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