• HTC Extraction Systems has spent 14 years developing its ethanol and solvent-based distillation expertise and is now dedicating itself to cannabinoid extraction and refining using hemp biomass tolling agreements
• The company has completed construction on a 19,000-square-foot facility near Regina, Saskatchewan for hemp biomass processing, extraction, formulation and refining and a 27,000-square-foot hemp biomass processing and storage facility
• HTC is finalizing interior work to make the extraction facility GMP Euro compliant and expects to begin receiving new extraction equipment at the facility next month
• The company closed a bought deal agreement last month that will inject $10 million in funding into the company’s operations

Saskatchewan, Canada-based cannabinoid refining innovator HTC Extraction Systems (TSX.V: HTC) is anticipating the arrival of its initial new extraction equipment next month at the company’s recently completed 19,000-square-foot facility in Port Lajord, 17 miles southeast of Regina’s metropolitan commerce center.

Installation of the extraction and formulation equipment will mark the next major stage for the company’s strategy of building on hemp biomass tolling contracts on both sides of the U.S.-Canada border to extract CBD full spectrum oil (FSO) and to keep a percentage of the distillate for future sales and offtake agreements, including sales to the cannabinoid pharmaceutical market. Bought deal private placement financing that closed last month is injecting aggregate gross proceeds of C$10 million into the venture (http://ibn.fm/r6kKF).

The Port Lajord facility has been designed to be one of the highest performance facilities in Canada for hemp biomass processing, extraction, formulation and refining, and interior work is ongoing to establish it as GMP Euro compliant. It will also house quality assurance testing and product development laboratories.

HTC has also completed the construction of a 27,000-square-foot hemp biomass processing and storage facility, which will be used to warehouse extraction-ready biomass.

The size of the facilities speaks to the volume of biomass the company expects to work with. Its existing operation includes a projected 5 million kilograms of hemp biomass from this year’s Saskatchewan harvest, using five varieties of Health Canada-approved cultivars as the genetic foundation. The June newsletter showed the arrival of a custom-manufactured hemp biomass dryer that is 50 feet long and 12 feet in diameter (http://ibn.fm/716Ag).

In August, with one million pounds of biomass harvested and 20 million pounds yet to go at one farm, the company reported the average compacted biomass bale is 1,600 to 1,700 pounds and is vacuum sealed in ultra-violet resistant wrapping to protect it prior to being processed (http://ibn.fm/3FN7V).

HTC is in late-stage negotiations with a 60,000-acre recognized Canadian farm leader who is a significant Identity Preserved Grown (IPGrow™) hemp biomass producer. The company intends to enter a tolling contract with the producer for the 2019, 2020, 2021 and beyond production crop years. The planned contract would be for about 4,300 acres from the 2019 crop, up to 25,000 acres for the years after that.

The company also is in late-stage negotiations to acquire a U.S.-based, fully licensed hemp processing, extraction, formulation and distribution operation that would begin extracting in January 2020 that would also function with IPGrow hemp biomass tolling contracts in the United States for the 2020 hemp production growing year.

Over the course of 14 years, HTC has developed and subsequently improved on proprietary systems for biomass, gas and liquid extraction, built on distillation processes for ethanol and ethanol-based solvents used in the extraction process. It expects to use its related entity, Purely Canada Foods, to sell and distribute its CBD and other cannabinoids to Purely Canada Foods’ customers under the brands Purely Canada Hemp, Purely Canada CBD, Purely Canada Cannabinoids and Purely Canada THC.

For more information, visit the company’s website at www.HTCExtraction.com

NOTE TO INVESTORS: The latest news and updates relating to HTC are available in the company’s newsroom at http://ibn.fm/HTC

• Hemptown USA has built a business on cultivating cannabidiol (CBD), but now its focus has turned to the qualities of a little-marketed cannabinoid – cannabigerol (CBG)
• CBG is known as the “Mother of all Cannabinoids” because its acid form is the precursor to the three main cannabinoids and is synthesized to create those extracts very early in the plants’ maturation process
• Hemptown has 500 acres dedicated exclusively to CBG cultivation in Oregon, using the company’s rights to one million cannabigerol (CBG)-intensive seeds that are engineered to preserve CBG in its latent form until late in the plant’s growth cycle

While cannabis enthusiasts, commercial enterprises and investors are all too familiar with the uses and usefulness of plant extracts cannabidiol (CBD) and tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), Southern Oregon-based Hemptown USA is touting the virtues of another cannabinoid – non-psychoactive cannabigerol (CBG) – and the company’s recent harvest will strategically position them to be the largest producer of it in North America.

Hemptown USA operates a farm operation with more than 500 acres dedicated to the exclusive cultivation of CBG, utilizing one million rare cannabigerol (CBG)-intensive seeds acquired earlier this year.

The seeds are genetically programmed to yield up to 14 percent CBG by allowing the plants to reach full maturity before being harvested, whereas normally plants would have to be harvested early in their growth cycles in order to obtain CBG before its acid form is synthesized as the acid form of one of the two main cannabinoids – CBD and THC.

Hemptown USA has built CBD production from broad-spectrum hemp biomass in states such as Oregon, Kentucky and Colorado, but has worked to increase its profile as hemp-friendly laws have been enacted – particularly last year’s Farm Bill that legalized commercial hemp cultivation nationwide following years of prohibition.

The company’s focus on its CBG-growing resources is part of an ongoing effort to serve an increasingly health-conscious society’s desire for wellness based on natural elements with minimal pharmaceutical involvement.

During the decades of prohibition when it was generally illegal to grow or consume cannabis, research into the suspected medicinal properties of compounds such as CBG was virtually non-existent at any scientific level. CBG’s rarity further minimized the potential for such investigation so there still exists a degree of uncertainty about what CBG can accomplish. However, recent studies have shown some indications that CBG may help with psoriasis, eczema, colitis, neurodegeneration, and cancer, with suspected additional benefits in combatting glaucoma, bacterial infections, muscular tension and symptoms of inflammation (http://ibn.fm/RBcJo).

Hemptown USA believes its Oregon acreage and seed stock will grant it control of 40 percent of the North American supply of CBG.

“The passage of the 2018 Farm Bill opened doors for commercial cultivation of CBD-rich hemp, as well as hemp rich in other, so-called, ‘novel’ cannabinoids. We believe that all cannabinoids will eventually be commoditized. We strive to be leaders in the space, bringing new cannabinoids to the market over the next couple years,” Hemptown Chairman Rod Wolterman stated in a report for cannabis media outlet Leafly last month (http://ibn.fm/Z4xLM).

The company was first to market a CBD and CBG-infused chewing gum when it launched its Hemptown Chew in September. The gum contains 15 mg of CBD and 5 mg of CBG, sold in packs of two, six and 12 servings (http://ibn.fm/bGAtX).

For more information, visit the company’s website at www.HemptownUSA.com

• Automotive dealership expands into rural territory thanks to OCLN water-system sewage solution
• OriginClear’s closed-loop systems help lower costs for businesses
• Company’s unique, eco-friendly systems are efficient, with no impact on the surrounding environment

OriginClear Inc.’s (OTC: OCLND) closed-loop wastewater system recently proved its significant value by making the expansion of an automotive dealership into rural land possible. Without OCLN’s sustainable, effective water-recycling system, the expansion would not have been practical due to the dealership’s inability to access municipal sewage (http://ibn.fm/PFReg). OriginClear’s water systems allow businesses to take water treatment and conveyance into their own hands, opening up the potential for businesses to expand into low-cost real-estate areas.

The OCLN system held up well in comparison to the cost of a commercial-grade septic system. OriginClear’s water system offers a lucrative opportunity to businesses that rely heavily on water, as the system pays for itself in a short period of time by delivering significant water-cost savings. Furthermore, OCLN’s high-grade purification process combats pollution, contamination and corrosion.

OriginClear also empowers businesses by giving them the opportunity to use decentralized water effectively, thus making them more self-sufficient. Not having to rely on municipalities opens up the potential for businesses to expand into rural areas, which has enormous implications. In addition to expansion possibilities, users increase the value of their assets when they opt for a point-of-use water system. As infrastructure around the world continues to break down after decades of use, OriginClear’s advanced technologies are being adopted to tackle tough water issues.

Not only does the company offer substantial benefits to businesses and people’s health, but OriginClear systems also provide a sustainable, environmentally friendly alternative to commercial septic systems. The company’s closed-loop recycle and reuse Modular Water System takes drain fields and direct discharge completely out of the equation, eliminating pollutive impact on local environments.

The automotive dealer that adopted OriginClear’s water system conducted a cost-benefit analysis that revealed a number of saved costs, including life-cycle, potable-water purchase costs and onsite wastewater-disposal costs. Not only were costs saved but the value of the inexpensive rural land was also greatly increased. Choosing OriginClear essentially gives businesses an opportunity to buy low and sell high when they adopt OCLN wastewater systems in areas that don’t have access to municipalities.

The global water-services market has become a trillion-dollar industry and has experienced rapid growth in the past decade. In spite of this fast growth, however, only around 20% of sewage is ever treated. Even more concerning is the fact that more than a third of clean water is lost due to leakage. OriginClear sees decentralized water treatment as an essential part of the solution to this massive challenge that much of the world faces. The company’s modular water-treatment and conveyance products make the global movement for water independence viable.

For more information, visit the company’s website at www.OriginClear.com

NOTE TO INVESTORS: The latest news and updates relating to OCLN are available in the company’s newsroom at  http://ibn.fm/OCLN

• Lexaria Bioscience is dedicated to providing healthful alternatives to drug-substance inhalation by providing an edible technology that works as effectively as smoking or vaping at getting substances into the bloodstream
• The company’s DehydraTECH platform has been licensed to multiple companies in the cannabis and tobacco industries, and Canada’s recent nationwide legalization of cannabis edibles is expected to open even more of a market
• Gregg Smith, the founder of a New York-based “culture tech” venture investment firm, has joined Lexaria as a senior advisor to help define the company’s leadership strategies

Innovations in drug delivery are making the wellness product market safer and more effective in its niche as an alternative to costly pharmaceuticals or foreign remedies that lack governmental approval. Bio-delivery technology developer Lexaria Bioscience Corp. (CSE: LXX) (OTCQX: LXRP) is a world leader in edible drug science to combat the ills of substances that might otherwise be inhaled into the lungs.

Lexaria’s proprietary DehydraTECH™ drug delivery platform is patented to work with existing substances such as nicotine, cannabidiol (CBD) and other non-psychoactive and psychoactive cannabinoids to get orally ingestible versions of the substances into the bloodstream at speeds comparable to inhaled products, virtually eliminating a key reason people might risk sustained injury to their lungs to use those products.

“Wherever there are many victims from past injustices, there is a lot of anger and resentment that doesn’t go away easily,” CEO Chris Bunka told Forbes in discussing Lexaria’s aim to get nicotine users to move away from “life-threatening” smoking habits to satisfy their cravings (http://ibn.fm/oMc9G). “My father also died from lung cancer just last year, so I am no fan. … The fact that (DehydraTECH) is fast means that smokers might not be frustrated waiting for their nicotine experience to begin, the way they have been with traditional nicotine products such as gums and lozenges.”

Lexaria recently announced the appointment of Gregg Smith, the founder of a New York-based “culture tech” venture investment firm, as a senior advisor in helping define Lexaria’s leadership strategies.

“I am passionate about creating a smokeless future and recognize that the consumption methods of nicotine and cannabis will change,” Smith stated in the news release (http://ibn.fm/Srpvg). “Lexaria’s technology, DehydraTECH™, will completely disrupt and improve the consumption and delivery of oral nicotine, CBD and cannabis. Lexaria’s recognition of the recent FDA recognition of certain oral delivery forms of nicotine as ‘less harmful’ to human health than combustible smoking will be a driving force of changing consumer preferences.”

One strategy Lexaria has already been pursuing includes introducing DehydraTECH-licensed products to consumers through adult-format beverages, building on a relationship with Toronto-based Hill Street Beverage Company Inc. (TSX.V: BEER), a company renowned for its alcohol-free beers and wines.

“Our alcohol-free business continues to grow as more and more people turn away from alcohol and look for better alternatives. But we’re more than just the world’s most award-winning alcohol-free beverage company,” Hill Street’s website states (http://ibn.fm/JvQRy). “We’ve licensed a technology that allows us to take that award-winning adult-beverage portfolio and infuse it with cannabis… without any impact to the smell or the taste of the product.”

Canada legalized cannabis-infused edibles and beverages in October, and the first products are expected to begin hitting store shelves soon (http://ibn.fm/80XHA).

Market analysts at Deloitte predict the Canadian market for edibles and alternative cannabis products alone will be worth $2.7 billion a year, and that cannabis extract-based products including edibles will make up nearly 60 percent of the total at $1.6 billion (http://ibn.fm/1VkfJ).

Lexaria has already licensed its technology to multiple companies in North America in the cannabis and tobacco industries. The company operates a licensed in-house research laboratory and its IP portfolio includes 16 patents granted and over 60 patents pending worldwide.

For more information, visit the company’s website at www.LexariaBioscience.com

NOTE TO INVESTORS: The latest news and updates relating to LXRP are available in the company’s newsroom at http://ibn.fm/LXRP

• To date, more than 16 million consumers around the world have joined; that number increases daily
• SRAX offers other powerful data-management tools

SRAX Inc. (NASDAQ: SRAX), a digital marketing and consumer data management technology company, has had more than 16 million consumers opt-in to its BIGtoken consumer-managed data platform since the product was released earlier this year. In addition, SRAX offers other powerful products designed to provide marketers and consumers with the tools to unlock the value of data.

During an interview at SNNLive at the Planet MicroCap Showcase 2019 in Las Vegas, SRAX CEO and co-founder Christopher Miglino was asked about the “secret sauce” to getting such a high response rate (http://ibn.fm/9L1mf). Miglino noted that the budget for the launch was $2 million, but the company started with a modest $20,000. “We spent twenty grand, and the thing went completely viral,” he said. “People started signing up all over the place. We were having around 700,000 invites a day going out through the platform, so people were inviting 700,000 a day to the platform… If you go to social media even today and you pull up Twitter and YouTube and Instagram, and type in BIGtoken, you’ll see thousands of posts, thousands of consumer engagements from people talking about how they love the platform.”

From that impressive start, BIGtoken has grown into an exclusive platform with more than 16 million opted-in consumers around the world. “BIGtoken is unique in the data set it has gathered, the way it rewards consumers who have opted in and the manner it provides access to that data to marketers,” Miglino observed. “Consumers are becoming much more aware of their own privacy. A few years ago, people didn’t care, but now all of a sudden, consumers are realizing that their data is worth a lot of money. We’re working very hard to create an environment where consumers own that data on their own, and when anybody wants to access that data, they are monetizing the issue.”

In addition to BIGtoken, SRAX provides other valuable technology tools that unlock data to reveal brands’ core consumers across marketing channels. Those tools include the following:

• SRAX Core allows users to integrate inventory and reporting from all vendors, channels and formats in one dashboard; build and save custom data segments in seconds; and gain deep insights into campaign optimization with a dedicated single point of contact;
• SRAX IR allows users to discover insights about their shareholders and market makers and their contributions to the company; manage and monitor ROI from investor relations firms; grow shareholder base with precise audience-building, targeting and delivery across programmatic and social channels; and save new contacts from investor events and provide them collateral within the platform;
• SRAX Auto allows users to use first-party data to ensure their brand is top of mind when known car buyers lease again; track and target test drivers and visitors to specific dealerships; link direct-mail programs to online ad targeting; and
• SRAX Shopper allows users to influence shoppers at the pivotal place and time with intent-based geotargeting; drive in-store foot traffic and purchases; and deliver personalized shopper-ad experiences.

Based in Los Angeles, SRAX is a digital-marketing and data-management technology company focused on building the largest and most valuable opted-in data set in the world. The company provides marketers, content owners and consumers with proprietary tools to unlock the value of that data. SRAX technology also unlocks data to reveal brands core consumers and their characteristics across marketing channels. SRAX delivers a digital competitive advantage for brands in the healthcare, CPG, automotive, sports and lifestyle verticals.

For more information, visit the company’s website at www.SRAX.com

NOTE TO INVESTORS: The latest news and updates relating to SRAX are available in the company’s newsroom at http://ibn.fm/SRAX

• SHRG operates in billion-dollar industry seeing consistent growth
• Company focusing on two subsidiaries designed to leverage opportunities
• Elepreneurs, Elevacity provide exclusive, powerful tools to help SHRG sales force experience happier, healthier, wealthier lives

In an industry that saw more than $35 billion in retail sales in 2018 and which has seen consistent growth over the past decade (http://ibn.fm/7X2qI), Sharing Services Global Corporation (OTCQB: SHRG) is working to reshape the growing space to meet the needs of a new generation of entrepreneurs working in a world of evolving technology and product offerings. SHRG, which owns, operates or controls an interest in an array of companies specializing in the direct-selling industry, has focused its efforts on its two relatively new, wholly owned subsidiaries – Elepreneurs LLC and Elevacity LLC – to make this happen.

In 2017 SHRG created Elepreneurs, a subsidiary designed for today’s entrepreneurs who are looking for greater flexibility with income opportunities along with a purpose and products that go beyond the traditional direct-selling approach. Through Elepreneurs, SHRG provides tools and products for its independent sales force, called Elepreneurs, to experience happier, healthier and wealthier lives.

Those tools include basic and advanced programs for both new and veteran members who want to make direct selling their primary careers. These powerful seminars, classes, boot camps and workshops were developed by Elepreneurs and are conducted by experienced entrepreneurs who are committed to providing participants with the mindset, skill set, knowledge, system, action plan, tools, awareness, motivation and confidence to build successful businesses. In addition, Elepreneurs offers diverse lanes of opportunity designed to provide a higher percentage of income generation and less attrition.

Elepreneurs is designed to be marketed in today’s world of social media, taking advantage of a widened consumer base that crosses industries and borders. SHRG’s unique relationship marketing breaks the traditional direct-selling mold, creating competitiveness and opportunities in small businesses across the company’s platform. This modern model reaches today’s market and consumers in an extremely cost-effective, personal and direct way.

SHRG’s subsidiary Elevacity is responsible for the manufacturing and distribution of the company’s products. SHRG offers superior, scientifically cultivated products that stimulate what the company calls happiness hormones – dopamine, oxytocin, serotonin and endorphins – or D.O.S.E.

The product line includes core offerings in the nutritional beverage category and unique skin-care products. Each product offered under the Elevacity brand is carefully formulated and designed to support a simple objective: elevating lives through products and services. As one of SHRG’s unique lanes of opportunity, Elevacity also offers a unique rewards program for its Elepreneurs.

Sharing Services is dedicated to maximizing shareholder value through the acquisition and development of innovative companies, products and technologies in the direct-selling industry. The Sharing Services combined platform leverages the capabilities and expertise of various companies that market and sell products direct to the consumer through independent contractors.

For more information, visit the company’s website at www.SHRGInc.com

NOTE TO INVESTORS: The latest news and updates relating to SHRG are available in the company’s newsroom at  http://ibn.fm/SHRG

• Provider of revolutionary quality assurance software to the commercial 3D printing industry under the PrintRite3D® brand
• Estimated addressable market is $1.4 billion, projected to exceed $3.9 billion by 2023
• Currently, there are 23 Sigma Lab installations across 19 different users located around the globe
• Evaluations are underway with Tier-1 OEM clients for potential production-level software integration
• Experienced management team with deep industry experience, supplemented by an industry leading scientific advisory board
• Robust patent strategy established to protect intellectual property with seven patents granted, 18 patents pending, and four patent applications pre-publication

Sigma Labs Inc. (NASDAQ: SGLB) is the only provider of in-process quality-assurance software to the commercial 3D printing metal industry that enables operators of machines making 3D metal parts to offset emerging quality problems, sustain part quality, and avoid rejects. Sigma’s software is the singular solution that enables both real-time, in-process detection of quality control manufacturing irregularities for critical metal parts and then provides the operator the actionable information needed to adjust and mitigate the developing anomaly. Sigma Labs’ software represents a paradigm shift in the quality control process for the manufacture of 3D printed metal components. The nascent 3D metal printing industry is on the verge of radically altering the speed and technical complexity of manufactured parts. Further, it makes possible just-in-time availability of critical components – all at reduced cost, time, waste and weight. 3D printing, heralded as the fourth industrial revolution in manufacturing, will only truly surpass traditional techniques when the additive manufacturing industry moves from “post process” quality control to “in process” quality assurance.

For the industry to move from prototype manufacturing of critical components to economically viable commercial production, the 3D metal printing industry must find ways to dramatically increase production speed and quality yields, and to dramatically decrease the excessive cost of quality control. To achieve these prerequisites and move 3D metal printing into the mainstream, parts must be inspected and certified during the manufacturing process rather than after. Parts in the production process that are developing signs of quality control problems must be identified in real-time and alerts must be issued. The problem, along with the solution, must then be communicated to the machine operator to implement repairs.

Revolutionizing Additive Manufacturing

Sigma Labs, with its PrintRite3D® brand, has established a new benchmark in the development and commercialization of real-time computer aided inspection (“CAI”) solutions. Sigma Labs resolves the major roadblocks and costly quality control challenges that impede the 3D manufacture of precision metal parts. The company’s breakthrough computer-aided software product revolutionizes commercial additive manufacturing, enabling non-destructive quality assurance during production, uniquely allowing errors to be corrected in real-time.

Sigma Labs was founded in 2010 by a team of Los Alamos National Labs scientists and engineers to develop and commercially license advanced metallurgical products for the military ordinance, dental implants, and then for additive manufacturing (3D printing). After assessing 3D metal printing technology and the costly, inconsistent quality control issues, Sigma Labs concluded that the enormous potential of 3D metal printing could only scale up if in-process quality-assurance tools were developed to observe, manage and control the manufacturing complexities in such a manner that reliability and repeatability of very high precision quality metal parts could be achieved in the process. Sigma Labs’ patented and third-party validated software has achieved these objectives and now delivers the critical elements needed to unleash the promise of 3D metal printing.

Sigma Labs’ products and services are engineered, manufactured and qualified for use in the highly demanding and hyper precise production environments of the aerospace, defense, transportation, oil and gas, biomedical and other precision-dependent industries.

The Challenge

Additive metal manufacturing combines multiple processes and parts into one single 3D printed part. Due to variances in the additive manufacturing process, parts of consistent quality currently can’t be reliably produced in either large or small quantities without substantial postproduction inspection and rejection costs. Parts are inspected after production using CT scans and other means, so the manufacturer doesn’t know until the very end which of the finished parts meet design specifications. This means lost time, lost profits and inability to economically scale up production.

Innovative Approach

Sigma Labs solves this problem with its patented, in-process quality control technology that informs operators and engineers how to improve both the manufacturing process and quality by capturing meaningful data about inconsistencies in real-time. Sigma Labs is also partnering with OEMs, working toward the visionary introduction of revolutionary closed-loop control that will bypass the machine operator and automatically make in process corrections by reducing machine variations.

Sigma Labs’ next generation technology gives manufacturers the ability to make fast, virtual real-time adjustments so that each finished part is uniform and within critical specifications, thereby improving production quality, decreasing end-users’ risks and waste, and increasing profits and speed to market. Sigma Labs’ PrintRite3D® IPQA Software monitors and assesses the quality of each production part in the 3D additive manufacturing process – layer by layer, and in real-time. This has never been available until now.

Sigma Labs maintains a strong intellectual property portfolio consisting of trade secrets, process know-how and 34 patents either granted, pending or awaiting pre-publication around the globe. These patents encompass the fundamental technologies underlying Sigma Labs’ melt pool process control, data analytics, anomaly detection, signature identification, and future “closed-loop control” of 3D metal printing.

Market Opportunity

Providing advanced quality assurance software to the commercial 3D printing industry is currently a $1.4 billion addressable market expected to grow to $3.9 billion by 2023. Integrating Sigma Labs’ groundbreaking software helps arm the industry with a necessary catalyst to help enable and optimize the fourth industrial revolution in manufacturing.

Sigma Labs’ global client base includes 23 installations across 19 different users. Tier-1 OEM enterprises and end-users such as Siemens, Honeywell, Pratt & Whitney and others are currently evaluating PrintRite3D® for production lines.

Management Team

John Rice, CEO and chairman of the board of directors, has extensive experience as a CEO, lead negotiator, turnaround expert, business financier and crisis management executive/consultant. Prior to becoming chair and CEO of Sigma Labs, he was the CEO of a successful turn-around of a Coca-Cola Bottling Company. Rice has led a variety of companies in diverse business sectors and worked on a host of products and technologies including design and manufacture of high-end jet engine test equipment for the U.S. Airforce, chaff dispensers for F16s, software for modeling naval exercises, software for controlling warehouse distribution systems, medical radioisotopes, cancer detection, and cybersecurity. He is an honor’s graduate of Harvard College.

Darren Beckett, CTO, has over 20 years of experience in the semiconductor industry, including Intel Corporation, where he held various technical and managerial positions. His expertise in process engineering for advanced manufacturing technology includes statistical process control for fabrication of semiconductor devices.

CFO Frank D. Orzechowski also serves as treasurer, principal accounting officer, principal financial officer and corporate secretary. He has more than 30 years of distinguished financial and operational experience. Orzechowski began his career at Coopers & Lybrand in 1982, received his CPA certification in 1984, and received his Bachelor of Science in Business Administration with a major in accounting from Georgetown University in 1982.

Ronald Fisher, vice president of business development, is leading the commercialization of PrintRite3D® 5.0. Fisher is a mechanical engineer with hands-on experience in quality, manufacturing and product development. He has distinguished himself as a lead sales and marketing officer as well as a chief operating officer most recently before joining Sigma in technology startup that grew from market entry to successful exit by merger-acquisition.

For more information, visit the company’s website at www.SigmaLabsInc.com

NOTE TO INVESTORS: The latest news and updates relating to SGLB are available in the company’s newsroom at http://ibn.fm/SGLB

• InsuraGuest’s proprietary InsurTech software platform delivers a specialized guest protection policy to the vacation rental and hotel industries
• Multi-billion-dollar market opportunity is worldwide, with the European market more than double the size of the U.S. market
• Number of vacation rental users globally is expected to soar to 361 million, at a 38 percent CAGR over the next five years

Service-as-a-software (SaaS) company InsuraGuest Inc. delivers a specialized insurance policy that protects guests during their stay at hotels and vacation rental properties. Through its proprietary InsurTech software platform, InsuraGuest provides the first line of defense for clients, properties and guests in an industry that is expected to host more than 297 million total vacation rental users worldwide in 2019 (http://ibn.fm/c76VG).

The InsurTech software platform delivers guest protection, acting as the first line of defense against accidents and losses for both the guest and the hotel or vacation rental property. When vacation rentals and hotels purchase the InsuraGuest protection policy, the coverage extends to the property’s guests once they check in. InsuraGuest provides specific coverage for such things as accidental damage to rooms, lost or stolen items, medical expenses, death or dismemberment (http://ibn.fm/L8y6C).

InsuraGuest provides software can integrate with more than 70 hotel and vacation rental property management systems worldwide. InsuraGuest is being integrated with vacation rental property management systems like Hostfully Inc. out of San Francisco and their system Orbirental, which currently has approximately 2,500 properties onboarded.

InsuraGuest is also working to expand the scope of its InsurTech platform and insurance products to cover European Union member states and the United Kingdom, while expansion plans include entering Asia by mid-2020 (http://ibn.fm/BQ0fO). InsuraGuest has already signed a letter of intent with a licensed Master General Agent operating in these markets, which will allow the company to distribute its products and proprietary platform to the hotel and vacation rental markets in these regions.

According to InsuraGuest CEO Douglas Anderson, there were 2.8 billion hotel nights stayed in Europe, compared to approximately 1.1 billion in the U.S. in 2018. With distribution in Europe and the United States, InsuraGuest’s combined demographics will total 3.9 billion nights stayed, and will more than double its vacation rental opportunities.

For more information, visit the company’s website at www.InsuraGuest.com

NOTE TO INVESTORS: The latest news and updates relating to InsuraGuest are available in the company’s newsroom at http://ibn.fm/InsuraGuest

• Xalles Holdings is a company dedicated to building on blockchain and other technologies for solutions in the e-commerce, payments and financial reconciliation arenas
• Xalles’ most recent financials report showed the company’s fifth consecutive revenue-producing quarter and expectations for future revenue and asset growth
• The company remains bullish on cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin amid the market’s ups and downs, with recent worldwide rising trends underscoring crypto’s and Xalles’ potential

The potential benefits of riding out crypto volatility were again on display in late October as Bitcoin suddenly surged over $500 in just five minutes, joined in the ride by other top-20 coins that simultaneously posted gains, with some of them seeing double-digit price increases (http://ibn.fm/tmRye). A larger indication of alt-coins’ persistence emerged in trends developing at a national level in South America and Asia.

Fintech holding company Xalles Holdings Inc. (OTC: XALL) is an experienced payment systems and solutions builder that has become a dedicated believer in the cryptocurrency market, celebrating the upsides of crypto’s free trade system despite risks inherent in Bitcoin’s volatility such as when the alt-coin standard bearer experienced a series of significant drops after rallying to August highs.

Xalles’ primary aim is to offer payment solutions to consumers and to respond to more complex needs within large businesses and government entities, supporting and accelerating financial services technology development. Its revenue stream is built on a diversity of market segments inclusive of companies with business models that set up some manner of payment or financial transaction toll gate (http://ibn.fm/b6BMv).

Worldwide volumes for non-cash transactions were analyzed by Capgemini’s and BNP Paribas’ World Payments Report last year to establish a forecast, leading to a prediction they would climb from 538.6 billion transactions during 2017 to more than 1 trillion in 2022 at a CAGR of 14 percent, mostly driven by developing markets at an estimated CAGR of 30 percent in Asia thanks to China’s adoption of QR code-based payments (http://ibn.fm/6y0Dg).

China created some shockwaves October 24 when its president stated the government should lead the world in blockchain innovation, taking into account that China’s urban populations have been steadily advancing during recent years toward a goal of becoming the world’s first completely cashless society by 2020 (http://ibn.fm/oVOPy).

The country’s vice-chairman of the China Center for International Economic Exchanges (CCIEE) followed with reported comments that China will pioneer the first-ever blockchain-based central digital currency (http://ibn.fm/STgEo). Such alt-coin efforts enjoy some controversy because they rely on a central, government-controlled system similar to existing fiat operations but with centrally managed digital technology tools.

At the same time, Argentina generated news when Bitcoin usage rose there as disgruntled citizens traded 14.15 million Argentine pesos (ARS) amid government efforts to cap the number of U.S. dollars a person can purchase within a month at $200, a 98 percent plunge from the prior $10,000 allotment (http://ibn.fm/PdLI7).

The central bank decision was a bid to protect the national bank’s reserves at a time when the peso has experienced annual inflation of over 50 percent, but Bitcoin commentators argued a familiar free market theme with statements such as social media account Rhythm’s post, “It’s not your money if you need permission to use it,” underscoring the move by many of the country’s citizens to boost cryptocurrency accounts.

Xalles’ subsidiary Xalles Financial Services recently announced its partnership with ATN Trading to offer cryptocurrency trading. Xalles also anticipates multiple cryptocurrency asset portfolio acquisitions. The company’s subsidiaries also offer or will offer marketing capabilities, investment management, a proprietary software platform for post-payment audits, and non-profit fundraising platforms in addition to the company’s payment management operations.

Xalles’ ability to leverage blockchain and other technologies for e-commerce, payments, financial reconciliation, and payment auditing solutions positions it as a potential fintech market leader as cryptocurrencies continue to shore up their bases. The company recently reported its fifth consecutive revenue-producing quarter and expectations for future revenue growth, as well as asset value growth.

For more information, visit the company’s website at www.Xalles.com

NOTE TO INVESTORS: The latest news and updates relating to XALL are available in the company’s newsroom at http://ibn.fm/XALL

• POAI subsidiary Helomics announce sequencing of ovarian tumor cases from UPMC Magee collaboration, a critical step in strategic Cancer Quest 2020 initiative
• Data key to value in $48-billion precision-medicine industry
• Industry leaders such as POAI realize critical value in patient-specific, data-driven models

The field of drug development for cancer treatment involves costly and time-intensive research. As technology plays an ever-increasing role in driving medicine, researchers and clinicians are discovering the significant potential of patient-derived models in matching specific cancer types with their most effective treatments. These models, which harness the patients’ own cancer cells to best determine how to defeat them, have been shown to be “a valuable tool for the identification of new treatment targets” (http://ibn.fm/DBK3s). To prepare for this next major frontier of precision medicine, industry leaders realize the critical value in these patient-derived (PDx) models of cancer. While most competitors are just getting their feet wet in both developing these PDx models and generating data from them, Predictive Oncology Inc. (NASDAQ: POAI) has been swimming in the deep end for some time, boasting an immensely valuable historic database of drug response for patients from its own proprietary PDx tumor models.

In the precision-medicine industry, the value of any predictive model is directly related to the quality and quantity of data used to build it. The richer and more extensive a predictive model’s data set, the more accurate and generalizable the predictions become. This predictive value translates into tremendous dollar potential in the field of precision medicine, a $48 billion industry in 2018 (http://ibn.fm/F7n7L), and Predictive Oncology is well positioned in this regard. Through its partnership with UPMC Magee Women’s Hospital, POAI subsidiary Helomics has been able to analyze “the genomic and drug-response profiles of women with ovarian cancer to build AI-driven predictive model of response to therapy” (http://ibn.fm/YQKky). Recently, Helomics announced that it has begun sequencing the tumor cases from this collaboration, a critical step in its strategic Cancer Quest 2020 project (http://ibn.fm/F93kH) as POAI moves towards the goal of building out its extensive database of tumor drug-response data.

“These retrospective ovarian cancer cases were profiled [by] Helomics as early as 2010; hence, we have 10 years’ worth of drug-treatment data, survival and other outcome measures we are gathering from Magee’s clinical databases,” stated Helomics chief innovation officer Dr. Mark Collins. “We are now sequencing these cases, looking at both the tumor mutations (genome) as well as tumor-gene expression (transcriptome) to build a comprehensive multi-omic picture of the tumor. We are also using deep learning on histopathology images of the tumor tissue (tissue-omics) to add an additional dimension to this multi-omic profile. We believe the combination of the rich multi-omic profile of the tumor and clinical outcome data will allow us to build an AI-driven model of ovarian cancer capable of predicting the tumor drug response and patient outcome (prognosis).”

POAI’s platform, composed of over 150,000 patient tumors, harnesses the power of an individual patient’s tumor to help recommend the best treatment for that patient. This database, which houses evidence documenting actual drug responses of cancer patients’ individual tumors, uses artificial intelligence to create a valuable predictive tool for pharmaceutical companies and researchers.

Industry leaders believe that models utilizing patient-derived data powered by artificial intelligence will allow doctors to make more effective individualized treatment recommendations, changing the landscape of cancer treatment. The predictive models can be applied clinically for patients of today, and they can also be used in the development of new drugs by researchers to help cancer patients of tomorrow.

Predictive Oncology offers the potential for significant ROI as it focuses on improving patient outcomes, changing the status quo of cancer treatment.

For more information, visit the company’s website at www.Predictive-Oncology.com

NOTE TO INVESTORS: The latest news and updates relating to POAI are available in the company’s newsroom at http://ibn.fm/POAI