WTR Small-Cap Spotlight

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In this episode of the WTR Small Cap Spotlight podcast, Chris Cooper, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of XCF Global, Inc. (Nasdaq: SAFX), joins WTR’s Peter Gastreich, Managing Director of Energy Transition and Sustainable Investing, and host Tim Gerdeman, Co-Founder of Water Tower Research.

Following approval of XCF’s three-way combination with Southern Energy Renewables and DevvStream, Chris Cooper discusses New Rise Reno’s move into commercial operations and the path to SAF, the strategic logic of the deal, and how DevvStream enhances capture of environmental attribute value.

The conversation also covers Southern Energy’s e-methanol and methanol-to-jet technology and the marine fuels opportunity, the amended deal terms, and growth priorities across Reno 2, new domestic sites, and global licensing.

For additional content, visit www.watertowerresearch.com.

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In this episode of WTR Small-Cap Spotlight, Tommy Barletta, Co-Founder and Managing Partner of ALDIS Institutional Services, joins host Tim Gerdeman, Co-Founder of Water Tower Research, to discuss what next week’s midterm elections could mean for healthcare investors. ALDIS Institutional Services is an independent research provider that pairs policy expertise with Washington and Wall Street relationships, combining moderated small group events with market commentary on policy-driven catalysts.

Tommy Barletta walks through his scenario analysis for the House and Senate, why he sees the House as effectively settled and the Senate as a far wider range of outcomes, and which races he is watching most closely. He explains why affordability has made this a coverage election, and how that read-through differs across hospitals, exchange-leveraged insurers, Medicare Advantage, and pharma, including the operational quarters the market may have to absorb before any policy relief arrives.

The conversation also covers what the administration can do regardless of the outcome through the levers it already controls, where the Medicare for All conversation actually stands and why the distinction between universal coverage and universal care matters for managed care, and the near-term catalysts Tommy Barletta is tracking in Washington, from government funding and the debt limit to US and China biotech relations.

For additional content, visit www.watertowerresearch.com.

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In this episode of the WTR Small Cap Spotlight podcast, Joanne Freeze, President and CEO of Xali Gold Corp. (TSXV: XGC, OTC: XGDF), joins WTR Analyst Dmitry Silversteyn and host Tim Gerdeman, Co-Founder of Water Tower Research, to discuss the company’s flagship Pico Machay gold project in Peru, its historical resource of more than 700,000 ounces, and the opportunity to revisit a project previously considered economic at US$700/oz gold. 

The conversation explores plans to validate and expand the resource, update project economics, advance permitting and community engagement, and pursue alternative financing strategies. Freeze also outlines upcoming drilling and development milestones and what could differentiate Xali Gold from other junior gold developers. 

Joanne Freeze also addresses permitting and community engagement in Peru, financing strategies beyond equity including debt, streaming, and offtake agreements, and the drilling and development milestones ahead over the next 12 to 18 months.

For additional content, visit www.watertowerresearch.com.

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In this episode of the WTR Small Cap Spotlight podcast, Dr. Ragula Bhaskar, Co-Founder, Chairman and CEO of FatPipe, Inc. (Nasdaq: FATN), joins WTR Analyst James Kisner and host Tim Gerdeman, Co-Founder of Water Tower Research. FatPipe sells routers, firewalls, SD-WAN, cybersecurity, and network visibility as a single software stack, with a co-managed service aimed at SMB customers that cannot afford a large IT staff.

Dr. Ragula Bhaskar explains how the company wins against Cisco, HPE, and Arista on product and first-party support, summed up as “one call, that’s all,” what new channel partners Carahsoft and Howard Technology Solutions expect from a vendor, and why the $7 million education contract is pulling partners toward larger deals as the sales team grows.

He also covers the shift to monthly recurring billings, where Total Security 360 stands as customers’ existing security contracts come up for renewal, early demand for SATBoost as satellite becomes a cheaper backup link, and the first sales of Constellation, including a data center version and a dedicated data center team planned for the first quarter. The conversation closes with the targets Dr. Ragula Bhaskar uses to run the business: 18% growth and 18% adjusted EBITDA margins.

For additional content, visit www.watertowerresearch.com.

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In this episode, Robert Sassoon, Managing Director and healthcare analyst at Water Tower Research, joins host Tim Gerdeman to discuss his newly published initiation of coverage on eXoZymes (Nasdaq: EXOZ) and its cell-free biomanufacturing platform.

Robert Sassoon explains how the technology works, the significance of the reported 10-fold productivity improvement in NCT manufacturing, and the next steps toward validating commercial-scale production with CDMO partner Curia Global. The conversation also covers NCT’s potential in the nutraceutical market, the competitive landscape, and the longer-term opportunity to develop novel molecules for pharmaceutical applications through the BioClick platform.

With an NCT product launch targeted for the first half of 2027, Robert Sassoon lays out the commercial, manufacturing, and regulatory milestones investors should watch as eXoZymes moves from pilot-scale validation to commercial execution.

For additional content, visit www.watertowerresearch.com and for access to the Fireside Chat:
https://event.webcasts.com/viewer/event.jsp?ei=1779409&tp_key=f8a1f046f8

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In this episode of the WTR Small Cap Spotlight podcast, Matt Martin, Chief Technology Officer, and Jeff Lewallen, Vice President of Burners at ClearSign Technologies Corporation (Nasdaq: CLIR), join WTR’s Peter Gastreich, Managing Director of Energy Transition and Sustainable Investing, and host Tim Gerdeman, Vice Chair, Co-Founder and Chief Marketing Officer of Water Tower Research.

Matt Martin and Jeff Lewallen take investors under the hood of the engineering platform driving ClearSign’s growth. The conversation covers how predictive CFD modeling keeps the company asset light, how reusable technology shortens the path from design to market for new products, and why larger reforming and ethylene projects, which can run to several hundred burners each, could make the company’s growth geometric.

For additional content, visit www.watertowerresearch.com.

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In this episode of the WTR Small Cap Spotlight podcast, Nadab Akhtar, President and CEO of Project LightShift, the quantum antenna technology partner of Quantum Cyber N.V. (Nasdaq: QUCY), joins WTR Analyst James Kisner and host Tim Gerdeman, Vice Chair, Co-Founder and Chief Marketing Officer of Water Tower Research. Quantum Cyber is developing an autonomous defense platform for battlefields where GPS and communications are jammed or denied.

Nadab Akhtar explains why a drone is most exposed when it signals home, then covers how the quantum photomagnetic antenna is designed to use quantum-scale photonics to read the Earth’s magnetic field as a navigation reference. The antenna was invented by Project LightShift co-founder and Chief Scientist Dr. Wolf Kohn and is exclusively licensed to Quantum Cyber for drone and defense applications.

Nadab Akhtar also walks through MAHCA (Multiple Agent Hybrid Control Architecture), a rules-based AI framework intended to let drone swarms make decisions on board rather than calling home, and describes the search for a fabrication partner to take the pre-commercial antenna from simulation to a first prototype. The conversation closes with the milestones he expects over the next 12 to 18 months, led by a defined prototype program and a demonstration of MAHCA for swarming.

For additional content, visit www.watertowerresearch.com.

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 In this episode of the WTR Small Cap Spotlight, Dmitry Silversteyn, Managing Director for Chemicals and Materials Technology, joins Tim Gerdeman to recap the critical minerals and advanced materials companies he hosted at the WTR Insights Conference on September 22 and 23. 

The conversation covers the two overarching themes that emerged across six very different companies: the shift from resource definition and proof of concept toward project financing, permitting, and commercial validation, and the accelerating role of government support as Western nations move from rhetoric to capital deployment in decoupling from China. Dmitry walks through what changed for each company, including Brazil Potash's advancing permitting and government-backed tax relief, First Phosphate's growing investment stack and export credit agency support, 5E Advanced Materials' transformative Searles Valley Minerals acquisition, Home Run Resources' early silica sales and high-purity validation progress, U.S. Elemental's pending NASDAQ listing and updated feasibility economics, and The Metals Company's NOAA permitting progress and pivot toward integrated U.S. onshore refining. The episode closes with the milestones investors should watch across all six names over the next 12 months.

All six conference presentations are available on demand at https://event.webcasts.com/viewer/portal.jsp?ei=1770861&tp_key=bfed48f4a8

For additional content, visit www.watertowerresearch.com. 

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In this episode of the Small Cap Spotlight, Peter Gastreich, Managing Director of Energy Transition and Sustainable Investing at Water Tower Research, joins host Tim Gerdeman to recap the eight companies he hosted at the WTR Insights Conference, spanning renewable fuels and carbon management, waste to value, clean tech, environmental solutions, and metallurgical coal.

Peter Gastreich breaks down five themes that emerged across the sessions: compliance rather than carbon as the demand engine, security of supply, tight markets that reward proven capacity, the shift from promise to proof, and capital-light models for customers and shareholders alike. He also explains why customer problems rather than macro themes drive demand across a notably diverse set of end markets, and shares the management lines that stood out on regulatory compliance, strategic importance, technology differentiation, and execution.

All eight sessions are available on demand at
https://event.webcasts.com/viewer/portal.jsp?ei=1770861&tp_key=bfed48f4a8

For Additional content:
https://www.watertowerresearch.com/sector/2

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In this episode of the WTR Small Cap Spotlight, Jeff Robertson, Managing Director of Natural Resources at Water Tower Research, joins Tim Gerdeman to recap the nine energy companies he hosted at the WTR Insights Conference on September 22 and 23, including seven E&P names and two oil field service companies.

Jeff Robertson breaks down what management teams said about capital discipline against a volatile commodity backdrop, why producers are not adding rigs at current prices, and how balance sheet repair, royalty and mineral strategies, capital structure simplification, and the conventional Permian are shaping individual stories. The discussion also covers the shift toward collars over swaps in hedging, the risk and reward profile of West African portfolios, and how dividends and buybacks function differently within shareholder return frameworks.

The conversation closes on the oil field services side with deepwater positioning, specialized manufacturing exposure, and why these businesses may be valued on a near-term cycle rather than a longer-term capital spending one. Jeff Robertson wraps with the milestones he is watching over the next six to 12 months.

All nine presentations are available on demand at
https://event.webcasts.com/viewer/portal.jsp?ei=1770861&tp_key=bfed48f4a8

Additional content available https://www.watertowerresearch.com/sector/5