The company, operating under management of several prominent Canadian technology leaders, will now trade under the ticker TSXV: ARGH (OTCQX: ARGHF).
TORONTO, June 11, 2024 /CNW/ - Argo Co. (TSXV: ARGH) (OTCQX: ARGHF) (Steer Technologies Inc.* now d/b/a/ "Argo Co." or the "Company"), a new technology venture focused on transforming public transportation and improving mobility in cities, today announced that effective immediately, the publicly traded entity will launch Argo as the primary business. Operating under the business name Argo Co., the Company will commence trading under the ticker symbols "ARGH" on the TSX Venture Exchange and "ARGHF" on the OTCQX effective as of markets open today. It is anticipated that the name of the Company will be formally changed to Argo Corporation following a shareholder vote at the upcoming annual general meeting (AGM) on July 24, 2024.
Argo co-founders, Praveen Arichandran, Qamar Qureshi, and Sisun Lee, have been appointed to management. Arichandran and Qureshi will serve as co-CEOs following their February investments in the publicly traded vehicle and appointments to the board, and Lee will serve as Chief Product Officer. Holly Lim has been appointed Chief Financial Officer and Corporate Secretary.
The board of directors of the Company (the "Board") has also been updated, with Colette Bridgman and Daniel Habashi appointed as independent directors on the Board to fill the vacancies of Junaid Razvi and Dr. Hamilton Jeyaraj, who have resigned effective immediately. Arichandran has replaced Razvi as Chairman of the Board.
"We're so proud to be bringing world-class Canadian tech talent home from across the globe to innovate in Canada and transform how cities move around the world. We're exploring our initial launch locations and are inviting all levels of government to partner with us in making our cities more accessible, connected, and prosperous for everyone," said Arichandran, co-CEO and co-founder of Argo. "We'll be sharing more in the coming weeks about our vision and plan. Building Argo as a publicly traded company gives everyone the ability to not only benefit from the technology but also come along for the ride as owners."
Argo remains committed to the previously announced divestment of most of its 58.72% indirect equity interest in FoodsUp, Inc. from STEER. Junaid Razvi, former Chairman and CEO of STEER, and Dr. Hamilton Jeyaraj, former independent director, are expected to serve on the board of FoodsUp, Inc. as part of this transition. This divestment reflects, with finality, the end of STEER and the launch of Argo.
Argo Team Highlights
- Praveen Arichandran joined Tesla as head of growth in 2016 at age 25. Without traditional advertising, he and his team helped transition the company from retail to a referral and online sales model. Before this, he was a member of Facebook's early international growth team and led the Internet.org product team whose products connected over 100M users to the Internet. He's been an advisor to several companies, including TikTok and Athena, and was recognized on Forbes' 2019 Under 30 list.
- Qamar Qureshi is a CPA and MBA who most recently served as the President and Chief Financial Officer at Knowledgehook. As President of the Americas and Board Member at University College London's Tech Labs, he oversees accelerators and early-stage companies across the continent. Qamar has led digital transformation for Canada's largest financial institutions and held senior roles at Sunlife Financial and IBM. He has raised millions in financing and secured precedent-setting sales contracts, which have featured him in TechCrunch, Entrepreneur Magazine, and Forbes.
- Sisun Lee was a product manager at Facebook, where he worked with Argo co-CEO Praveen Arichandran on building Internet.org products. He then joined Uber to lead their growth efforts in Southeast Asia before rejoining Arichandran at Tesla as one of the founding members of Tesla's growth team. He has since founded and scaled several companies in consumer product and technology, including More Labs and Ramper. Lee has been featured in Forbes, Bloomberg, TechCrunch, and Business Insider for his successful ventures.
- Holly Lim served as the CFO of Google's Sidewalk Labs sustainability initiative and, before that, as CFO of SoundCloud and TuneIn. She brings a wealth of experience in finance, operations and governance. She will ensure a proper wind-down of all entity legacy interests and a clean transition to launch Argo.
- Colette Bridgman has taken some of the world's leading mobility companies from their earliest days to clear market dominance. She was one of Tesla's earliest hires and led the global marketing function through every phase of business and growth internationally from 2004 through 2017. After Tesla, she created the marketing function at self-driving system leader Aurora, taking the company public in 2021.
- Daniel Habashi offers impressive experience in operations, technology and governance. He serves as the chief customer officer at SSENSE and as a board member at Aritzia. Previously, Habashi led operations in North America in over 30 other countries as a member of TikTok's senior management team. He has also had several senior leadership roles at Facebook, Instagram, Soho House and Microsoft.
About Argo
Argo is committed to revolutionizing public transportation with world-class Canadian tech talent who will return home from around the globe to further Argo's vision of removing public transportation barriers in service of a better, more connected future. You can learn more about the Argo team at www.rideargo.com.
*As disclosed in this news release, the Company intends to effect a legal name change to Argo Corporation following the approval by shareholders of a name change at the AGM. Until the finalization of such name change, all regulatory filings will continue to occur under the Company's current legal name, Steer Technologies Inc.
Forward-Looking Information
This news release includes certain forward-looking statements as well as management's objectives, strategies, beliefs and intentions. Forward looking statements are frequently identified by such words as "may", "will", "plan", "expect", "anticipate", "estimate", "intend" and similar words referring to future events and results. Forward-looking statements are based on the current opinions and expectations of management. All forward-looking information is inherently uncertain and subject to a variety of assumptions, risks and uncertainties, as described in more detail in the Company's securities filings available at www.sedarplus.ca. Actual events or results may differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements and we caution against placing undue reliance thereon. We assume no obligation to revise or update these forward-looking statements except as required by applicable law.
Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.
SOURCE Argo Co.
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