A Message from Peter Londa

Dear Tantalus Community,

It’s an exciting time for Tantalus. Our recent news encompasses several impressive developments — Tantalus’ intent to merge with RiseTech Capital Corp. and join the TSX Venture Exchange in Canada, the recent addition of 16 new utilities to our customer community, and the appointment of our new CFO, George Reznik. Any one of these would be a critical achievement. Taken together, they represent a new stage in our company history. I wanted to reach out and share what this means for our entire community, including the utilities we support.

Ultimately, all this momentum positions the Tantalus team to deliver on our purpose — delivering mission-critical technology solutions to improve the reliability, efficiency and sustainability of public power and electric cooperative utilities across North America and the Caribbean Basin.

Letter of Intent to Merge with RiseTech
As you know, last year marked our 30th anniversary. For three decades, Tantalus has been driven to improve the safety, economic prosperity and autonomy of utilities and the communities they serve. As we entered 2020, we began to think about the next 30 years and beyond. How would we continue to hold true to our mission while expanding our capacity to innovate and serve our growing community of customers? How could we expand our access to capital and accelerate our ability to serve this vital segment of the North American utility industry? How would we continue to thrive as a smaller organization despite the changing landscape within our industry?  

The evaluation of these questions led us to pursue this relationship with RiseTech.

As outlined in our September 14th press release, Tantalus entered into a Letter of Intent (LOI) for a Qualifying Transaction to merge with RiseTech Capital Corp., a publicly traded company listed on the TSX Venture Exchange. We will also initiate a concurrent financing to strengthen our balance sheet. For those of you who may not be familiar, the Toronto Stock Exchange is among the largest stock markets in the world and is home to a number of successful technology companies. RiseTech is a capital pool company formed with the express intent to merge with a company like ourselves — a technology firm seeking to expand its access to capital and build a stronger foundation for the future. Once finalized, the merger will result in Tantalus taking over all aspects of the combined entity while simultaneously gaining increased access to capital markets in Canada.

Regardless of these forthcoming changes, the Tantalus board of directors and entire management team will remain in place and lead the combined company moving forward. The purpose of Tantalus will not change, nor will our unwavering commitment to the public power and electric cooperative sector. To the contrary, this transaction will allow Tantalus to accelerate our product roadmap, expand our R&D capabilities, establish new strategic partnerships and pursue targeted acquisitions — all of which will only strengthen our ability to deliver purpose-built solutions to meet the specific needs of our user community.

I want to stress that last point above all — it was Tantalus’ purpose and our success in working toward that purpose that inspired this merger and places us on the threshold of becoming publicly listed. What we do with and in support of public power and electric cooperative utilities has immense economic and social value – and even after 30 years, we’re just getting started. As RiseTech’s CEO Manny Padda put it, “We believe Tantalus offers a compelling model that delivers quantifiable value to its growing number of utilities and has the necessary management team in place to build an exceptional business. We’re thrilled at the opportunity to support them in their mission.”

Addition of CFO to Team Tantalus
In conjunction with initiating the transaction with RiseTech and our migration to becoming a publicly traded company, I am also pleased to announce the addition of George Reznik as our new Chief Financial Officer. George brings more than 25 years of experience as the CFO of publicly traded, high-growth technology companies in Canada. He most recently served as CFO of Intrinsyc, a Canada-headquartered technology company providing Internet of Things (IoT) solutions, and he knows how to drive purpose-driven growth for companies like ours. Prior to serving in the capacity of a CFO, George spent 12 years at Deloitte where he became the Corporate Finance Valuation Practice Leader. George’s addition to our team will provide Tantalus with an experienced financial leader as we enter this new phase, allowing us to keep our focus on our core customer communities.

Continued Successes in Public Power
In addition to these developments, Tantalus has added 16 new public power and electric cooperative utilities to our user community through August of 2020. We now serve more than 180 public power and electric cooperative utilities across North America and the Caribbean. What’s more, we were recently chosen to be the preferred AMI vendor of another joint action agency, the Indiana Municipal Power Agency (IMPA), and we’re delighted to be a part of their continued growth across their region.

Looking Forward
Personally, I am humbled to be part of the growing Tantalus community, and I truly appreciate the opportunity to contribute to our progress. Tantalus’ commitment to purpose is translating into tangible results, both for ourselves and the amazing group of utilities that makes up our user community. Our effort to access additional capital through the partnership with RiseTech, expand our team’s financial leadership and continue to build this community will enhance our ability to serve utilities better than anyone else. No matter the size or the location, we remain dedicated to providing purpose-built smart grid solutions for public power and electric cooperative utilities and improving the lives of the communities they serve.

So on behalf of the entire Tantalus team, I just want to say thank you for your continued support. We look forward to building a brighter future together.

Sincerely,

Pete Londa