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 co...

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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...

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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 pur...

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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 n...

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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 th...

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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...

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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...

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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 wa...

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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...

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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...

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Recorded as a featured session at the WTR Virtual Insights Conference, Joseph Lucosky, Managing Partner of Lucosky Brookman, joins Shawn Severson, CEO and Founding Partner of Water Tower Research, to break down what has changed for emerging growth companies coming to market in 2026.

Joseph Lucosky explains how NASDAQ's December 2025 discretionary listing rules reset the market, including a 78-day stretch with no microcap IPOs and the first year on record in which direct listings and uplistings outpaced traditional IPOs. Through August 31, the Lucosky Brookman data desk tracked 51 microcap transactions, split evenly across...

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In this episode, Natural MedTech CEO and Co-Founder Luke McFarlane joins WTR healthcare analyst Robert Sassoon and Shawn Severson to discuss the company's biosynthetic psilocybin manufacturing platform and its position within Australia's evolving psychedelic medicine landscape. The conversation covers the authorized prescriber pathway, including adoption trends, treatment costs, regulatory developments, and early insurer engagement. McFarlane walks through NMT's proprietary biosynthesis platform, its competitive advantages in cost and purity, the ongoing Series A raise, and the case for local manufacturing. The episode also explores AI's role in drug development, the importance of wet-lab data...

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In this episode of the WTR Small Cap Spotlight, Shawn Severson, Co-Founder and CEO of Water Tower Research, joins host Tim Gerdeman, Vice Chair, Co-Founder, and Chief Marketing Officer of Water Tower Research, to preview the WTR Virtual Insights Conference, running September 22 and 23. The two-day event features more than 40 presenting companies across seven sectors.

Shawn Severson breaks down how the open-access fireside chat format differs from typical investor conferences, how investors can submit live questions and request one-on-one meetings, and why small-cap diligence remains underestimated even within familiar themes such as...

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In this inaugural episode of WTR Analyst Perspectives, Peter Gastreich, Managing Director for Energy Transition and Sustainable Investing, joins Tim Gerdeman to share his read on the renewable fuels sector coming off its strongest earnings season in years. Peter unpacks the five themes most relevant to investors: record mandates and August policy noise, the geopolitical supply squeeze driving margins, carbon intensity emerging as a durable revenue line, a demand-rich but supply-short SAF market that favors first movers, and a renewed focus on capital discipline. The episode closes with the key catalysts to watch...

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In this episode of the WTR Small Cap Spotlight, Dr. Jennifer Holmgren, Chief Executive Officer of LanzaTech Global, Inc. (Nasdaq: LNZA), joins WTR's Peter Gastreich (Managing Director, Energy Transition and Sustainable Investing) and Tim Gerdeman (Vice Chair, Co-Founder & Chief Marketing Officer).

Jennifer discusses how LanzaTech's continuous fermentation technology converts industrial carbon emissions into ethanol, the mandate-driven demand for sustainable aviation fuel and marine fuel, and the company's shift from licensing toward developing its own projects with Brookfield funding. She also covers the expected ISCC EU certification for LanzaTech's China plant, LNZA's...

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In this episode of the WTR Small Cap Spotlight, Our Bond, Inc. Founder and CEO Doron Kempel joins WTR's James Kisner and Tim Gerdeman to introduce the company's AI-powered preventative personal security platform and the profound gap it addresses. With 140 million Americans reporting they feel unsafe walking alone at night and 500,000 women severely sexually assaulted annually, Kempel explains why the existing 911 paradigm leaves most people unprotected in the moments that matter most, and how Bond's 24/7 command center of trained security agents delivers a response in five seconds rather than 10-plus minutes. The conversation...

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In this episode of the WTR Small Cap Spotlight, Joseph Lucosky, Managing Partner of Lucosky Brookman LLP, joins WTR's Tim Gerdeman to discuss his new seat on the SEC's Small Business Capital Formation Advisory Committee, NASDAQ's stayed $5 million continued listing rule, and Q2 2026 microcap IPO data showing the first signs of a thaw. Lucosky also covers the rise of direct listings and reverse mergers over the traditional IPO, and what foreign private issuers need to get approved on NASDAQ. For additional content, visit www.watertowerresearch.com.

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In this episode of the WTR Small Cap Spotlight, Cloudastructure Chairman and CEO James McCormick and CFO Greg Smitherman join WTR's James Kisner and Tim Gerdeman to discuss the company's cloud-native, AI-powered video surveillance and remote guarding platform, which deters 98% of threatening events and drives 99% customer retention. The conversation covers strong Q2 results, with subscription revenue up 164% year over year to $764K and gross margin reaching a record 49%, and the mix shift toward takeovers in the first half of 2026, which represented 77% of new cameras and accelerated the path to recurring revenue. McCormick and...

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In this episode of the WTR Small Cap Spotlight, Waheed Hassan, Founder and CEO of ZMH Advisors, joins Tim Gerdeman to break down shareholder activism and what small and mid-cap boards need to know before an activist comes knocking. Bloomberg ranks ZMH among the top five global strategic advisors for shareholder activism, and Hassan brings 25 years of experience across ISS, the Blue Shirt Group, and one of North America's largest proxy solicitation firms, with more than 300 campaign engagements including Jack in the Box, Cracker Barrel, Target, and Medallion Financial. The conversation covers why...

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In this episode of the WTR Small Cap Spotlight, Ambiq Founder and CTO Scott Hanson joins WTR's James Kisner and Tim Gerdeman to discuss how the company's ultra-low-power semiconductors are enabling on-device AI across personal, medical, industrial, and smart-home markets. Hanson traces the origins of Ambiq's proprietary Subthreshold Power Optimized Technology (SPOT), spun out of the University of Michigan in 2010, and explains how it delivers a two- to fivefold reduction in power consumption versus conventional designs, unlocking edge AI use cases where latency, privacy, cost, energy, and availability all matter. The conversation covers...

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In this episode of the WTR Small Cap Spotlight, WTR Managing Director for Natural Resources Jeff Robertson joins Tim Gerdeman to assess the second half of 2026 and early 2027 budget outlooks for the U.S. energy sector. The conversation covers how producers are managing continued oil price volatility driven by the Iran conflict and Strait of Hormuz disruptions, with WTI averaging $81.25 in Q3 and futures pointing toward the low $70s through 2027.

Robertson walks through WTR's oilfield services coverage, addressing Select Water Solutions' water infrastructure margin expansion story, DNOW's MRC integration progress and...

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In this episode of the WTR Small Cap Spotlight, First Phosphate CEO John Passalacqua joins WTR's Dmitry Silversteyn and Tim Gerdeman to discuss the company's recent NASDAQ listing and what it means for First Phosphate's next phase of development. The conversation covers the unique ADR structure that allowed the company to uplist without share consolidation or a dilutive capital raise, the 10x spike in trading volume following the opening bell ceremony, and how NASDAQ listing credibility is changing the company's conversations with institutional investors, sovereign lenders, offtakers, and government counterparties. Passalacqua also walks...

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In this WTR Small-Cap Spotlight showcase, host James Kisner joins virtually with WTR's Mike McCormack on the ground in Munich with Elena Coles, Head of Investor Relations at Circus SE (XETRA: CA1), the German AI robotics company building autonomous kitchen systems for commercial and defense customers. Coles walks through the portfolio: the flagship CA-1, which cooks up to six dishes in parallel on seven square meters and is deployed with Mercedes-Benz, REWE, Meta, and the Bundeswehr; the compact CA-A cup-based system from the Alberts acquisition; and the defense-focused CA-M, which replaces a field...

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In this episode of the WTR Small Cap Spotlight, Comstock Inc. CEO Corrado De Gasperis joins WTR's Peter Gastreich and Shawn Severson to follow up on questions submitted by investors during the company's recent fireside chat. De Gasperis provides an update on the ramp-up of Comstock's Nevada solar panel recycling plant, its competitive advantages over rivals, and how a proposed EPA hazardous-waste rule could unlock feedstock supply. The conversation also covers silver recovery economics, the approximately $300 million Silver Springs land and power monetization opportunity, the balance sheet position ahead of the pending $20 million...

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In this episode of the WTR Small Cap Spotlight, Drone Volt Chairman Stefano Valentini joins WTR's Senior Equity Research Analyst Dr. John Roy and Tim Gerdeman to discuss the company's solid first half 2026 results and its strategic evolution toward higher-value Drone-as-a-Service operations. The conversation covers Drone Volt's position as an aeronautical manufacturer specializing in professional civilian drones and artificial intelligence, its global footprint spanning France, Benelux, Canada, Denmark, the Netherlands, the United States, and Switzerland, and how its turnkey business solutions and drone pilot training offerings are driving the shift to a more...

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In this episode of the WTR Small Cap Spotlight, Brazil Potash CEO Matt Simpson joins WTR's Dmitry Silversteyn and host Shawn Severson to discuss the company's Autaz potash project in Brazil's Amazonas state and the series of developments systematically de-risking the path to construction. The conversation covers the recent passage of Brazil's Pro-Fert legislation, which could eliminate approximately $190 million in construction costs through tax exemptions and mandates that preferential government funding be given to domestic fertilizer projects, as well as the latest favorable TRF-1 court rulings affirming the validity of the project's environmental...

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In this episode of the WTR Small Cap Spotlight, Cannara Biotech COO and Interim CFO Nick Sosiak joins WTR's Linda Bolton Weiser and Tim Gerdeman to discuss the company's expansion following the announcement of a long-term international supply agreement with Curaleaf carrying a potential aggregate value of up to C$21 million. The conversation covers Cannara's differentiated approach within the cannabis industry, the market positioning of its three brands, the scale advantages of its two Quebec mega-facilities, growing room economics, the current state of the Canadian cannabis market, the role of innovation in driving...

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In this episode of the WTR Small Cap Spotlight, DeFi Development Corp. Chief Strategy Officer Dan Kang joins host Tim Gerdeman and WTR Senior Equity Research Analyst Dr. John Roy to discuss the company's corporate strategy as a Solana-focused digital asset treasury. The conversation covers how DeFi Development acquires, holds, and compounds Solana through staking and validator operations, why Solana was chosen as the foundation of the company's treasury strategy, and how the firm's AI-powered SaaS platform is bridging traditional finance to the Solana blockchain. Kang also walks through how the company is...

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In this episode of the WTR Small Cap Spotlight, First Phosphate CEO John Passalacqua joins WTR's Tim Gerdeman and Dmitry Silversteyn to discuss the company's strengthened financial position following an oversubscribed $17.7 million private placement, $21.5 million in non-repayable government grants from Natural Resources Canada, and letters of interest from international export credit agencies representing up to C$275 million in potential project financing. The conversation covers the company's definitive offtake agreements securing a minimum of 200,000 tons per year of phosphate concentrate and 60,000 tons per year of battery-grade phosphoric acid, G7 Critical Minerals recognition, Quebec fast-track...

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In this episode of the WTR Small Cap Spotlight, Wrap Technologies Founder, Chairman, and CEO Scot Cohen joins host Tim Gerdeman and analyst Eric Goldstein to discuss a month of significant news flow for the company. Cohen walks through a favorable ATF ruling classifying BolaWrap as a rescue and restraint device rather than a firearm, a strategic investment and exclusive four-year U.S./NATO license with Israeli sensing company Frenel Imaging, and the launch of the WrapShield counter-drone platform alongside the new multi-shot Raptor MX system. The conversation covers the legal and insurance-market...

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In this episode of the WTR Small Cap Spotlight, WTR Natural Resources analyst Richard Tullis joins host Tim Gerdeman for an in-depth look at the U.S. data center buildout and the critical role natural gas is playing and is expected to continue to play in powering these energy-intensive facilities. The conversation examines supply and demand dynamics, infrastructure requirements, and the small and mid-cap names best positioned to benefit from this secular growth theme. 

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In this episode of the WTR Small Cap Spotlight, Avalon Advanced Materials CEO Scott Monteith, CFO Lorin Crenshaw, and VP of Corporate Development Chris Sinek join WTR's Tim Gerdeman and Dmitry Silversteyn to discuss the company's strategy to become a North American rare earth and lithium processing platform. The conversation covers Avalon's Nasdaq listing ambitions, a €100 million Finnvera Letter of Interest, current rare earth and lithium market dynamics, and the execution milestones that could reshape the company's valuation over the next 12 to 18 months. 

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In this episode of the WTR Small Cap Spotlight, WTR Managing Director for Natural Resources Jeff Robertson joins host Tim Gerdeman to preview second quarter 2026 earnings season for the U.S. energy sector. Recorded July 27, 2026 — as the majority of companies in WTR's universe are set to report — the conversation covers how producers are managing renewed oil price volatility driven by military strikes in the Persian Gulf, the key themes emerging from early reports by Halliburton, SLB, Range Resources, and EQT, and what investors should expect from WTR's coverage universe across oilfield services (Forum Ener...

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In this episode of the WTR Small-Cap Spotlight Podcast, Ardes Johnson, CEO of NeoVolta, joins host Tim Gerdeman, Co-Founder and Chief Marketing Officer, and analyst Eric Goldstein. NeoVolta is a Southern California-founded energy storage company scaling into a FEOC-compliant U.S. battery manufacturer, targeting 2 GWh of initial annual production capacity, scalable to 8 GWh, across residential, commercial and industrial, and utility-scale markets. Johnson explains the company's strategic transformation from a residential battery pioneer into an integrated, multi-vertical energy storage platform, anchored by the NeoVolta Power joint venture with Bloomberg Tier 1 integrator PotisEdge and global...

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In this episode of the WTR Small Cap Spotlight podcast, Brian Allen, Chief Revenue Officer of Nauticus Robotics, Inc. (Nasdaq: KITT), joins WTR's Tim Gerdeman (Vice Chair, Co-Founder & Chief Marketing Officer) and Peter Gastreich (Managing Director - Energy Transition and Sustainable Investing). 

Brian shared his nearly two decades in underwater robotics and what drew him to Nauticus, the company's commercially ready Nauticus ToolKITT autonomy system and licensing potential, its industry-leading autonomous manipulator technology enabling millimeter-precision subsea tasks, the Forum Energy Technologies partnership validating commercial demand, upcoming Aquanaut sales and European expansion, a...

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In today’s WTR Furnishings Symposium, we tackle the question: do recent improvements across the furnishings sector represent isolated company successes or the beginning of a broader industry recovery? Bassett reported a strong Memorial Day promotion with 4% traffic growth and 14% higher written sales. Culp delivered 12.5% year-over-year bedding segment sales growth in Q4. And Miller Knoll posted 20% two-year stacked sales growth in its North America Contract business.  We are joined by Bassett Furniture CEO Rob Spillman, Culp CEO Iv Culp, and COO Marybeth Hunsberger, along with Miller Knoll President of Global Retail, Debbie Propst and...

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In this episode of WTR Small Cap Spotlight, LifeVantage CFO Carl Aure and Chief Sales Officer Kristen Cunningham join WTR's Sean Severson and consumer analyst Doug Lane to discuss the company's ongoing CEO transition and what incoming CEO Terrence Moorhead brings to the role. The conversation covers the company's nutraceutical and direct selling business model, its 70%-plus recurring subscription revenue base, and how leadership has kept the field stable and energized through the transition. Carl and Kristen also outline the strategic priorities Moorhead is expected to accelerate — including product marketing, international expansion, and di...

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In this episode of WTR Small Cap Spotlight, First Phosphate CEO John Passalacqua joins WTR's Tim Gerdeman and Dmitry Silversteyn to discuss the company's recent C$17.7 million financing, G7-backed investment and offtake agreements, and strategy to build a fully integrated North American lithium iron phosphate (LFP) battery materials supply chain. The conversation covers project financing, commercial partnerships, upcoming development milestones, and what could drive the company's next phase of growth.

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In this episode of WTR Small Cap Spotlight, Homerun Resources CEO Brian Leeners joins WTR's Tim Gerdeman and Dmitry Silversteyn to discuss the company's integrated strategy to transform high-purity silica into solar glass, advanced materials, and energy storage solutions. The conversation covers recent engineering achievements, financing strategy, government incentives, commercialization plans, and the milestones that could shape Homerun's long-term growth story.

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Ron Yekutiel, Co-Founder, Chairman, President, and CEO of Kaltura, Inc. (NASDAQ: KLTR), joins the latest WTR Small-Cap Spotlight for an in-depth look at the company’s next chapter. In conversation with host Tim Gerdeman and WTR analyst James Kisner, Yekutiel explains how Kaltura is moving from a long-standing leadership position in enterprise video to an AI-powered, agentic digital experience platform. He outlines how the company is combining its core technology with photorealistic conversational avatars from the eSelf acquisition and intent-based journey orchestration from PathFactory to transform customer, employee, learner, and audience experiences.

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