Company: Alchemy Labs Inc.
Listing:TSX Venture Exchange
Ticker: TSXV: ALCH
Stockprice: 0.80 CAD (IPO pris 1.00 CAD)
Market Cap: 44 MCAD
IPO: The company raised C$13.7 million (approx. SEK 97 million) gross at C$1.00 per unit (one share plus one-half warrant exercisable at C$1.50 until July 2028), led by Haywood Securities.
Business: Nanotechnology for defence and automotive applications – materials that make vehicles and equipment harder to detect with thermal imaging cameras (Crypsis) and protective windshield film (ExoShield).
Website: https://www.alchemynano.com/
Published October 7th 2026
Introduction for investors
Cheap thermal drones have made the modern battlefield transparent. Anything that gives off heat, a soldier, a vehicle, a tent, can be found and targeted from kilometres away for the price of a consumer camera. Alchemy Labs, a nanotechnology company from Kitchener, Ontario, builds materials that make that heat signature disappear.
The company grew out of the University of Waterloo’s Velocity start-up incubator and spent its first decade on one idea: microscopic particles that can be mixed into fabric, paint or plastic film to give an ordinary surface new properties, such as blocking heat, resisting impact or staying clear. That one technology now feeds two businesses.
Crypsis is the defence unit. The products particles hide the heat given off by whatever they are applied to, from ponchos and camouflage nets to vehicle paint. Alchemy does not sell finished camouflage. It sells the ingredient to the uniform makers and large defence contractors (the Saabs and BAEs of the world) that armies actually buy from, and gets paid three times over: for development work, for the material itself, and in licence fees per unit made. Crypsis has been tested in four field trials with the Canadian Armed Forces, won a $1 million development contract from Canada’s defence research agency, and completed the first phase of NATO’s start-up programme, DIANA. One Canadian and one American defence contractor are currently developing products with it.
ExoShield is the automotive unit and the one that already generates most of the company’s revenue. It makes a clear protective film that is applied over a car’s windshield and takes the hits that would otherwise chip the glass. On a modern car with cameras and sensors behind the windshield, a chip can turn into a $2,000-plus replacement and recalibration. The film is tougher than it sounds: in one company test, a steel ball was fired at an ExoShield-covered windshield at 100 km/h, and when the film was peeled off, the glass underneath had not a single mark. The films (GT3+, ULTRA and the entry-level SPRINT) are sold through certified installers across North America. The newest product, ULTRA Pro Kits, comes pre-cut to fit specific vehicles such as the Ford F-Series, so an installer can fit one in under 30 minutes instead of hours. ExoShield also sells paint protection film under the MACH name.
The business model will look familiar to anyone who followed XPEL. The Texas paint protection film maker listed on the TSX Venture in 2007 as a company few had heard of, built its business the same way ExoShield is building now, through a network of certified installers and pre-cut, vehicle-specific kits, and moved to the Nasdaq in 2019. Its revenue went from $67 million in 2017 to $476 million in 2025, and early shareholders were rewarded many times over. Alchemy’s ambition is to do for windshields what XPEL did for paint, and Paul Andreola, who sits on Alchemy’s board, was one of XPEL’s earliest public-market backers.
Alchemy listed on the TSX Venture Exchange in July 2026 after a $13.7 million IPO led by Haywood Securities, with long-time backer NameSilo Technologies among its largest shareholders with well known Smallcap investor Paul Andreola at the helm.
Alchemy is one of very few listed companies anywhere that is built around heat camouflage, and it comes with an automotive business that already generate substantial revenue. Two months after listing, with the stock trading below its issue price and a second-quarter report showing revenue back in growth after a supply disruption in 2025, we sat down with co-founder and CEO Khanjan Desai to ask what has changed, where the money will come from, and what investors should hold the company to over the next twelve months. Director Paul Andreola joined for part of the conversation.
The interview
Life as a public company
ESGFIRE: It is two months since the IPO. What has changed, and what has surprised you?
Khanjan Desai: The biggest adjustment has been the disclosure regime. As a private company you can share your excitement freely with investors; as a public company you have to balance that against strict rules on what can be said and when. Learning to communicate within those limits has been the main surprise.
The stock trades below the $1.00 issue price on thin volume. How do you read that?
Desai: Some recalibration among initial shareholders after a listing is normal, and the macro backdrop has been volatile. We do not run the company around daily share price moves. The management team is laser focused on delivering the operational milestones we set out at the IPO, and we believe the share price will follow.
Revenue fell 28% in 2025, then Q2 2026 came back to growth. What went wrong, and is it fixed?
Desai: In the second half of 2025 we had a rare outage at both of our manufacturing partners at the same time, for independent reasons. That coincided with a surge in demand that ran down our inventory. Manufacturing was fully recovered in late February 2026, and Q2 reflects that. The lesson is that carrying higher inventory is a cheap form of redundancy against supply chain disruptions, so we will run with larger stock going forward.
ExoShield: the automotive business
How large is the market for windshield protection film?
Desai: We estimate the global market for windshield protection film at more than USD 50 billion, film only, not labour. The driver is ADAS. Almost every new car carries cameras and sensors in the windshield, so a windshield replacement is no longer a $300 job. We recently learnt that a windshield on an entry-level Kia can cost about $2,300 to replace and recalibrate. Commercial fleets feel it most; we recently met with a 400-vehicle fleet that is replacing 600 windshields each year because of frequent damage from road debris. At the same time, the cost of replacing a windshield is now higher than the deductible on most insurance policies, which is why windshield claim frequency and severity have risen for insurers. That combination is disrupting the market.
Is there an insurance incentive today, discounts or funded installs?
Desai: The insurance channel is attractive, but it comes second. Insurers operate across wide geographies, and to serve them we first need a distribution network that matches their footprint. That is the short-term priority. Long term, I expect insurers to subsidise windshield protection the way some already treat winter tires: a small cost that reduces their claims risk.
Walk us through the installer economics of the ULTRA Pro kits.
Desai: Installer profit per hour is the number that matters. Our high-end GT3+ film is a better product than conventional films but hard to install, so it yields about $130 to $150 per hour for the installer. ULTRA Pro Kits retain the material quality of our premium films but come as a pre-cut, pre-shrunk kit that installs in under 30 minutes. That takes installer gross profit to between $700 and $1,500 per hour. It is the same film with the labour taken out.
How many vehicle models do you need to cover the market, and how do you choose which to add?
Desai: The statistic we track is that around 120 models cover 97% of the North American exotic and luxury vehicle market. We do not yet have an equivalent number for fleet coverage. Our internal target for year-end is 50 models, and we are tracking to be ahead of that. We prioritise high-volume commercial platforms such as the Ford F-Series, then fill in passenger models and dealership requests to round out the offering.
Where are you with rental fleets, commercial fleets and OEMs: pilots or paid rollouts?
Desai: I cannot disclose pilot details because of NDAs. Progress will show up in earnings and in the deal metrics we report. What I can say is that the motor-coach OEM agreement we signed earlier this year is on track to launch before the year-end.
Crypsis: the defence business
How big is the market for thermal signature management?
Desai: Our earlier estimate, which we modelled out in the IPO prospectus, was a $5 billion ingredient market across NATO, based on about 18 million soldiers and 80,000 land combat vehicles. That is now too narrow. Warfare has changed in the last two years; drone-on-drone combat is happening, and it relies on thermal infrared sensors. Reducing the detectability of soldiers, equipment and now drones gives you first-strike capability, which is why demand is broadening well beyond ponchos and nets.
What is the status of the approximately $2 million Canadian defence contract, and of the prime partnerships?
Desai: Government contracts in Canada tend to close in two windows, September to November and February to May. We are in one of those windows now and hope to have news in the near term. On the primes: we are in the late stages of development with our US partner and working towards getting our first solution ready. The Canadian partnership is newer and is being synchronised with government funding.
Most countries buy defence equipment from domestic companies. How do you get around local-sourcing rules?
Desai: We position ourselves as a tier 2 or tier 3 supplier, not a finished-goods maker. In each customer nation we partner with a domestic textile or garment manufacturer that integrates our nanoparticles locally. That keeps up to 80% of the spend in-country, or 100% if a dedicated production set-up is capitalised there. The customer gets sovereign capability, taxpayers see local jobs, and we avoid the all-or-nothing risk of operating in one market.
What has the NATO DIANA accelerator given you?
Desai: Two things. A much better understanding of how fragmented the European market is and what Ukraine and the Baltic states actually prioritise. And a hire: our mentor in the programme has joined us as Director of European Defence Programs.
Saab Barracuda, Fibrotex, Rheinmetall and BAE all sell camouflage. Why would a European prime license from you rather than build it, and how safe is the IP while patents are pending?
Desai: Incumbent thermal camouflage is Cold War era technology. It is either too heavy, too reflective, or both, and it can cost up to $3,500 per article. Crypsis breaks that trade-off between performance, weight and cost. On IP, patents are pending in seven jurisdictions. Nothing comparable has appeared in patent office publications, which gives us confidence in our IP position.
Cash, capital structure and the stock
You raised $13.7 million and were losing about $1.2 million per quarter at the operating line before the IPO. Does the plan reach break-even without another raise?
Desai: Yes. Senior management stress-tested the model to make sure the business reaches break-even on this capital. That does not rule out raising again, but it would be for M&A or to accelerate growth, not to keep the lights on. Most of the proceeds fund operations. About $1.5 million is earmarked for a second ExoShield manufacturing facility within twelve months, mainly for equipment redundancy.
What does that capacity translate to, and where can gross margin go from 38.7%?
Desai: Two Alchemy facilities support up to about $60 million in annual revenue. On margin, ULTRA Pro Kit margins are near 50%, and as the kits become a larger share of our revenue mix, overall gross margin will move in that direction.
About 27% of shares are in escrow and there are $1.50 warrants to 2028. Should investors worry about the overhang, and what about liquidity?
Desai: Management and our key investors are long-term holders. Release schedules and warrants are not something we lose sleep over.
Paul Andreola: I have been through this before, with XPEL. Shareholders who understand the business do not sell escrow stock into the market; they hold it through the growth. I expect the same here.
Desai: On liquidity, we are working on making the stock easier to trade for international investors, engaging investor groups, and I will be presenting at the SmallCap Discoveries conference.
The next twelve months
If we speak again in a year, which three milestones should investors hold you to?
Desai: First, EBITDA trending clearly toward profitability, with losses shrinking quarter by quarter. Second, on ExoShield, proven profitability in the aftermarket and at least one major commercial contract win. Third, on Crypsis, sales revenue actually delivered, not just development contracts.
And the biggest risk?
Desai: For ExoShield it is operational execution: building, shipping and supporting kits at scale. For Crypsis it is geopolitics; defence priorities can shift fast.
What do investors most often misunderstand about Alchemy?
Andreola: The scale of the commercial opportunities. Investors look at today’s revenue and miss how large a single fleet, OEM or defence contract can be relative to the company. One major contract will prove the economics, and then the market will understand.
Last question: how dependent are you on single suppliers for PET film and precursor materials?
Desai: Our raw materials come from the dominant global players, and we have secondary suppliers qualified. We do not see it as a major risk. Strategic inventory is a cheaper and more effective hedge than capital-intensive alternative sourcing, which is exactly the lesson from 2025.
Om ESGFIRE
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