James Emanuel of Rock & Turner presented his in-depth investment thesis on Haivision (Canada: HAI) at Best Ideas 2025, held from January 9-24.
Thesis Summary
Haivision has been led by its founder-CEO for more than two decades, growing at a 23% CAGR over sixteen years pre-IPO using just $8 million in seed funding. The company has a capital-light, service-driven model and enjoys high barriers to entry due to specialized networks and strong customer relationships.
In 2020, Haivision raised capital through an IPO to fund a couple of acquisitions and accelerate growth. Revenue has grown 62% since then. The acquisitions are expected to be value-accretive from H2 2025. The company also has two key partnerships, which have broadened the offering and paved the way for new avenues for growth. Haivision serves diverse clients, including governments, military, and blue-chip corporates (no concentration risk). Haivision supplies its own hardware and has developed industry-standard software backed by 600+ alliance members, including YouTube, Microsoft, and AWS.
Insiders own 31% of the company, with the CEO holding 14% (~20x annual compensation) and increasing his stake in the open market, aligning the interests of management with those of shareholders.
Haivision consistently delivers gross margins above 70%, trending toward 75%, demonstrating pricing power. The service is incredibly sticky and has strong recurring revenue. The company is transitioning to higher-margin cloud and software services while shedding lower-margin segments. As operating leverage takes hold, EBITDA margins appear likely to double. The recent strategic shift and acquisition costs have temporarily acted as a drag on unit economics, which has driven the market cap to less than half of the IPO value — despite the business being far stronger today.
With the company trading at slightly more than 1x revenue, Haivision offers a compelling opportunity. With rising revenues, expanding margins, and multiple expansion — plus, the company has initiated share buybacks (management citing confidence that the stock’s market valuation does not reflect true value — the business has the full set of drivers for strong future shareholder returns.
Slides
Let’s listen to the full session and look over the annotated transcript.
