Prodigy Ventures Inc. Announces Appointments of President and Chief Technology Officer

(TSXV-PGV)

TORONTO, April 2, 2018 /CNW/ - Prodigy Ventures Inc. (TSXV: PGV) ("Prodigy" or the "Company") today announced the appointment of Mr. Jeff Watts as President and Mr. Pierre Roberge, as Chief Technology Officer & Senior Vice-President Solutions and Ventures. Mr. Tom Beckerman, will remain as Chief Executive Officer and Director of the Company.

Jeff Watts is a seasoned Canadian technology leader with a proven track record of success in scaling technology businesses. He has over 25 years of global experience in direct sales, channels, marketing, and both business and corporate development. This spans large enterprises such as SAP, Xerox and 3Com, running business lines of $300M+, and start-ups such as Quack.com (acquired by AOL). Jeff's ability to focus sales execution and to capitalize on market opportunities is well recognized. Having recently completed an assignment as Chief Revenue Officer for a global SAP partner, he brings a unique perspective and skill set to Prodigy. In addition to his role of President of Prodigy, Jeff also serves on several boards in various capacities, including Valucap Investments Inc., where he is the CEO. In these capacities he has contributed to several successful exits, most recently Locationary (acquired by Apple Corp., 2014) and Elliptic Technologies (acquired by Synopys Inc., 2015). Prior to his appointment as President of Prodigy, he held the position of Executive Vice-President.

Pierre Roberge is a digital ID and commerce expert, with over 20 years of experience at the forefront of innovation in the fields of digital identity, digital currency, online, mobile and payment marketplaces. Pierre co-founded SecureKey Technologies (a secure online identity and authentication platform), Dexit (the first multi-merchant contactless prepaid service in North America), and Rocket Piggy (a children's financial literacy and smart, connected platform). Prior to joining Prodigy, Pierre provided strategic and technology insights and expertise to enterprise clients, including TD Canada Trust, the Royal Canadian Mint, Interac, EnStream, Suretap, Telus and Intel. Pierre is an advocate for emerging technologies and new ventures. He supports the Canadian start-up and innovation community as a Fintech advisor to the MaRS Innovation Centre.

"We are delighted to make these key personnel announcements today." said Tom Beckerman, Prodigy's CEO. "Jeff Watts has been instrumental in building our business platform to enable accelerated growth. Now as President, he will lead the effort to realize that growth. Pierre brings a wealth of entrepreneurial technology experience to Prodigy, and his proven leadership in payments, secure identity and emerging technologies will be invaluable as we continue to grow our venture builder business."

In connection with the appointments, Mr. Roberge has been granted 345,000 incentive stock options, which will vest in 12 equal monthly instalments over 12 months beginning on April 30, 2018, each exercisable into one common share at a price of $0.175 per share for a period of two years from each vesting date. Mr. Watts has been granted 245,000 incentive stock options all of which will vest on March 31, 2019 each exercisable into one common share at a price of $0.175 per share until March 31, 2021. The options are subject to the terms of the Company's stock option plan and the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange. 

Mr. Roberge replaces Hussein Vastani, Prodigy's former Chief Technology Officer, who has left the company to pursue his interests in the field of artificial intelligence and machine learning.

The appointments remain subject to approval of the TSX Venture Exchange.

Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

About Prodigy Ventures Inc.

Prodigy is an innovation company that has combined an enterprise technology services business - Prodigy Labs - with a Venture Builder business. The two businesses work together to create and deliver new enterprise and consumer platforms and apps using emerging technologies in mobile, video, voice, augmented reality, artificial intelligence, blockchain and secure identity.

Prodigy has been named as one of Canada's fastest growing technology companies in both the 19^th and 20th annual Deloitte Technology Fast 50™ awards for demonstrating bold innovation, dedicated leadership and strong growth. Prodigy also ranked on Deloitte's Technology Fast 500™, a ranking of the 500 fastest growing technology, media, telecommunications, life sciences and energy tech companies in North America.

Forward-Looking Statements

Certain information set out in this news release constitutes forward-looking information. Forward looking statements are often, but not always, identified by the use of words such as "seek", "anticipate", "plan", "continue", "estimate", "expect", "may", "will", "intend", "could", "might", "should", "believe" and similar expressions. In particular, this news release contains forward-looking statements in respect of among other things, the Company's expectations with respect to growth. Although the Company believes that the expectations reflected in such forward-looking statements are based upon reasonable assumptions, and that information obtained from third party sources is reliable, they can give no assurance that those expectations will prove to have been correct. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements included in this document, as there can be no assurance that the plans, intentions or expectations upon which the forward-looking statements are based will occur. By their nature, forward-looking statements involve numerous assumptions, known and unknown risks and uncertainties that contribute to the possibility that the predictions, forecasts, projections and other forward-looking statements will not occur, which may cause actual results in future periods to differ materially from any estimates or projections of future performance or results expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. These risks and uncertainties include, among other things, risk factors set forth in the Company's Management's Discussion and Analysis for the year ended December 31, 2017, a copy of which is filed on SEDAR at www.sedar.com. Readers are cautioned that this list of risk factors should not be construed as exhaustive. These statements are made as at the date hereof and unless otherwise required by law, the Company does not intend, or assume any obligation, to update these forward-looking statements.

SOURCE Prodigy Ventures Inc.

Andrew Hilton, Prodigy Ventures Inc., Chief Financial Officer, [email protected], 416-606-8833