VerticalScope Founder & CEO Rob Laidlaw Increases Investment with $1M Share Purchase

TORONTO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--VerticalScope Holdings Inc. ("VerticalScope" or the "Company") (TSX: FORA; OTCQX: VFORF), a technology company that has built and operates a cloud-based digital platform for online enthusiast communities, today announced that a trust established for the benefit of Founder, Chair and CEO, Rob Laidlaw or his family, acquired ownership of an additional 205,649 subordinate voting shares of the Company (“Subordinate Voting Shares”) on the open market for an aggregate purchase price of approximately CAD $1,000,000.

The acquisition was made through the Toronto Stock Exchange and/or alternative Canadian trading systems.

Following the acquisition, Mr. Laidlaw or his family, directly or indirectly, beneficially own or control:

• 2,957,265 multiple voting shares of the Company (“Multiple Voting Shares”), representing 100% of the Multiple Voting Share class; and
• 601,582 Subordinate Voting Shares, representing approximately 3.2% of the issued and outstanding Subordinate Voting Shares.

“As Founder and CEO of VerticalScope, this investment reflects my confidence in the resilience of our Company, the strength of the Fora platform, our ability to execute on our product roadmap and our long-term strategy. Despite the economic uncertainty in today’s markets, I remain confident in our ability to create long-term value for our shareholders,” said Rob Laidlaw, Founder, Chair and CEO of VerticalScope.

About VerticalScope

Founded in 1999 and headquartered in Toronto, Ontario, VerticalScope is a technology company that has built and operates a cloud-based digital platform for online enthusiast communities in high consumer spending categories. VerticalScope's mission is to enable people with common interests to connect, explore their passions, and share knowledge about the things they love. Through targeted acquisitions and development, VerticalScope has built a portfolio of over 1,200 online communities and over 100 million monthly active users.

For more information, visit www.verticalscope.com.

Forward-Looking Information

This news release contains forward-looking information within the meaning of applicable securities legislation that reflects the Company's current expectations regarding future events. When used in this news release, words such as “should”, “could”, “intended”, “expect”, “plan” or “believe” and similar expressions indicate forward-looking statements. Forward-looking information, including statements regarding Mr. Laidlaw’s investment, outlook and intentions relating to the Company, the Company’s plans for organic growth, deployment of capital, investments in our platform, new platform features, execution of our product roadmap, the growth of revenue and monthly active users (MAU), information regarding our financial position, business strategy, growth strategies, addressable markets, budgets, operations, financial results, plans and objectives, is based on a number of assumptions and is subject to a number of risks and uncertainties, many of which are beyond the Company's control. Although the Company believes that its expectations reflected in these forward-looking statements are reasonable, such statements involve risks and uncertainties and no assurances can be given that actual results will be consistent with these forward-looking statements. Such risks and uncertainties include the factors discussed under "Risk Factors" in the Company’s Annual Information Form dated March 31, 2025, which is available on the Company’s profile on SEDAR Plus at https://sedarplus.ca. Actual results could differ materially from those projected herein. VerticalScope does not undertake any obligation to update such forward-looking information, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as expressly required under applicable securities laws.