Sayan Navaratnam

Sayan Navaratnam is a Canadian entrepreneur and investor who founded The Malar Group of Companies in 2012 as a strategic investment and advisory firm. Born in Sri Lanka and raised in Canada, he holds an undergraduate degree from the University of Toronto and has more than 20 years of experience in technology, investment management, and company building. Before starting Malar, he developed his operating background through roles connected to Bell Canada and a series of satellite-communications and technology firms, where he focused on telecom infrastructure and growth strategy.

His flagship operating company is Connex Telecommunications (Connex Telecommunications Corp.), a national Canadian provider of telecom and network solutions to large and mid-size enterprises, headquartered in the Richmond Hill/Markham area of Ontario. In 2016 he led Connex's acquisition of Dependable IT Inc. (DIT) to broaden its ability to design, integrate, and manage telecom and contact-center solutions nationally. Over his career he has also served as President & CEO of Creative Vistas Inc. and taken chairman/CEO roles at several of his portfolio ventures.

Navaratnam is best known publicly for his role at Facedrive (later rebranded Steer Technologies, and now associated with the "Argo" mobility brand in the Malar portfolio). Malar Group Inc. first subscribed for Facedrive shares in 2018 and gained the right to appoint a majority of the board; Navaratnam became president and, after the company's 2019 reverse-takeover listing on the TSX Venture Exchange, its CEO, chairman, and largest shareholder — a period in which the "ride-sharing/EV" stock briefly reached a multibillion-dollar market valuation. He announced his resignation from Facedrive effective September 1, 2021.

His public record also includes an Ontario Securities Commission matter tied to that company: regulators alleged investors were misled by inaccurate press releases. The company settled for roughly C$340,000 in penalties and costs, and Navaratnam was personally penalized C$75,000 plus C$15,000 in costs and barred from acting as a director or officer of a public company (other than the successor Steer/Facedrive entity and affiliates) until May 19, 2026. Founders should be aware of this history as part of due diligence, alongside his broader operating track record.

• Invests as a hands-on, "patient capital" strategic investor — Malar describes itself as providing capital, expertise, and network access rather than passive money, often taking operating or advisory involvement.
• Concentrated portfolio strategy: deliberately deep, concentrated capital deployment across a defined set of companies rather than broad, diversified spray-and-pray bets.
• Uses a stated "4M Framework" — Market, Material offering, Management, Money — to evaluate opportunities.
• Strong thematic conviction in AI and emerging technologies that "strengthen Canadian innovation and competitiveness," spanning telecom/networking, contact-center/CX, healthcare & wellness, manufacturing, education, and media.
• In his own words on his AI stance: *"The goal of artificial intelligence should never be to replace people — it should be to elevate what people are capable of achieving."*
• Emphasizes backing people over ideas: *"great businesses are built by great people,"* prioritizing founders he can support with mentorship, operational guidance, and long-term value creation.