The race for artificial intelligence technology is on, and while tech giants like Google and Facebook snap up top talent to build out their own AI-powered products, a new startup has just raised a huge round of funding to help the rest of us.
Element AI — a Montreal-based platform and incubator that wants to be the go-to place for any and all companies (big or small) that are building or want to include AI solutions in their businesses, but lack the talent and other resources to get started — is announcing a mammoth Series A round of $102 million. It plans to use the funding for hiring talent, for business development, and also, to put some money where its mouth is, by selectively investing in some of the solutions that will be built within its doors.
“Our goal remains to lower the barrier for entry for commercial applications in AI,” said Jean-François Gagné, the CEO of Element AI, in an interview. “Everyone wants to have these capabilities, it’s hard for most companies to pull it off because of the lack of talent or access to AI technology. That is the opportunity.” The company currently has 105 employees and the plan is to ramp that up to 250 in the next couple of months, he said.
The round was led by the prolific investor Data Collective, with participation from a wide range of key financial and strategic backers. They include Fidelity Investments Canada, Korea’s Hanwha, Intel Capital, Microsoft Ventures, National Bank of Canada, NVIDIA, Real Ventures, and “several of the world’s largest sovereign wealth funds.”
This large Series A has been swift: it comes only six months after Element AI announced a seed round from Microsoft Ventures (of an undisclosed amount), and only eight months after the company launched.
We’ve asked Gagné and Element AI’s investors, but no one is disclosing the valuation. However, what we do know is that the startup already has several companies signed up as customers and working on paid projects; and it has “hundreds” of potential companies on its list for more work.
“As we’ve been engaging with corporates and startups [to be in our incubator] we have realized that being engaged in both at the same time is not easy,” Gagné said. “We’ve started to put together a business network, including taking positions in startups to help them by investing capital, resources, providing them with technology and bringing them all the tools they need to accelerate the development of their apps and help them connect with large corporates who are…