- The Montreal-based startup has now raised a total of CAD $340 million (USD $257 million) since its inception
- The company plans to use the money to accelerate the deployment and commercialization of its products
Element AI, a Canadian startup that builds artificial intelligence (AI) tools for enterprises, has raised CAD $200 million (USD $151 million) in a series B round of funding led by Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec (CDPQ).
The funding also saw participation from McKinsey & Company and its advanced analytics company QuantumBlack and the Québec government. Previous investors DCVC (Data Collective), Hanwha Asset Management, BDC (Business Development Bank of Canada), Real Ventures and others also participated in the funding.
The company plans to use the money to commercialise more of its products, as well as to continue working on R&D, specifically working on new AI solutions.
In a press release, the company said that it wants to “accelerate the deployment and commercialization of solutions that meet customer needs for the operationalization of AI.”
“Operationalising AI is currently the industry’s toughest challenge, and few companies have been successful at taking proofs-of-concept out of the lab, imbedding them strategically in their operations, and delivering actual business impact,” said Element AI CEO Jean-François (JF) Gagné in their official statement.
“We are proud to be working with our new partners, who understand this challenge well, and to leverage each other’s expertise in taking AI solutions to market,” he added.
Total Money Raised Till Date
Founded in 2016, the Montreal-based startup focuses on partnering with enterprises that want to use AI but lack the required expertise.
The startup has now raised a total of CAD $340 million (USD $257 million) since its inception, including its large $102 million series A round in 2017. Microsoft’s venture capital (VC) arm also invested an undisclosed amount in Element AI back in 2016.
Earlier this year, Element AI officially launched its first products for enterprise customers in the form of “decision-making automation tools.”
Using computer vision, optical character recognition (OCR) and other AI mechanisms, Element AI promises to enable machines to do things like “read” documents or answer workers’ questions about internal operations using natural language queries
Source: TechCrunch, VentureBeat
