Meet the ten companies in Techstars Montréal AI 2020
Oct 05, 2020
By Bruno Morency, Managing Director of Techstars Montréal AI Accelerator
Throughout the past two years of Techstars Montréal AI programs we’ve worked with amazing founders from all around the world. Founders like Nadav and his team working on reducing the usage of pesticides in agriculture, Marina and Thomas enabling women to take control of their fertility, Mark, Sam and Jean-Benoit transforming how legal research is done, or Sage, Daniel and Stefan helping companies scale their inclusion strategy.
Today, we’re excited to reveal the ten companies taking part in this year’s Techstars Montréal AI accelerator program. The selection process spanned over six months, starting in February (remember when meetings were done in person rather than via video conference?) and extended to July. Our first two years of program had a large contingent of international companies and 2020 is no exception. This is a strong testament to the status of Montreal as a global hub for AI, attracting entrepreneurs from around the world.
This year’s group of companies was selected around three core themes:
Core AI: AI is at the core of the product,
Democratization of AI: The product allows non-experts to use & apply AI
AI toolkit/DevOps: A product that addresses some of the unique challenges faced when running AI systems
Techstars is a mentorship-driven accelerator, and the quality of the founders in this year’s program shined over the last two weeks as they met with some of our 90+ mentors. These mentors include experienced entrepreneurs, technical experts and thought leaders from Montreal and beyond that are eager to give back. They help founders, challenge and dissect every aspect of their business, sharing helpful insight for the road ahead, and make key introductions to relevant contacts in their network. It’s a privilege to count on the support of such an eager group of men and women that truly embody the #GiveFirst mantra of Techstars. Over the coming weeks, the companies will continue working closely with a few select mentors as they strive to #domorefaster.
While we spend a lot of time during the selection process diving deep into products and markets, our top criteria continues to be the entrepreneurs that start these companies. Massively successful businesses are built on top of strong leaders that can attract and grow a diverse and healthy team. That’s why we teamed up with Tilt to weave a comprehensive Conscious Leadership training and coaching into the 13 weeks of this year’s program.
Techstars Montreal AI invests capital into all selected companies, we also invest in the entrepreneurs themselves.
Below are short descriptions of the companies part of Techstars Montréal AI 2020. We invite you to come discover these ten companies at Demo Day in December (click here to pre-register). For additional questions or requests, reach out to Justine Marchand, Sr. Program Manager at justine.marchand@techstars.com.
BRIDGR
Montréal, Canada
Organizations of all sizes lack the expertise to initiate and succeed in their digital transformation. BRIDGR introduces AI-based tools and services to ensure their investment is made the right way by choosing the best providers or technologies.
Deepflow AI
Bordeaux, France
Deepflow is a low-code low-latency SaaS platform that empowers web and mobile developers to integrate computer vision in their applications without Data Science knowledge.
NeuroLytixs
Toronto, Canada
Neurolytixs utilizes machine learning to look for unique biomarkers derived from the brain that will diagnose a patient with a concussion and help to follow their recovery. The company provides brain health for the next generation and aims to revolutionize youth amateur sports.
NimbleBox
Chennai, India
Get started 10x faster on your AI projects with 1-min setup. NimbleBox is a One-Stop Shop for educators and individual developers that lets them focus on the algorithms rather than the setup.
SyntaxIQ
Toronto, Canada
Generate SEO optimized product content in seconds. Product descriptions, instagram captions or any other content, all from a simple product image.
TrojAI
Saint John, Canada
TrojAI is developing solutions to protect AI platforms from adversarial attacks on training data and AI models, such as poisoning or embedded Trojan and evasion attacks.
Veesual AI
Paris, France
Image customization at scale for fashion brands and fashion retailers. Generate engaging and inspiring images in real time without any additional shooting or editing.
Whale Seeker
Montréal, Canada
Whale Seeker automatically detects whales from aerial and satellite imagery using AI. We believe whales and humans can coexist in healthy and profitable ways. We create the tools to make it possible.
Wisear
Paris, France
Let your earphones listen to your brain. Our AI algorithms enable earphone manufacturers to integrate functionality driven by brain-activity.
YData
Lisbon, Portugal
YData addresses the struggle data scientists experience in acquiring quality data sets and working with sensitive data. We use synthetic data along with a suite of tools that improve data quality in an automated way. Recognized by innovation and entrepreneurship awards and alumni of Google For Startups Residency, YData has been helping the biggest enterprise in Europe to adopt AI faster and easier, while complying with privacy regulations.