A trio of Toronto-based startups have closed significant rounds, keeping the city in the Canadian startup spotlight. Here’s the latest on who raised how much, from whom.
Deep Genomics raises $5 million in seed funding
Deep Genomics, a Toronto-based startup that develops deep learning-based technology to find unknown genetic mutations that lead to disease, has raised $5 million in seed funding.
The funding, which was led by True Ventures, will be used to grow its team of machine learning and genome biology experts, and to further develop and validate its proprietary deep learning technology. “With our unique technological approach, we are looking to create a shift in the current genomic medicine landscape,” said Brendan Frey, CEO of Deep Genomics.
Frey is also a professor of engineering at the University of Toronto, and Canada Research Chair in information processing and machine learning. “With this funding, we will bring the best minds in machine learning and genome biology to the team, further develop our genetic interpretation engine, and test it experimentally. We are working with hospitals, biotech startup companies and pharma companies to test our system using the genetic data of patients that are stricken with genetic diseases.”
Meta gets $6 million in funding for AI platform
Meta, a machine intelligence and big-data-as-a-service company for researchers and scientific industries, announced $6 million in funding in a round led by Rho Ventures. Western Technology Investment, iGan Partners, and angel investors also participated in the round.
“Our focus will be to assist organizations with implementing our platform services to solve the full range of their diverse science information challenges,” said Sam Molyneux, co-founder and CEO of Meta. “To do so, Meta is assembling a world-class engagement team comprising our exceptional engineering and data science talent, together with partnered teams from leading commercial AI institutes.”
Meta’s AI-powered science information platform allows researchers to navigate a wide range of scientific literature — according to the company approximately 25 million papers, with 4,000 new ones published daily – and identify key insights. The platform currently offers 20 machine intelligent services for four scientific industries, which include publishing, life science tools and reagents companies, academia, and government agencies.
The funding will allow Toronto-based Meta to continue investing in its core AI technologies and roll out additional updates to its literature discovery engine. The company also plans to add key hires to its sales, engineering, and data science teams. ““Meta has essentially created a disruptive, Watson-like solution that allows researchers to be fully informed of past and breaking developments in their field, publishers to streamline their operational processes and life science companies to access unprecedented sales and marketing information,” said Roger Chabra, partner at Rho Canada Ventures.
Blueprint raises $23 million
Blueprint, a Toronto-based provider of enterprise software for requirements definition and management, raised $23 million in funding.
The funding was led by US-based Centana Growth Partners. With the $23 million, the company will expand into global markets, enhance customer and partner programs, and attempt to improve their offering to respond to market needs.
Blueprint’s solution helps enterprise organizations de-risk and accelerate large, complex IT projects. The company boasts clients like JP Morgan Chase & Co., Costco, MetLife, Intercontinental Hotels Group, Sallie Mae and several Blue Cross Blue Shield organizations.
“Blueprint provides customers with a measurable impact, driving IT project success, accelerating delivery and aligning business and IT objectives,” said Dan Shimmerman, CEO of Blueprint. “We are excited that Centana has embraced our value proposition and their significant commitment will empower us to serve more companies around the world.”