This week, the federal government and one of the federally-backed Canadian innovation clusters announced a number of financial commitments for artificial intelligence (AI) projects across the country at the second annual ALL IN conference held in Montréal.
Canada’s Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry, François-Philippe Champagne, announced that the federal government will provide $15.2 million CAD to Québec City-based AI firm Coveo from the Strategic Innovation Fund.
According to Innovation, Science and Economic Development (ISED) Canada, the funding is part of a $100 million Coveo project to bolster its platform with new generative AI tools. The federal funding will help the company accelerate the development of its AI search platform, Coveo co-founder, president, and CTO Laurent Simoneau said in a statement.
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“We believe that the innovations resulting from this partnership will not only enhance Coveo’s competitive edge as a leading Canadian AI firm but also strengthen our ability to expand our workforce and customer base in Canada,” Simoneau said. “Additionally, this investment will allow us to deepen our commitment to applied research, helping to sustain Canada’s leadership in the AI sector.”
In an email statement to BetaKit, Coveo senior vice president of finance Karine Hamel declined to disclose more details about the project, but said it is “continuing” the company’s work in “applied AI to advance generative AI capabilities and other innovations.” Hamel added that Coveo will work with universities for research and talent on the project.
The funding caps off a busy week for Coveo, which saw the firm launch its Relevance-Augmented Passage Retrieval API offering and announce an integration with Salesforce Data Cloud.
OSC joins DIGITAL innovation cluster in making funding commitments around ALL IN
Earlier this week, Canada’s federally funded Global Innovation Cluster for digital technologies (DIGITAL) announced an investment of $53 million across 11 projects looking to incorporate AI into a variety of sectors, including subsurface imaging, patient care, and agriculture.
Much like last year, Canada’s Ocean Supercluster (OSC) also announced a round of funding commitments at ALL IN, this time committing $4.5 million CAD in support for three ocean projects using AI.
Kitchener-based remote-operated vehicle (ROV) manufacturer Deep Trekker received $3.4 million for its AI ROV Ship Modeling and Detection Project from OSC. Alongside industry partners like Toronto’s Qii.AI, the $8.1 million project looks to perform ship inspections by using AI with data collected by sensors and cameras on submersible ROVs.
OSC also provided $661,000 to Vancouver-based ThisFish, which hopes to integrate generative AI into its supply chain platform that automates production, quality control, traceability, and inventory workflows in seafood processing plants. Saint John, New Brunswick-based SeafarerAI also received $386,000 to apply an “AI-enhanced” cloud service meant to predict sedimentation at ports when dredging.
Scale AI, the Canadian innovation cluster that organizes ALL IN, announced its own call for projects focused on generative AI that will begin on September 26th. It will target a total commitment of $5 million for projects valued at more than $750,000.
Feature image courtesy François-Philippe Champagne via LinkedIn.