The Techstars Montreal AI accelerator has announced the 10 startups joining its second cohort. The program officially began on September 9 and will continue until December.
The Techstars accelerator selects startups with AI at the core of their proposed solution, across all industries and markets. The startups in this cohort span a wide breadth of verticals, including e-commerce, health, Autotech, and entertainment. The 10 selected companies will spend three months in the program, before ending with a Demo Day on December 4.
“Narrowing our 2019 class down to just 10 startups was no easy task … we spent months meeting hundreds of driven entrepreneurs from around the world.”
“Techstars is a mentorship-driven accelerator and our founders experienced what that means as they each met with over 75 mentors over the past weeks,” said Bruno Morency, managing director of Techstars Montreal AI. “This group of experienced entrepreneurs, technical experts, and thought leaders from Montreal and beyond all gave time to help founders challenge and dissect every aspect of their business and share helpful insight for the road ahead.”
The Montreal-based, AI-focused Techstars outpost was initiated in early 2018, with 10 companies in its first cohort. Some of these companies included Arctic Fox AI, Crescendo, InVivo, and ThermoAI. According to Techstars, its accelerator companies raise more than $1 million on average in the first round of investment post-program and over $3 million in subsequent rounds.
“Narrowing our 2019 class down to just 10 startups was no easy task,” said Morency. “We spent months meeting hundreds of driven entrepreneurs from around the world and listened as they shared their passion for their businesses and products.”
The 10 selected startups are:
Micropredictome, Montreal
Micropredictome uses the human microbiome and machine learning in order to offer a simple, cheap, and non-invasive home diagnostic test for various gut diseases. The company is currently working on a test kit for diseases like Irritable Bowel Syndrome and Inflammatory Bowel Disease. The test would involve sending a sample, which MicroPredictome’s AI software would analyze. The company will then send a detailed report about a customer’s microbial profile and diagnosis.
MorphL, Bucharest
MorphL aims to help e-commerce companies that grapple with AI adoption, by decreasing the barrier to embracing AI-based solutions and offering predictive models that are fully automated and can be used across the customer journey. The company, founded in January 2018 in London, UK, has two flagship products: MorphL Cloud and MorphL Community Edition.
Lightmass Dynamics, Slovenia
Lightmass is building Quantum Neural Models to create a better foundation for real-time physics simulation and visualization software. The company was founded in 2017 in Slovenia, and its technology combines deep learning with ray tracing into a general method for sampling vast amounts of data to simplify the complexity of physics.
Eli, Montreal
Eli is an AI-powered medical wearable that puts women’s needs at the center, by providing women with a new type of solution to manage reproductive health. For women who want to avoid hormones and intrusive devices, Eli claims to offer the possibility to do so without compromising effectiveness. The company was founded this year in Montreal and has previously participated in Centech’s Propulsion program.
Hello Iris , Toronto
Hello Iris is a Toronto-based dating platform, that aims to make curated matches for meaningful first dates. The software works entirely over SMS, sending potential matches with first names and photos, and suggests first dates optimized for each pairing.
Flod, Paris, France
Flod is an AI-based monitoring system for predictive maintenance of infrastructure. The software detects and localizes shock, uncoupling corrosion or any unexpected occurrence by collecting vibration data. The technology is a clip-on monitor that collects over 24 hours and in real-time. The Paris, France-based company was founded in July 2015, and raised $221,000 in seed funding last year.
ReelData, Halifax
Made up of deep learning scientists, computer vision experts, biologists, and aquaculture specialist, ReelData wants to bring predictive insights to the aquaculture industry using AI. The solutions allow fish farms to understand metrics around the health, hunger, and growth of fish species, which ReelData says can an increase in both production and sustainability.
nopilot.AI , Singapore
Nopilot.AI has developed autonomous vehicle software for city services, farming, and delivery. The startup is working on a robust control system for real-life robotics applications, based on deep reinforcement learning. The company was founded in Singapore this year, and hopes to create an end-to-end system that can drive anywhere, with a human-like understanding of what it can see.
Spliqs, Vancouver
Spliqs is a Vancouver-based company that uses AI to let any user create music. Like a riff or a loop, a ‘spliq’ is meant to be a musical concept that can understand music in a fundamentally human way and communicate with other spliqs, allowing them to adapt to one another. The technology allows users to choose music influences, ideas, styles, play with the AI controls, and share the final product.
Blaise Transit , Montreal
Blaise is an AI-based platform that allows transit operators to run on-demand buses. The company’s mission is to make public buses the most convenient form of transport for everyone, and it wants to do this through four key technology offerings: a mobile rider app, a driver navigation app, a web-based control console, and optimization algorithms that can improve routes and schedules of an entire bus network in real-time.
Image courtesy Unsplash
