Several Canadian startups have made announcements and launched new features to make strides in AI. Here’s the latest on Canada’s movers and shakers.
Stradigi AI partners with the Vector Institute
Montreal-based Stradigi AI, which builds AI-powered solutions, has announced a partnership with the Vector Institute, which is working to be a hub for AI research.
Stradigi AI said it plans to work with industry and public institutions like the Vector Institute to build and deliver custom AI solutions. The company is the first Quebec-based AI solutions provider to partner with the Institute.
“It’s an honour for us to team up with Vector,” said Basil Bouraropoulos, co-founder and CEO of Stradigi AI. “This is an important milestone for our company and I am most excited for our customers who will benefit from the cutting-edge research being conducted at the Vector Institute.”
Dr. Garth Gibson, president and CEO of the Vector Institute, said it chose Stradigi AI as a partner partly due to its intention to expand into Toronto’s AI ecosystem. Stradigi said it plans to open offices in Toronto and Brazil in the coming months.
In recent months, several companies have announced partnerships with the Vector Institute including Ross Intelligence and DeepLearni.ng.
Soko.ai introduces monetization tool for publishers
Montreal-based Soko.ai, which uses AI to help publishers find new revenue streams, has launched a new monetization tool for its customers.
Soko said the tool integrates publishers’ audiences and marketers’ campaigns in Facebook and Google, and allows publishers to earn new revenue streams by making their audience available for retargeting campaigns. With the Soko marketplace, users can install a tracking code into their website, and their websites will appear to agencies and brands in the Soko Marketplace. Publishers are paid each time a marketer purchases one of their audiences in a remarketing campaign.
“While publishers generate content, as well as quality audiences, they often struggle to provide marketers retargeting options similar to those the two tech giants offer,” said Daniel Drouet, COO at Soko. “Our new solution boost publishers’ audiences and allow them to generate additional digital revenues to complement their ongoing monetization efforts.”
Soko currently has over 20 publishers and marketing agencies using its tool. The company said it plans to expand across Canada over the next few months through partnerships with the media and publishers.
Qoints launches influencer marketing tool
Toronto-based Qoints, which aims to help brands manage and analyze their digital marketing campaigns, has launched AI Social Discovery, an influencer marketing tool that aims to help marketers find the right influencers for their brands.
AI Social Discovery uses IBM Watson’s AI to match micro influencers’ personality profiles to the profile of an ideal micro influencer in order to suggest the best candidates to digital brand marketers. Qoints said the technology can help marketers determine how likely a person is to make a highly engaging influencer and predict how much engagement an influencer will drive.
“The biggest challenge in influencer marketing today is identifying the right influencers for a brand,” said Cory Rosenfield, CEO and co-founder of Qoints. “That challenge gets exponentially harder when a brand is looking for one or more micro influencers, because there are so many out there. We felt it made perfect sense to leverage AI and machine learning to address this challenge, in tandem with our existing benchmarks for influencer campaigns.”
Marketers can currently access a free trial that analyzes the most recent 1,000 followers of any Twitter handle, or analyze single potential influencers to help them promote their brands.
Qoints won the N100 Startup Competition and secured $100,000 in equity financing in July 2015.
Sportloqiq opens Kitchener-Waterloo office
Montreal-based Sportlogiq, which has developed an AI-powered player tracking and sports analytics platform, announced that it has opened an AI lab in Kitchener-Waterloo.
Sportlogiq said opening an office in Kitchener-Waterloo will give the company access to resources at the University of Waterloo and potential talent.
“Sportlogiq began collaborative research with the University of Waterloo over a year ago; we are very appreciative of the local support and the amazing talent in the area,” said Mehrsan Javan, co-founder and CTO of Sportlogiq. “We look forward to collaborating with the vibrant local AI community to further advance AI for human behavior modelling and sports analytics.”
Sportlogiq raised a $5 million Series A to support its European expansion in August 2017.