Montreal startup Element AI nabs US$102 million in investments for expansion

TORONTO – A Montreal startup is getting a total of US$102 million from Microsoft, Intel and several other investors that will fund theeight-month-old company’s drive to become a leader in artificial intelligence.

Element AI chief executive Jean-Francois Gagne says the new round of funding will pay for 250 jobs and offices in Toronto and Asia that the company aims to have in place by January.

Gagne says Element AI’s goal is to create a Canadian publicly listed company that brings AI capabilities to traditional industries, such as manufacturing and financial services.

In addition to the prominent technology giants, some of the funding will come from National Bank and Fidelity Investments Canada.

Gagne says confidentiality agreements prevent Element AI from saying how much it received from each investor or how much of the total equity was purchased by the new investors.

Gagne co-founded Element AI in October with fellow entrepreneur Nicolas Chapados, the Real Ventures fund and Yoshua Bengio, an AI pioneer and professor at the Universite de Montreal.