The main founders of Element AI include

Jean-Francois Gagne

Continuous entrepreneur. Jean-Francois Gagne founded and successfully exited two AI startups. He then served as CPO at CIR , the world's largest supply chain management software company, guiding 1,400 employees in more than 20 countries to carry out their work.

Yoshua Bengio

A well-known deep learning scholar, he is known as one of the "Big Three" of deep learning along with Geoffrey Hinton and Yann Lecun . Bengio has authored two books and more than 300 papers. He received his Ph.D. from McGill University and then conducted postdoctoral research at MIT .

Nicolas Chapados

A PhD in Computer Science from the University of Montreal and a Chartered Financial Analyst, he co-founded machine learning technology company ApSTAT in 2001 , as well as two of its subsidiaries: Imagia , which provides AI oncology predictive analytics for medical imaging data, and Chapados Couture Capital , a quantitative asset management company .

Element AI Company Overview

Element AI provides AI solutions to enterprises in the fields of cybersecurity, fintech, manufacturing, logistics and transportation, robotics, etc. around the world , enabling them to use AI in conjunction with their proprietary and valuable data. Element AI was co-founded in October 2016 by serial entrepreneurs Jean-François Gagné and Nicolas Chapados and the "Father of Deep Learning" Yoshua Bengio .

Element AI currently has nearly 500 employees spread across its Montreal headquarters and offices in Toronto, London, Seoul, South Korea, and Singapore.

Element AI operating model

Element 's operating model is similar to that of a consulting company. When large companies want to use artificial intelligence technology to solve their own problems, Element will participate in the development of their large projects, such as insurance companies redesigning their underwriting systems. In the future, Element hopes to further train its algorithms and improve their intelligence, so that any company can get relevant analysis by simply inputting data into it. This is the " AI as a service" model that Amazon, Microsoft, and Google are currently experimenting with .

Element AI Financing

In June 2017 , Element AI received $ 102 million in Series A funding. Other investors in this round of funding include the Development Bank of Canada, Fidelity Investments Canada, Hanwha Investment, Intel Investment, Microsoft Ventures, National Bank of Canada, Nvidia, RealVentures and GlobalWealth Fund. The company hopes to seize a share of the artificial intelligence industry as Internet giants such as Alphabet and Amazon are aggressively entering the market.

In September 2019 , Element AI, a Canadian AI software solution developer, announced the completion of a $ 151.4 million Series B financing led by Canadian public pension fund CDPQ . In addition to CDPQ , new investors participating in this round of financing include McKinsey & Company and the Government of Quebec. Existing investors participating in this round of financing include DCVC , a well-known American venture capital fund, Hanwha Asset Management, BDC Capital , and Canadian venture capital institution Real Ventures .

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