Companies are leveraging Artificial Intelligence (AI) to develop some innovative solutions and change the fundamentals of how we interact with technology. One such firm, Element AI, with its platform and incubator, assists other companies in integrating AI to the solutions they offer. Today, it has announced a whopping $102 million Series A funding round to further accelerate its capabilities and invest in large-scale AI projects globally.
The round was led by Chinese Internet giant Tencent Holdings and Korean VC firm Hanwha Investment along with the participation from Fidelity Investments Canada, Intel Capital, Microsoft Ventures, National Bank of Canada, Development Bank of Canada (BDC), NVIDIA, Real Ventures, in addition to several of the world’s largest sovereign wealth funds.
Element AI envisions to be the largest AI company in Canada and will be creating more 250 jobs by January 2018. In addition, it is all set to up an office in Singapore during the second half of 2017 which will serve as a Southeast Asia hub. The Island nation was an obvious choice for the same, owing to growing AI presence, especially in the field of Fintech, and it also boasts of a sizeable talent pool. Prior to this, it had already set up another office in Asia — in Japan.
Apart from hiring hundreds of top researchers, Element AI aims to aggressively expand on a global scale focusing on AI-powered solutions for their customers in cybersecurity, fintech, manufacturing, logistics and transportation, and robotics. Element AI CEO Jean-François Gagné, in a statement, said,
Artificial Intelligence is a ‘must have’ capability for global companies. Without it, they are competitively impaired if not at grave risk of being obsoleted in place. Seasoned AI investors at DCVC understood this, and supported us to democratize the AI firepower reserved today for only the largest of tech corporations.
Talking about the backing from such renowned investors, Gagné added,
Intel, Microsoft, and NVIDIA, as pioneers and champions of AI hardware and software, likewise understand that their businesses flourish as every company is empowered with world-class AI. This is why these leaders have backed us with the world’s largest Series A round ever for an artificial intelligence company. This historic round will help Element AI deliver profoundly powerful AI platforms for all, not just the few.
