Element AI goes global with $137.5-million series ‘A’ investment

Montreal-based Element AI has raised $137.5 million in series ‘A’ financing to support investment in large-scale artificial intelligence (AI) projects internationally, cement its status as Canada’s the largest global AI company and hire 250 people by January 2018. The investment is the world’s largest Series A round ever for an AI company. The financing is provided by 10 funders led by Data Collective (DCVC) and including Real Ventures, Business Development Bank of Canada, Fidelity Investments Canada, Hanwha Investment, Intel Capital, Microsoft Ventures, National Bank of Canada, NVIDIA, China's Tencent, and several of the world's largest sovereign wealth funds.  Launched in 2016 by deep learning technology godfather Yoshua Bengio, early-stage venture capital firm Real Partners and serial entrepreneurs Jean-François Gagné and Nicolas Chapados, Element AI deploys what he describes as a “unique, non-exploitative model of academic cooperation” to position itself as the go-to solution for global organizations to use AI in combination with proprietary data to gain competitive advantage. Particular areas of expertise include cybersecurity, fintech, manufacturing, logistics and transportation, and robotics.