- Element AI announced it raised CAD $200 million to accelerate the deployment and commercialization of its solutions
Element AI — a global developer of artificial intelligence-powered (AI) software solutions — announced that it has raised CAD $200 million (USD $151.4 million) in a Series B Round of funding. This investment will allow Element AI to accelerate the deployment and commercialization of solutions that meet customer needs for the operationalization of artificial intelligence while continuing to develop AI products.
The new investors in this round include the Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec (CDPQ), McKinsey & Company, QuantumBlack, Gouvernement du Québec, and returning investors including DCVC (Data Collective), Hanwha Asset Management, BDC Capital, Real Ventures, and several others. Including this round of funding, Element AI has raised CAD $340 million.
“Operationalizing AI is currently the industry’s toughest challenge, and few companies have been successful at taking proofs-of-concepts out of the lab, imbedding them strategically in their operations, and delivering actual business impact,” said Element AI CEO Jean-François Gagné. “We are proud to be working with our new partners, who understand this challenge well, and to leverage each other’s expertise in taking AI solutions to market.”
This transaction is part of the CDPQ-AI Fund recently created by Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec for accelerating the commercialization of artificial intelligence solutions.
“With this transaction, we are investing capital and expertise alongside partners who are ideally suited to transform Element AI into a company with a commercial focus that anticipates and creates AI products to address clients’ needs,” added Charles Émond, the EVP and Head of Québec Investments and Global Strategic Planning at la Caisse. “Through this fund, la Caisse wants to actively contribute to build and strengthen Québec’s global presence in artificial intelligence.”
Gagné founded Element AI with Yoshua Bengio, PhD in 2016. And this news comes 9 months after McKinsey’s advanced analytics and AI arm QuantumBlack launched its first Canadian office in Montreal.
“For McKinsey, this investment is all about helping our clients to further unlock the potential of AI and Machine Learning to improve business performance. We look forward to collaborating closely with the talented team at Element AI in Canada and globally in our shared objective to turn cutting edge thinking and technology into AI assets which will transform a wide range of industries and sectors. This investment fits into McKinsey’s long-term AI strategy, including the 2015 acquisition of QuantumBlack, which has grown substantially since then and will spearhead the collaboration with Element AI on behalf of our firm,” explained Patrick Lahaie, a Senior Partner and Montreal Managing Partner for McKinsey & Company.
Allen & Company LLC acted as the financial advisor for the financing.
