Electronic Products & Technology

Waterloo tech startups enter Google exchange program

Stephen Law   

Electronics Regulations & Standards Wireless Engineering Environmental IoT Medical Printable Electronics Wearable Technology

Teams in the A.I and Machine Learning vertical headed to Kitchener/Waterloo represent a range of industries and metros including Australia, Brazil, Colorado and Toronto.

Communitech, a Google for Entrepreneurs partner, hosted founders from around the world this June in the Waterloo Region as part of the Google for Entrepreneurs Exchange program. The week-long immersion program bridges the gap between startups, experts and new markets. The focus of Communitech’s Exchange programming is to: ‘Build and Connect the Best Data-Driven and A.I. Led Startups.’

Participating teams received full exposure to the Waterloo Region and Toronto ecosystem. This included intensive mentoring from senior leaders on Google’s engineering and sales and marketing teams and connections to investors, machine learning experts, artificial intelligence researchers and larger enterprises through Communitech’s corporate innovation program. The week concluded with an investor event where companies pitched before dozens of venture capitalists and corporate CEOs from the Toronto-Waterloo Corridor. Following the week-long program, the founders will continue receiving guidance and support from their Google mentors through remote mentor sessions over a 12-week period.

Teams received full exposure to the Waterloo Region and Toronto ecosystem

“We’re excited to host international founders in Waterloo Region,” said Greg Barratt, VP, strategic growth team, Communitech. “The Google for Entrepreneurs Exchange series is a great opportunity for these startups to truly experience the globally-recognized tech ecosystem we call home here in the Toronto-Waterloo Corridor.”

Advertisement

“Communitech is uniquely positioned to provide AI and data-driven startups with the tools, connections and expertise that will enable them to enter a new market and position their companies for growth,” said Nicole Froker, partner engagement manager for Google for Entrepreneurs. “We are proud to partner with Communitech on this program, and provide Google expertise to support founders from across the GFE partner network.” This is the sixth Exchange program run in collaboration with Google for Entrepreneurs partners. Previous cities have included Durham, Nashville, Paris, San Francisco, and Dubai.

The following eight startups were selected from across the Google for Entrepreneurs global partner network, as well as through open applications.

* CarePredict Inc. (San Francisco, CA – Aging2.0): A wearable for seniors that tracks the activities of daily living such as eating, drinking, and bathing to determine when a senior may be experiencing the precursors to declines in health.

* Fhinck (Sao Paulo, BR – Campus Sao Paulo): Fhinck uses artificial intelligence to increase productivity in back office and support operations.

* GUPY (Sao Paulo, BR – Campus Sao Paulo): Gupy automates recruitment and talent selection management based on people analytics and artificial intelligence.

* Heretik (Chicago, IL – 1871): Heretik leverages machine learning to solve inefficiencies during legal contract review with software that simplifies the import process, automates contract categorization, and identifies key contract sections to save your team valuable time and resources.

* Invision.ai (Toronto, ON – open application): Invision.ai uses artificial intelligence to make the lives of video surveillance and security users better by replacing billions of motion-triggered false alerts with actionable insight.

* Jamie & I (Sydney, AU – Fishburners): Jamie & I combines technology with fashion and is home to Jamie – the virtual shopping assistant, who uses artificial intelligence to learn about a customer’s personal style and regularly sends customers a curated selection of outfit suggestions tailored to their style.

* Nama (Sao Paulo, BR – Campus Sao Paulo): An automated chat platform based on NLP and deep learning capable of understanding natural language and answering users in multiple channels to make services simpler, faster and more efficient.

* Spatial.ai (Boulder, CO – Techstars): A location-based behavioral data API that powers vehicles, mobile apps and website maps to answer questions only a local would know.

Advertisement

Stories continue below

Print this page

Related Stories