Two Canadian startups have landed a spot at Google Demo Day: Waterloo-based TritonWear, which developed a wearable device that computes over a dozen key metrics to improve athlete training and performance; and Montreal-based Keatext, which is developing artificial intelligence-led technology that aims to boost companies’ customer satisfaction using insights from customers’ online comments.
At Google Demo Day, taking place in Silicon Valley between June 6 and June 8, TritonWear and Keatext will present a four-minute pitch in front of the Silicon Valley-based investors, VCs, and judges.
“The cross-fertilization of ideas between the AI investor hub in the Valley and our emerging AI hub in Montreal will boost the rate of tech innovation.”
Companies that pitch at Google’s Demo Days can gain the attention of large corporate partners and investors, access to mentorship, feedback, and support from Google and other Valley experts.
Keatext said that by pitching at Google Demo Day, the company’s co-founders, Narjès Boufaden and Charles-Olivier Simard, hope to increase the visibility of their startup to US investors as they prepare for a Series A funding.
“I am convinced that the cross-fertilization of ideas between the established AI investor hub in the Valley and our emerging AI academic hub in Montreal will boost the rate of technological innovation,” said Boufaden, Keatext’s CEO.
In October 2016, TritonWear was named on Canadian Innovation Exchange’s list of top 20 Canadian tech companies, and Tritonwear recently took home $60,000 from Communitech Rev’s Demo Day.
Keatext and TritonWear are not the first Canadian companies to pitch at Google Demo Day. Last year, Ask-Pam, a cloud-based platform for the hospitality industry, and P&P Optica, which develops chemical imaging solutions to ensure safe food production, landed a spot at Google Demo Day Women’s Edition. In 2015, Waterloo-based Bridgit was the only Canadian startup to make it to Google Demo Day Women’s Edition, and ended up winning the top $25,000 prize.
