MONTREAL, May 31, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Montreal Artificial Intelligence startup Keatext has been selected by Google to take part in Google Demo Day in San Francisco the 6-8 June 2017.
Google Demo Day brings startups from across North America to Silicon Valley to showcase their technology in front of mentors and investors. These startups are nominated by Google for Entrepreneurs partners to exhibit the talent and innovation beyond Silicon Valley.
Keatext Co-founders, CEO Dr. Narjès Boufaden and CTO Charles-Olivier Simard, will take the stage in San Francisco, CA to present a four-minute pitch for Keatext in front of Silicon Valley investors, venture capitalists, and judges selected by Google. They are hoping to raise the visibility of their AI startup to US investors to support them as they are preparing for a series A funding.
Narjès Boufaden, CEO of Keatext said:
“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.”
Montreal technology hub Notman House nominated Keatext to represent Montreal at Google Demo Day after watching Keatext grow during the FounderFuel Accelerator program from Real Ventures. The timing of this nominalization is no accident. The Montreal AI startup ecosystem has been unfolding for some years now. Keatext is very much at the centre of this landscape.
The evolution of Montreal as an AI hub is attributed to the activity of Yoshua Bengio, one of the fathers of deep learning. Dr. Boufaden was a student of Yoshua when she was doing her Ph.D. specializing in natural language processing with a focus on conversational language. Many local Universities have contributed to the phenomenon too. Programs like IVADO (universities, investors, startups, join players, specialized in deep learning) have worked to bridge the gap between the academic and business world by helping commercialize viable products. Keatext has been collaborating closely with IVADO to innovate using deep learning technologies for the purpose of automating language understanding in the context of customer experience management.
Currently, Keatext is a growing startup with several partners selling the product all over the world. Local companies like BRP and Videotron are using the platform to understand the needs of their customers as they express it in their comments. Their mission is to empower the "Voice of Customer" with AI technology. Keatext uses deep learning applied to natural language processing to unlock the meaning behind a large volume of text customer feedback, by identifying topics that show up and interpreting the sentiment and intent behind these comments. The resulting analysis is easily accessible through a user-friendly interface, making this kind of data exploration accessible to non-specialists like managers and executives.
Keatext counts on a very strong local network of investors and mentors from Ange Quebec and Ange Quebec Capital, Real Ventures and their Founder Fuel accelerator program, 500 Startups and BDC. Keatext is now preparing for a series A to expand her market and add new languages to the platform while working on innovative ways to help companies improve customer engagement.
The event will be accessible to everyone via live stream. To watch Keatext pitch sign up here. You can find more information and updates on our blog.