Posted yesterday at 5:00 p.m.
Being able to deploy machine learning models in your company without having to code or hire a team of specialized engineers is the dream of many business leaders. This is exactly what the tool developed by the start-up mia, which completed the Techstars Montréal AI accelerator program in December, does. This accelerator selects start-up companies in the field of artificial intelligence from all over the world to help them with commercialization.
PHOTO FRANÇOIS ROY, THE PRESS
Samantha Walker, co-founder and CEO of mia
“When we started Techstars we already had hundreds of users, but our biggest challenge was to better target our customer base for marketing and it was what we were able to do in this program that gave us access to experts from different industries,” says Samantha Walker, co-founder and CEO of mia, who ultimately decided to focus on SMEs in traditional sectors with high technology needs.
“Our mentorship is provided by people who have already launched start-ups and others who know certain areas well and who can help understand them and open doors for them,” explains Bruno Morency, General Manager of Techstars Montreal AI, which invests US$120,000 (C$152,000) in each company it selects.
The particular challenges of AI
If the first customers are generally always difficult to find for young shoots, it is even worse in the field of artificial intelligence.
“Often, the start-up has a small set of data with which to develop its model, and then its early customers provide data that is used to refine it, notes Morency. Are they real customers, or partners? We help them navigate these complex steps unique to the field of AI. »
Member of the first cohort of Techstars Montreal AI in 2018, AFX Medical has created a diagnostic aid tool used mainly for the field of neuro-oncology. The start-up company must also navigate the healthcare environment, which has its own complexity. Of course, to be able to commercialize its software, AFX Medical will need approval from Health Canada. The company thinks it can obtain it at the beginning of 2023. But what is particularly complicated is that its product does not replace another: it does not currently exist in the health sector.
We need to unlock a budget for our product that improves human performance by successfully demonstrating its added value.
Jérémi Lavoie, co-founder of AFX Medical, partner company of Mila, the Quebec Institute of Artificial Intelligence
He remarks how important it is for a start-up in the field of artificial intelligence to find a problem that really needs the complexity of deep learning to solve.
“In the coming months, we will publish an article in a scientific journal that will give the results of a study that we carried out with the Center hospitalier de l’Université de Montréal [CHUM] to validate our brain tumor detection technology,” says Jérémi Lavoie.
After Techstars, her company carried out Centech’s Acceleration program, then she was selected to be part of its two-year Propulsion program. “It’s a long journey, but it’s really stimulating to get a good understanding of the technologies and the market in order to bring the two together,” says the entrepreneur. Healthcare AI has the potential to be the greatest agent of democratization by enabling the automation of cutting-edge expertise. »