The Great Canadian AI Pitch Competition
The Great Canadian AI Pitch Competition, in partnership with Microsoft Reactor, is bringing together 10 of the most promising AI companies from across Canada to pitch leading experts and venture capitalists in the Canadian AI ecosystem at the Microsoft offices in downtown Toronto.
Prize for Winner:
Fast track for the Microsoft Founder Hub Program ($150k Azure credits, $2.5k OpenAI credits, exclusive 1:1s with Microsoft and OpenAI rep) and an introduction to Hans Yang (GM, Microsoft for Startups)
Confirmed judges include:
Emma Cumeric - Golden Ventures
Emma is a Senior Analyst on the Investment Team at Golden Ventures. She supports deal sourcing, due diligence, and portfolio management and covers companies across all industries. Before joining Golden Ventures, Emma was an Associate at RBC Ventures where she helped drive innovation at Canada’s largest financial institution through investment thesis development and strategic investments related to B2B and Healthcare software.
Matthew He - Brightspark Ventures
Matt is an Investment Analyst at Brightspark Ventures, Canada's oldest VC firm backing exceptional entrepreneurs at the early stage. Brightspark is actively investing out of its $120M Fund IV, leading Seed and Series A rounds across Canada. Prior to Brightspark, Matt served for two years as the Director of Investments for Front Row Ventures, investing at pre-seed in the very best young founders across the Canadian ecosystem. He has previously worked at White Star Capital in New York and FounderFuel in Montreal.
Alex Gouchtchina - Inovia Capital
Alex joined Inovia Capital’s Venture Team in 2022. Prior to Inovia, Alex held several roles at VC funds across Canada and the United States. She began her career working with early stage startups focused on strategy, operations and finance.
Raif Barbaros - Mistral VC
Raif, a startup CTO turned VC, has founded multiple VC-backed companies in the Bay Area and Toronto, two of which were acquired, and two reached millions of users. Most recently, at Nuula, a fintech that's raised $120M, he was the founding VP Eng at Loblaw Digital, building a team of 150 through revenue growth of zero to over $100M (today at $3B).
More on our Partner Microsoft Reactor:
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Event schedule:
4:00 - 4:30 - Registration
4:30 - 5:00 - Opening remarks, introductions
5:00 - 7:00 - Pitches (10m per company with judges Q&A, 2m transition)
7:00 - 8:00 - Networking.
Think you got what it takes? Apply here to pitch: https://form.typeform.com/to/lvHkfEPd