Why this Montreal artificial intelligence company just got $135M

The company, Montreal-based Element AI, was founded last October to help companies that might not have much experience in artificial intelligence start using the technology to change the way they do business. It's equal parts general research lab and startup incubator, with employees working to develop new and improved techniques in artificial intelligence that might not be fully realized for years, while also commercializing products and services that can be sold to clients today. It was co-founded by Yoshua Bengio -- one of the pioneers of a type of AI research called machine learning -- along with entrepreneurs Jean-François Gagné and Nicolas Chapados, and the Canadian venture capital fund Real Ventures. In an interview, Bengio and Gagné said the money from the company's funding round will be used to hire 250 new employees by next January. A hundred will be based in Montreal, but an additional 100 employees will be hired for a new office in Toronto, and the remaining 50 for an Element AI office in Asia -- its first international outpost.