Element AI raises $151 million to bring AI to more enterprises

Element AI, a company that builds artificial intelligence (AI) tools for enterprises, has raised CAD $200 million (USD $151 million) in a series B round of funding from a host of existing and new investors, including Gouvernement du Québec, Data Collective (DCVC), Hanwha Asset Management, BDC, Real Ventures, Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec (CDPQ), and McKinsey & Company. Founded in 2016, Element AI develops AI software "that helps people work smarter," according to its marketing blurb. So far, the startup has focused on partnering with enterprises that want to use AI but lack the required expertise, connecting businesses with machine learning experts in-house and elsewhere to address specific problems. Earlier this year, Element AI officially launched its first products for enterprise customers in the form of "decision-making automation tools." Using computer vision, optical character recognition (OCR), and other AI mechanisms, Element AI promises to enable machines to do things like "read" documents or answer workers' questions about internal operations using natural language queries.