It's boom times for startups building with or atop AI functionality: The Exchange explored the rise in venture capital dollars for AI startups last week, noting that investment into the business niche set all-time records in Q4 2020, and then successively in quarters one, two and three in 2021. The Exchange explores startups, markets and money. Read it every morning on TechCrunch or get The Exchange newsletter every Saturday. Given how heated the overall venture capital market is proving to be, those data points were only so surprising. What did shock us a little, however, was how active the Canadian AI startup market has been this year.

Founded just last year in French-speaking Montreal, Element AI scored a big goal with a $102 million Series A in June. Investors included Microsoft Ventures, Intel Capital and Nvidia. Want to deploy artificial intelligence in your business but have no clue where to start? Maybe the idea of doing it yourself with pre-fab AI software sounds too intimidating? Canadian AI startup Element AI has you covered.