The TELUS Sovereign AI Accelerator this week unveiled its inaugural cohort.
The Sovereign AI Accelerator is a first-of-its-kind program between Vancouver-based TELUS and L-SPARK designed to enable high-potential Canadian startups to build and deploy advanced solutions on a powerful supercomputer.
The inaugural cohort includes Canadian companies developing breakthrough AI solutions across retail, robotics, enterprise software, and industrial automation.
“Canada has no shortage of talented AI visionaries and founders,” says TELUS chief information officer Hesham Fahmy, “but too often they lack the coordinated support needed to scale from promising ideas to globally-competitive businesses.”
The TELUS Sovereign AI Accelerator “demolishes those barriers,” says Fahmy. “By arming founders with the same high-performance AI infrastructure available to tech giants–combined with hands-on advisory support–we’re enabling them to accelerate development, strengthen their market position, and build AI companies that dominate the world stage, right here in Canada.”
Participants gain access to the TELUS Sovereign AI Factory, paired with tailored business advisory support from L-SPARK. Over a six-month period, companies receive compute credits from the TELUS AI Factory, which is powered by 99% renewable energy and the NVIDIA platform, alongside one-on-one guidance from seasoned executive advisors from L-SPARK.
“Great AI companies aren’t built on technology alone,” explains Leo Lax, Executive Managing Director of L-SPARK.
Rather, “they’re built on execution, focus and access to the right expertise at the right time.”
“Through the TELUS Sovereign AI Accelerator, we’re working hand-in-hand with each company to refine their product and position them for sustainable growth,” says Lax.
The inaugural cohort, whose headquarters range from Calgary to Montreal and Toronto, is as follows.
Airy3D is the developer of DepthIQ, which delivers simultaneous 2D images and 3D depth maps from a single passive image sensor, providing a compact solution for use in robotics, automotive, industrial automation and consumer devices.
Codalio is an AI-driven product and application development platform that empowers startups and companies to launch MVPs and build scalable, enterprise-grade applications faster and more affordably.
Edge Signal helps retail use physical AI to increase revenue and profitability, improve customer experience, and optimize daily operations across multiple locations.
PataBid offers AI enterprise-grade construction bidding software designed for complex specialty trades, delivering standardization and risk reduction for commercial, industrial, and institutional projects across teams and regions.
TopoLift transforms generic AI into a bespoke intelligence layer that learns the structure of the customer’s business and grows smarter with their data for clearer reasoning, fewer errors, and context-aware decisions.
“This cohort represents the future of Canadian innovation, and our mission is to ensure they have everything they need to translate that potential into accelerated traction,” stated Lax.
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