X Machina-AI Inc. Closes $2.4 Million in Funding on Over Subscribed Seed Round
I have been an advocate for founders in our ecosystem since 2008, with a special place in my heart for the underdogs and under represented. Some say founders need to be naïve, some say outright crazy, but it takes a special type of person to try and create something that is truly new in the face of the overwhelming inertia of “how things have always been done”. Founders create new structures, new paradigms, new companies, often from scratch. Much like artists and scientists, they are builders of the future.
Looking back on my few successes and many failures, I have been thinking about how to fund founders who are trying to do hard things, those who may not fit the current funding paradigm. Once I had something semi solid, it was time to stress test the idea.
So, I reached out to my old and new partners in crime to validate and critique the idea: Patrick Brown and Daniel Drouet respectively. We started putting together the pieces, and when it got a little more real, we then reached out to Vaughn DiMarco and J Scott Munro and Daniel Arsenault UI and UX designer #founders #funding #ai #ui #investment . They all gave us lots of feedback, strengthened and refined the thesis, and I think that together, we came up with a new way to fund AI startups that don’t fit in the current funding models, by leveraging the best of public and private markets. We have validated the idea with VC’s and accelerators in Canada and the Valley, and they have enthusiastically endorsed our approach.
Thus was born X Machina-AI. https://machina-ai.com/
We started our raise on the last day of September and I’m happy to report that we closed 60 days later, oversubscribing our round by nearly 20%. We have had overwhelming support from the financial community, which included multiple investment banks participating in our private seed round.
We are now working with an awesome team: Anne No and Krity Utchanah at RBCx for banking: Adam Saskin and Kosta Kostic at Fasken for legal; Howard Epstein, CPA, CA at MNP for accounting, Natalie Riviere and team at Commetta Communications Inc. for branding and web presence. Going forward we are working with the equally awesome Anca Ivanov, MBA on our communication strategy.
I’d like to thank Paola, and the team from La Slide – Agence de présentations for their help on the deck and Sandrine Balthazard and her team for giving us a home base while we waited for our office.
We have commitments with investment banks for the remainder of our $12 M raise.
If you are the founder of an AI product company generating $500,000 or more in annual revenue, break-even or profitable, and you aren’t sure how to get to the next level, give us a call. We have a founder-friendly patient capital approach that will be an important part of the funding ecosystem going forward.
Claude Théoret, CEO X Machina-AI
