Latest news with #DanielWigdor
National Post
10 hours ago
- Business
- National Post
AXL Launches Venture Studio with $15M to Build 50 AI Companies, Fuelling Canada's Global Leadership in AI Research-to-Commercialization
Article content TORONTO — Today, AXL, a new Canadian venture studio transforming world-class AI research into high-growth companies, has launched with a plan to build 50 AI-powered companies over the next five years to fuel Canada's research-to-commercialization pipeline. This is enabled by an oversubscribed first closing of its venture fund of $15 million CAD. With this, AXL will form and scale homegrown innovation — and keep it here. Article content Daniel Wigdor, one of Canada's top innovators and AXL's Co-Founder and CEO, is reinvesting back into the Canadian tech ecosystem as the fund's lead investor, following the sale of his previous company, Chatham Labs, to Meta, where he served as the founding director of their Toronto research centre. Article content Article content AXL is also backed by a coalition of successful Canadian entities and strategic industry investors rallying around the future of AI in Canada, including David Martin, Founder of Smart Technologies; Gord Kurtenbach, former Head of Autodesk Research; Joshua Greer, Founder of Real-D; Frank Mersch, Chief Investment Officer and Senior Portfolio Manager of Front Street Capital; Rob McEwen, Chairman and Chief Owner of McEwen Mining; and many of Canada's leading professors in applied AI. Article content As the global AI race heats up, Canada faces mounting pressure to retain its intellectual property and top talent to secure its leadership. Over the past decade, American firms have acquired 70 Canadian AI companies and counting, while Silicon Valley firms have opened large local offices, resulting in the loss of valuable intellectual property and potential upside. According to a study by Element AI in 2018, Canada experienced a net talent outflow, underscoring the challenge of retaining its top AI minds. Article content 'Canada has a long history of pioneering breakthroughs, including AI, yet we've repeatedly failed to capture the value of our own innovations as our talent and biggest ideas scale somewhere else,' said Daniel Wigdor, Co-Founder and CEO of AXL. 'We're here to change that by connecting Canada's AI excellence with real market needs and the full-stack support that founders need to win globally.' Article content Where research becomes scalable ventures Article content Founded by a team of seasoned tech entrepreneurs and executives — Daniel Wigdor, Tovi Grossman, David Sharma, and Ray Sharma — AXL combines decades of experience scaling companies worldwide in a mission to bridge cutting-edge research with commercial success. Article content AXL's proprietary venture studio model integrates access to AI research from the University of Toronto with market insights from Canada's top businesses through its AI Catalyst program. In this corporate partnership initiative, leading Canadian companies like Dillon Consulting partner with AXL to investigate how AI could reshape their businesses, often becoming the first customer and strategic investor in resulting ventures. Article content This blend creates an environment where ventures are rooted in validated industry demand, supported by a full-stack team that manages everything from prototype and application development to legal, finance, sales, and growth strategies. Article content 'Our corporate partnerships are the engine that transforms lab breakthroughs into ventures with real-world traction,' said David Sharma, Chief Growth Officer at AXL. 'By collaborating directly with Canada's private sector, we ensure that innovation is guided by genuine industry needs and positioned for rapid adoption. This approach closes a critical gap in Canada's innovation system, turning bright ideas into scalable solutions that deliver long-term value for our partners and the broader economy.' Article content Seeing beyond the horizon Article content NVIDIA's Jensen Huang has called Canada the 'Epicentre of Modern AI,' but what's lesser known is Canada's leadership in applied computing, the field that converts foundational research into practical tools. Applied computing bridges the gap between advanced technology and everyday life, making advanced technology more accessible to all. Article content 'The transformative power of AI will come from impactful, practical applications, not just large models or infrastructure,' said Wigdor. 'Focusing solely on building bigger models risks missing the real opportunities in creating tools that genuinely empower people and open new possibilities in our daily lives.' Article content Canada's 'AI moment' is here. It's a once-in-a-generation opportunity to fundamentally shift the balance of power in the tech industry. While the rest of the world rushes to commoditize infrastructure, AXL can see past that horizon by investing in the application layer, well beyond what Silicon Valley is currently betting on. Article content 'If we do this right, we won't be saying things like 'Toronto is the Silicon Valley of Ontario.' Two decades from now, San Francisco will be trying to brand itself the 'Toronto of California,'' added Wigdor. Article content Canada's path to a self-sustaining, world-leading AI ecosystem Article content AXL is committed to nurturing a new generation of founders by providing capital, mentorship, operations, and the infrastructure necessary to turn ideas into impactful ventures, with the broader mission of creating a thriving, self-sustaining AI ecosystem that retains talent, intellectual property, and economic prosperity within Canada. Article content 'We believe that Canadian entrepreneurs deserve the opportunity to build and scale world-class AI-powered companies here at home,' added Wigdor. 'With AXL, we're creating the infrastructure and community needed to transform innovation into lasting impact.' Article content To learn more about how AXL is fuelling Canada's AI research to commercialization pipeline, visit their website at ABOUT AXL AXL is a Canadian venture studio transforming world-class research into high-growth companies that shape the future of applied AI. Led by seasoned tech entrepreneurs and applied AI experts, AXL's mission is to ensure Canada's top breakthroughs are built and scaled at home. By connecting academia with real market demand and full-stack venture creation, AXL helps Canada move from invention to impact, anchoring talent, intellectual property, and long-term economic value within the country. Article content Article content Article content Article content Contacts Article content Article content Article content
Globe and Mail
10 hours ago
- Business
- Globe and Mail
Stopping the brain drain: U of T professor aims to launch 50 AI companies with new venture studio Axl
Daniel Wigdor is a prime example of the problem he's trying to solve. He completed a computer-science PhD at the University of Toronto and promptly left the country to work for Microsoft Corp. in the United States. He returned home and later founded a company focused on human-computer interaction, but sold it to Meta Platforms Inc., another foreign tech giant. Today, Mr. Wigdor wants to launch more Canadian technology companies, ensure the country benefits economically from the research coming out of publicly funded universities, and give talented entrepreneurs a reason to stay. 'Canada has been dramatically underperforming and failing to take up the incredible innovation happening here,' he said. 'With the right investment of community, of infrastructure, of capital and of innovation, we can really solve that problem.' To that end, he has co-founded a venture studio called Axl that aims to launch 50 artificial-intelligence companies in the next five years. Mr. Wigdor, Axl's chief executive, expects at least half to fail within the first six months. (This is venture, after all.) Broadly, Axl will identify business problems and task talented entrepreneurs to solve them with AI, while tapping into promising academic research. Axl recently closed a $15-million investment fund, with Mr. Wigdor as the lead investor. 'Because we can be so efficient, and because our tech team will be building the prototypes, I don't need a lot of money to get started,' he said. Ottawa will focus more on economic benefits of AI, less on regulation, says new minister A computer-science professor at the University of Toronto, Mr. Wigdor has teamed up with fellow U of T prof Tovi Grossman, entrepreneur Ray Sharma and former Telus executive David Sharma to form Axl. Mining magnate Rob McEwen and Smart Technologies co-founder David Martin are also investors, among others. Axl was ultimately born out of a 'trauma' of Mr. Wigdor's that dates back to Jan. 9, 2007. Like many people that day, he watched Steve Jobs unveil the iPhone, which proved revolutionary thanks to its touch-screen interface. The difference is that Mr. Wigdor watched on a multitouch computing device he built for his thesis at U of T. He didn't invent the technology, but Bill Buxton had worked on the concept in the early 1980s while at U of T. And now here was Apple's CEO, about to upend multiple industries with a technology that could be partly traced back to a Canadian university. 'The social contract that academics believe we have with society is that we're going to invent these technologies and write about them in papers and inspire people,' Mr. Wigdor said. 'The tragedy of it is the foundational technologies we're inventing in Canada are not accruing capital for Canada.' The same pattern is playing out with AI. Emeritus U of T professor Geoffrey Hinton sold his company to Google and worked for the tech giant for years. One of his students, Ilya Sutskever, left Toronto and co-founded OpenAI. Another, Jimmy Ba, was among the first hires at Elon Musk's xAI. Axl is based at the Schwartz Reisman Innovation Campus in Toronto, which also houses the Vector Institute, affording it access to the city's deep pool of AI and computer-science talent. 'We want to create Toronto as the centre of modern AI development, and getting these 50 companies created is going to have a massive ripple effect,' said Axl co-founder and chief growth officer David Sharma. The AI world is increasingly dominated by a small number of extremely well-funded U.S. tech companies such as OpenAI, Google, Meta and Anthropic. But Mr. Wigdor argues that the real opportunity for Canada is not in the physical infrastructure that powers AI or in the large language models behind chatbots, but in developing applications that use AI to solve problems and 'empower people to do things they never could before.' He likens the current state of AI to a Charlie Chaplin movie, whereas he wants to make Citizen Kane. 'People are looking at the current AI chatbots and thinking, that's what AI is,' he said. 'We'll help people to look further into the future.' One idea Axl is pursuing is an AI agent for computer coding education called CodeAid. Instead of having the agent teach the student, the roles are reversed. The AI agent will be trained with knowledge gaps that the student has to fill in through teaching. To source ideas, Axl will identify promising concepts from the research community. 'Often in academia, we sort of look down on having a commercial and immediate impact with our work,' said Mr. Grossman, who is also Axl's chief scientist. 'We really do believe you can do innovative work that is impactful.' Axl is also partnering with Canadian corporations to learn about their operations and develop ideas for new AI applications. Axl will launch the company, with the possibility of the partner corporation becoming the first customer and an investor. Dillon Consulting is the first partner to be announced publicly, but Mr. Sharma said Axl also has arrangements in the legal and accounting industries. However, even if Axl launches dozens of successful AI companies over the next few years, there is nothing stopping a foreign tech giant from snapping them up and siphoning away intellectual property. Mr. Wigdor doesn't seem too vexed about that prospect at this stage. Acquisitions are necessary for entrepreneurs and researchers to gain the experience and the funds (or as he puts it, 'expertise and wealth among the geeks') to invest back into the Canadian tech ecosystem. 'I'm playing the long game,' he said. 'This is my retirement project.'
Business Wire
10 hours ago
- Business
- Business Wire
AXL Launches Venture Studio with $15M to Build 50 AI Companies, Fuelling Canada's Global Leadership in AI Research-to-Commercialization
TORONTO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Today, AXL, a new Canadian venture studio transforming world-class AI research into high-growth companies, has launched with a plan to build 50 AI-powered companies over the next five years to fuel Canada's research-to-commercialization pipeline. This is enabled by an oversubscribed first closing of its venture fund of $15 million CAD. With this, AXL will form and scale homegrown innovation — and keep it here. Daniel Wigdor, one of Canada's top innovators and AXL's Co-Founder and CEO, is reinvesting back into the Canadian tech ecosystem as the fund's lead investor, following the sale of his previous company, Chatham Labs, to Meta, where he served as the founding director of their Toronto research centre. AXL is also backed by a coalition of successful Canadian entities and strategic industry investors rallying around the future of AI in Canada, including David Martin, Founder of Smart Technologies; Gord Kurtenbach, former Head of Autodesk Research; Joshua Greer, Founder of Real-D; Frank Mersch, Chief Investment Officer and Senior Portfolio Manager of Front Street Capital; Rob McEwen, Chairman and Chief Owner of McEwen Mining; and many of Canada's leading professors in applied AI. As the global AI race heats up, Canada faces mounting pressure to retain its intellectual property and top talent to secure its leadership. Over the past decade, American firms have acquired 70 Canadian AI companies and counting, while Silicon Valley firms have opened large local offices, resulting in the loss of valuable intellectual property and potential upside. According to a study by Element AI in 2018, Canada experienced a net talent outflow, underscoring the challenge of retaining its top AI minds. 'Canada has a long history of pioneering breakthroughs, including AI, yet we've repeatedly failed to capture the value of our own innovations as our talent and biggest ideas scale somewhere else,' said Daniel Wigdor, Co-Founder and CEO of AXL. 'We're here to change that by connecting Canada's AI excellence with real market needs and the full-stack support that founders need to win globally.' Where research becomes scalable ventures Founded by a team of seasoned tech entrepreneurs and executives — Daniel Wigdor, Tovi Grossman, David Sharma, and Ray Sharma — AXL combines decades of experience scaling companies worldwide in a mission to bridge cutting-edge research with commercial success. AXL's proprietary venture studio model integrates access to AI research from the University of Toronto with market insights from Canada's top businesses through its AI Catalyst program. In this corporate partnership initiative, leading Canadian companies like Dillon Consulting partner with AXL to investigate how AI could reshape their businesses, often becoming the first customer and strategic investor in resulting ventures. This blend creates an environment where ventures are rooted in validated industry demand, supported by a full-stack team that manages everything from prototype and application development to legal, finance, sales, and growth strategies. 'Our corporate partnerships are the engine that transforms lab breakthroughs into ventures with real-world traction,' said David Sharma, Chief Growth Officer at AXL. 'By collaborating directly with Canada's private sector, we ensure that innovation is guided by genuine industry needs and positioned for rapid adoption. This approach closes a critical gap in Canada's innovation system, turning bright ideas into scalable solutions that deliver long-term value for our partners and the broader economy.' Seeing beyond the horizon NVIDIA's Jensen Huang has called Canada the 'Epicentre of Modern AI,' but what's lesser known is Canada's leadership in applied computing, the field that converts foundational research into practical tools. Applied computing bridges the gap between advanced technology and everyday life, making advanced technology more accessible to all. 'The transformative power of AI will come from impactful, practical applications, not just large models or infrastructure,' said Wigdor. 'Focusing solely on building bigger models risks missing the real opportunities in creating tools that genuinely empower people and open new possibilities in our daily lives.' Canada's 'AI moment' is here. It's a once-in-a-generation opportunity to fundamentally shift the balance of power in the tech industry. While the rest of the world rushes to commoditize infrastructure, AXL can see past that horizon by investing in the application layer, well beyond what Silicon Valley is currently betting on. 'If we do this right, we won't be saying things like 'Toronto is the Silicon Valley of Ontario.' Two decades from now, San Francisco will be trying to brand itself the 'Toronto of California,'' added Wigdor. Canada's path to a self-sustaining, world-leading AI ecosystem AXL is committed to nurturing a new generation of founders by providing capital, mentorship, operations, and the infrastructure necessary to turn ideas into impactful ventures, with the broader mission of creating a thriving, self-sustaining AI ecosystem that retains talent, intellectual property, and economic prosperity within Canada. 'We believe that Canadian entrepreneurs deserve the opportunity to build and scale world-class AI-powered companies here at home,' added Wigdor. 'With AXL, we're creating the infrastructure and community needed to transform innovation into lasting impact.' To learn more about how AXL is fuelling Canada's AI research to commercialization pipeline, visit their website at ABOUT AXL AXL is a Canadian venture studio transforming world-class research into high-growth companies that shape the future of applied AI. Led by seasoned tech entrepreneurs and applied AI experts, AXL's mission is to ensure Canada's top breakthroughs are built and scaled at home. By connecting academia with real market demand and full-stack venture creation, AXL helps Canada move from invention to impact, anchoring talent, intellectual property, and long-term economic value within the country.
