/Investor DB

NEXT AI

Accelerator

Toronto · Pre-Seed–Seed · 8 people tracked

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Investment thesis

NEXT AI is a founder and venture-development acceleration network for AI-enabled startups incorporated in Canada. Each year it selects top early-stage teams building ambitious AI-powered solutions and supports them across both AI product development and market commercialization. Leveraging an ecosystem of AI scientists, business experts, mentors and investors, the program delivers a world-class curriculum, workshops, and free office space in Toronto and Montreal, running from March through late summer via in-person and remote tracks. It targets teams with a business and technical co-founder, a scalable model, and AI at the core. The program takes no equity and provides no direct funding, but connects ventures to a network of angels and VCs across North America.

Source: firm website, verified Sep 27, 2026.

Stage
Pre-Seed–Seed
HQ
Toronto, QC, CA
Portfolio companies
3

Team · 8 people

from the firm's website
Ajay Agrawal· Faculty, Strategy and Innovation

Teaches strategy and innovation; affiliated with the Rotman School of Management.

Angel Chang· Faculty, Deep Learning in Computer Vision and NLPin

Faculty focused on deep learning in computer vision and NLP, affiliated with Simon Fraser University.

Ann-Frances Cameron· Faculty, Agile Project Management

Teaches agile project management; affiliated with HEC Montreal.

Frank Hutter· Faculty, AutoMLin

AutoML faculty affiliated with Prior Labs and the University of Freiburg.

Graham Taylor· Faculty, Machine Learning

Machine learning faculty affiliated with the University of Guelph, CIFAR, and Google.

Joelle Pineau· Faculty, Reinforcement Learning

Reinforcement learning faculty affiliated with Cohere and McGill University.

Reza Satchu· Faculty, Economics of Entrepreneurship

Teaches economics of entrepreneurship; associated with Alignvest Management Corporation and Harvard Business School.

Yoshua Bengio· Faculty, Deep Learning

Deep learning faculty affiliated with Universite de Montreal and Mila.

What they invest in

from 2 of 3 portfolio companies

Enterprise Software ×2AI & Machine Learning ×1Cybersecurity ×1Data & Infrastructure ×1Fintech ×1SaaS ×1

HQs:Canada×2

Portfolio companies · 3 tracked

alumni founders can tell you what the program is really like
Feroot Securityferoot.comin𝕏

Feroot discovers and monitors third-party scripts, tags, and trackers on websites to detect malicious or unwanted code and block threats.

CybersecurityEnterprise SoftwareSaaSToronto, CA

Ivan Tsarynny(Founder)inVitaliy Lim(Founder)in

Co-investorsStoneMill VenturesTrue VenturesY CombinatorAndros15 VenturesHaystackIndustry Ventures+2 more

Senso.aisenso.aiin𝕏

Senso builds infrastructure that acts as a verified-context layer for AI agents, enabling organizations to ensure that AI answers align with their actual ground truth.

AI & Machine LearningData & InfrastructureEnterprise SoftwareFintechToronto, CA

Saroop Bharwani(Founder)inThomas Nelson(Founder)inAndy Tran(Product Manager)

Co-investorsEight CapitalLuge CapitalMaiora Rebel VenturesMendoza VenturesRebel FundRising Tide+7 more

Other

Tracked investments with no reachable website or further public details — typically companies that wound down, renamed, or were absorbed.

Intuitive

Portfolio news

latest coverage across their companies

Frequently asked questions

What stage does NEXT AI invest at?
NEXT AI invests at the Pre-Seed, Seed stages.
What sectors does NEXT AI focus on?
NEXT AI focuses on AI & Machine Learning, Sector Agnostic.
Where is NEXT AI located?
NEXT AI is headquartered in Toronto, CA.
Who does NEXT AI co-invest with?
NEXT AI most often shares deals with Y Combinator, Luge Capital, Rebel Fund, among 10 tracked co-investors.

Images

NEXT AI photo

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