{"id":7711,"date":"2025-06-13T14:08:45","date_gmt":"2025-06-13T18:08:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/montrealtips.com\/2025\/06\/13\/top-10-montreal-based-ai-startups-to-watch\/"},"modified":"2026-05-15T11:21:36","modified_gmt":"2026-05-15T15:21:36","slug":"top-10-montreal-based-ai-startups-to-watch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/montrealtips.com\/fr\/2025\/06\/13\/top-10-montreal-based-ai-startups-to-watch\/","title":{"rendered":"Top 10 Montreal AI Startups to Watch (2026)"},"content":{"rendered":"
Quick answer \u00b7 10 AI startups \u00b7 world-class<\/strong>

Top 10 Montreal AI startups (2026)<\/h2>

Top 3:<\/strong> Cohere (LLMs, ~$5.5B), Element AI legacy (now ServiceNow MTL), Hopper (travel ML).
Engine:<\/strong> Mila \u2014 the world’s largest deep-learning institute.
Big-tech presence:<\/strong> Google Brain, Meta FAIR, Microsoft Research, Samsung AI.<\/p><\/div>\n

💡 Insider tip:<\/strong> Quebec’s SR&ED + provincial R&D tax credit stack can rebate up to 80% of eligible AI R&D costs. That’s why Cohere, Microsoft Research, Meta, and Samsung all have major Montreal teams despite higher US salaries.<\/p>

✨ Best for:<\/strong> AI engineers, investors, founders evaluating where to base.<\/p>Explore Mila \u2192<\/a><\/div>\n<\n\n\n

📍 In this article<\/h3>
  1. 1. Top 10 Montreal AI startups (2026)<\/a><\/li>
  2. 2. 🤖 The 10 to watch<\/a><\/li>
  3. 3. 🌎 Why Montreal is an AI hub<\/a><\/li>
  4. 4. 💼 Hiring + salaries<\/a><\/li><\/ol><\/div>\n\n\n!– wp:paragraph –>

    Montreal is one of the world’s top three AI research hubs (Mila ranks #1 globally for academic AI publications). Below: the 10 startups and labs worth watching, plus what drives the ecosystem.<\/p>\n

    🤖 The 10 to watch<\/h2>\n
    Company<\/th>Focus<\/th>Stage \/ size<\/th><\/tr><\/thead>
    Cohere<\/strong><\/td>Enterprise LLMs, RAG<\/td>~$5.5B valuation<\/td><\/tr>\n
    ServiceNow Montreal<\/strong><\/td>Enterprise AI (ex-Element AI)<\/td>Public<\/td><\/tr>\n
    Hopper<\/strong><\/td>Travel ML, pricing<\/td>Late-stage, profitable<\/td><\/tr>\n
    Lightspeed Commerce<\/strong><\/td>Retail AI + payments<\/td>Public (TSX, NYSE)<\/td><\/tr>\n
    AlayaCare<\/strong><\/td>Home healthcare AI<\/td>Series D+<\/td><\/tr>\n
    Optina Diagnostics<\/strong><\/td>Retinal imaging AI<\/td>Series B<\/td><\/tr>\n
    BIOS Health<\/strong><\/td>Neural interface<\/td>Series A<\/td><\/tr>\n
    Imagia<\/strong><\/td>Healthcare AI<\/td>Mid-stage<\/td><\/tr>\n
    Trax Retail<\/strong><\/td>Retail image AI<\/td>Pre-IPO<\/td><\/tr>\n
    Stradigi AI<\/strong><\/td>Enterprise AI platform<\/td>Growth-stage<\/td><\/tr>\n<\/tbody><\/table><\/div>\n

    🌎 Why Montreal is an AI hub<\/h2>\n