The Canadian AI Index is a free database of Canadian AI companies, their founders, their funding rounds, and the investors in those rounds. I built it and I update it every Tuesday alongside the newsletter.
I'm Raif Barbaros, a partner at Mistral Venture Partners in Toronto. Before venture I was a technical founder. I started VC-backed companies in the Bay Area and Toronto, two of which were acquired, and I was the founding VP of Engineering at Loblaw Digital. I spend most of my week talking to AI founders across Canada.
Mistral is a pre-seed and seed fund that invests in enterprise AI. Some of the companies in the Index are Mistral portfolio companies, and I have a financial interest in how they do.
Portfolio companies enter the Index under the same rules as every other company. Their descriptions are written the same way and their funding data comes from the same public sources. The full list is in the Disclosure section below. If you think a portfolio company is getting a softer description than it deserves, write to me.
The Index grew out of the Canadian AI Newsletter (CanadianAI), which I have published every Tuesday since February 2026. Each issue covers the week's funding rounds, large-company moves, research papers, and government policy across Canada's AI ecosystem, with a portfolio disclosure on every company I have a stake in.
Most new entries come from the newsletter. When a company raises, launches, is acquired, or wins a major contract, I cover it in that week's issue and add it here the same morning. You can subscribe at canadianai.tech.
Every entry traces to a primary source: a press release, a regulatory filing, a government funding announcement, or original reporting from an outlet I trust. A company enters through a verifiable event, and the record shows the date, the amount, the currency, and the investors as they were disclosed. Where a company has not disclosed a number, the field stays blank rather than estimated.
Between issues I sweep sources that don't get news coverage: the portfolio pages of Canadian venture funds, the newsrooms of the federal regional development agencies and provincial governments, and the press wires where smaller companies announce rounds. Each sweep produces a list of candidates. I research every candidate before it enters, and many are rejected.
The sweeps go back to January 2023. ChatGPT launched in November 2022, so the first quarter of 2023 is the first full quarter of the AI era, and anything older belongs to a different market. The Index records Canadian AI after ChatGPT. Call it year one AC. Companies founded earlier are included when they raised, launched, or were acquired within the window.
I use a range of AI agents for the research and data work. They sweep the sources, pull filings and announcements, check company websites for location and product, and assemble the weekly update. Two years ago this would have needed a full-time analyst. With AI I do it on the side of a day job. Every inclusion decision and every company description is reviewed by me before it goes live, and the mistakes that get through are mine.
Grants and government contributions are recorded separately from equity rounds. Acquired and shut-down companies stay on record with their outcome noted. Funding figures are recorded in the currency announced. Where a Canadian company does not state one, I assume Canadian dollars.
The Index does not try to list every AI company in Canada. It grows from reported events, so a company with no public funding, no launch coverage, and no government award will usually be absent even if it is doing well. If that describes your company, email me and I will add it.
A company has to pass three tests.
Services firms, research labs, and funds do not get company entries. Where they invest in or partner with an indexed company, they appear as investors or partners on that company's record.
Errors happen, and some of them are on the site right now. If you spot one, if your company should be listed and is not, or if a round is missing or wrong, email me at theindex@mistral.vc. Send a link to the source and I will fix it in the next Tuesday update. I read everything and reply to most of it.
The same address works for suggestions about what the Index should track next. When the Index changes in a meaningful way, I announce it in the newsletter.
The Index is published by me, Raif Barbaros, a partner at Mistral Venture Partners. Mistral Venture Partners portfolio companies appear in the Index when they meet the same criteria as every other company. As of September 26, 2026, those companies are:
Alokai AI, Armilla AI, Attain, Backboard.io, Bidaya AI, Bloks, Blue J, Booked AI, BusPas, Chatforce, Cheffer, Cohere, Crashlabs AI, Databiomes, Dessn, Frugal, Guild AI, Haloo (Heirlume), Inference Health, Jevy, Lemurian Labs, Matt3r, Meissner, Mercator AI, Noze, Outpoint, PolicySolver, Ready Plan Go, SalesAsk, Sensibill, Symend, Thri5, Trusty, Ultimarii, Walaw, Walter, Youthfully, runQL.
The current portfolio is always at mistral.vc/portfolio. Inclusion, descriptions, and data follow the same rules for portfolio and non-portfolio companies. Portfolio positions are also disclosed in the newsletter wherever those companies are covered.