On May 1st, the best tech startups in and around Montreal wowed attendees and investors at the Fundica Roadshow, presenting their unparalleled products in a series of intense, five-minute pitches.

Once the pitches were through, our investors selected three finalists to move on to the Fundica Roadshow’s finale in July. Among those finalists was Alkis Papadopoullos, founder and CTO of Semeon, an AI-driven text analysis platform that helps brands and agencies mine their data to generate actionable insights.

Though the idea of text analysis is not new, Semeon’s real-time, semantics-based approach to the process is. By concentrating on the context in which queried themes are mentioned online in customer support emails, survey responses, etc., Semeon can determine the sentiment and intent of customers, and, ultimately, predict their future behaviour. Since its launch in 2013, Semeon has made great strides in their mission to become the central analytics agent for companies concerned with brand positioning and more precise customer insights, partnering with the likes of Microsoft, LaunchPoint, and TEOC.

Here’s what Alkis had to say about Semeon’s growth over the years.

At what point do you feel Semeon made the transition from an idea to a legitimate business?

We were debriefing with one of the largest financial institutions in Canada, showing them results of recent Semeon analysis of customer feedback, when the key stakeholder from Toronto mentioned that he had been in market research for 30 years and never seen qualitative data of the customer’s voice analyzed so precisely and quickly. One of the key analysts at the same institution confirmed that extracting and learning about key insights had taken an hour or two—instead of a week or two on the platform they were currently using (from a very large, established competitor). This customer experience repeated itself over the next couple of months. We knew we were on to something big.

What do you know about fundraising now that you didn’t know five years ago?

Today’s investors are more experienced, self-knowledgeable, and demanding. They look for a solid track record as well as technology that can impact the world and scale fast. Having spent the last four years building Semeon technology capability with the support of our angels, we are seeing accelerating sales growth, and are looking to VCs to take us to the next level.

What was your strategy or goal while pitching at our Montreal event? And how has that strategy or goal changed now that you’re moving on to the finale?

We first wanted to convey our passion for what we are doing and the value we bring to our customers. We believe we are the most precise AI-driven semantic engine on the market, and we wanted to share the potential there is in knowing clearly what customers think and want. We aim to help our clients not only hear their customers but listen to them. The semantic distinction between hearing and listening is part of our DNA. Moving towards the finale, our goal remains the same, but we also intend to share our recent traction explosion.

What will you do if you win our $500,000 investment award?

It will go towards our $US 2.5M current raise, helping us accelerate Semeon’s aggressive commercialization efforts and reach profitability within the next 18 months.

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Keep an eye on our site, because we'll be posting interviews with our Montreal and more-recent Vancouver winners in the weeks to come.

Toronto, June 28th, 2018: Tickets here

Finale, Montreal, July 12th, 2018: Tickets here