After a significant fundraising round back in December, Montreal’s Aifred Health has just been named a finalist for the prestigious IBM Watson AI XPRIZE. The company is one of just three finalists, beating out more than 700 other applicants from around the world to get to this stage. The prize comes with more than just prestige, as the winners will receive a cheque in the amount of 3 million USD.

“To be named as one of the Top 3 global AI teams in the world is an incredible accomplishment and endorsement of our approach to better serving patients suffering from depression. Over 4 years, our AI technology has been reviewed by some of the leading AI experts on the planet. We are indebted to the XPRIZE organization and IBM Watson for their leadership and vision throughout the process. The prize money, along with our C$4 million seed financing, is being used to fund the clinical trial required for regulatory approval of our AI decision support device for depression and further development of our therapy-agnostic AI tool in other areas of high unmet medical need” said CEO Marina Massingham, in a statement.

Dr. David Benrimoh, Chief Scientific Officer added: “We began Aifred Health because of the IBM Watson AI XPRIZE and our belief that modern AI tools could be developed and applied to identify patterns in clinical data that would allow the use of simple personal information to choose the right treatment for each individual patient. I want to thank all of the incredibly talented people who have worked with and supported us for their contributions to creating and building Aifred.”

The IBM Watson AI XPRIZE aims to accelerate adoption of AI, and generate creative, innovative and scalable applications of the technology to solve major modern challenges. Teams are judged by world-leading experts, conducting due diligence each application relative to key criteria.

The prize will be awarded to the winning team in June.