Two Waterloo Engineering alumni-founded companies have been awarded $1M in funding from Y Combinator (YC).
Briar Smith (BASc ’20, mechatronics, robotics and automation engineering) co-founded Attunement, which is revolutionizing mental health through the power of AI. Mohammed Al-arnawoot (BASc '17, mechatronics engineering) co-founded DraftAid, which uses AI algorithms to automate the 3D model to 2D production fabrication drawing process. Each received $500,00 in funding.
YC has an annual startup accelerator program that is split into winter and spring cohorts. Successful applicants receive funding and other resources such as networking sessions, alumni talks and mentorship.
Attunement tracks the behavioural health of patients by regularly conducting automated assessments, incorporating chat-based mental health detection, physiological biomarkers, and self-reported patient inputs. In turn, healthcare providers can better understand their patients’ well-being while seamlessly adjusting their treatment.
During his time at Waterloo, Smith co-founded WATonomous, a student research team focused on developing and training autonomous self-driving vehicles.
DraftAid generates detailed 2D drawings with a single click, reducing hours to seconds and minimizing human error.
Al-arnawoot credits Waterloo Engineering for providing him with the expertise in robotics, automation, and mechanical systems essential for spearheading DraftAid's AI-driven solution for fabrication drawing creation.
Two companies founded by current and former students at the David R. Cheriton School of Computer Science were also selected as part of this YC program round.
Read Four Waterloo-founded startups win $2 million seed funding for the full story.