Velocity alumni company Ground News launches new AI-powered news comparison tool
Seeking unbiased opinions is challenging in today’s fast-paced news cycle. Some news sources leave out important facts, inadvertently skewing public perception on current events.
Ground News, an alumni company from Velocity, University of Waterloo’s startup incubator, is combatting this with the launch of a new tool powered by artificial intelligence. The tool will help readers quickly understand a story from multiple perspectives so they can spot media bias when they read it.
For example, when searching for news related to the recent diplomatic dispute between India and Canada, Ground News's AI tool summarizes key details in bullet point form, emphasizing key points across the political spectrum.
“News shapes how people think about the world and how we make important decisions,” said Ground News Co-Founder and CEO Harleen Kaur. “We should all have access to the same information and it's hard to believe that that isn’t the case.”
Ground News doesn’t report news or fact check reporting made by media outlets. It is a subscription-based news aggregator that collects articles from around the world and across the political spectrum. Each user’s news feed shows how the same story is covered in different news outlets, the publication’s political leaning and ownership, and reporting factuality, which is based on external fact checking methodologies.
“It’s a set of tools that makes looking at different perspectives of the same news story accessible,” said Ground News Co-Founder and CTO Sukh Singh. “No matter your age, profession, walk of life or socioeconomic background, you should be able to access information that is available to everyone else and make the most informative, well-reasoned decisions that you can.”
At Velocity, Ground News was able to develop its product-market fit, raised seed funding, and grew revenue through its subscription model.
Kaur, who previously worked at NASA, and Singh, an alumni from University of Waterloo’s Faculty of Engineering, chose Velocity to be part of the Kitchener-Waterloo tech ecosystem, proximity to University of Waterloo talent, and to join the Velocity community.
“When we established Ground News I was living and working in Berlin, Germany but our choice between Europe and Canada was so clear — Velocity was such a good fit for us that I moved continents,” Kaur said. “At Velocity, you have world-class mentors and advisors who continually ask how to help. Their support is very personalized.”
About Velocity
Velocity accelerates entrepreneurs' growth from idea to early-stage start-up and beyond. These founders have access to unmatched resources, collaboration space, funding, and an expansive and experienced network made possible only by the University of Waterloo — Canada's top university for founders. In the 15 years since its inception as a University of Waterloo residence, more than 400 Velocity companies have netted more than US$26 billion in enterprise value.
