Big tech wants your attention. Not on Setori’s watch

The startup raises seed round, hires all University of Waterloo team to build AI companion for Gen Z

May 3, 2024

Velocity startup Setori has developed an artificial intelligence companion to improve Gen Z’s focus and guard against procrastination and raised $1 million USD in pre-seed funding.

Following a successful first test of 200 users across five countries in North America, Europe and Asia, the startup is launching a beta test of its browser extension, Tori.

“We are helping younger generations reduce procrastination and putting things off, which is a common, anxiety-inducing problem,” says Jeya, CEO of Setori.  “Major tech companies are spending big dollars and hiring staff specifically to get people to stop doing what they are doing and spend time on various online platforms. It’s going to get worse. The growth of this problem will be exponential.”

The company was co-founded by two University of Waterloo engineering alum Logan Jeya (BASc ’14) and Marc Simard (BASc ’14) and solely staffed with Waterloo co-ops and graduates. The raise includes investments from Velocity Fund, and backing from Storytime Capital, Pareto Holdings and its founder Jon Oringer, as well as serial entrepreneur Cory Levy, Panache Ventures and Garage Capital.

Akash Vaswani, General Partner of Velocity Fund, said “the co-founders’ unwavering focus on this specific problem space and their passion for creating unique, well thought-out products that could positively reshape our behaviour, convinced us that investing in Setori was a winning opportunity.” 

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