From frontier research
to fundable company.
A 2-week, invitation-only sprint for senior AI researchers in Canada. We bring the capital, the operators, and the engineering muscle. You bring the research.
Aug 20 to Sep 2, 2026 · MaRS IAF, Toronto · 8–10 researchers, by application
The Program
Not a course. Not an accelerator.
A concentrated startup sprint.
Three weeks of programming designed to compress the year of guesswork most researchers go through after they decide to start a company. We bring the operators, capital, and engineering to get past it.
2
weeks
15+
sessions
8–10
researchers
30+
investors
What You Get
Three weeks. The resources, rooms, and runway most researchers spend two years trying to find.
Arc is free for accepted researchers. No tuition, no equity. Our only job is to make every founder in the room actually fundable.
01 / Capital
Warm intros to 30+ US & Canadian investors
Demo Day is the finish line, not the start. From Week 1 you'll be in rooms with Bay Area seed funds, NYC enterprise VCs, and the Canadian growth ecosystem. That kind of access is hard to assemble on your own.
Accel · NEA · Lightspeed · Gradient · Boldstart · Georgian · MaRS IAF, and ~25 more.
02 / Knowledge
Front-line operators on speed dial
Repeat AI founders, big-tech tech leads, and the investors who actually write checks. Closed-door sessions on what's fundable in 2026, how to architect a wedge, and where the moats really are.
03 / Engineering muscle
We help you ship the demo
If your research is strong but you've never shipped product code, we'll pair you with engineering to turn a paper into a prototype, or at least a pitch a VC wants the next update from.
Available to selected cohort members. Discussed case-by-case.
04 / Stack & perks
Compute, credits, and legal handled
Cloud credits from AWS and Google Cloud, GPU access via Nvidia and OpenAI startup programs, and an incorporation + legal workshop with a sponsoring law firm. The boring blockers, removed.
05 / Cohort
8–10 vetted peers, hand-picked
Every seat goes through a short interview. The point: a tight room of researchers working in adjacent directions (RL, agents, post-training, AI infra, security) pressure-testing each other for two weeks.
06 / Cross-border bridge
Canadian roots. US fundraising trajectory.
You don't have to leave Canada to access US capital. Arc is purpose-built for the in-between path: stay in the Toronto / Waterloo / Montreal ecosystem, raise from the Valley.
Two paths in
“I'm starting the company.”
You know what you're building. Arc stacks the resources around you (capital intros, engineering, legal, compute) so the next 90 days are your fastest. Demo Day with live VCs at the end.
“I'm figuring it out.”
Your research is strong; you don't yet know if there's a company in it. Arc gives you the front-line knowledge (investors, operators, founders) to decide. Many alumni leave as founding engineers at portfolio companies.
Who It's For
Senior researchers with real technical work, and the itch to ship it.
We read your papers, your GitHub, and your lab. Then we read the room. Your research direction has to match what the next wave of AI investors actually want to fund.
You publish in directions VCs are betting on
Agents, RL, post-training, retrieval, multi-modal, AI security, evals, inference infra. These are the directions where AI capital is concentrating right now. Research direction matters more than your title.
Your work is past pure theory
PhD year 3+, postdoc, or research engineer with a result that already ran end-to-end. Even lab scale counts. We weight working systems over theoretical ones.
You're at one of the labs, or close to one
Vector, Mila, Amii, UofT, Waterloo, McGill, UBC. Preferred, not required. Strong work from outside this circle is welcome.
You can commit two weeks
Aug 20 to Sep 2, 2026. Daily check-ins, real homework, and in-person sessions at MaRS IAF in Toronto.
The 2 Weeks
Six in-person workshop days across two weeks (Aug 20 to Sep 2, 2026), each pairing an expert-led speaker session with a hands-on workshop, 2:00 to 5:00 PM at MaRS IAF. The program closes with Demo Day in front of Canadian and US investors.
Week 1
From Research to Market & Infrastructure
Day 1 · Foundations & Mindset
Speaker. What is fundable in AI in 2026
Workshop. Enterprise AI reality check & founder mindset
Day 2 · Product-Market Fit & GTM
Speaker. Research to wedge product & PMF identification
Workshop. Go-to-market strategy & when to pivot
Day 3 · Infrastructure & Legal
Speaker. Capital-efficient AI infra & cloud strategy
Workshop. Legal, IP & incorporation
Week 2
Team, Fundability & Demo Day
Day 4 · Team & Security
Speaker. Building the founding team & company formation
Workshop. AI security, compliance & risk
Day 5 · Fundraising & Pitch
Speaker. Fundraising 101: strategies, planning, terms
Workshop. Building a fundable AI narrative & pitch architecture
Day 6 · US Market & Demo Day Prep
Speaker. US market entry & cross-border strategy
Workshop. Investor office hours, mock board & Demo Day finalization
Day 7 · Demo Day
Live pitches to Canadian and US investors. 1:1 investor meetings, warm intros, and SAFE template on hand.
Who You'll Learn From
🇺🇸 US
NY in-person · Bay Area virtual
🇨🇦 Canada
MaRS IAF, Shopify, Georgian, Law firms
Partner
Canada's most active early-stage venture fund, investing in Ontario AI and tech startups.
Confirming Demo Day attendance. Speakers marked with a badge.
Team & Partners
Who’s behind Arc
MaRS IAF
Host & Investment Partner
MaRS Investment Accelerator Fund is Canada's most active early-stage venture fund, investing in Ontario-based AI and tech startups and connecting Arc cohort members with capital and follow-on funding.
Website →
Brett Liu
Program Advisor & Cross-Border Ambassador
Exited founder and cyber/AI/infra investor at Sixty Degree Capital. Operator turned VC bridging AI researchers with the funding and networks they need to build.
LinkedIn →Program Partners
Backed by cloud credits from AWS and Google Cloud, AI compute from Nvidia and OpenAI startup programs, and legal support through our law firm sponsor.
We partnered with the best builder communities in Canada to source and support exceptional AI talent.
Event Partners
Community Partners
FAQ
Apply
8–10 seats. Rolling review. No fee.
Application takes ~15 minutes. We'll book a 30-minute conversation with the strongest fits to walk through goals, timing, and the research direction. No essays, no pitch decks required.
15 min
to apply
~5 days
to hear back
2 weeks
Aug 20 → Sep 2, 2026
arcfounders.ca · Toronto, Canada · Hosted at MaRS IAF