Halifax’s ReelData AI has won a US$50,000 cash prize as one of the leading companies in the latest cohort of the prestigious MassChallenge accelerator in Boston.

MassChallenge, which receives thousands of applications each year, accepted 100 participants from 12 countries into its 2020 cohort earlier this year, all of them attending remotely. Last week, it announced that 11 of those companies had received cash prizes ranging from US$50,000 to US$100,000, as well as six others receiving smaller prizes.

ReelData, which provides artificial intelligence and computer vision technology for the aquaculture industry, was one of eight companies to receive a gold prize worth US$50,000, or C$66,500. It was the only Canadian company among the prize-winners.

Founded by Dalhousie University computer science grads Matt Zimola and Hossein Salimian, ReelData has developed software that analyzes video from inside aquaculture tanks to determine the biomass and health of the fish stock, and ensure the fish are getting just the right amount of food.

For the second year in a row, an oceantech company from Halifax has done better than any other Canadian startup in the MassChallenge program. Last year, Ashored Innovations was the only Canadian company in the program, and won a US$75,000 platinum award, meaning it finished in the top three.

Earlier this month, ReelData added Denmark’s Atlantic Sapphire to its customer list. That deal meant ReelData’s technology will be used at Atlantic Sapphire’s farms in Denmark and the U.S., including its new Bluehouse plant in Florida, the world’s largest land-based fish farm.

ReelData, which has nine employees, now has clients in Denmark, the U.S., and Iceland.  Zimola expects to raise a round of funding in 2021.

ReelData has also attended Techstars Montreal and Propel.