Having recently received $4 million in a Series A funding round, Halifax-based Affinio has now been accepted into the third cohort of Microsoft’s Seattle Accelerator.

The software giant has been hosting its accelerator since late 2014, and announced earlier this month the 10 companies accepted into the third cohort, which will focus on machine learning and data science. The list, chosen from entrants from 50 countries, included Affinio.

Founded in 2013 by serial entrepreneurs Tim Burke and Stephen Hankinson, Affinio is an advanced database technology that allows low-cost, real-time processing of social network graphs to determine how every person on the web is connected. It mines publicly available social media posts and other business data to find people who are connected by common interests, experiences or networks. That allows the user to identify communities and people with common interests, which helps to find potential customers, employees or supporters.

In an email, Burke said the company’s goals at the accelerator are: to develop partnerships with Microsoft partners and others in Seattle; to leverage Microsoft Ventures’ vast mentor network; [and] to use Microsoft tech resources so Affinio can conduct R&D faster and more cheaply.

In November, Affinio announced it had closed a $4 million Series A venture capital round led by Whitecap Venture Partners of Toronto. The other investors were Halifax-based Build Ventures, New York-based Social Starts, New York-based BRaVe Ventures, and several angel investors. The company said the round was over-subscribed and it turned interested investors away.

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Affinio’s technology, masterminded by the CTO Hankinson, fits into the theme of the third cohort, machine learning and data analytics. Microsoft noted in a blog that $1 billion in venture capital has gone into cognitive technologies in the last two years, according to Deloitte, and machine learning will be used to reinvent, digitalize, or eliminate business processes and products in the near future.

“Big data and advanced analytics techniques are touching more and more lives every day,” said Joseph Sirosh, Corporate Vice President of the Data Group at Microsoft. “We are on the cusp of doing remarkable things such as predicting disease outbreaks, drastically reducing wait times in emergency rooms, and even predicting and preventing crime. Nevertheless, we have barely scratched the surface in terms of the potential of these technologies to change the world.”

Microsoft traveled to 12 cities to recruit for the Seattle Accelerator, and Affinio was one of 26 companies invited to the final pitching event. More than 50 judges, 70 percent of them from outside Microsoft, chose the final 10 applicants.

John Gleeson, Affinio’s Vice-President of Business Development, spent last week at the accelerator in Seattle. According to AngelList, Affinio has also attended the Canadian Technology Accelerator in New York and the BBC Worldwide Labs incubator.