Halifax startup incubator Volta has announced the creation of a new, year-long accelerator for AI startups focused on supply chains, with up to $14,000 of funding per company on offer.

The program, Volta AI, is the result of a partnership with Scale AI -- the federally backed supercluster that funds research partnerships using the same model as Canada’s Ocean Supercluser. To participate, companies must be based in Canada, be developing supply chain AI technology and have demonstrated customer interest.

“Volta is very happy to partner with Scale AI and to launch this program. It will provide valuable support for Canadian AI companies to scale successfully, and in turn support economic growth in this area,” Volta CEO Martha Casey said in a statement.

“Volta is proud to play a key role in supporting the growth and development of high-tech startups through our valued partnerships with experts and investors in the AI space.”

The five participating companies are:

BlueNode

Louis Beaubien, CEO

BlueNode has developed software for data cleansing, analysis, auditing and sharing for marine container ports. The company previously won $25,000 from Innovacorp’s Sprint competition.

eOceans

Christine Ward-Paige, CEO

The eOceans app lets people who interact with the marine environment, including non-scientists, log their observations and share them with researchers -- crowdsourcing the process of tracking changes to the world’s oceans.

Marine Thinking

Lishao Wang, CEO

Marine Thinking is using remote operated vehicles to gather data that will train an AI system for autonomous marine vehicles. Those vehicles will also gather data on the marine environment, including for use in “ocean ranching” and the retrieval of sunken objects.

Milk Moovement

Robert Forsythe, CEO

Milk Moovement’s technology allows participants in the milk supply chain to track and assess raw milk. Its cloud-based reporting system gives farmers, dairy boards, cooperatives and other industry players real-time production data and logistics information.

Scarcity Analytics

Jonas Goldman, CEO

Scarcity Analytics uses environmental models to help agriculture-dependent businesses avoid price spikes in their supply chains and improve their climate resilience by pre-emptively building up inventory when an environmental shock is on the horizon.