Ada's founding story is unlike any other Canadian unicorn. Before building their billion-dollar AI company, Mike Murchison and David Hariri spent almost a year secretly working as customer service agents for other companies—testing their software without telling their employers.
This is the complete guide to Ada—how a failed startup led to a breakthrough insight, why 30-80% of customer questions are repetitive, and how Toronto built one of the world's leading AI customer service platforms.
What Is Ada?
Ada is a Toronto-based AI customer service company that builds autonomous agents to handle customer interactions at scale. Founded in 2016, the company has powered over 4 billion automated customer interactions and serves enterprise customers including Meta, Shopify, Verizon, and Zoom.
Quick Facts
Ada is named after Ada Lovelace, the 19th-century mathematician who wrote the first computer program—a fitting name for a company automating one of the most human-intensive business functions.
Who Founded Ada?
Ada was founded by childhood friends Mike Murchison and David Hariri, who discovered the idea while their previous startup was failing.
The Founders
Both founders brought complementary skills: Murchison's background in cognitive science and human-computer interaction informed Ada's approach to conversational AI, while Hariri built the technical infrastructure.
The Failed Startup That Led to Ada
Before Ada, Murchison and Hariri ran Volley Industries—a social app connecting founders, designers, and product professionals. As Volley grew, they faced a problem that nearly killed the company: they couldn't respond fast enough to customer inquiries.
"It was as our last company flirted with bankruptcy that we came up with the idea for Ada." — Mike Murchison, co-founder and CEO
This wasn't just a company problem—it was an insight into a universal business challenge.
The Undercover Customer Service Experiment
What happened next is one of the most unconventional startup research projects in Canadian tech history.
Murchison and Hariri convinced seven different customer service teams to let them work as support agents. For almost a year, they answered customer questions from a small office in Toronto's east end.
The variation—30% to 80%—depended on the industry. Some verticals had highly predictable customer needs; others required more human judgment.
The Secret Test
After building their initial software, the founders began quietly testing it while still working for the companies:
"The way we knew Ada was really working was because we actually didn't tell our employers that we had stopped doing the work manually—and they kept paying us." — Mike Murchison
This real-world validation—customers couldn't tell the difference between human and AI responses—proved the concept worked.
How Has Ada's Technology Evolved?
Ada has gone through two major technology generations, reflecting the broader AI revolution.
Generation 1: Custom NLP (2016-2022)
Ada's first-generation product was built on custom Natural Language Processing (NLP) models developed and trained in-house. This worked well for containment—keeping customers within the automated system—but struggled with true resolution.
The containment rate measured how many conversations stayed within the bot. But Ada's team noticed a concerning gap: many customers were technically "contained" but hadn't actually gotten their problems solved.
Generation 2: AI Agent with LLMs (2023-Present)
In 2022, Ada made a bet that would define the company's future: they decided to completely rebuild the product using large language model technology and what they call the Ada Reasoning Engine.
The new system uses multiple "turns" of LLM processing—understanding queries, invoking tools, and bringing in knowledge until the answer is generated.
Resolution Rate Transformation
"From one technology to the next, we've doubled the amount of conversations we can automatically resolve with a great experience." — Mike Gozzo, Chief Product and Technology Officer at Ada
The Chatbot vs. AI Agent Distinction
Ada's leadership is clear about the distinction between old chatbots and their current approach:
"Chatbots—even those powered by ChatGPT—are stuck in the past. As an AI-native company, we've witnessed this transformation firsthand. Ada's AI Agent is the future of customer service." — Mike Gozzo, CPTO
How Much Funding Has Ada Raised?
Ada has raised approximately 200M USD across seven funding rounds, reaching unicorn status in 2021.
Funding History
Key Investors
Unicorn Status
The 130M USD Series C in May 2021 pushed Ada's valuation to 1.2B USD, making it one of Canada's AI unicorns alongside Cohere, Clio, and others.
Who Are Ada's Customers?
Ada serves over 5,000 enterprise customers across industries, with several high-profile technology and consumer brands.
Notable Enterprise Customers
Platform Availability
Ada is available through major enterprise marketplaces:
Industry Focus
What Is the AI Customer Service Market?
Ada operates in one of the fastest-growing enterprise software markets, driven by AI advances and labor cost pressures.
Market Statistics
Cost Impact
Ada's 2025 Industry Report Findings
Ada's research on the future of customer service found:
What Is Ada's Competitive Position?
Ada competes in a crowded AI customer service market but has differentiated itself through enterprise focus and AI-native architecture.
Competitive Landscape
Ada's Differentiation
What Is Ada's Toronto Presence?
Ada is one of Toronto's most significant AI startup success stories, with deep roots in the city's tech ecosystem.
University of Toronto Connection
Mike Murchison studied cognitive science, psychology, and human-computer interaction at the University of Toronto's Faculty of Arts & Science. This academic background informed Ada's approach to understanding how humans communicate with machines.
Toronto AI Ecosystem
Canadian AI Unicorns
Ada joins other Canadian AI companies that have reached unicorn status:
Frequently Asked Questions
What is Ada Support?
Ada is a Toronto-based AI customer service company founded in 2016 by Mike Murchison and David Hariri. The company builds AI agents that automate customer interactions for enterprises like Meta, Shopify, and Verizon. Ada has powered over 4 billion automated customer interactions and reached a 1.2B USD valuation (unicorn status) in 2021.
Who founded Ada Support?
Ada was founded by Mike Murchison (CEO) and David Hariri (Head of R&D), childhood friends who discovered the idea when their previous startup, Volley Industries, couldn't handle customer inquiries. Before building Ada, they spent almost a year working undercover as customer service agents to understand the problem.
Why is Ada named Ada?
Ada is named after Ada Lovelace (1815-1852), the mathematician who wrote the first computer program in the 1840s. Mike Murchison chose the name to honor the pioneering woman in computing.
How much funding has Ada raised?
Ada has raised approximately 200M USD in total funding across seven rounds. The largest round was the 130M USD Series C in May 2021, led by Spark Capital, which pushed the company to a 1.2B USD valuation. Other investors include Accel, Tiger Global, and Bessemer Venture Partners.
What is Ada's technology?
Ada's AI Agent uses the Ada Reasoning Engine, a multi-agent architecture powered by OpenAI's GPT-4. The system uses a central planning agent with specialized subagents to understand queries, invoke tools, and generate responses. This approach has improved resolution rates from 30% (old NLP system) to 60-80% (current LLM system).
What companies use Ada?
Ada serves over 5,000 enterprise customers including Meta, Shopify, Verizon, Zoom, Square, and AirAsia. The platform is available on AWS Marketplace and Salesforce AppExchange, and offers HIPAA, SOC2, and GDPR compliance for enterprise security requirements.
Is Ada a Canadian unicorn?
Yes, Ada achieved unicorn status (1B+ USD valuation) in May 2021 with its 130M USD Series C round at a 1.2B USD valuation. Ada is one of Toronto's most successful AI startups and part of Canada's cohort of AI unicorns alongside Cohere, Clio, and others.
What is Ada's resolution rate?
Ada's AI Agent achieves 60-80% automated resolution rates, with top-performing customers exceeding 80%. This is a significant improvement from the company's original NLP-based system, which had only a 30% resolution rate despite a 70% containment rate.
Related Reading
Canadian AI Unicorns
- Cohere Complete Guide — Toronto's enterprise LLM company
- Canadian AI Unicorns Complete Guide — Billion-dollar AI companies
- Xanadu Photonic Quantum Guide — Toronto's quantum unicorn
Toronto AI Ecosystem
- Toronto AI Ecosystem Guide — The city's AI landscape
- Raquel Urtasun Complete Guide — Waabi founder
- Waterloo-Toronto Corridor — The tech ecosystem
Enterprise AI
- AI in Canadian Banking — Layer 6, Borealis AI
- AI Salaries Canada 2026 — Compensation guide
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Data current as of January 2026. Information from University of Toronto, Globe and Mail, Accel, TechCrunch, Business Wire, OpenAI case studies, and company announcements.
