Breakout Startups

Innovating the Future: AI-Powered Solutions Revolutionize Infrastructure, Estate Settlement, and Circular Commerce at Web Summit Vancouver 2026

Nikola Borisov, CEO and Co-Founder of Deep Infra, discussed the critical role of AI inference infrastructure. Deep Infra is a purpose-built AI inference cloud, vertically integrated and owning Nvidia Blackwell B300 GPUs across eight US data centers. The company prioritizes the lowest cost per token, processing 5 trillion tokens weekly with over 200 models. Deep Infra recently secured $107 million in Series B funding, with Nvidia’s participation.

Mr. Borisov explained that inference, running trained AI models, is projected to consume about 80% of all AI infrastructure. Generating a single token from a 100-billion-parameter model requires 100 billion multiplications, making it 100 million times more compute-intensive than traditional tasks. He emphasized that inference is an infrastructure problem, requiring specialized chips, purpose-built clusters, and an optimized software stack including quantization, speculative decoding, custom kernels, and continuous batching. He championed open-source models for their cost-effectiveness and outlined eight essential layers for an efficient token factory.

Hugh Tamassia, Co-Founder and President of Alix, introduced his AI-powered service for automating estate settlement. He described the immense administrative burden on grieving family members, often involving up to 900 hours over a year, managing legal, financial, and administrative tasks. While the ultra-wealthy use private bankers for this, Alix democratizes the service by deploying trained AI agents to handle over 80% of administrative work. Families collaborate with human experts for critical decisions, with the executor always retaining control.

Alix’s AI agents manage tasks like closing accounts, transferring titles, claiming insurance, selling assets, and handling subscriptions, reducing the family’s workload by 95%. Mr. Tamassia highlighted the substantial market opportunity, citing the $84 trillion “great wealth transfer” expected. Alix has raised over $40 million, with investors like Charles Schwab and Edward Jones, and achieved tenfold growth in six months, making premium estate settlement widely accessible.

Amrita Bhasin, CEO of Sotira, addressed the global issue of unsold inventory, an $800 billion problem with $163 billion discarded annually, representing 25% of all stock. Brands struggle with sustainable management, relying on inefficient, fragmented systems. Sotira provides an AI infrastructure layer for global brands to gain visibility and solutions for offloading unsold stock. The system integrates with inventory and warehouse systems to identify slow-moving items, then matches them with eligible charities for tax deductions or secondary market buyers for recovery.

Sotira also automates manual supply chain processes, including document generation and compliance. Ms. Bhasin highlighted AI’s immediate impact on manual logistics workflows, improving brands’ bottom line through increased revenue, storage space, tax benefits, and reduced carrying costs. She shared an example where a beauty manufacturer used Sotira to unlock a $1 million tax deduction. Sotira has successfully rerouted over 5 million pounds of unsold inventory from landfills, earning institutional recognition for its innovation in reverse logistics.