Clerk AI expands in Canada, launches Montréal engineering hub to support growth

Left to right: Will Chertoff, Igor Boshoer and Alexander Haque

This Montréal hub marks Clerk AI’s first expansion outside the United States. The company selected Montréal for the depth and quality of its technology talent, as well as the strength of its rapidly growing AI ecosystem.

“Conversational AI is rapidly gaining traction, and Clerk AI has the technology to meet this growing demand,” said Alexander Haque, Co-founder and CEO of Clerk AI. “By establishing our first international engineering hub in Montréal, we are tapping into one of the most dynamic pools of AI talent. This expansion will allow us to accelerate the development of sophisticated AI agents tailored to our clients’ needs, while forging strong partnerships within the local Montréal AI ecosystem – which I am proud of.”

Founded in 2023, Clerk AI’s platform processes millions of AI messages and voice calls each day for more than 2000 clients across a wide range of industries, including financial services, healthcare, and insurance. The platform enables businesses to deliver personalized, real-time responses through native messaging and voice applications and supports direct, in-conversation purchases.

In Québec, organizations such as AppDirect, Taxi Champlain, Marchand Houle and Raymond Chabot Grant Thornton have already integrated Clerk AI’s platform into their operations, underscoring the technology’s relevance across diverse sectors.

A San Francisco-based company with deep roots in Montréal

This expansion also carries personal significance for Clerk AI’s co-founder and CEO, Alexander Haque, who was born and raised in Greater Montréal. Haque attended McGill University between 2013 and 2015 where he studied Computer Science and Entrepreneurship and became involved with the Dobson Centre for Entrepreneurship, which inspired him to pursue a career in tech and strengthened his ties with the Montréal tech ecosystem. During that time, he was appointed CEO of RetinadVR, a local Montréal company that was acquired under his leadership.

In 2018, Haque relocated to San Francisco to work at Samsung’s Innovation division before moving to Netflix where he collaborated closely with customer service and telecom teams. That experience revealed a gap: legitimate human-driven calls and text messages to customers too often come across as fraud or phishing.

A year later, in 2023, Alexander Haque joined forces with cofounders Igor Boshoer and Will Chertoff to develop Clerk AI’s platform – providing national telecommunication carriers with a tool that inspires trust. Less than three years after its founding, the company exploded to over $7 million in funding and now generates approximately $10 million in annual revenues while continuing to expand its technological capabilities. Most recently, Clerk AI broadened its service offering by deploying the first simultaneous multicarrier RCS solution in North America, in partnership with Google, Verizon, T-Mobile and AT&T.

Formerly known as Clerk Chat, the company was recently rebranded to Clerk AI in the Spring of 2026 to reflect the company’s focus on AI agents that perform two-way conversations, purpose-built for performance marketing.

“Clerk AI’s decision to expand in Montréal further confirms the city’s position as a leading hub for applied artificial intelligence,” said Stéphane Paquet, President and CEO of Montréal International. “Ranked among the top 10 cities in North America for tech talent, Montréal stands out thanks to world-class institutions such as Mila. Our city is well positioned to support the next wave of AI solutions as these technologies become an integral part of daily business and consumer interactions.”

About Clerk AI

Clerk AI is the enterprise conversational AI platform for voice and messaging. The company enables businesses to deploy AI agents that make and receive calls, send and respond to SMS, RCS, and WhatsApp messages, and integrate natively with Microsoft Teams, Webex, and Zoom. Founded by Alexander Haque, Igor Boshoer, and Will Chertoff, Clerk AI is backed by Race Capital, HF0, Mento VC, and Altair VC. For more information, visit https://clerk.ai.

About Montréal International

Montréal International is a non-profit organization funded by the private sector, the governments of Canada and Québec, the Communauté métropolitaine de Montréal and the City of Montréal. Its mandate is to attract and retain foreign investment, international organizations and qualified talent to Greater Montréal by providing support services tailored to their needs. For more information, visit www.montrealinternational.com.