Woodway Assurance Launches 'EviChat' AI Companion
Woodway Assurance has unveiled EviData 2.0, an update to its responsible data use software, which now features an AI companion named EviChat. The new tool is designed to enhance the user experience for automating privacy risk assessments of de-identified data.
- The 'Evi' in EviChat is short for 'evidence', reflecting the platform's goal of providing users with clear, defensible evidence that their data is properly de-identified. The chat-based interface is designed to make the complex process of privacy risk assessment more intuitive, allowing users to ask follow-up questions in natural language about their results. - Woodway Assurance was founded in 2025 in Ottawa, Canada, by Dr. Khaled El Emam, a recognized expert in data anonymization and privacy-enhancing technologies. The company is a spin-off from the CHEO Research Institute and the University of Ottawa, building on decades of research in the field. - The company secured an oversubscribed $1 million seed funding round in December 2025, led by Aventure Capital. This funding is aimed at expanding sales, marketing, and enhancing the technological capabilities of the EviData platform. - EviData, the core platform, operates entirely within a client's own environment, a key security feature that ensures sensitive data is not transferred to Woodway Assurance. The software is designed to automate what was once a manual, weeks-long process by external consultants into a task that can be completed in minutes. - The launch of EviData 2.0 with EviChat comes as the market for Privacy-Enhancing Technologies (PETs) is rapidly growing, with some reports projecting the market to reach over $12 billion by 2030, driven by stricter data privacy regulations and the increasing use of data in AI. - Dr. Khaled El Emam has a track record of building and successfully exiting companies in the data and analytics space. He previously founded Privacy Analytics, which was acquired by IMS Health in 2016, and Replica Analytics, which was acquired by Aetion in 2022. - The EviData platform is built to align with recognized data privacy standards, including guidance from the Information and Privacy Commissioner of Ontario and ISO standards for de-identification. - Competitors in the broader data de-identification and privacy space include players like Deloitte with its "De-Identify" tool and various other platforms that offer services for anonymizing data for AI and analytics.
