Companies - Marc Torrens, PhD

Company work.

Helping companies to jump into the next Industrial Revolution based on Artificial Intelligence. More than 25 years of experience creating AI companies in the Retail, Fintech, and Healthcare sectors.

Contents

Medidedalia
(2023-present)

Innovation: research into business.

Medidedalia uses advanced machine learning models to enhance patient safety and streamline medical processes with AI-based management products. The company is led by physicians and AI specialists. It is backed by the Grup Med, a consortium of medical service companies from the Col·legi de Metges de Barcelona. Esade is closely working with the company, providing research activities and internships. The company partners with Universitat de Barcelona (UB) and the Hospital Clínic de Barcelona. I have been serving the company as a Board Member and the Chair of the AI Committee since its foundation in 2023.

Co-founded Companies

Strands, Inc.
(2004-2018)

Recommender Systems for Music

MusicStrands was founded in 2004 as a spin-off of the IIIA from CSIC by Francisco J. Martin (CEO) and Marc Torrens (CTO). The original concept focused on encoding music listening behavior to provide personalized recommendations. Though the initial business model was unsuccessful, the intellectual property (IP), implemented as a portfolio of patents, was sold to Apple, Inc. for over $5M.

Strands in Fintech

In 2008, MusicStrands rebranded as Strands, and we pivoted the company towards Fintech with a major investment of over $50M from BBVA and Dalbergia. Since then, we have been providing solutions to top banks worldwide including ING (Netherlands), Deutsche Bank (Germany), Postfinance (Switzerland), Bank of Montreal, Barclays (UK), TSB (UK), Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank, Commercial Bank of Africa, BCV (Switzerland), BNP Paribas (France), Israel Discount Bank, Nordea, Leumi (Israel), Davivienda (Colombia), Piraeus Bank (Greece).

Research at Strands

Strands maintained strong ties to the academic world, generating numerous research outputs published in peer-reviewed papers. The company was instrumental in founding the ACM International Conference on Recommender Systems in 2007. It also produced a portfolio of patents sold to Apple, Inc. Refer to publications for further details.

The exit

In 2020, CRIF acquired Strands. I served the company as a CTO/CIO from its foundation until 2018, operating first from its headquarters in US (2004-2008), and then from Barcelona (2008-2018). I also served a Board Director of the company from 2015-2020. I describe the full experience, from my personal view, in a dedicated post!

Iconomic Systems
(1999-2004)

Iconomic Systems S.A. was founded in Switzerland in 1999 by a team including Prof. Boi Faltings, Prof. Pearl Pu, Christian Frei, and Marc Torrens. Our aim was to develop innovative software for travel e-commerce leveraging AI, more specifically Constraint Satisfaction Problems (CSP). Backed by 3i and Partners Group the company was sold in 2001 to I:FAO Group, which was subsequently acquired by Amadeus in 2014. I served as CTO of Iconomic Systems, and became later the Director of i:FAO R&D Lab. The full story of this first entrepreneurial venture is detailed in a dedicated post!