The traditional market research industry, a formidable $90 billion sector, has long been characterized by its high costs and lengthy timelines, making crucial consumer insights inaccessible for many businesses. Enter Cashew Research, a Calgary-based startup leveraging advanced artificial intelligence to democratize market intelligence. By automating key aspects of the research process while still prioritizing real-world human data, Cashew aims to deliver faster, more affordable, and actionable insights to brands.
Revolutionizing Market Research with AI and Human Data
Cashew Research utilizes AI to craft tailored market research plans and surveys. Based on a brand's specific information needs – whether it's understanding brand recognition within a particular demographic or gauging customer resonance with a marketing tagline – the AI develops precise research instruments. Crucially, these surveys are then deployed to real individuals, ensuring authentic human feedback. Post-collection, AI algorithms efficiently summarize and digest the findings, transforming raw data into clear, actionable reports.
Addy Graves, Cashew's co-founder and CEO, brings over a decade of market research experience to the venture. She highlighted the existing dichotomy in the industry:
"You can use an LLM to try to do deep research and get answers to your questions, or you could use a firm that’s going to be really expensive. Now there’s Cashew that exists in the middle. It creates custom, fresh data to answer your question instead of you just using an LLM that’s surfacing the same recycled pool of data that everybody’s finding on the internet."
Graves' inspiration for Cashew stemmed from a recurring challenge: clients frequently requested comprehensive research projects, complete with real-world human data, to be delivered within mere days. For years, achieving such rapid turnaround without compromising quality was impossible due to technological limitations.
"That was definitely the aha moment," Graves recalled. "It wasn’t until the onset of AI that we were actually able to automate these processes that we use as researchers, best practices, these data science-backed methodologies, as well as the formatting of reports that we know that everybody wants."
Startup Success and Future Growth
The innovative approach of Cashew Research has garnered significant attention in the startup ecosystem. The company was selected as one of 200 startups for TechCrunch's Startup Battlefield competition in 2025, where it further distinguished itself by winning the enterprise stage pitch competition at TechCrunch Disrupt.
Co-founded in 2023 by Addy Graves and Rose Wong (COO), Cashew has successfully raised C$1.5 million in pre-seed funding. The company is now preparing for a seed round in early 2026, with an ambitious goal of securing up to $5 million to further develop its proprietary technology.
Beyond speed, the automation introduced by Cashew significantly reduces costs, making high-quality market research accessible to small and medium-sized brands that previously couldn't afford traditional firms. Graves emphasizes Cashew's unique position in the burgeoning AI marketing tools landscape: it avoids full automation by ensuring each client project incorporates fresh human data, a process that still demands expert market research oversight.
Cashew's competitive edge is set to sharpen as it matures. The company collects all real-world data it gathers from client projects, anonymizes it, and integrates it into a proprietary database. This growing repository of unique data can then enrich future research endeavors, offering unparalleled depth and relevance.
Looking ahead to next year, Cashew Research is focusing on two primary strategic areas: expanding its presence in the U.S. market and bolstering its B2B business. Graves envisions Cashew not just serving existing market research buyers, but also creating an entirely new category for marketers.
"The people who are already buying research, that’s already a massive category, but that doesn’t even include all the people that could be buying research but just can’t afford it or can’t do it right now because they don’t have the timelines," Graves explained. "We’re actually creating this new category for marketers to gain access to answers to these questions that they’ve had."
