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Who founded Factually.co and what are their backgrounds?
Executive Summary
Factually.co’s founding is reported inconsistently across sources: one cluster identifies a Montreal-based health startup, Factually Health, founded by Lina Forcier, Lucas Nogueira and Genevieve Poliquin (with fundraising from L‑Spark), while a separate cluster describes The Factual / Factually.co, a U.S.-based news-credibility startup founded by Arjun Moorthy (sometimes paired with Ajoy Sojan) and later acquired by Yahoo; a different company, Factual, was founded by Gil Elbaz in 2007 and is unrelated. The record shows at least three distinct entities with similar names, and the available analyses mix personnel and dates across them, producing the apparent disagreement [1] [2] [3] [4] [5].
1. What people actually claimed — the key contradictions that matter
The aggregate analyses present three primary claims about “Factually”/“Factually.co”: one claim says Factually Health was founded in 2018 in Montreal by Lina Forcier, Lucas Nogueira and Genevieve Poliquin and focuses on AI-driven health credibility and reputation tools [1]. A second claim identifies The Factual / Factually.co as a 2016 U.S. news-credibility startup founded by Arjun Moorthy and Ajoy Sojan and later acquired by Yahoo in 2022 [3]. A third claim conflates the name with Factual, a data/location company founded by Gil Elbaz in 2007, noting Elbaz’s prior startup exits and fundraising history [4] [5]. These assertions conflict on founders, founding dates, locations and business focus, producing confusion over which organization the original question intended to identify [2] [4].
2. Evidence that supports the Montreal health startup narrative
Several analyses describe a Montreal-founded company, Factually Health, with founders Lina Forcier (CEO), Lucas Nogueira (CTO) and Genevieve Poliquin (COO), incorporated around 2018 and focused on AI-based health information credibility and reputation management, with reported backing from L‑Spark and a headcount of 1–10 as of July 2024 [1]. Another source expands the team to include Leo Hartman and attributes advanced academic credentials—Ph.D. in epidemiology for Forcier and Ph.D. in computer science/AI for Hartman—framing the firm as a mission-driven health-information platform [2]. The two accounts overlap on a Montreal/AI/health theme and on Lina Forcier’s central role, giving coherent support to the existence of a health-focused Factually entity led by Forcier and colleagues [1] [2].
3. Evidence that supports the U.S. news-credibility startup narrative
A separate set of analyses identifies The Factual or Factually.co as a San Mateo/United States news aggregation and credibility-rating company founded in 2016 by Arjun Moorthy and Ajoy Sojan, whose product ranks news stories by source diversity, tone, author expertise and site quality; that business reportedly was acquired by Yahoo on September 6, 2022 [3]. One source singles out Arjun Moorthy as co‑founder and CEO with a public-facing explanation of the algorithm and mission to promote credible news [6]. These accounts cohere internally and point to a distinct company focused on journalism-credibility tools rather than health‑sector reputation management [3] [6].
4. Evidence that points to a third, different company: Factual and Gil Elbaz
Several analyses describe Factual, a Los Angeles‑based data and location company founded in 2007 by Gil Elbaz, with a track record that includes founding Applied Semantics (sold to Google) and raising significant venture capital; Elbaz’s profile and the firm’s customers and funding history are well documented and appear unrelated to either Factually Health or The Factual/Factually.co [4] [5] [7]. These sources note Elbaz’s prior Google role and Factual’s product set for developers and enterprise location data, underlining that name similarity—Factual vs Factually vs The Factual—likely caused some analytic conflation in the materials reviewed [5] [7].
5. Reconciling the contradictions — what is most likely correct
The most defensible reading is that multiple, distinct companies with similar names exist: a Montreal health‑AI firm (Factually Health) with Lina Forcier and colleagues as founders, a U.S. news‑credibility startup (The Factual/Factually.co) associated with Arjun Moorthy (and sometimes Ajoy Sojan), and a longer-established data company (Factual) founded by Gil Elbaz. The analyses mix elements across these entities, producing contradictory founder lists and dates; the strongest internal consistency groups align By entity: Forcier/Nogueira/Poliquin for the Montreal health startup [1] [2], Moorthy (and possibly Sojan) for the news startup [3] [6], and Elbaz for the 2007 data company [4] [5].
6. Bottom line for the original question — who founded Factually.co and what are their backgrounds
If the intended target is the Montreal health startup branded around “Factually” (Factually Health), the founders are Lina Forcier, Lucas Nogueira and Genevieve Poliquin, with backgrounds in epidemiology, AI/big data and startup operations respectively, and reported seed support from L‑Spark [1] [2]. If the intended target is the U.S. news‑credibility site known as The Factual / Factually.co, the founders are reported as Arjun Moorthy and Ajoy Sojan (with Moorthy a visible CEO figure), focused on news‑credibility algorithms and acquired by Yahoo in 2022 [3] [6]. The name Factual refers to a separate 2007 company founded by Gil Elbaz. Clarify which organization you mean if you want source links or primary‑document confirmation.