A new accelerator for AI-first startups in North America

Startups are at the forefront of developing solutions for some of humanity's most pressing challenges by using AI. From breakthroughs in healthcare to spearheading the fight against climate change, these innovators are harnessing the power of AI to define a brighter tomorrow.

To help AI-focused startups scale quickly while building responsibly, we’re thrilled to introduce the Google for Startups Accelerator: AI-First. This new program is for startups building AI solutions based in the U.S. and Canada. This is the first of several of these kinds of AI-focused programs we'll offer throughout the year in Europe, India and Brazil. Stay tuned for those announcements.

Run in partnership with Google Cloud, this equity-free program provides 10 weeks of hands-on mentorship and technical project support to startups using AI in their core service or product. Selected startups will have opportunities to collaborate with a cohort of top peer founders and engage with leaders across Google. The curriculum will give founders access to the latest AI tools (including with Google’s own Gemini), and will also include workshops on tech and infrastructure, UX and product, growth, sales, leadership and OKRs.

“The Google for Startups Accelerator was amazing. We learned and improved our AI, ML, UX/UI, and marketing,” said Accelerator: Cloud alum Joon Beh, CEO of HalloAI. “In just 10 weeks, we transformed our business and increased the number of B2B clients by 900%. It was an absolute game changer for us.” Rayees Rahman, CEO of Harmonic Discovery, said his company “improved model training and inference times by 100X” thanks to Google for Startups Accelerator.

The program kicks off in April at Cloud Next 2024 and culminates with a high profile Demo Day for potential partners, customers and investors. After graduation, startups join the dynamic GFS Accelerator community, where they receive ongoing support and have the opportunity to build lasting connections with like-minded founders, mentors and investors.

Applications are open until February 15. We encourage interested and eligible startups based in North America to apply and share with your networks.