AWS and Accel join forces to launch accelerator program for Generative AI start-ups 

Amazon Web Services (AWS) and venture capital firm Accel have come together to launch ML Elevate 2023, an accelerator program supporting start-ups building generative artificial intelligence (AI) applications.  

The six-week program will offer generative AI start-ups access to AI models and tools, business and technical mentorship, curated resources, the AWS Activate program, and up to $200,000 in AWS Credits, according to a press release. AWS Activate is a program that provides start-ups with credits, technical support, and resources to build and grow their businesses on Amazon Web Services.  

Other benefits include peer support from a community of AI and ML start-up founders and the opportunity to scale production-ready generative AI applications on Amazon SageMaker JumpStart. The SageMaker program is designed to simplify and expedite the process of creating and deploying machine learning models by providing a collection of pre-built solutions, templates, and resources tailored to specific use cases.

Generative AI start-ups that have a minimum viable product (MVP) ready and plan to seek funding within the next 12-18 months can apply for the program. Selected start-ups will undergo live virtual master classes, including fireside chats and panel discussions by investors, industry leaders, and AWS experts. The panel of speakers includes Tom Mason, Chief Technology Officer, Stability AI; Vishal Dhupar, Managing Director, Asia-South, NVIDIA Graphics; Poonacha Kongetira, SVP Engineering at SambaNova (US); Anupam Datta, Co-founder, President and Chief Scientist, TruEra (USA); and Apurva Kalia, Senior Researcher, Tufts University (USA). The cohort will also have a fundraising opportunity through a dedicated demo week to pitch leading VC funds, angel investors, and industry leaders.  

“Generative AI heralds a new era of innovation and productivity in all spheres of life. We are witnessing an ever-increasing pace of innovation in LLMs, LLMOps, ML models and GPU compute. ML Elevate offers a robust opportunity to entrepreneurs and start-ups building in the generative AI space. It was great to collaborate on ML Elevate last year, and we are looking forward to working with AWS and selected start-ups this year too," says Prayank Swaroop, Partner, Accel.  

According to AWS, since 2020, over 50 early-stage AI/ML start-ups in India have participated the ML Elevate programs so far including Indian AI start-ups such as AarogyaAI, Dubdub.ai, Vitra.ai, and NimbleBox.ai.  

According to a recent study by the National Association of Software and Service Companies (NASSCOM), generative AI start-ups in the country have raised over $475 million in private investments from January 2021 to May 2023. Vaishali Kasture, Director of AWS India and South Asia at Amazon Web Services India said ML Elevate will empower start-ups in the sector to develop industry-focused solutions and foster innovation to drive the digital economy.