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An intensive 6-week programme to nurture and empower early-stage Generative AI startups. A cohort of top selected startups will get access to high quality mentorship, and training, curated resources, and perks (including AWS credits upto $200K), community of leading AI/ML & Generative AI startup founders, exclusive passes for in-person events; and an opportunity to pitch to top-tier VC funds, angels, and business, and technical leaders to accelerate their build, growth, and scale-up journey. *Startups must separately qualify for AWS Activate in order to receive AWS Activate credits. AWS Activate Credits are AWS Promotional Credits. Receipt and use of AWS Promotional Credits are subject to the AWS Promotional Credit Terms and Conditions. Additional Activate credits on top of the $100K startup lifetime maximum are offered at the discretion of AWS Startups & ML Elevate: Generative AI Edition team upon exceeding the initial $100K in available credits.

All core Generative AI Startups with an innovative solution in the space are encouraged to apply. Ideally, you’ll have an MVP already developed which is at least undergoing POC with customer(s) and your eyes set on capital-raising in the next 12-18 months. If you have plans to build & pre-train interesting Foundation Models from scratch, we would love to hear from you even if you may not (yet) have an MVP.

Startup founders who are curious, and interested in exploring the limitless possibilities of Generative AI to solve key operational and business challenges, who are energetic, focused and committed to building, growing and scaling their venture across key growth areas would make for the ideal candidate.

This is a part-time programme. Nonetheless, the startups chosen for the programme will need to participate in rigorous technical sessions, masterclasses, and live ask me anything sessions across the program courses like ML Sprint (virtual sessions by business and technical leaders, VCs, and successful founders), ML Tribe (hybrid meet-ups across cities in India with the community of AI/ML founders), ML Edge (upto $200K* AWS credits, perks and 1-1 office hours), ML Demo Week (virtual curated pitchfest to VCs, angels and industry veterans), ML Connect (ecosystem connects with founders, operators and experts) among others. These sessions require strong levels of commitment to avail maximum benefits from the programme. In fact, attendance for sessions will be mandatory and absenteeism beyond a few sessions may lead to disqualification from the shortlisted cohort. *Startups must separately qualify for AWS Activate in order to receive AWS Activate credits. AWS Activate Credits are AWS Promotional Credits. Receipt and use of AWS Promotional Credits are subject to the AWS Promotional Credit Terms and Conditions. Additional Activate credits on top of the $100K startup lifetime maximum are offered at the discretion of AWS Startups & ML Elevate: Generative AI Edition team upon exceeding the initial $100K in available credits.

No. The programme will be primarily virtual, with a hybrid wrap-up party in Singapore. The programming part of this wrap-up event will also be streamed live virtually for cohort members who are unable to travel to Singapore. We would require at least 2 startup founders (both from tech/product and business/GTM standpoint) to be wholly committed to attending the programme throughout its course to attain the maximum benefit. Selected participants will have the opportunity to attend online and offline Meet-up, networking and collaboration events hosted by AWS and Accel through the duration of the program ML Sprint (virtual sessions by business and technical leaders, VCs, and successful founders) ML Tribe (hybrid meet-ups across cities in India with the community of AI/ML founders) ML Edge (avail offers and perks from AWS and partners like Accel. ML Demo Week (hybrid format to Pitch to VCs, angels and industry veterans) ML Connect (hybrid networking events with alumni and industry experts)

Call for Applications – 31 July, 2023 Application Deadline - 25 August, 2023 Cohort Announcement - 8 September, 2023 Virtual Inaugural Meet-up - 12 September, 2023 Program duration (4 weeks of virtual sessions) - 13 September to 13 October, 2023 Hybrid Mid-Programme Meet-up - 5 October, 2023 Virtual Demo Week - 14 to 20 October, 2023 Hybrid Wrap-up Party (Singapore) - 3 November, 2023

While we’d love to have your entire team participate, the program is designed for founding team members, specifically the CEO and CTO / technical lead.

This is a virtual program except for hybrid wrap-up party in Singapore (which will also be streamed live for people who are unable to travel). The pitches and demos to VCs and enterprises (potential customers) would also be virtual, albeit personalized curated event(s).

You can be new to AWS and still enhance your already-built startup in our program. AWS Startup Solutions Architects will teach you everything you need to know about how to leverage cloud-based tools and services. To get the most out of the program, you should have plans to build a Generative-AI based product with a cloud-native architecture within a year.

During the virtual mentorship session (13 Sep - 13 Oct, 2023), Startups should be prepared to dedicate up to four hours (two hrs on Wednesday and two hrs on Friday) a week participating in accelerator activities and business and technical mentorship. Apart from this, we have one hybrid wrap-up party in Singapore on 3 Nov 2023.

Founders are asked to share responses to multiple choice questions, details about your founding team, company and traction, program goals, and technology. In support of this application, you’ll also be asked to submit a link to a pitch deck and a link to a 2-min video about your team. It is optional to submit a 2-min video about your product. Preview the full list of questions here.

No. The ML Elevate programme is completely free and will not cost you any equity in your company. Although, participants will have to bear the cost to travel to Singapore for the hybrid wrap-up party on 3 Nov 2023.

Our ultimate goal is for founders to leave the program ready to pitch, raise funds, or get into a seed-stage tech-focused accelerator program, and fast-track their business. Following the six-weeks, you’ll continue to have access to tools, resources, go-to-market solutions, AWS, Accel, KB Investments and Saehan Ventures leaders, and program alumni who will help you scale your startup long-term. Additionally, you’ll have credits to further extend your runway.

Got a question about the program and want to talk to one of the team? Email us and we'll get back to you: team@mlelevate.com