AWS and Accel’s six-week accelerator program – ML Elevate 2023 aimed at empowering startups that are building generative AI applications.
Generative AI applications have captivated developers and enthusiasts alike with their ability to comprehend and generate realistic conversations, stories, images, videos, and music across diverse domains. Generative AI is powered by Machine Learning (ML) models—very large models that are pre-trained on vast amounts of data and commonly referred to as foundation models (FMs). Today, ML models built on AWS provide tangible value by removing friction from supply chains, personalising digital experiences, and making goods and services more accessible and affordable.
According to a recent study by the National Association of Software and Service Companies (NASSCOM) called Generative AI startup landscape in India — A 2023 perspective, generative AI startups in the country have raised over US$475 million in private investments from January 2021 to May 2023.
ML Elevate aims to support generative AI startups by providing them access to impactful AI models and tools, business and technical mentorship, curated resources, the AWS Activate program, and up to US$200,000 in AWS Credits. Other benefits include peer support from a community of leading AI and ML startup founders and the opportunity to scale production-ready generative AI applications on Amazon SageMaker JumpStart.
Generative AI startups that have already developed a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) and intend to seek funding in next 12-18 months are eligible to apply. Selected startups will undergo live virtual masterclasses, 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 Pvt Ltd; Poonacha Kongetira, SVP Engineering at SambaNova (US); Anupam Datta, Co-founder, President and Chief Scientist, TruEra (USA); Apurva Kalia, Senior Researcher, Tufts University (USA), and others. The cohort will also have a fundraising opportunity through a dedicated Demo Weekto pitch leading VC funds, angel investors, and industry leaders.
“Through ML Elevate, our aim is to support generative AI startups to develop industry-focused solutions and innovate to drive the digital economy. We are excited to collaborate with Accel to invite applications from builders with big ideas and support the growing community of generative AI startups in India,” said, Vaishali Kasturae, Director of AWS India and South Asia at Amazon Web Services India Pvt. Ltd.
“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 startups building in the generative AI space” said, Prayank Swaroop, Partner, Accel.
