Accel Atoms 3.0: Accelerating the growth of startups building the future of AI

Artificial Intelligence (AI) has ushered in a new era of innovation and transformation, disrupting the landscape of many industries.

Recognizing this paradigm shift, Accel Atoms 3.0 — an initiative by Accel — is committed to supporting and fostering early-stage startups looking to build the future of AI. The AI-focused cohort is part of Accel’s all-new-sector-focused cohort-based programme, and startups building the emerging AI stack can apply by September 10 for a chance to be selected for the AI Cohort of Accel Atoms 3.0.

With the two previous editions of Atoms 1.0 and Atoms 2.0, 24 promising startups raised funding north of $160 million. Accel Atoms seeks to support companies looking to raise less than $2M.

Atoms 3.0 cohort will get the opportunity to connect with 200+ Accel portfolio founders, industry buyers, and customers, be a part of cohort meetups, expert talks, and Accel-organised AI events, and participate in mock pitching and investor meets.

Accel Atoms AI accelerator programme overview
Accel Atoms 3.0 will invest in startups across early stages, including idea-stage and pre-product. Startups based in India, Singapore, Indonesia, and the UAE, where AI is an integral part of the product are the key focus groups that can apply.

The programme is designed to equip startup founders with essential resources and tools to accelerate their journey to success. Drawing from Accel’s experience in company building, the programme will facilitate founders to be a part of a meaningful and vibrant community and benefit from a dependable network for problem-solving and support.

The AI cohort: An important checklist
The Accel Atoms AI cohort comprises of two distinct components:

1. AI Community: Open for everyone building in AI
   Accel Atoms AI cohort will organise several events, webinars, conferences, and hackathons as part of its AI cohort for the community. The vision is to democratise access to expert advice and information to founders and builders in the AI ecosystem.
2. AI Accelerator: A selected cohort of up to five companies
   Accel Atoms 3.0 will select a cohort of up to five companies, giving them access to:

• Investment of up to $500K
• Access to a global community of 200+ Accel partners and founders
• Up to $5M+ in perks and benefits from our partners: Google Cloud Platform - $250K in GCP credits; Microsoft Azure $150K in Azure credits, GitHub credits, 25 Microsoft 365 seats for 1 year, Visual Studios Enterprise and more; Amazon Web Services Up to $100K in AWS credits

Here’s a look at the frameworks or selection lens the platform is considering for companies working with AI:

• AI Builders: This community includes foundational AI research and products companies that are building models and techniques in text, audio, video, 3D and augmented reality (AR)/virtual reality (VR), faster vector stores, AI security, Explainable AI, AI hardware, GPUs and more.
• AI Enablers: This community includes enables who are using AI tools that make it easier for product and engineering teams to build AI products, including Programming Frameworks, LLM Ops, ML Ops, Prompt Management Tools, AI Observability, Feature Engineering, Steam Processing, Data Integration, ETL Data Governance and more.
• AI Users: This community includes AI users, essentially the AI-enabled consumer, horizontal and vertical SaaS applications companies that leverage AI to craft better customer experiences, and significantly boost productivity in areas such as SaaS, healthcare, education, fintech, robotics, gaming, and more.

Each cohort is unique in its programme schedule, as they focus on distinct sectors and are run by different partners in Accel.

Accel Atoms 3.0 is currently accepting applications for its two cohorts: AI and Industry 5.0. As the programme scales, the community-led platform plans to launch other themes as well.
For the AI cohort, the applications opened on July 31, 2023, and Accel Atoms will receive applications till September 10. Teams will be informed as and when they are accepted into the programme. The cohort will start running on September 20, 2023, through a series of both online and offline sessions. The best way to apply to Atoms is through the Atoms website, which is equipped with a dedicated team and an automated process in place that keeps the platform from missing out on any applications.