Amazon Web Services (AWS) and venture capital firm Accel are announcing ML Elevate 2023, a six-week accelerator program aimed at empowering start-ups that are engaged in innovative generative artificial intelligence (AI) solutions.
Due to its ability to comprehend and generate realistic conversations, stories, images, videos, and music across diverse domains, generative AI applications have captivated the attention of developers and enthusiasts.
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 start-ups in the country have raised over $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 $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 offers an unprecedented opportunity to revolutionize and transform businesses globally. Through ML Elevate, we aim 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,” says Vaishali Kasture, Director of AWS India and South Asia at Amazon Web Services India.
"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 computing. 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.
ML Elevate builds on AWS’s long-term commitment to India, demonstrated by investments in local infrastructure and support for local start-ups to drive innovation and digital transformation. On the other hand, Amazon's AWS has committed to invest $12.7 billion in India by 2030. This planned investment will contribute $23.3 billion to India's GDP by 2030 and support approximately 1,31,700 full-time jobs annually at local businesses.
Generative AI start-ups that have already developed a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) and intend to seek funding in the next 12-18 months are eligible to apply. Selected start-ups 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 of Stability AI; Vishal Dhupar, Managing Director, Asia-South of 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 Week to pitch leading VC funds, angel investors, and industry leaders.
