About the opportunity
What this programme is offering
Eligibility Requirements
The program is looking for current full-time founders and/or top researchers who are looking to become startup founders.
The program is seeking applicants with big ideas that drive impact in Africa across the thematic areas: the future of work, knowledge, software development, creativity, and entertainment.
While preference is given to startups with funding and commercial traction (pre-seed to series A), the program consider all founders and researchers with great ideas and a strong plan for how to build them.
Benefits
Selected startups will receive early access to cutting-edge models from Google DeepMind (such as Gemini, Gemma, and Veo) to experiment with commercial use cases, before the models are released to the general market.
Additionally, teams receive hands-on technical mentorship and go-to-market support from Google Research, other Google teams globally, and VCs including 4DX Ventures, Norrsken22, Novastar Ventures, and Ventures Platform.
Some participants may also be eligible for funding from Google AI Futures Fund and these leading VCs.
Program Details
The initial co-development period runs from mid-September to early December, culminating in a product demo day at the Accra AI Community Centre in Ghana.
The joint development process will be tailored to each individual startup’s needs, providing support such as technical advisory and mentorship.
While the formal co-development period concludes following the demo day at AICC, there is no commitment for startups to be in-person at the AICC throughout the co-development period. However, the Google Africa Applied AI Lab will remain a place for entrepreneurs, founders, and researchers to receive support on an ongoing basis.
How to apply