AI Grant — accelerator for AI startups
- $250,000 on an uncapped SAFE for your AI-native product startup
- $350,000 in Azure credits + $200,000 in additional credits
- Summit in San Francisco with advisors and founders
- Created by Nat Friedman and Daniel Gross
- Batch 3 applications will officially open in a few months but you can apply early
- David Holz, CEO of Midjourney and Leap Motion
- Andrej Karpathy, former Director of AI at Tesla
- Patrick Collison, CEO of Stripe
- Tobi Lütke, CEO of Shopify
- Lukas Biewald, CEO of Weights and Biases
- Alexandr Wang, CEO of Scale.ai
- Aaron Levie, CEO of Box
- Amjad Masad, CEO of Replit
- Riley Goodside, GPT whisperer
- Noam Shazeer, co-creator of transformers and CEO of Character
- Mike Krieger, cofounder of Instagram
- Guillermo Rauch, CEO of Vercel
- Christina Cacioppo, CEO of Vanta
- Dylan Field, CEO of Figma
AI Grant companies — batch 2
- ggml — run AI models anywhere
- Lindy — AI personal assistant
- Mathpix — AI-powered document automation
- Pika Labs — cutting-edge generative video
- Hume AI — AI toolkit to understand emotional expression
- Julius — AI data scientist
- Cofactory — factory for generating companies with LLMs
- Induced — AI-first browser RPA platform
- Zeta Labs — automate routine online tasks
- Speakshyft — real-time accent translation
- Common Sense Machines — game-engine ready 3-D content
- Guru AI — easy-to-use video analysis models
- Curio — AI-powered toys
- Echo Labs — human-level transcription
- Reality Defender — deepfake detection
- Andiron AI — e-commerce optimization
- Lightpaper — AI assembly lines for knowledge workers
- Portola — AI-powered creative tools for kids
- Espresso AI — optimize Snowflake queries using LLMs
- Jenni — AI workspace for researchers
- AutogenAI — generate bids proposals using LLMs
- Merlin — AI-led user interviews
- Tutor Intelligence — AI cobots
- RunPod — serverless GPU platform
- Akool — personalized visual marketing content
- Coframe — automated A/B testing
- OpusClip — AI video clipping tool
- Freed — AI medical scribe
- Kino AI — organize video assets
AI Grant companies — batch 1
- Perplexity — the fastest way to get an answer
- Animato — video chat with AI characters
- Lexica.art — make AI art
- Replicate — cloud infrastructure for ML models
- Minion.ai — automated browser assistant
- Recraft — generate vector art and 3D images
- Flair — AI design tool for branded content
- ValueBase — AI property valuation models for municipal governments
- WOMBO — magical consumer AI experiences
- Cursor — AI-first code editor
- Chroma — programmable memory for AI
- Poly Corp — AI-generated textures
- Sieve — AI video API
- Sameday — appointment scheduling AI
- Play.ht — AI voiceover for podcasts
- Ghostwrite — automatic email composer
- Rowy — low-code backend
- Birch — automating complex call center operations in regulated industries
- Vizcom — AI-powered engineering drawings
- Circle Labs — generative AI discord friends
- Samaya AI — knowledge discovery platform for financial services
- Secret Weapons — AI video tools used by Hollywood
- Pixelcut — AI-powered product photos
- AniML — NeRF-generated product videos
- Dust — browser copilot for teams
- Forefront — enterprise chatbot
What do I get if I win?
- A $250,000 investment via a no cap, no discount MFN SAFE (available here).
- A weekend with peers and advisors at the AI Grant Summit in San Francisco
- $350,000 in cloud credits from Azure, along with other startup benefits, membership in the Microsoft for Startups Founders Hub, and go-to-market support
- $50,000 in credits from Cohere
- $50,000 in credits from AssemblyAI
- $50,000 in credits from Replicate
- $25,000 in credits from Modal
- $11,000 in AI voice credits from Eleven Labs
- $10,000 in human-labeling credits from Scale.ai
- $10,000 in credits from OpenAI
- $10,000 in credits from Hugging Face
- $10,000 in credits from Anthropic
- 10 free seats from Weights and Biases
- $5,000 in credits from Zilliz Cloud
- $1,000 in credits from Linear
- $1,000 in credits from Render
- $1,000 in credits from the amazing nat.dev
- Early free access to Langsmith
Can anyone apply?
Yes – no credentials required.
What type of company or project qualifies?
Anything that leverages AI models in a useful or engaging way. In particular, we're looking for technical & pragmatic founders who want to build great products. If you get a thrill from making something that other people love to use, and you understand that building a new product is 1% idea and 99% iteration, we want to support you.
Wait, is this a grant or an investment?
It is an investment. When we started AI Grant in 2017, we handed out much smaller grants for fundamental research. We awarded grants to 36 individuals, who went on to do important research, and to found companies like Cohere, Helia, and Cresta.
Five years later, it seems much has changed: AI research is abundant, but UX and product innovation is just getting started, and so we're relaunching the program with a focus on AI products & investments versus AI papers & grants.
Are larger investments available?
Nat and Daniel separately invest in startups, generally leading rounds, investing between $1M and $100M. Companies that receive larger investments will also have access to the Andromeda Cluster.Will you fund multiple projects working on the same thing?
Yes. We plan to fund many companies; some form of overlap is bound to happen. Ultimately, we don't think this will be an issue because we strongly believe the AI product market is enormous -- large enough to support both Lyft and Uber or Bing and Google.
How will you select the winners?
We're looking for smart and energetic people with actionable ideas that are clearly useful. Demos are a big plus; not just because they're fun to look at, but because they hint at the type of person that cares about the end-user experience, which is ultimately all that matters.
Do I need a company to apply?
No, but you will need one if you're accepted into the program. We only invest in Delaware corporations, but you can create one from almost anywhere in the world with Stripe Atlas (or other programs) in only a few days.
Can I apply if I've raised money already?
Yes.
I'm a single founder. Can I apply?
Yes.
Who is funding this?
Nat and Daniel have invested $10M in AI Grant. The company investments themselves are made by AI Grant LLC. AI Grant is run by Hersh Desai.
I love this idea and I want to help! Can I provide additional funding, hardware, GPU time, datasets, mentorship, or help reviewing applications?
Yes! Thank you for being awesome! If you want to contribute in any way, please email us at sponsorship@aigrant.org.
Can I work at a company you fund?
Yes, please fill out the form here and we'll help match you.
I have further questions! How can I reach you?
support@aigrant.org