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Accelerators, Incubators, Residencies and Other Programs for 2026 AI Startup Founders

January 2026 (Updated October 2026)

A no-nonsense list of the top 2026 founder opportunities — fellowships, accelerators, residencies, and early-stage programs, backed by VC firms and others and organized by stage and focus with key dates and deal terms.

How to Use This Resource

Start with programs matching your stage: pre-idea founders should look at fellowships and residency programs first, while founders with traction should target VC-backed accelerators. Apply broadly but prioritize programs offering the specific resources you need most (compute credits, network access, or capital). Most applications take 1-2 hours, so batch your applications and reuse content where possible.

🟢 November 8, 2026 — Startmate Summer '27 (11:59pm AEDT)

🟢 November 18, 2026 — Techstars Spring 2027 class (incl. Techstars Anywhere)

🟢 November 30, 2026 — EWOR Fellowship (current application cycle)

🟢 December 6, 2026 — Conception X (Spring 2027 cohorts)

🟢 December 11, 2026 — Southbound Residency W27 (11:59pm ET; rolling admission, can fill earlier)

🟢 January 4, 2027 — Pear Prime 2027

🟢 January 20, 2027 — EIC Accelerator (full proposal cut-off; requires a GO on a short proposal first)

🟢 March 4, 2027 — NSF SBIR/STTR Phase I full proposals (requires a prior Project Pitch invitation)

Founder Fellowships & Residency Programs

Best for: Pre-idea to very early stage, technical founders exploring ideas, researchers transitioning to startups

Ideal if: You need compute credits, technical mentorship, or co-founder matching more than capital

• Anthropic Fellows Program — Anthropic — January 2027 cohort deadline has passed (October 30, 2026); the posting is still live with rolling review, and Anthropic runs multiple cohorts a year — next cohort dates not yet announced (applications go through Constellation's form, linked from the posting) — 4 months full-time research with possible extension, $3,850/week + ~$15K/month compute, Berkeley/London or remote (US/UK/Canada), no equity

• South Park Commons — SPC — Fall 2026 closed Aug 2, 2026; Spring 2027 expected ~Feb 2027 — Up to $1M ($400K upfront for 7%, $600K in next round) + up to $1M in credits, SF/NYC/Bangalore, -1 to 0 stage

• HF0 Residency — HF0 — Rolling applications; next batch starts Jan 4, 2027 — SF residency for repeat founders, Demo Day at batch end — funding and equity terms not published on-site; confirm directly

• Upfront Founder Fellows — Upfront Ventures — Second cohort applications open; no deadline published — 8 weeks, $75K+ in seed funding once you incorporate a venture-backable startup, 1:1 mentorship with an Upfront investor, private sessions with Upfront partners and portfolio founders, access to the 2027 Upfront Summit (1,000+ attendees), events across LA, NYC, SF, Boston and Philadelphia; for recent hyper-growth-startup grads, builders leaving academia for AI research, and engineers considering founding — equity terms not published; confirm directly

• EWOR Fellowship — EWOR — Current application cycle closes November 30, 2026, applications reviewed on a rolling basis; no batch schedules once accepted — Traction Fellows: €500K on acceptance (€110K at a €1.5M post-money cap + €390K uncapped SAFE), no tuition fee; Ideation Fellows (no revenue traction yet): optional investment up to €300K, with a 3% equity tuition fee if EWOR invests; virtual-first, Europe, unicorn-founder mentorship, cloud credits from 16+ partners

• ODF Founder Fellowship (formerly On Deck) — nZero Labs — Rolling — Rebranded from On Deck; beondeck.com/odf now redirects to joinodf.com — ODF28 begins Q1 2027, intense 1-week in-person SF experience with 80–100 participants, non-dilutive, no equity, no capital provided — program fee no longer published; confirm directly

• Basis Fellowship — Mark Khrapko, Spencer Green & Steven Pang (personally funded and via Orbit) — No deadline — applications always open — $50,000, no equity, no reporting, no strings attached; first cohort 2026; open to anyone (operators, engineers, scientists and others), ~10-minute application requiring a portfolio; $1,000 if someone you nominate is selected, and $3,000 at the organizers' discretion for a strong application that isn't — program length, location, cohort size and selection criteria not published; a personally funded effort rather than an institutional program, so confirm details directly

• Flagship Pioneering Fellowship 2027 — Flagship Pioneering — 2027 applications open (deadline not published; the 2026 round closed January 12) — June 7 – August 27, 2027, 12-week paid summer fellowship; for scientists and applied AI/ML experts who have completed, or are in the final year of, a PhD, MD or equivalent

• Southbound Residency W27 — focal + The LAB Miami — Apply by December 11, 2026 (11:59pm ET, no late applications; admission is rolling, so the cohort can fill earlier) — 12 weeks in person in Miami, Jan 11 – Apr 11, 2027, 7 days a week in the office, 10 spots for teams or solo technical founders who haven't raised yet; second cohort; optional $25K solo / $50K team on an uncapped SAFE with MFN, $1M+ in perks including GPU credits, free office at The LAB Miami, no program fee; housing at Flow Wynwood is a preferred rate, not free; every co-founder must relocate; international founders welcome if they can legally spend three months in the US, no visa sponsorship

AI & Deep Tech Accelerators

Best for: Technical founders building AI-first products, researchers commercializing novel AI research

Ideal if: You need cloud/compute credits, technical mentorship from AI experts, or access to cutting-edge tools

• NYC AI Nexus (Spring 2027) — C10 Labs + NYCEDC — Applications open, rolling review and intro calls, no deadline — 2.5-month Core Accelerator starting Spring 2027 in Manhattan ending with Demo Day (exact program and Demo Day dates not yet announced); Core Accelerator (investment for 1–2% advisory shares) or Build Track (co-founder model, 15–50% founder stock), Manhattan office space, $200K+ partner perks; healthcare/biotech, climate/energy, robotics; one team member must be in or commuting weekly to NYC

• AI Grant — Nat Friedman & Daniel Gross — Batch 4 applications currently closed — $250K uncapped no-cap no-discount MFN SAFE, $600K+ in credits (incl. $350K Azure), AI-native pre-seed/seed, SF Summit + Demo Day

• AI House (formerly AI2 Incubator) — AI House — Rolling — Rebranded from AI2 Incubator, June 2026 — Up to $600K on a SAFE at $10M cap (typically $100K solo / $200K team, scaling to $600K on milestones), 7% in common stock, Seattle, applied AI

• Conviction Embed — Conviction — Rolling admissions, cohort-based — $250K uncapped no-discount MFN SAFE (or at a round price from the last 60 days), 10-12 companies per cohort, in-person SF retreat + Demo Day, $350K AWS + $350K Azure + $500K+ other credits, early access to Mistral models

• OpenAI Converge — OpenAI Startup Fund — Periodic cohorts; no Converge 3 announced — $1M equity investment, 5-6 weeks, early access to OpenAI models, 10-15 startups

• Boost VC — Boost VC — Rolling — Leads pre-seed rounds with $500K checks, ~70 startups/yr, deep tech (nuclear, space, robotics, biotech, crypto, VR/AR, AI); now presents as a pre-seed fund rather than a cohort accelerator — the older "15% + housing" accelerator terms are no longer stated on their site, so confirm directly

• Google for Startups: AI First (North America) — Google — No current or upcoming cohort listed on the program page — Equity-free, product credits for eligible startups (cloud credits subject to eligibility review), ideally Seed–Series A

• Station F F/ai — Station F — F/ai is listed again on Station F's programs index ("The place to build AI"), but no application status or cohort dates are shown — confirm directly — Has run two 20-company cohorts/year in Paris, backed by OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, Meta, Microsoft, Mistral AI, Sequoia, General Catalyst, Lightspeed; $1M+ in model and compute credits, 0% equity

• AWS Generative AI Accelerator — AWS — No 2027 cohort announced; AWS's dedicated program page currently returns a 404 — Last described by AWS as an 8-week global hybrid program, NO EQUITY, up to $1M in AWS credits, for generative and agentic AI startups

• Antler Embark — Antler — Oct 2026 cohort closed August 31, 2026; next intake May 2027 — 4-6 weeks in San Francisco, Antler leads a $600K-$800K pre-seed with a $450K cheque, $2M+ in AI credits (OpenAI, Anthropic, Google Cloud, Azure, AWS), 10-12 companies per cohort, for immigrant founders building AI-first companies for the US market, SF relocation required

VC-Backed Programs for Founders

Best for: Founders with MVP or early traction, established founding teams

Ideal if: You want top-tier VC access, are building enterprise AI, or need strategic guidance over capital

• a16z Speedrun — a16z — Rolling year-round — SR008 closed November 1, 2026, so new applications are considered for the following residency (dates not yet announced) — up to $1M investment, $10M+ in credits from 200+ partners through the speedrun Marketplace

• Alchemist Accelerator — Alchemist — Rolling application deadlines (decisions within three weeks of the deadline you apply against) — 6 months, seed-stage enterprise and deep tech, in-person kickoff week in the SF Bay Area, virtual Demo Day; average $30K invested net of the tuition fee offset, for a single-digit grant of common equity that varies by company; $450K+ in perks

• Greylock Edge — Greylock — Rolling — 3 months, flexible terms at the founder's choice (priced seed, uncapped SAFE, or no capital at all — Greylock investment isn't required to join), $1M+ in infra and AI credits

• Betaworks Camp — Betaworks — Fall 2026 applications closed (AI Camp: Agentic Economy is in review and begins this fall); two sessions a year, with Spring applications typically open Dec–Jan for a March start — 12 weeks in-residence, NYC Meatpacking, typically 8–12 companies, thematic AI focus; up to $500K guaranteed investment (Betaworks and syndicate partners up to $250K each), no participation fee

• Collaborative Fund AIR — Collaborative Fund — DISCONTINUED — The AIR program page returns 404 and Collaborative Fund's site no longer mentions any founder program as of October 2026 — Was 10 weeks NYC, $500K for 10%, consumer AI focus

• Designer Fund — Designer Fund — Rolling, applications open — Early-stage design-led companies in health, sustainability and prosperity (portfolio incl. Stripe, Notion, Linear, Framer) — check size not published

• Afore Capital Founder-in-Residence — Afore Capital — Rolling year-round; Fall 2026 cohort kicked off Oct 1, 2026 — next cohort starts February 1, 2027 — 2 months in person at Afore's South Park SF office, ~10 teams per cohort, no participation fee listed; Afore invests at least $100K toward a $250K–$750K pre-seed raise on customized terms, and can sign and wire next day; co-founder matching available, -1 to 0 stage

• Drive Capital Seed Program — Drive Capital — Applications open, rolling — $500K per investment via SAFE from an $80M fund, pre-seed/seed; GMs in Columbus, Chicago, Austin, Atlanta, Boulder and Toronto (applications welcome from anywhere) — equity not published

• Soma Capital — Soma Capital — Rolling — Early-stage fund, early investor in 50+ unicorns (portfolio incl. Anthropic, OpenAI, Databricks), plus a separate Soma Fellows program — check sizes and terms not published; confirm directly

• Unshackled Ventures — Unshackled Ventures — Rolling — First checks at Day 0 (pre-product, pre-revenue) for immigrant and foreign founders regardless of visa status; handles your visa at zero cost — 300+ filings, 100% success rate; 400+ investor network — check size not published

• ForgeUp — ForgeUp Ventures — Rolling (application form / contact@forgeup.vc) — Site was unbuilt as of Aug 2026 and is now live — Growth program for already-funded AI, ML and advanced-tech startups with real traction and an established user base; five expert-led disciplines (sales, marketing, product strategy, IP/defensibility, corporate legal) plus a Chief of Staff component; B2B, B2C or dual-market — funding, equity, duration and location not published; confirm directly

• Village Global — Village Global — Rolling (contact form) — Early-stage fund with a network of 400+ founders, operator angels and LPs; not a cohort accelerator — check sizes not published; confirm directly

• Day One Ventures — Day One Ventures — Rolling (inquiry form) — Pre-seed to seed — the "Catalyst" program is no longer mentioned anywhere on their site; treat it as discontinued and pitch the fund directly

• Sequoia Arc — Sequoia — Bi-annual open call for pre-seed and seed founders — the 4-day Arc Intensive (~10 companies, workshops with Sequoia partners and operators) is for companies Sequoia partners with — application dates not published on the page

• Lightspeed Launch Program — Lightspeed — Portfolio Only — company-building program for early-stage Lightspeed-backed founders in the US and EU (1:1 advisory, playbooks, workshops); non-portfolio founders can use the open-sourced playbooks

• Bain Founder's Studio — Bain & Company — Internal Only

Global Accelerators

Best for: First-time founders with a validated idea, teams seeking structure and accountability

Ideal if: You need hands-on guidance, brand credibility, or access to corporate partnerships

• Startmate Summer '27 — Startmate — November 8, 2026 (11:59pm AEDT; the deadline moved from November 1) — offers go out mid-December; 14 weeks, Feb 1 – May 7, 2027, remote-first with three weeks in person plus weekly co-working at the Melbourne and Sydney offices; AUD $120K at a $1.5M post-money valuation (8%), paid on acceptance via SAFE or your priced round — founders who have already raised AUD $250K+ get their last round's terms matched instead; no program fees; Australia/NZ, overseas founders with a strong ANZ connection considered

• Techstars — Techstars — Rolling by program — 3 months, $20K for 5% equity + $200K uncapped MFN SAFE

• Techstars Anywhere — Techstars — November 18, 2026 — Program runs March 8 – June 3, 2027, 3 months remote-first with no relocation required, three in-person offsites in VC hubs, standard Techstars terms, North American time zones, emphasis on robotics, energy, applied and physical AI, and materials science

• 500 Global Flagship (The 500 Fellowship) — 500 Global — Batch 36 applications closed October 11, 2026; next batch not yet announced — 4 months in San Francisco (Batch 36 runs November 30, 2026 – April 9, 2027); up to $50K upfront with potential for up to $1M more; $35,000 Phase 1 program fee per startup, excluding travel — equity terms not published; confirm directly

• Antler — Antler — Applications reviewed year-round — see cohort start dates — Terms vary by region: US residency up to 3 months in person, $500K–$1M initial commitment + $650K in partner credits, no fee; Singapore 6 weeks, $150K for 10%; UK 8 weeks, £210K at inception with a £40K program fee; co-founder matching, 26+ locations; see also Antler Embark under AI & Deep Tech Accelerators

• Entrepreneur First (EF Global) — Entrepreneur First — Rolling — Equity-free grant while you're ideating, then up to $250K once you form a company, up to $5M in follow-on through Series B; co-founder matching; London, Bangalore and San Francisco; $600K+ in credits (incl. $350K Azure); for people who have built products, organizations or startups before — equity terms not published; confirm directly

• Seedcamp — Seedcamp — Rolling ("Pitch Us") — Europe's seed fund, invests from day one through later rounds; portfolio includes Wise, Revolut, UiPath — check size and equity not published; confirm directly

• Plug and Play — Plug and Play — Rolling by vertical — 12 weeks, 0% equity and no program fee (funded by corporate partners), Selection Day → program → Expo Day; 500+ corporate partners; separate PnP Ventures investment on standard SAFE/note terms if you take it

• MassChallenge — MassChallenge — No open programs listed — site says "check back for upcoming programming"; join the interest form to be notified — NO EQUITY; Early Stage (industry-agnostic) and Challenge Programs across healthcare, security, food systems, climate and financial systems

• Creative Destruction Lab (CDL) — CDL — 2026/27 program closed Jul 24, 2026; 2027/28 applications expected ~spring 2027 — 9 months, NO EQUITY and no fees, science/deep-tech focus, 17 locations across 10 countries

• HAX — SOSV — Rolling — $550K initial investment, Newark HQ + Princeton (HAX Plasma Forge), pre-seed hard tech: energy, advanced compute, transportation, health tech, manufacturing

• SOSV SF / SOSV NY (formerly IndieBio) — SOSV — Rolling — Rebranded from IndieBio in early 2026, scope widened beyond biotech — SF and NYC, deep tech: bio, chemistry, physics, AI, food/ag, industrial decarbonization; on-site labs — current check size not published; confirm directly

• APX — Axel Springer + Porsche — Rolling (pitch by email/form) — Berlin, earliest-stage/pre-seed, often first institutional check — investment amount and equity not published; confirm directly

• Startup Wise Guys — Startup Wise Guys — Rolling — €100K initial ticket in flagship programs, Europe, vertical tracks (SaaS, fintech, cybersecurity and more) across Building/Growing/Scaling stages

• Project Europe — Project Europe (20VC, Point Nine, Adjacent) — Rolling cohorts, apply anytime — €200K for 6.66%, idea stage onwards; founders must be 25 or younger and starting the company from Europe; 1:1 mentorship from partners including the CEOs of ElevenLabs and Synthesia, quarterly cohort coworks in European cities, backed by 215 European founders

• Conception X — Conception X — December 6, 2026 (Spring 2027 cohorts) — Venture creation for academic researchers across Europe: Venture Scientist 100 is a 9-month fellowship for ~100 PhD founders designed to run alongside the PhD, with investment and expert coaching for top teams; Raise is a 10-week investment-readiness programme for science teams — investment amounts and equity not published; confirm directly

• Founders Factory — Founders Factory — Rolling by program — Venture studio (co-found with their team) plus corporate-sponsored accelerators: Aviva Fintech (London & global), Rio Tinto Mining Tech, WA Government Nature Tech, MSWA Neurological Care (Perth & global) and Blue Action Climate (global); pre-seed and seed investment, operational support and corporate partner access — funding amounts, equity and deadlines vary by program and are not published centrally

• Wayra — Telefónica — Rolling (contact form) — Telefónica's corporate venture arm in Spain, Germany, the UK and Brazil; venture-client model connecting startups to Telefónica business units and customers rather than a fixed cohort program — per-startup investment amount, equity and application deadlines not published; confirm directly

Non-Dilutive Grants & Public Funding

Best for: Deep tech and hardware founders who need capital without giving up ownership

Ideal if: You have a working prototype and can absorb a long, paperwork-heavy application cycle

• EIC Accelerator — European Innovation Council — Next full-proposal cut-off January 20, 2027, then March 17, September 1 and November 4, 2027, all at 5pm Brussels time, under the 2027 Work Programme adopted November 5, 2026 (you need a GO on a short proposal first; short proposals are accepted anytime, batched the first Tuesday monthly, with results in about 4-6 weeks) — Grant of up to €2.5M, 0% equity, for TRL 6-8 innovation activities completed within 24 months; optionally blended with a €1M-€10M equity or quasi-equity investment component, so the grant-only route is the non-dilutive one. Open to single startups and SMEs including spin-outs, and small mid-caps up to 499 employees (investment-only, or blended in exceptional cases); non-EU applicants must relocate the company to become eligible before the full application, and UK applicants are restricted to grant-only

• NSF SBIR/STTR Phase I (America's Seed Fund) — National Science Foundation — Next full-proposal deadline March 4, 2027 (5pm submitter's time), then the first Wednesday in July — Up to $305K for a 6–18 month feasibility study, no equity and no IP taken (the ceiling now folds in direct and indirect costs, the small-business fee and TABA commercialization funds); US small businesses, deep tech across all NSF topic areas — you cannot submit a full proposal without first filing a Project Pitch and receiving an emailed invitation from NSF program staff; NSF says to expect a pitch response in about 1-2 months and companies are limited to two pitches per year, so founders aiming for March should file a pitch soon; solicitation NSF 26-510

• Anthropic AI for Science — Anthropic — Rolling; applications evaluated the first Monday of each month — Up to $20K in Claude API credits for a 6-month period, no equity; open to researchers in academia and nonprofit organizations attached to research institutions — for-profit companies are not listed as eligible; focused on biology and life sciences but also chemistry, medicine, environmental science, physics, computer science and earth sciences; judged on scientific merit, potential impact, technical feasibility and biosecurity screening — credits are API-only and do not cover the Claude web app, finetuning or nonpublic models; unsuccessful applicants are not individually notified

• Emergent Ventures — Mercatus Center (Tyler Cowen) — Rolling, no deadlines — Low-overhead fellowship and grant program for individuals anywhere in the world pursuing "zero to one" ideas; open to applicants aged 13 and up, one application per person per project; dedicated tranches for Africa and the Caribbean, India, Ukraine, UK Dynamism, US Science Policy, archaeology, and travel for career development — no AI-written applications: anything using AI beyond proofreading is rejected; the program does not give feedback or answer status queries — grant amounts and equity terms not published

Traditional Accelerators & Incubators

Best for: Founders seeking capital + mentorship without top-tier VC pressure

Ideal if: You're optimizing for ownership percentage or prefer remote/flexible programs

• Entrepreneurs Roundtable Accelerator (ERA) — ERA — Applications open for W'27 and S'27 — $150K on a 6% post-money SAFE, New York City, mentorship and access to the NYC startup ecosystem — program length and cohort start dates not published; no deadline stated on their site, so confirm directly

• Hexa (formerly eFounders) — Hexa — Rolling "Call for Founders" — Venture studio that co-builds companies with founders across three stages: Start (idea matching and cofounder search), Sprint (funding and growth) and Scale; 30+ in-house experts across product, GTM, finance, legal and investing; 50+ companies launched including Aircall, Spendesk and Front, ~$6B combined valuation and 12 exits — funding amounts and equity terms not published; confirm directly

• LAUNCH Accelerator — LAUNCH — Rolling — $125K, 14 weeks with weekly pitching to investors, MVP-to-scale stage — equity terms not published; confirm in your own offer

• AngelPad — AngelPad — Applications currently closed; no next cohort announced — email signup only — 12 weeks in NYC and SF, $120K investment + $300K+ in cloud credits (AWS, Google, DigitalOcean), founders hold the same class of shares — equity percentage not published

• Pear VC (PearX) — Pear VC — W27 regular applications closed October 4, 2026; later applications reviewed on a rolling basis — 12 weeks, $500K-$2M, up to 25 teams per cohort, two cohorts/yr (Jan–Apr and Jul–Oct)

• Neo Residency (Winter 2027) — Neo — No published deadline — 3 months in SF + an all-expenses-paid 2-week bootcamp in Texas, cohort of up to 20 startups and student teams; startups get $750K uncapped (Neo gets participation rights in your next equity round up to 5% ownership) + $450K+ in Azure, AWS, OpenAI and other credits; students get $40K each + $100K+ in credits; every founder/student also gets a profit share in Neo's fund

• Founder Institute — Founder Institute — Rolling, applications open (Silicon Valley Spring 2027 cohort listed) — 10 sessions plus Funding Day, 15–20 hrs/week, 200+ cities across 95+ countries; entrance fee $1,099 in Silicon Valley (refundable before kickoff; 1.5x for 2–3 founder teams); founders pledge 2.5% of future equity to the Equity Collective via a warrant, which only activates at a qualified financing

• IDEO CoLab Ventures — IDEO — Creative Residency status unclear — most recent resident posts are from 2023–2024 and no current application path is published; contact fundteam@ideo.com

• AlleyCorp Startup Studio — AlleyCorp — Internal Only

• MuckerLab Accelerator — Mucker — Open applications, reviewed quarterly — Typically $100K-$175K for 10%-15% equity, pre-seed, 20-25 companies a year in annual cohorts; about a year of hands-on company-building rather than a three-month bootcamp, no demo day; offices in Los Angeles, Austin and Toronto, open to founders worldwide with no requirement to relocate; also takes existing businesses needing a strategy reboot and corporate spin-offs

Pre-Idea & Very Early Stage Programs

Best for: Technical talent exploring ideas, researchers, side-project founders

Ideal if: You want low-commitment exploration before going full-time

• Founders Inc — Founders Inc — Rolling, no fixed deadlines — Two-week campus experience in SF with funding consideration; emerging tech — current check size and equity not published; the "up to $250K for 4-7%" figure comes from the older Artifact program

• Z Fellows — Z Fellows — Rolling — 1 week, $10K at $1B cap

• Pear Prime 2027 — Pear VC — January 4, 2027 — Annual program for CS students, recent grads and early-career engineers; founder meetings and career opportunities at Pear portfolio companies (Cerebras, Perplexity, HeyGen and others), career coaching from Pear's Talent team, lifelong engineer/founder network, and priority consideration for PearX — talent program, not an investment: no funding or equity; program length and location not published

• Founder University — LAUNCH — Cohort 13 starts early 2027 (deadline not published) — 12 weeks, $500 tuition, refunded if you attend every live session; $25K or $125K invested in top graduates; two 1-hour live sessions a week (Mon + Thu, 5pm CT) plus 5–10 hrs/week of videos and reading

• Pioneer — Pioneer — DISCONTINUED — Stopped making new investments in 2024 — Was $20K for 1%, remote accelerator for ambitious outsiders

• Gold House Ventures Accelerator — Gold House — No cohort dates published; the most recent cohort listed is Spring 2025 — 14-week program, seed funding eligibility, masterclasses + public Demo Day; note: renamed from the Founder Fellowship and now open to diverse-led U.S. startups from all underrepresented communities, not only API founders

Sector-Specific Programs

Best for: Founders in niche verticals like fintech, climate, food tech, or specialized industries

Ideal if: You need industry-specific expertise, pilots, or corporate connections

• AI BioHub Accelerator — C10 Labs + LabCentral — Next cohort dates TBD (Spring 2026 closed Mar 9, ran from Mar 19) — Cambridge MA, AI-for-biotech, lab ecosystem access via LabCentral

• Forum Ventures — Forum Ventures — Rolling — Three arms: AI venture studio, accelerator, and pre-seed fund; B2B software only, zero-to-one stage, 600+ companies funded — check size and equity not published; confirm directly

• Third Derivative (D3) — RMI + New Energy Nexus — Accepts startups multiple times a year — 18 months virtual, no exclusivity required, hardtech climate; requires 2+ full-time employees and a working prototype (TRL 4+) — funding terms not published; confirm directly

• Bethnal Green Ventures — BGV — Autumn 2026 applications closed; applications for the next programme open in November 2026 — UK early-stage "tech for good" VC and the first UK VC certified as a B Corp; selects 10–15 companies twice a year and invests £60,000 upfront (non-negotiable offer), with follow-on support to Series A; climate, inequality and health; no warm introduction needed — equity not published; confirm directly

• Google for Startups: Climate Change — Google — No current or upcoming cohort listed on the program page — Cohorts of 10–15 startups, equity-free, product credits plus cloud credits by application and possible free Cloud TPU access, ideally Seed–Series A

• Greentown Labs — Greentown Labs — Rolling startup membership — Moved to greentown.org — Somerville MA + Houston TX, climatetech incubator with lab/prototyping space, plus themed programs (Go Build, Go Energize, Go Grow, Carbon to Value) — membership pricing not published

• The Mint — Better Tomorrow Ventures — No longer accepting applications; the program page has been removed from BTV's site — Was 10 weeks NYC/SF, $500K for 10%, fintech-focused, pre-seed

Compute and GPU Programs for Founders

Best for: All AI founders, especially those building LLM-based applications or training models

Ideal if: Compute costs are your primary burn or you need specialized GPU access

• Cloudflare for Startups — Cloudflare — Rolling (review in ~48 hours) — Tiered credits for one year: $10K (bootstrapped, under $1M raised), $100K (under $5M raised, partner-gated), $350K ($5M+ raised, partner-gated); R2 credits capped at $10K, Workers AI capped at $2.5K / $10K / $50K by tier, AI Gateway temporarily not covered, domain registrar fees excluded; incorporated within 10 years, funded up to Series B with funding in the last 12 months, live public website, a public presence on LinkedIn, X or GitHub and a business email on your domain, never previously approved; agencies, consultancies, MSPs, resellers and educational institutions excluded

• Google Cloud for Startups — Google — Three tiers: Bootstrapped (~$2K), Standard (up to $200K), AI-First (up to $350K); credits valid ~2 years; the AI-First tier generally requires accelerator or VC association (partner-gated) and building on Vertex AI or Gemini

• AWS Activate — Amazon — Up to $200K in Activate credits, no tiers and no partner affiliation required; additional credits for AI startups ready to scale; usable on infrastructure, data services and AI/ML model costs including third-party models on Bedrock; first prototype through Series A and beyond

• Databricks for Startups — Databricks — Up to $200K in credits across Databricks + Neon, amount depends on qualification; apply directly or be referred by a partner VC (a16z, Battery, General Catalyst, Insight Partners, Menlo Ventures, NEA); technical guidance, GTM support and Solution Accelerators; separate invitation-only Databricks AI Accelerator

• Microsoft for Startups — Microsoft — Up to $150K in Azure credits across eligible services from early development through production, plus AI model access, GitHub and Microsoft 365 tools, technical guidance and GTM support — tiers and eligibility criteria are not published on the main page

• Startup with IBM — IBM — Up to $120K IBM Cloud credits over 12 months (watsonx.ai/.data/.governance), no equity; Builder tier $1K/mo for companies under 5 yrs with under $1M revenue, Premium tier $10K/mo requires an approved VC, accelerator or incubator partner — IBM's own startup page now redirects to an IBM Community group and no longer shows these terms; they come from IBM community and partner listings, so confirm directly

• RunPod Startup Program — RunPod — Rolling — Starter Tier: $1K credits, no commit (pre-Series A); Growth Tier: $50K commit + $25K bonus ($75K total, 12-month term), Seed–Series B+ spending $5K–$25K+/mo

• fal for Startups — fal — Rolling — Accelerator deals: YC and a16z portfolio companies get $50K for fal Serverless or $20K for Model APIs, Entrepreneur First $10K for either; one package per company, released in stages over 1–2 years (YC redeems via Bookface). Startup Program (Europe and Asia): $1K to start, $2.5K once you reach $1K/month spend, $5K at $2.5K/month, with up to $1.5K–$2.5K more on request; requires generative media powering core product features plus real users, traction or institutional backing; one application per company every three months, partner-fund referral codes prioritised

• Together AI Startup Accelerator — Together AI — Selection-based, pre-seed to growth stage — Tiers by total funds raised: Build (up to $5M raised) up to $15K credits + 3 hrs forward-deployed engineering, Scale ($5M–$10M) up to $30K + 6 hrs, Grow ($10M+) up to $50K + 10 hrs; no equity; also joint marketing, co-sell and VC network introductions — credits do not apply to Reserved GPU Clusters

• Claude for Startups — Anthropic — Cohort full; not accepting new applications as of October 2026 (newsletter signup announces the next cohort) — Discounts and credits worth up to $45K from companies building with Claude via the Claude Startup Stack (Build, Design, Analyze and Grow categories — ElevenLabs, Firecrawl, Gamma and others), redeemed with codes in the Claude Console, plus 1 year of Claude Team (up to 5 Premium seats for new members) and automatically higher API rate limits; startups backed by a VC in Anthropic's partner network may claim up to $100K in additional Claude API credits through their VC (partner-gated, route remains open); credits work on the first-party Claude API via Claude Console only — not Bedrock, Vertex AI, Azure or other third-party platforms

• Scaleway Startup Program — Scaleway — Rolling, reviewed weekly by committee — Three tiers: Founders up to €1,000 over one year (migration or initial build), Early Stage €1,500/month for 6 months (€9,000 total), Growth Stage €3,000/month for 12 months (€36,000 total); you cannot move from Early Stage to Growth Stage, and consumption above your credits is billed to you; under 5 years old, fewer than 50 employees, not already a Scaleway client; credits apply across the product range including GPU Instances — Scaleway's FAQ lists different monthly figures (€500 and €1,500) than its tier table, so confirm before relying on the amounts

• Baseten Startup Program — Baseten — Rolling — Up to $25K for Dedicated Inference or Training and up to $2.5K for Model APIs; AI-first companies (AI core to the primary product) at Seed to Series A, under 5 years old, net new to Baseten (no prior Baseten credits); support escalating to shared Slack and Zoom, cross-cloud autoscaling, networking events and GTM support including launch promotion and webinars

• Anyscale AI Startup Program — Anyscale — Rolling — Up to $20K in Anyscale credits plus dedicated field engineers for architecture design and hands-on support; runs on your own cloud, so credits stack with existing cloud provider credits; Ray-based training and serving — eligibility criteria are not published and the $20K figure is described by third-party trackers as an estimate rather than a guaranteed tier; confirm directly

• Replicate — Replicate — UNCONFIRMED — As of October 2026 Replicate has no startup program page (replicate.com/startups returns 404); the $1K–$10K credit figures circulate only on third-party perk directories

• GitHub for Startups — GitHub — Rolling via partners (approval in 2-3 business days) — $10K in GitHub credits across Enterprise, Copilot, Advanced Security and Actions, valid up to 12 months; requires affiliation with a GitHub for Startups partner investor, incubator or accelerator, outside funding at Series B or earlier (non-equity credits don't count), and that you be new to GitHub Enterprise — GitHub.com Enterprise Cloud only, not Enterprise Server or Data Residency

• Lambda GPU Cloud — Lambda — Now at lambda.ai; lambdalabs.com redirects — Self-serve B200, H100, A100 and GH200 instances; no startup program or research grant is published on Lambda's site as of October 2026 — credits reach startups through partner deals (accelerators, NVIDIA Inception), so ask your program

• OpenAI for Startups — OpenAI — Partner-gated: API credits require a referral code from a partner VC (named partners include Thrive Capital, Sequoia, a16z, Kleiner Perkins and Conviction) — credits, rate-limit upgrades and solutions-engineer time for backed startups; Build Hours, starter repos and founder events open to all — credit amounts not published

• Modal for Startups — Modal — Rolling — "Thousands" of free GPU credits (no figure published) plus direct access to Modal's engineering team, GTM help on launches and fundraises, and a founder community; Seed–Series A qualifies with any VC funding from Modal's partner network or $1M+ raised from any fund, Scaling/Series B+ requires $30M+ raised or post-Series B and a partner-network VC (partner-gated); one-time grant, no reapplying for the same tier, must be new to Modal

• Nebius for Startups — Nebius — Credits available only through partner VC firms (partner-gated); requires $5M+ raised from an approved VC, incorporated under 5 yrs, AI product focus; applications currently waitlisted, though open community access remains available — credit amounts not published

• CoreWeave — CoreWeave — UNCONFIRMED — The Startup Accelerator launched in 2022 (credits + compute discounts, support engineers, VC intros), but its page now redirects to Contact Sales and nothing on CoreWeave's site mentions a startup program as of October 2026

• DigitalOcean Hatch — DigitalOcean — Rolling — 12 months of credits (amount varies and is set at approval, capped at $10K/month) + 15 months free Standard support; apply through a partner VC or accelerator, or directly by selecting "Other"; GPU credits are a separate application and not guaranteed; must have raised $10M or less, AI-native startups prioritized, not open to agencies or companies that have used DigitalOcean credits before

• Vast.ai Startup Program — Vast.ai — Rolling (team reviews every application) — Dollar-for-dollar credit match on verified compute spend, up to a cap set on approval; spend $500 get $500 back, and so on — no upfront credits and no free trial; H100/H200/B200 at up to 80% below hyperscaler pricing, per-second billing, no minimums, SOC 2 Type 2; for companies already training, running inference or scaling production workloads, not those still evaluating

• Arm Flexible Access for Startups — Arm — Rolling — $0 access to Arm's SoC IP portfolio and $0 licence fee for producing prototypes, plus free tools, training and support; licence fees due only at production tape-out and calculated only on IP in the final design; privately owned silicon startups with no more than $50M total funding and $5M annual revenue (raised in 2026 from $20M/$1M — Arm's own FAQ still shows the old figures) — no cash value published

• NVIDIA Inception Program — NVIDIA — Free, no equity, no deadlines or cohorts; preferred pricing on select hardware and software (as a rebate through suppliers), free cloud credits from NVIDIA and partners, technical training, VC introductions; must be incorporated, under 10 yrs old, with a working website and at least one actively operating founder; revenue not required, no NVIDIA GPUs required

• Hugging Face for Startups — Hugging Face — No startup program; the nearest offer is the $9/month Pro plan: $2 of inference credits monthly, 10x private storage, 8x ZeroGPU quota with highest queue priority; Hugging Face also offers community GPU grants for side projects

• Cursor for Startups — Cursor — Free Cursor Pro for eligible early-stage startups (commonly ~12 months); usually routed via accelerator/VC partnerships (partner-gated) — terms are not published on a stable public page, so confirm directly with Cursor

• Trinity Builders Program — Arcee AI — Free Trinity API credits allocated by token band (under 50M up to 1B+ tokens), valid 90 days; open source projects, research, production apps, and dev tools; allocation subject to available capacity — announced April 2026; the program page is offline as of October 2026, so confirm with Arcee before applying

• Oracle for Startups — Oracle — The dedicated startup page now redirects to Oracle Cloud — Free tier plus steep ongoing OCI discounts; larger credit allocations routed through approved VC and accelerator partners rather than a public portal (partner-gated), so amounts vary — confirm directly

• National Compute Grid — National Compute Labs PBC — Not open to founders yet — worth watching — Pooled compute infrastructure for the frontier research ecosystem, currently in preview under "Public Sector Access": sign-in requires a .edu, .mil or .gov email and everyone else joins a waitlist. Includes an Evaluate option (Marshall environment), a published capacity forecast and a downloadable paper; AMP is listed as a frontier systems partner — no founder or startup access path, pricing or credits announced; the site warns of extreme demand surges

• Cohere Startup Program — Cohere — DISCONTINUED — The program page has been removed and redirects to Cohere's homepage; as of October 2026 the word "startup" does not appear anywhere on their site and nothing links to a startup program — Was a 25% discount on all models for up to 12 months + technical support and co-marketing, Series B and earlier. The only remaining offer is Cohere Labs Catalyst Grants — rolling applications, API credits for academic partners and civic or public-impact organizations working on education, healthcare, climate or sustainability; projects must be public-benefit or open science, so commercial startups will not generally qualify — credit amounts not published

Recently Closed Founder Programs (For Reference)

These programs have closed for their current cohorts but typically run annually. Check their websites for future application cycles.

• Y Combinator W27 — Y Combinator — CLOSED (November 2, 2026 at 8pm PT — late apps still considered) — Decisions by Dec 11, 3 months Jan–Mar SF starting with a 3-day in-person kickoff, $500K total ($125K for 7% + $375K MFN SAFE)

• a16z Speedrun SR008 — a16z — CLOSED (November 1, 2026) — Runs February 1 – April 16, 2027 in San Francisco, up to $1M investment; later applications are considered for the following residency

• Forge Residency (Edge City India) — Edge City — CLOSED (cycle ended November 1, 2026) — 21-day residency for 30 founders inside Edge City's popup village at Mandrem Beach, North Goa, paid tickets — no next cycle announced; Edge City runs recurring villages, so watch for the next location

• Activate Fellowship (2027 U.S. cohort) — Activate — CLOSED (October 30, 2026) — Two years, $300K+ total covering an annual living stipend, R&D and living expenses, zero equity, for scientists and engineers leading hardware-based innovation; Cohort 2028: interest form and recruitment webinars are on the apply page

• Alchemist Chicago — Alchemist + UChicago — CLOSED (August 20, 2026) — Bootcamp ran Oct 19–23, 2026; up to 15 of up to 30 startups advance to the Jan–Jul 2027 program, $50K SAFE (~4% typical), deep tech/quantum/AI, $1M+ partner perks; next cycle expected ~mid-2027

• Founders, Inc. Blueprint II — Founders, Inc. — CLOSED (September 14, 2026) — Program runs Sep 30–Dec 11, 2026, 3 months SF, 30 teams, hardware and frontier tech, $1M+ in credits plus up to a year of access to their hardware facility and prototyping labs — investment terms (reported as $150K for 5%) appear only in third-party roundups; the official Blueprint page is not publicly readable, so confirm directly

• NYC AI Nexus Fall 2026 — C10 Labs + NYCEDC — CLOSED (August 31, 2026) — Cohort is in program with 17 companies, early Oct–Dec 2026, Demo Day Dec 2026, Manhattan; Spring 2027 applications are open on a rolling basis

• Antler Embark (Oct 2026 cohort) — Antler — CLOSED (August 31, 2026) — 4-6 weeks SF, $600K-$800K pre-seed led by Antler with a $450K cheque, $2M+ in AI credits; runs twice yearly, next intake May 2027

• The Bridge Residency (Fall 26) — Entrepreneur First — CLOSED (August 30, 2026 — late applications may not be reviewed) — Starts Oct 2026, 8 weeks Bay Area, up to $250K for 8%, young European founders, no idea or co-founder required

• Berkeley SkyDeck Batch 23 — UC Berkeley — CLOSED (August 21, 2026) — Program runs Nov 2, 2026 – Apr 15, 2027, $210K from the SkyDeck Fund for ~20 cohort teams (plus Pad-13 teams without guaranteed funding), 900+ advisors, Demo Day Apr 2027; Batch 24 applications open in January

• South Park Commons Fall 2026 — SPC — CLOSED (August 2, 2026) — Bootcamp late Sep–late Nov 2026; Spring 2027 applications expected ~Feb 2027

• Y Combinator F26 — Y Combinator — CLOSED (July 27, 2026 — late apps still reviewed) — Decisions by Aug 28, 3 months Oct–Dec SF, $500K total ($125K for 7% + $375K MFN SAFE)

• Creative Destruction Lab (CDL) 2026/27 — CDL — CLOSED (July 24, 2026) — 9 months, NO EQUITY and no fees, science/deep-tech focus, 17 locations across 10 countries

• Google Xoogler AI Startup Incubator — Xoogler.co + Google AI Futures Fund — CLOSED (July 15, 2026) — 12 weeks, 10-20 startups, up to $100K access to capital + up to $350K Google Cloud and AI credits, early access to Google AI models, Google/DeepMind alumni focus

• AWS Generative AI Accelerator 2026 — AWS — CLOSED — 2026 window reported as June 10 – July 10, 2026; AWS's program page is now offline, so those dates aren't confirmable on AWS's site — 8 weeks hybrid, NO EQUITY, up to $1M AWS credits, global

• Lux Fellowship — Lux — CLOSED (May 26, 2026) — $15,000 non-dilutive grants, deep mentorship, and a world-class network to the boldest undergrads pushing the boundaries of physical, computational, and life sciences

• a16z Speedrun SR007 — a16z — CLOSED (May 17, 2026) — Cohort ran late Jul–Oct 2026; SR008 has also now closed (November 1, 2026)

• Y Combinator S26 — Y Combinator — CLOSED (May 4, 2026) — 3 months Jul–Sep SF, $500K total ($125K for 7% + $375K MFN SAFE)

• The House Fund AI Accelerator — The House Fund — CLOSED (May 1, 2026) — The accelerator page has been removed from their site — June-Aug 2026, 10 weeks in-person Berkeley, SAFE for 7-10%, UC Berkeley-affiliated founders, AI-first focus

• Google Summer of Code (GSoC) — Google — CLOSED (Apply Mar 16–31, 2026) — 12+ weeks, stipend, open source development; 2027 dates not yet announced

• a16z Speedrun Alpha Cohort 2 — a16z — CLOSED (October 11, 2026) — Founder Track: up to $250K + $1M+ in credits, 8 weeks in person in SF (Jan 11 – Mar 5, 2027); Talent Track: 4 weeks (Feb 8 – Mar 5, 2027) placing engineers at portfolio companies; technical students and recent grads with US work authorization, ~40 fellows

• Vercel AI Accelerator — Vercel — CLOSED (Feb 16, 2026 for 2026 cohort) — Ran Mar 2–Apr 16, 2026, 6 weeks virtual-first, 40 participants, NO EQUITY, $8M+ in credits (Vercel, v0, AWS and other AI platforms), Demo Day SF; the page's "Apply now" link is live but 2027 dates aren't posted

• The Bridge Residency (Summer 26) — Entrepreneur First — CLOSED (Feb 16, 2026) — July 2026, 8 weeks Bay Area, up to $250K for 8%, European grads 2023+; the Fall 26 cohort has also now closed

• Berkeley SkyDeck Batch 22 — UC Berkeley — CLOSED (Feb 13, 2026) — 6 months, 900+ advisors, Demo Day to 600+ investors; Batch 23 has also now closed

• Presight AI Accelerator — Presight/G42 — CLOSED (Feb 15, 2026, Cohort II) — 3-day bootcamp in Abu Dhabi then 6 months remote; infrastructure and compute access plus a $50K in-kind SAFE (no cap, no discount) contingent on a joint contract with a G42 company; B2B/B2G AI deep tech past prototype with some sales

• Accel Atoms AI Cohort 2026 — Accel + Google AI Futures Fund — CLOSED (Jan 26, 2026) — Feb-May 2026, 3 months, up to $2M, Indian/Indian-origin founders, $350K Google Cloud credits; Atoms is open year-round for non-cohort applications

• OpenAI Grove Cohort 2 — OpenAI — CLOSED (Jan 12, 2026) — Jan 22-Feb 27, 2026, 5 weeks (in person in SF the first and last week, travel covered), ~15 participants, pre-idea technical talent, credits and fundraising intros, no equity

• CrowdStrike/AWS/NVIDIA Cybersecurity Accelerator — CrowdStrike — CLOSED — Announcement press release has been taken down — 2026 cohort ran Jan-Mar, 8 weeks free, AI security focus, Demo Day Mar 24 SF

• Founders, Inc. Artifact Program — Founders, Inc. — CLOSED (Dec 31, 2025) — foundersinc.co no longer resolves; the company is now at f.inc — Jan 12-Feb 13, 2026, 5 weeks SF, up to $250K + $500K credits for 4-7%

• Thrive Capital Summer Fellowship — Thrive Capital — CLOSED (Dec 1, 2025) — June-Aug 2026 NYC, 10 weeks, $40K grant, college students only (not founders)

• The R[3]sidency x Construct — Fabric Ventures — CLOSED (September 15 — year not stated on their site) — 12 weeks Oct–Jan, capped at 8 teams, $300K investment + $100K+ in credits and ecosystem perks, UK-based, web3/AI/frontier tech — equity terms not published; runs recurring cohorts, so check for the next cycle

• Robinhood Catalyst — Robin Hood's Blue Ridge Labs — CLOSED (Nov 21, 2025) — 10th cohort named January 22, 2026; Feb-Jun 2026, 4 months Brooklyn, $100K for 5.5%, social impact/economic mobility focus; no 11th cohort announced yet

Related resources:

• TheGrantIndex — an independent global directory of 366+ startup credits, grants and perks, covering AI tooling, voice and infrastructure vendors beyond the programs listed here.

Removed — Verified Defunct or Unreachable (Oct 2026)

These were re-checked on October 24, 2026 and their sites are dead, parked, or unbuilt.

• Backdrop Build — backdrop.build now redirects to a domain-sale listing

• AIX Ventures Studio — aix.ventures no longer resolves (DNS failure)

• FoodSeed — foodseed.eu no longer resolves (DNS failure)

• Founders Fellowship — foundersfellowship.com is a parked domain that redirects to a lander page

• Seed Club — seedclub.xyz SSL certificate expired; site unreachable

• 1752vc (formerly Pegasus) — server returning 522 errors; unreachable

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