GCP – Google Cloud expands its support for founders through partnerships with 300 accelerators worldwide

At Google Cloud, we focus on building the most competitive and powerful network of support for startups. One of the ways we show our support is by partnering with investors, accelerators, and incubators to deliver the resources and benefits that help startups succeed.

For example, we are proud to partner with marquee institutions who invest in the next generation of founders like Y Combinator. We have also extended our network of partnerships to accelerators worldwide who support founders with mentorship, education, and in some cases, investment, such as ERA and AI2 Incubator.

In 2024, we worked with over 300 accelerators worldwide to help thousands of startups and over 3,000 founders build with Google. We’ve extended benefits to these startups including access to Startup Success Managers, Customer Engineers, and AI product teams, dedicated packages of credits, and technical programming like workshops and office hours.

Today, we’re proud to announce our latest partnerships with three more accelerators – Berkeley SkyDeck, Upekkha, and UnternehmerTUM – and highlight some of the companies we’re supporting through them.

Introducing our latest accelerator partnerships

Berkeley SkyDeck is the only university accelerator partnering with a leading venture capital fund. Berkeley’s mission emphasizes long-term societal benefit, and prioritizes companies that align with this vision. Several SkyDeck companies are already running on Google Cloud, including:

• Deeli AI, an AI-powered platform that helps companies discover and evaluate emerging technologies to make informed investment decisions. They currently build their product and data pipeline on various services such as GCE, Cloud Run, and Dataflow, and interact with models from the Vertex AI Model Garden.

• ContextQA is Agentic AI for software testing, providing 12x the value by enabling accurate, user-centric test automation from day zero of development and helps to deliver bug-free product 40% faster. ContextQA uses Gemini models to continuously compare actual application behavior with expected behavior, adapting automatically to new changes for immediate agility.

• T-Robotics provides pre-trained AI skills for robots that make commercial robots intelligent and robust.  These skills are programmed through a conversational robot agent that leverages visual, haptic, action and language models – including Google Cloud’s Gemini – to seamlessly interpret and adapt to diverse industrial environments.

“Our partnership with Google Cloud enables startups to build better and faster, which is crucial for their success. Beyond the technology and services provided, we foster meaningful connections between our startups and Googlers, facilitating discussions on industry trends and innovations in AI.” – Taylor Marcus, Head of Business Development at Berkeley Skydeck

Upekkha helps Indian founders build vertical AI companies that sell globally, with intense coaching, a network of founders, and capital. Google Cloud is partnering with them to support:

• Outpost is a platform for AI/ML and data teams to train, fine tune, and deploy genAI models with managed infrastructure, tools, and workflows.

• Labellerr‘s data labeling engine uses automated annotation, and smart QA, processing millions of images and thousands of hours of videos in just a few weeks using Google Vertex AI Integration and Cloud Run, which previously took months for ML teams.

• Bynry’s SMART360 leverages Google Cloud’s robust infrastructure to empower small and mid-sized utilities to enhance operational efficiency and customer satisfaction. 

“Google Cloud has technology that just works. You can tell they actually listen to developers. They don’t just give out credits; they help founders understand how to use their technology.” – Thiyagarajan Maruthavanan (Rajan) – Managing Partner, Upekkha

UnternehmerTUM is the leading center for innovation and business creation in Europe with more than 50 high-growth technology start-ups every year, and offers complete service from initial idea to IPO. Startups supported by them include:

• Kraftblock’s innovative technology offers unparalleled large-scale, long-duration energy storage, empowering industries to transition towards sustainable thermal processes. The green tech company is using Google’s Compute Engine to power their simulations.

• tulanā’s highly customizable platform uses forecasting, optimization, simulation and AI to help enterprise clients take better decisions across their supply chains. tulanā is using Google Cloud Run to horizontally scale its optimization workloads, Google’s Gemini model for intelligent ETL processes, and Cloud SQL and Big Query to store customer data.

• SE3 Labs specializes in 3D computer vision and AI. They develop advanced technologies to create “Spatial GPTs,“ which are essentially AI models that can understand and interact with the world in 3D. The startup loves using Google Cloud Run for their deployment.

“We chose to partner with Google Cloud because their innovation-driven approach aligns closely with our mission to empower high-tech startups. Google Cloud’s advanced infrastructure, AI, and data analytics capabilities offer exceptional tools that support our founders in building robust, scalable solutions, from market entry to growth.”– Barbara Mehner, Managing Partner at XPRENEURS by UnternehmerTUM

Building on a history of support with accelerators 

These new partnerships expand on our existing work with accelerators to help bring leading cloud, AI models, and AI-optimized infrastructure to the companies they support. These include:

• 500 Global is a multi-stage venture capital firm. Its investments and flagship accelerator help founders with access to a supportive global network of those who’ve successfully built startups before. Notable alumni include Intercom, Talkdesk, Innovaccer, Babylist and Solana.

• Techstars provides individualized care with its small cohort size and mentor-driven approach across more than 30 cities worldwide.

• Antler is a global early-stage VC that operates in 30 cities across major entrepreneurial hubs, with a proven process to back founders from pre-seed to Series C. Their flagship Residency Program empowers founders to find the right co-founders, validate and build ideas rapidly, and secure funding to launch and scale impactful ventures.

• StartX is the non-profit startup community, accelerator, and fellowship program for over 2,500 Stanford University founders, offering support without requiring equity.

• Plug and Play operates over 100 accelerator programs globally, accelerating more than 2,500 startups annually. Its portfolio includes over 30 unicorns and a network of 90,000 startups worldwide. They offer mentorship and access to a vast network of investors and industry leaders.

• Gener8tor offers 75 programs globally, each with a highly selective, concierge-level experience startups that are selected.

• MassChallenge stands out as an impact-focused, zero-equity accelerator, which allows startups to receive world-class support without giving up any ownership.

• IIT Madras Incubation Cell is deeply integrated with India’s top engineering institute and provides a unique ecosystem that nurtures R&D-driven, deep-tech startups.

• nasscom GenAI Foundry offers Indian GenAI startups access to GPU resources, fundraising, paid pilot and showcase opportunities, enablement on go-to-market, technology, Responsible AI, and intellectual property, through a network of 3,500+ industry members and subject matter experts.

• Lanzadera is a prominent accelerator in Spain, unique in its adoption of a management model that drove its founder’s success in business, and its close collaboration with the business school EDEM and investment fund Angels, creating a flywheel of innovation.

We’re excited about all of the opportunities that will come from these new partnerships, as well as the increasing value of relationships we have with other accelerators. All of these programs and strategies illustrate our ever-expanding commitment to founders and startups that stand on the front lines of innovation. 

Learn more

Companies who work with these accelerators should reach out to their accelerator Program Manager to learn more about getting started with Google Cloud.