Driving diversity in AI: a new Google for Startup Accelerator for Women Founders from Europe & Israel
Gemma Garriga
Technical Director, Office of the CTO, Google Cloud
Startups generate groundbreaking ideas and transformative technologies, particularly when it comes to ensuring that AI models are constructed by individuals with varied perspectives. However, an undeniable truth persists: the underrepresentation of women founders, particularly in AI.
Recent statistics reveal stark disparities for women-founded startups in Europe. New research by Boston Consulting Group (BCG) and SISTA shows that overall, in 2022, women-founded startups in key European markets accounted for only 10% of startups created, 7% of fundraising carried out and only 2% of funds raised. These gaps underscore a critical need for proactive measures to address inequities in the startup ecosystem.
To drive this change, we’re opening up applications for Google for Startups Accelerator: Women Founders — this time for women-led companies building with AI. Seed to Series A startups, headquartered in Europe & Israel, with at least one cofounder who identifies as a woman are eligible to apply. Over 12 weeks, participating founders will receive hands-on mentorship, technical project support, product design and customer acquisition guidance, and leadership development from Google’s subject matter experts. This Google for Startups Accelerator will help founders stay on the forefront of AI, and learn more about the newest developments, including Google’s own Gemini. After the program ends, startups will join the dynamic Google for Startups Accelerator community, where they receive ongoing support and have the opportunity to build lasting connections with like-minded founders, mentors and investors in the region and beyond.
We invite women founders based in Europe and Israel who are actively building with AI to apply to the Google for Startups Accelerator: Women Founders program.
Applications are open until January 19th, 2024. The program will start in March. For more details please view the program page.
Learn more about some of the incredible founders in the Google for Startups Accelerator alumni network innovating with AI:
Tonya Samsonova, Founder of Exactly.ai - London, UK Exactly.ai is a AI-powered tool that lets artists create images in their own unique style with a simple written description. By uploading just 10 images, you can train an AI model and create new artworks in seconds. During the Google for Startups Accelerator the team was able to showcase their live demo at the Google booth at Slush 2023, the largest tech conference in Europe.
Merit Valdsalu and Andrus Aaslaid, Co-founders of Single.Earth - Tallinn, Estonia Single.Earth is a deep tech AI startup disrupting corporate climate action, helping businesses and organizations make a real impact on climate and nature by making climate action a part of the business processes. The team was able to use Accelerator as a time to focus on their core and achieve their business and tech objectives.
Agnieszka Michalik and Luisa Mueller-Wittmann, Co-founders of Checkturio - Munich, Germany Checkturio empowers businesses to manage their commercial vehicle fleets efficiently via an end-to-end fleet asset management ecosystem while using AI models and data-driven insights. While being part of the Google for Startups Accelerator: AI First the team was able to fine-tune the go-to-market strategy and improve their product with better UX/UI and data annotation tools.
Katarzyna Dorsey, Founder of Yosh.ai - Warsaw, Poland Yosh.ai helps retail companies connect shoppers with their ideal products through Cloud technology and artificial intelligence (AI) assisted voice search. Google for Startups Accelerator mentorship led to Yosh.AI becoming a Google Cloud partner and automating communication between enterprises and users with AI voice and text assistants.
Dr. Jacques Amselem, Ariella Charny and Dr. Marco Calderón-Loor, Co-Founders of Albo Climate - Tel Aviv, Israel By applying artificial intelligence algorithms to satellite data, Accelerator: Climate Change alum Albo Climate quantifies and maps land use and carbon stock changes at high accuracy and resolution. This helps move toward more transparency and scalability for climate offset solutions.
Alba Garcia and Anna Cañadell, Co-founders of BCome - Barcelona, Spain BCome is the digital sustainability platform for the fashion industry. A smart, reliable, secure platform that enables fashion businesses to build responsible supply chains, guarantee transparency and bring it to the final customer. The company accelerated its growth with Google as part of the Climate Change cohort in 2022.
Irina Efimenko and Vlad Khoroshevskiy, Co-Founders of Semantic Hub - Helsinki, Finland Semantic Hub uses AI leveraging multilingual Natural Language Understanding to help global biopharmaceutical companies understand the patient experience through first-hand testimonies on social media. With the expertise received as part of the Google for Startups Accelerator: AI First the team introduced LLM-based models, and improved their internal team management, the product, pricing strategy and business model.
