Scaling impactful AI: the tenth AI Accelerator cohort announced

The AI Accelerator, where ambitious AI-driven businesses come to grow and scale, has officially announced its tenth cohort.

Twelve innovative companies who are developing or training their own AI solutions have been carefully selected to join the six-month business development programme. These companies operate across a diverse range of sectors, including nature restoration, deep fake detection, social housing and transport.

The programme kicked off with a two-day event held at the Bayes Centre, where Fabrizio Formichella, who has recently taken up the role of Interim Programme Manager, welcomed the new cohort. The event gave the opportunity for the companies to meet each other, as well as the Entrepreneurs and Investors in Residence who will provide ongoing support to the companies.

As the new Programme Manager, it brings me great pleasure to welcome the AI Accelerator’s tenth cohort.
The scope and ambition of ideas among the cohort is inspiring. I look forward to working closely with them to provide guidance and support as they transform their innovative start-ups into tomorrow’s leaders of industry.

The AI Accelerator has a proven track record of success, having supported 108 companies and helped raise over £130M in funding over the past seven years. The new cohort includes companies such as Mater-AI, who are using AI to accelerate thermoelectric material discovery, with the intention of helping to tackle the climate emergency. As well as Datambit, who are delivering real-time AI-powered deepfake detection, who are utilising data and AI for public good. The alignment between these companies' ethos and the University of Edinburgh's Research Mission is vital to the programme.

As a company at the cutting edge of artificial intelligence, we believe there is a lot of overlap in the programme with areas that we are looking to improve or would find helpful to be challenged on. We also found that the programme will help us accelerate different areas of our business to help us raise a seed round.

We are an AI native company, and Edinburgh is one of the largest and oldest AI centres of excellence in Europe. Datambit was formed by academics, so joining the programme at Bayes Centre, which allows access to cutting edge research, and expertise to refine our commercial offering is very, very attractive.

The cohort includes companies from around the world, with some looking to establish a presence in the UK. SWITCH, who are already deployed across four countries, are the builders of Myles: an AI agent that runs urban fleets by forecasting demand, rebalancing vehicles and answering operations questions live, at 92%+ accuracy.

We are looking to expand into the UK market, so to have a partner that is aligned with our incentives and is interested in our success was important to us.
As a company based outside of the UK, we’re looking forward to getting more familiar with investment partnership, and how it works for a foreign company that is looking to expand and establish a presence here.

Over the course of the six week programme, the cohort will experience training, mentorship and 1-1 sessions with experts. They will explore the integration of AI technologies into business operations, leverage the resources and networks within the university and learn how to further their engagement with customers, among other topics.

This is a fantastic opportunity to get involved with the university and learn through their expertise and credibility.
We are an established company in Australia and the UK who are looking to scale, so the opportunity to connect with like minded people, utilise new technologies and gain more investment experience will really benefit the product, the company and the people within it.

Learn more about the tenth AI Accelerator cohort here

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