Venture capital firm Accel has unveiled eight start-ups from the third cohort of its accelerator programme Atoms. The programme’s first sector-focused cohort, Atoms 3.0, backs pre-seed startups building in the AI and Industry 5.0 domains.
The four AI start-ups that are part of Atoms 3.0 include Tune AI, a GenAI stack for enterprises, Skoob, a generative AI platform for reading, Meritic, a storytelling co-pilot for financial planning and analysis, and Arivihan, India’s first AI-based, fully automated learning platform.
The two Industry 5.0 start-ups in this cohort are: Spintly, an IoT platform for smart buildings; and Asets, a multidisciplinary CAD, simulation and engineering design platform. The two remaining start-ups from the cohort are in stealth.
Thematic program
“The shift to a thematic program design for Atoms 3.0 has enabled us to provide deeper, sector-focused mentorship for the start-ups. Atoms has always restricted itself to smaller cohort sizes to stay hyper-focused on the needs of a smaller group of exceptional founders. We believe we have found the next wave of disruptors in AI and Industry 5.0, and the proof of this has been witnessing the growth of each of these start-ups since joining the program,” said Prayank Swaroop, Partner at Accel.
“While AI presents an incredible opportunity, the pace of innovation in AI requires founders to have the right mindset for navigating this market. As part of Atoms 3.0, founders are also learning how to build that muscle for resilience and agility,” he added.
Industry 5.0
The third edition of the program, Atoms 3.0, shifted from being sector-agnostic to thematic, focusing on AI and Industry 5.0. Prayank Swaroop and Barath Shankar Subramanian, partners at Accel, lead the AI and Industry 5.0 domains respectively
The Atoms programme brings Accel’s network and learnings from working with disruptive companies, to help pre-seed founders during the 0-to-1 journey.
The cohort receives up to $500,000 in funding, and access to perks worth more than $5 million from Accel’s network partners. There is personalised mentorship, and the opportunity to collaborate with a strong peer community of founders from past Atoms cohorts and Accel’s network of over 200 portfolio founders, industry buyers, and customers.