Five Bay Area companies made the cut to be part of the latest class of Alchemist Accelerator, the San Francisco-based company that seeks to nurture early-stage startups that do business primarily with enterprises.
The local startups are part of a 22-company Alchemist Accelerator cohort, the organization's 34th. All of the companies, which were announced Tuesday, receive a six-month educational path that's focused on fundraising and mentoring. Those selected receive seed investment upward of $36,000.
The Bay Area accelerator also announced a partnership with Microsoft Corp. to offer a separate accelerator for generative AI companies focused on enterprise solutions. Microsoft will provide startups coming through that program with $350,000 in credits to its AI model, Azure.
"It's no secret gen-AI has ushered in a floodgate of innovation and startups and frenzy," Alchemist’s CEO and founder Ravi Belani said. "To do gen-AI right in the enterprises requires unique attention and challenges that you don't see elsewhere."
This isn't the first time Alchemist has partnered with big tech names. Last year the firm partnered with Amazon.com's Amazon Web Services division to run the latter's Space Accelerator program, which was designed to help companies working on space-related technologies. Companies that went through the four-week program received up to $100,000 worth of AWS credits.
Earlier this year, Alchemist also launched a new hub in partnership with Epicenter, a non-profit organization aimed at supporting entrepreneurs in Memphis, Tennessee.
According to Belani, collectively all startups that have gone through Alchemist's programs have raised over $2.6 billion in funding since its inception 11 years ago.
The Bay Area companies represented in the latest Alchemist cohort are:
LiveDiagrams Inc.
- Leadership: Andrew Lupersolsky, CEO and co-founder; Yegor Tsynkevich, chief technology officer and co-founder
- Headquarters: San Mateo
- Industry: Cloud operations, Enterprise software
- Founded: 2022
- What it does: Provides enterprises with interactive diagrams with health, billing and security data.
- Website: https://livediagrams.com/
CourseFactory
- Leadership: Taras Pustovoy, co-founder and CEO; Irina Karpunina, chief operating officer and chief financial officer and co-founder
- Headquarters: San Francisco
- Industry: education technology, AI
- Founded: 2021
- What it does: Allows users to create online-based courses with the help of generative-AI.
- Website: https://coursefactory.net/
Universal Fuel Technologies Inc.
- Leadership: Alexei Beltyukov, CEO and co-founder, Denis Pchelintsev, vice president of engineering and co-founder; Stephen Sims, vice president of business development and co-founder
- Headquarters: Los Altos
- Industry: Climate technology, renewable energy
- Founded: 2022
- What it does: Uses chemical technology to make renewable fuels cheaper.
- Website: https://unifuel.tech/
Tely AI Inc.
- Leadership: Irina Seng, CEO and co-founder; Chongkal Seng, chief revenue office and co-founder; Askhat Bilyalov, chief technology officer and co-founder
- Headquarters: San Francisco
- Industry: AI
- Founded: 2023
- What it does: Develops customized marketing and SEO plans for enterprises using AI.
- Website: https://www.tely.ai/
Worf Inc.
- Leadership: Miro Salem, CEO and founder
- Headquarters: Palo Alto
- Industry: AI, enterprise software
- Founded: 2023
- What it does: Uses AI to create autonomous cybersecurity operations.
- Website: https://worf.ai/
