GOOGLE and Enterprise Singapore (EnterpriseSG) are joining forces to help 100 Singapore-based generative artificial intelligence (AI) startups develop and commercialise their products over the next three years.

The startups, ranging from being in seed to Series B stages, will gain access to Google Cloud’s AI technology, which includes pre-trained generative AI models.

They will also receive technical support and mentorship from Google’s product development teams, AI engineers and startup-ecosystem partners. The ecosystem partners include venture capital firm Alpha JWC Ventures and AI solutions provider Red Dragon AI.

The first batch of 20 startups will undergo a three-month accelerator programme from April. They will receive up to US$350,000 in Google Cloud credits each upon graduation from the programme.

“The credits are to help them scale,” Bok Thye Yeow, head of startup ecosystems at Google South-east Asia, told The Business Times.

Selected startups can also receive funding support from EnterpriseSG’s Startup SG Tech grant, which awards up to S$250,000 at the proof-of-concept stage and S$500,000 at the proof-of-value stage.

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Bok said: “As we work closely with the companies using AI in this programme, we can then understand the challenges they face, and take that (information) to our engineering team to make our products more relevant and easy to use.”

This creates an environment in which Google can get insights into upcoming developments in the AI space, and develop infrastructure to meet that demand, he added.

Investors are cashing in on AI opportunities, but those putting money into AI startups are generally also looking at “very specific” industries or use cases in which it makes sense from a return-on-investment standpoint, said Bok.

“The grant dollars from EnterpriseSG are to enable innovation by AI startups, so the ethos itself is slightly different,” he added. Companies need capital to be able to rapidly test their products with users for iterative feedback.

Singapore had more than 800 AI startups in 2021, the latest year for which data was available, said Soh Leng Wan, assistant chief executive of manufacturing and engineering at EnterpriseSG.

He added that the number of startups has grown at a compounded 18 per cent a year since 2018.

The accelerator is one of three AI initiatives announced by Google Cloud, EnterpriseSG, the Ministry of Communications and Information (MCI), Digital Industry Singapore (DISG) and Smart Nation Group (SNG) on Monday (Jan 29).

The second initiative, called AI Trailblazers 2.0, is the second run of a programme to help companies develop AI solutions. AI Trailblazers 2.0 is supported by MCI, DISG, SNG and Google Cloud.

Its first run, launched in July 2023, involved 84 public and private organisations. The second edition will involve up to 150 organisations.

The third initiative puts on offer 3,000 scholarships from Google in fields such as cybersecurity, data analytics and information technology support, with a focus on mid-career workers. This addition brings the total number of scholarships under the Skills Ignition SG programme to 13,000.

Google Cloud will also work with higher-learning institutions to incorporate AI-related training programmes into their core curriculum.