Google is having a machine learning competition for startups and there is over $2 million in prizes to be had. Granted, $2 million is not just one single prize that will be awarded to an individual startup, rather it will be the collective amount that is spread out across all of the winners in regards to the value of the prizes. Nevertheless, that’s a big chunk of change and a nice little incentive to entice any potentially interested startups to throw their hat into the ring. Should there be any startups out there that are considering this competition as a launchpad to get them some recognition, they’ll want to get started with the process soon as entries will need to be submitted by April 16th of this year, which doesn’t leave a whole lot of time to get things in order, though it also isn’t just around the corner either. Still, the sooner the better as people are competing for pennies here.
The competition was announced this week during Google Cloud’s Next conference, with the aim being to make machine learning technology more widely available to startups so they can incorporate the technology into their own services and roll those services out to their consumers, while also being powerful and simple to use.
While applications begin today and must be submitted by April 16th, the finalists won’t be selected until sometime in June of this year, with the winners being selected sometime later on in the Summer when Google Cloud holds the “Final Pitch-Off” for the competition. The grand prize winner will receive $1 Million in Google Cloud Platform credit, as well as ten 12-month G Suite licenses and 1:1 technical support from Google. The runner up will receive $500,000 in Google Cloud Platform credit as well as the same 1:1 support and the same number of 12-month licenses for G Suite. Additionally, Google Cloud will be offering any of the remaining finalists who weren’t selected for a winner spot $200,000 in GCP credit and ten 12-month G Suite licenses. Alongside the prizes from Google, Google Cloud has partnered up with two investors, Data Collective and Emergence Capital, to offer winners a total of $1 Million in investment ($500,000 from each investor) to put towards further company product and service development. For any startups interested in applying there are a few requirements. Startups must be based in the U.S. and have raised less than $5 Million in funding, and be using machine learning technology in their entry product actively.