Dublin's Grand Canal Dock, where Google's office is located. Image: © Michael/Stock.adobe.com
Google is looking for the next 15 start-ups that will compete in its 12-week Adopt a Startup programme.
Applications for Google’s next Adopt a Startup programme are now open, and the company is calling on ambitious Irish start-ups to apply for the 12-week programme.
This year, the programme will focus on the areas of business planning, digital strategy and international expansion, with senior Google advisors and experts sharing their expertise and mentoring with participating start-ups to help them overcome obstacles to their growth and development.
As well as having access to workshops, lectures and networking opportunities, the start-ups participating will present the progress they have made to a panel of judges at Google’s EMEA HQ in Dublin. One company will be crowned the winner of Adopt a Startup 2020, receiving a prize for their efforts in the programme.
Since the programme was launched in Dublin in 2014, Google has begun to expand it into dozens of other cities around the world. Applications are open until 23 January, and can be made here.
Previous winners
Running since 2014, Google’s Irish Adopt a Startup programme has mentored more than 150 companies so far. Past winners include FoodCloud, UrbanVolt, Jobbio, Beats Medical and EdgeTier.
EdgeTier, the most recent winner, has developed an automated assistant named Arthur, which uses AI, analytics and machine learning to quickly generate personalised responses to a variety of customer queries. The platform was designed to work in tandem with human customer support staff, to answer complex queries more efficiently.
After participating in the Adopt a Startup programme, EdgeTier was awarded €10,000 in Google Ads credit and became eligible for the Google Cloud Platform for start-ups, which comes with $100,000 Google Cloud credit.
While, in the past, Google has selected as many as 30 start-ups to participate in the annual programme, in recent years the figure has been halved. This trend is set to continue into 2020, with the company limiting availability to 15 places once again.
