Snowflake to Invest up to $200M in Next Gen Startups Innovating on its AI Data Cloud

Established in 2023, Snowflake’s Startup Accelerator offers early-stage startups unparalleled growth opportunities through hands-on support, extensive ecosystem access and resources that surpass what other platforms provide. To further meet the needs of early-stage startups, Snowflake is expanding the Startup Accelerator to now include up to a $200 million investment in startups building industry-specific solutions and growing their businesses on the Snowflake AI Data Cloud. Bain Capital Ventures, Blackstone Innovations Investments, Bessemer Venture Partners, Capital One Ventures, General Catalyst, Greylock Partners, Hetz Ventures, Mayfield, NewBuild Venture Capital, NTTVC and Virtue have joined the Snowflake Startup Accelerator to expand investment in industry-specific and product-focused solutions on Snowflake’s platform. Amazon Web Services (AWS) has also committed to provide up to $1 million in free Snowflake credits on AWS over four years to support startups building and offering applications on Snowflake’s platform.

Apps created through the Startup Accelerator program benefit from the ease, efficiency, scale and performance of Snowflake’s platform for accelerated time to market, improved operational efficiency and a more seamless customer experience. Developers can build an app and market, monetize and distribute it to customers across the AI Data Cloud ecosystem through Snowflake Marketplace, all within Snowflake’s secure and governed platform. Program benefits include:

• Intensive technical support: Startups building products and services on Snowflake will receive technical support from Snowflake for data and AI products and services, as well as dedicated partner engineers who support application development on Snowflake. 

• Go-to-market opportunities: Startups gain access to co-marketing opportunities, Snowflake sales teams and VC Demo Days, equipping them with the resources to drive revenue from day one. 

• Access to credits to help build: AWS provides participants with free Snowflake credits to build, test and launch their applications. 

• Investment opportunities: Participants get connected with VC and investment firms in the program, unlocking potential investment opportunities. With this expansion, Bain Capital Ventures, Blackstone Innovations Investments, Bessemer Venture Partners, Capital One Ventures, General Catalyst, Greylock Partners, Hetz Ventures, Mayfield, NewBuild Venture Capital, NTTVC and Virtue will join the existing cohort of investors: Altimeter Capital, Amplify Partners, Anthos Capital, Coatue, ICONIQ Growth, IVP, Madrona, Menlo Ventures, Redpoint Ventures and Snowflake Ventures. 

Notable data and AI startups that have gone through the program or have received funding include Coalesce, Contextual AI, Datamynd, DataPancake, DeepTempo, DreamFactory, Eppo, Genesis Computing, LandingAI, LangAI, Metaplane, Observe, Omni Analytics, Roe.ai, Superduper.io and TwelveLabs. 

As a continuation of its commitment to supporting startups, Snowflake launched its annual Snowflake Startup Challenge, a global competition supporting early-stage startups offering up to $1 million in investment opportunities for each year’s winner and top two finalists, along with exclusive mentorship from industry leaders. Now in its fifth year, the 2025 Snowflake Startup Challenge, in partnership with the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), invites startups to apply for consideration by March 1, 2025. In 2024, nearly 1,000 early-stage startups from more than 100 countries applied for the Startup Challenge. 

The Startup Accelerator features 11 iconic venture capital firms and investment firms aim to expand the ecosystem and accelerate growth for startups building apps. Here’s what they had to say: 

"For founders building data and AI applications, it's incredibly valuable to be able to deploy directly into your customers' Snowflake environments — it eliminates a ton of data movement and security overhead, letting you focus on what's core to your product,” said Slater Stich, Partner at Bain Capital Ventures. “We're excited to be a part of the Startup Accelerator."

“We are looking forward to collaborating with the next generation of early-stage companies as they innovate with the Snowflake Native App Framework,” said Stevi Petrelli, Head of Blackstone Innovations Investments.

“By partnering with Snowflake, we’re working together to empower the next generation of founders to deliver on AI's promise through a trusted, unified platform,” said Steve Kraus, Partner at Bessemer Venture Partners. “Through the seamless connection of data, applications and models, this collaboration enables startups to more easily create impactful solutions that drive real-world value for their customers. We look forward to seeing the innovation that comes from the program.”

"Capital One Ventures recognizes the transformative potential of data and AI within financial services and we welcome the opportunity to explore the next wave of innovation through the Startup Accelerator,” said Jon Barad, Partner at Capital One Ventures. “Innovation is vital to power financial systems in order to unlock value for and meet the needs of our customers."

"Startups in 2025 face significant hurdles in their journey from concept to deployment,” said Quentin Clark, Managing Director at General Catalyst. “Through Snowflake’s Startup Accelerator, founders and their teams receive the data foundation, resources and expertise needed to build AI-driven applications."

"Greylock is excited to support the Snowflake Startup Accelerator. Snowflake provides the core of the infrastructure needed for startups to turn data into actionable insights,” said Jason Risch, Partner at Greylock Partners. “Snowflake’s platform enables founders to bring impactful products to market and optimize their operations with unprecedented efficiency.”

"Hetz Ventures is excited to partner with Snowflake to provide early-stage data and AI companies with unparalleled access to a powerful platform and a thriving ecosystem,” said Guy Fighel, Venture Partner at Hetz Ventures. “Building on Snowflake's AI Data Cloud, startups can accelerate product development and deliver more impactful solutions to customers across industries. We believe this collaboration will foster a new wave of data-driven innovation."

"Mayfield is excited to join Snowflake on its mission to mobilize the world's data, empowering startups to build solutions that drive significant impact,” said Navin Chaddha, Managing Partner at Mayfield. “By leveraging Snowflake's AI Data Cloud, these companies can accelerate their go-to-market strategies and deliver transformative outcomes across industries."

“NewBuild Venture Capital is thrilled to partner with Snowflake to support supply chain software startups tackling the industry's toughest challenges,” said Rohini Chakravarthy, Managing Partner at NewBuild Venture Capital. “Together, we’re focused on providing category-leading startups with the tools to modernize supply chains and improve operational efficiency. Our collaboration is about equipping the next generation of enterprise supply chain leaders to build transformative, data-driven solutions."

"We are excited to team up with Snowflake to support the next generation of startups building AI-powered applications on the Snowflake platform,” said Vab Goel, Founding Partner at NTTVC. “Startups can accelerate go-to-market by partnering with Snowflake’s data cloud and NTT’s global enterprise relationships.”

"AI is revolutionizing healthcare, offering unprecedented opportunities for startups to improve patient outcomes and drive innovation,” said Sean Doolan, Founding and Managing Partner at Virtue. Recognizing this potential, Virtue and Snowflake are partnering to empower healthcare startups with the resources and platform they need to scale their AI-powered solutions.

“The Snowflake Startup Accelerator has been instrumental to our success, from the initial stages of product validation, to the development of our app, to co-marketing and co-selling with Snowflake leading up to the launch,” said Jon Farr, Co-Founder and CEO of DataPancake. “Now, only six months after starting our journey, we’re conducting POCs with enterprise customers and forming strong partnerships across Snowflake’s entire ecosystem. Our experience with the Accelerator has been more than game changing; it’s been life changing.”

“Rebuilding DreamFactory as a Snowflake Native App means our customers can now instantly deploy it, gaining all the convenience of a SaaS platform with the security benefits of on-premise software,” said Terence Bennett, CEO of DreamFactory. “This seamless integration allows for rapid API generation directly from Snowflake data, accelerating development while keeping everything within your secure environment. The Snowflake Startup Accelerator has been an amazing resource for us.” 

“Snowflake is, without a doubt, the platform to build and deploy enterprise AI,” said Matt Glickman, Co-Founder and CEO of Genesis Computing. “Thank you to the Snowflake Startup Accelerator and the entire Snowflake startup team for partnering with Genesis Computing to go from design to launch on Snowflake Marketplace in just seven weeks.”

“The Snowflake Startup Accelerator provided us with the perfect foundation to build AI agents directly where enterprise data lives,” said Jorge Penalva, Co-Founder and CEO of LangAI. “The combination of resources and hands-on support from Snowflake was key to expedite our path to bringing AI to the Snowflake Marketplace, where thousands of companies have instant access to our application.” 

The “Snowflake Startup Accelerator” is a program designed to drive awareness and creation of apps on the Snowflake platform. Snowflake does not receive any compensation from the startups or the venture capital firms for their participation in the program. While the participating venture capital firms may invest in the startup companies, Snowflake plays no role in their decision-making process, and there is no guarantee that any particular company will receive funding through the program or that the target amount will be invested. Snowflake is not a registered broker-dealer, investment adviser, or other similar intermediary.