South African Startups to Receive R1 Million in Funding from New Google Accelerator
This initiative aims to bring Google's resources, including its people, products, and technology, to help these companies grow and scale their businesses.
Google has opened applications for its Google for Startups Accelerator program in South Africa . The program is a three-month hybrid initiative specifically designed to support Seed to Series A technology startups that are leveraging artificial intelligence and machine learning. This initiative aims to bring Google’s resources, including its people, products, and technology, to help these companies grow and scale their businesses.
The accelerator offers a variety of key benefits to participants, all on an equity-free basis. Each startup selected for the cohort will receive R1 million in funding. Beyond the financial support, they will also gain access to up to $350,000 in Google Cloud credits and 30 days of free Cloud TPU access for their machine learning research. The program also provides dedicated mentorship from Google experts, strategic support on company and product development, and exclusive invitations to technical bootcamps. The goal is to partner with founders to solve their biggest technical challenges.
The program’s timeline is set with clear dates for applicants. Applications opened on August 18, 2025, and will close on September 10, 2025. The program itself is scheduled to kick off on September 29, 2025, and will conclude in December 2025 with a graduation and Demo Day. To be eligible, startups must be deeply technical, have a scalable product or service with a significant market, and have a commitment from their CTO or other technical roles to participate fully in the program.
