Are you a startup building innovative generative AI use cases with Databricks? Then we have the Challenge for you! The Databricks Generative AI Startup Challenge is open to early-stage companies who are building the most interesting, market-leading Generative AI applications on the Databricks Data Intelligence Platform. Sponsored by Databricks Ventures, Databricks for Startups and in collaboration with AWS, the finalists will have the opportunity to receive over $1 million in Databricks product credits, other prizes, and potential Ventures funding* aimed at helping the finalists build visibility and awareness for their Generative AI application.

TIMELINE:
September 16, 2024 - Challenge Open
November 1, 2024 - Submission Window Closes
November 20, 2024 - Top Finalists Announced
December 2024 - Winners Announced

HOW TO APPLY FOR THE CHALLENGE:

• Submit an application that highlights your startup’s innovative Generative AI application built on Databricks 
• Submit a ten-slide pitch deck on your company, founding team, product and alignment to Databricks
• Submit a 5-minute video that demonstrates your use case, highlighting what Databricks products are used. Open source tools developed by Databricks including Delta Lake, MLflow, Apache Spark, DBRX and Unity Catalog should also be highlighted as part of this submission.

PARTICIPATION ELIGIBILITY: 

• Open to existing Databricks customers and new customers
• Applicant companies must have been founded in the last five years
• Companies must have raised a pre-seed, seed or Series A funding round (but not later than Series A)
• Organization must be a C corporation, LLC or other entity reasonably acceptable to Databricks
• Must be incorporated in these countries to be eligible: United States, United Kingdom, India, Israel and Canada.
• Must be using or have previously conducted a POC using Databricks core platform, Mosaic AI or a combination of both to build a Generative AI use case
• Entities not eligible include: student/university projects, incubators or unincorporated entities, entities explicitly established to participate in the Challenge, individuals/sole proprietorships, Databricks employees and family of employees
• Review the Official Rules for more details

PRIZES: 
🏆 Grand Prize Winning Company (Gold Prize)

• Opportunity to receive up to $600,000 USD in potential Databricks Ventures investment*
• $300,000 USD in Databricks product credits
• 4 Passes to Databricks Data & AI Summit
• Breakout session at Databricks Data & AI Summit

⭐ 2nd Place Winning Company (Silver Prize)

• $125,000 USD in Databricks product credits
• 2 Passes to Databricks Data & AI Summit

⭐ 3rd Place Winning Company (Bronze Prize)

• $75,000 USD in Databricks product credits
• 2 Passes to Databricks Data & AI Summit

🏅 All Finalists 

• Announced as a finalist in a blog promoting competition
• Featured on Databricks marketing channels including social media
• Featured as customer story posted on databricks.com
• Meeting with Databricks Corporate Development leaders and GTM executives including mentorship from Databricks Expert Network (20 VP+ Databricks execs who have built and seen great companies)

🙌  All Eligible Challenge Participants 

• Pre-Approved for Databricks for Startups program with credits, hands-on support and GTM exposure 

*POTENTIAL DATABRICKS VENTURE INVESTMENT:
The Grand Prize Winning Company will have the opportunity to receive a Databricks Ventures investment (see Official Rules for details and requirements).

JUDGING CRITERIA:
Challenge participants will be scored by our judges on the following criteria:

• Built on Databricks 
  • How is the startup using Databricks and what features are used?
• Market Potential 
  • What is the market for your product and how big is the problem it is solving for end customers?
• Founding Team 
  • Does the startup have the leadership team and execution to continue scaling?

DATABRICKS FOR STARTUPS - Learn more!
The Databricks for Startups Program helps you start building on the Data Intelligence Platform — the data platform that scales to all your data needs, from zero to IPO and beyond. Program benefits include:

• Up to $21,000 in Databricks credits over 12 months to support your building journey
• Receive technical advice from Databricks experts
• Access go-to-market partnership opportunities

OFFICIAL RULES:
Official Challenge rules can be found here.

RESOURCES:
LLM Learning Resources and Self-Paced Learning Workshops:

• Databricks GenAI Capability Overview 
• Databricks Foundation Model API
• Databricks Vector Search
• Databricks Online Feature Store
• Big Book of MLOps Second Edition
• Databricks RAG Demo

QUESTIONS?
Have questions about the Challenge? We have answers! Feel free to email startupchallenge@databricks.com if you have questions or are in need of assistance with your application.