2 Aussie startups make the cut for the latest AWS Generative AI accelerator

The eight-week program, now in its third year, is designed to help early-stage startups scale foundational generative AI technologies.’

Participants will receive up to US$1 million in AWS credits, mentorship, and access to AWS’s full AI technology stack.

“The pace of generative AI innovation is extraordinary, and it’s happening everywhere,” said Sherry Karamdashti, general manager and head of startups in North America at AWS.

“This year’s cohort reinforces our mission to help that innovation move faster and deliver real-world impact for customers in every industry.”

This year, two Australian startups will be taking placing in the accelerator program.

Melbourne-based Pluralis Research, founded in 2024, enables collaborative foundation-model development through shared training protocols.

The startup focuses on collective AI creation, allowing organisations to jointly train and fine-tune models without compromising proprietary data.

Sydney’s Mary Technology, founded in 2023, is a legaltech startup that has developed what it calls a ‘fact management system’. The startup raised $1.35 million in September 2024.

Its platform helps law firms and in-house legal teams extract, organise and verify facts from large, complex document sets.

“Aussies have a strong record of excelling in our leading accelerator due to their ambitious global-first approach to AI innovation that delivers tangible impact. Former Aussie [AWS accelerator] startups have gone on to do big things,” John Kearney, AWS Head of ANZ Startups, said.

“At AWS, we love startups… they’re not afraid to think big and experiment boldly. When you combine that spirit with AWS’s scale, support, and infrastructure, there’s no limit to what can be achieved to help position Australia competitively on the global AI and startup stage.”

Mary Technology cofounder Daniel Lord-Doyle said its platform can reduce document review time by between 50% and 80%. He said Mary Technology’s approach differs from most legaltech tools that rely on large language models.

Instead, it focuses on what Lord-Doyle describes as “legal fact extraction,” designed to preserve the nuance and accuracy of case evidence.

He said AWS’ AI accelerator will play a key role in supporting the company’s next stage of growth.

“The credits are incredible for a firm of our size. They really enable us to become more inventive and more creative in the way that we achieve fact extraction,” he said.

“The support from their technical team in accessing newer capabilities and the go-to-market expertise, particularly around scaling into international markets, will be invaluable for us.”

Several Australian startups have participated in earlier cohorts and have gone on to raise major rounds. Sydney-based Relevance AI, which got in early on the AI agent game, raised $37 million earlier this year to expand its no-code AI agent platform.

Leonardo.ai, part of the inaugural program in 2023, was acquired by Canva in 2024 following a $47 million raise.

Other local alumni include Splash Music, and Marqo, which raised $19.4 million in early 2024.

• This story first appeared on SmartCompany. You can read the original here.