Snowflake adds 200 million investment expansion accelerator to focus on AI startups

Cloud data storage giant Snowflake recently announced that it will add $200 million in financial support to its startup accelerator plan. The accelerator program, originally called the Powered by Snowflake Funding Program, aims to invest in a wide range of early-stage startups, especially those focused on building industry-specific AI products on the Snowflake platform. This capital injection is a continuation of Snowflake's recent series of growth strategies, demonstrating the company's ambition to accelerate business expansion.

Startups joining the Snowflake startup accelerator will receive technical support, joint marketing opportunities and credits for Amazon Cloud Services (AWS). Past successful graduates include well-known companies such as Coalesce, LandingAI, and TwelveLabs founded by Andrew Ng. With these support, Snowflake hopes to help startups grow rapidly and gain a foothold in a highly competitive market.

It is worth noting that part of the $200 million fund this time comes from Snowflake's new and old venture capital partners, including Bain Capital, Blackstone Innovation Investment, Besmer Ventures, Capital One Ventures, General Catalysis, Greystone Capital, Hetz Ventures, Mayfield, NewBuild Ventures, NTTVC and Virtue. While participating venture capital firms may invest in companies with Snowflake’s startup accelerator, Snowflake also made it clear in its blog that there is no guarantee that any particular company will receive financial support or that the entire target amount will be invested.

Snowflake not only increases its efforts in startup investment, but also actively makes plans in the field of artificial intelligence. The company plans to build a 30,000-square-foot "AI Center" at its Menlo Park campus and launches a $20 million AI skills improvement program. Just this week, Snowflake also announced an expanded partnership with Microsoft to provide access to AI models from OpenAI. Late last year, Snowflake signed a multi-year partnership agreement with Anthropic and acquired AI data pipeline company Datavolo.

Snowflake's series of strategies seem to have achieved significant results. In recent earnings, the company's fourth-quarter (FY2024) revenue reached $987 million, surpassing Wall Street analysts' expectations and showing its competitiveness in the fast-growing AI market.