VentureBeat is committed to shining a light on the glaring gender equity gap in the data and AI workforce.Read More
VentureBeat is committed to shining a light on the glaring gender equity gap in the data and AI workforce.Read More
After 10 years of working with early-stage founders at Google for Startups, I’ve seen time and time again how access activates potential. Access to capital is the fuel that makes startups go, access to community keeps them running, and access to mentorship helps them navigate the road to success.But access to the resources needed to grow one’s business are still not evenly distributed. Despite being the fastest-growing group of entrepreneurs in the U.S., only 3% of Latino-owned companies ever reach $1 million in revenue. As part of our commitment to support the Latino founder community, today we’re announcing a new partnership with Visible Hands, a Boston-based venture capital firm dedicated to investing in the potential of underrepresented founders.During last year’s Google for Startups Founders Academy, I met Luis Suarez, a founder and fellow Chicagoan whose startup, Sanarai, addresses the massive gap in Spanish- speaking mental health providers in the U.S. Sanarai connects Latinos to therapists in Latin American countries for virtual sessions in their native language. When I asked Luis about the most helpful programs he had participated in, he highly recommended Visible Hands. The program gave Luis the opportunity to work alongside a community of diverse founders to grow his startup and have also helped him craft his early fundraising strategy. Visible Hands also supplies stipends to their participants, helping founders who might otherwise not be able to take the leap into full-time entrepreneurship.Inspired by feedback from founders like Luis, Google for Startups is partnering with Visible Hands to run a 20-week fellowship program, VHLX, to better support the next wave of early-stage Latino founders across the U.S. and to create greater economic opportunity for the Latino community. In addition to hands-on support from Google and industry experts, we are providing $10,000 in cash for every VHLX participant to help kickstart their ideas. Following the program, founders will have the opportunity to receive additionaladditional investment from Visible Hands, up to $150,000.Our work with Visible Hands and our recent partnership with eMerge Americas is part of a$7 million commitment to increase representation and support of the Latino startup community. I’m also looking forward to the Google for Startups Latino Leaders Summit in Miami this June, where in partnership with Inicio Ventures we’re bringing together around 30 top community leaders and investors from across the country to discuss how we can collectively support Latino founders in ways that will truly make a difference. And soon, we’ll share the recipients Google for Startups Latino Founders Fund.If you or someone you know would be a great fit for VHLX, encourage them to apply by June 24.
In 2016, Dr. Anicia Peters discovered a problem. Dr. Peters, a researcher with the University of Namibia and chairperson of the Presidential Task Force on the Fourth Industrial Revolution, noticed that machine learning (ML) startups were not able to grow or shift quickly enough. She believed that early career, self-taught techmakers in the field lacked the necessary breadth and design fundamentals to successfully launch their businesses.Dr. Peters saw a need to teach these fundamentals in a way that would be shareable across the region. The University of Namibia needed to develop a course that would address the need for African AI expertise and, therefore, the needs of these startups. However, that would require funding.In 2020, Dr. Peters learned of Google’s new pilot funding program, the Award for Inclusion Research Program (AIR), managed by the University Relations team within Google Research. They had an open call for applications. Dr. Peters believed securing funding and mentorship from Google’s AIR pilot program would help maximize the impact of the AI startups, break down barriers and bridge connections.“You have to start small, so it’s hard to convince funders who are looking for big numbers,” Peters says. “You know, how many people are you going to be impacting? Namibia has few people compared to other countries.” However, Google’s AIR program saw the potential for immediate and long-term impact and selected Dr. Peters for the award.The funding enabled her to hire a staff member to manage the day-to-day operations of the program. This allowed her team to focus their work on social justice, specifically on inclusion, and ethics, increasing the numbers of African developers and ensuring anyone in Africa could access the resources needed to train as a developer. This funding helped secure these resources and meant they could invite experts to virtually teach, share knowledge and collaborate. “That’s part of what Google does through the University Relations program,” Peters adds. “They enable African university research and tech development.”Dr. Peters had big plans to expand this project to other countries across Africa. Thanks to the relationships established through the AIR grant, she secured an additional Google research grant and recruited additional staff members to help with expansion. This expansion allowed the University of Namibia, which has a strong focus on agriculture, to develop AI technologies in partnership with their agricultural department.“At one stage I was saying – Google if you want to come and help us, in Africa, then you have to join hands with those of us on the continent,” Peters says. “And I think that for me, this is one of the main messages: that now we are really walking the path together. That, for me, is very important. It’s the beginning of great things to come.”Google is currently accepting applications for the Award for Inclusion Research Program. Applications close July 13, 2022 at 11:59pm coordinated universal time (UTC-12).
Robocorp, a top provider of Gen2 robotic process automation (RPA), announced the results of their State of RPA survey, which was designed to understand the challenges users face with current RPA solutions. The results will help usher in the next generation of enterprise automation – Gen2 RPA.
The advancing use of RPA is a great boon to IT organizations within enterprises. RPA is an application of technology administered by business logic using structured entry points, designed for automating business processes. UiPath’s RPA platform paves the way for fully automating the various areas of IT in an enterprise and can take over the tedious jobs that dictate so much of regular work of IT personnel.