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92 AI startup programmes you can apply to today, Cocoon
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92 AI Startup Programmes You Can Apply to Today (2026)

By Ammar Ahamed, Founder, Cocoon · 11 October 2026 · Links checked 11 October 2026

The short answer

92 AI startup programmes from 92 providers are open to founders in Sri Lanka and South Asia today, worth more than US$2.5 million in credits between them. Three need only a free account (Nebius, AMD, Hedra). 24 welcome bootstrapped teams, including AWS Activate Founders, Cloudflare, Google, MongoDB, Notion and Retool. The rest want some traction or a raise. Build one application kit, claim the open offers first, then apply to the programmes that match the tools you will actually use.

92programmes, 92 providers
$2.5M+in credits on offer
3open to anyone, today
+11accelerators & investors

Why this list exists

People keep asking us the same question: how do I apply for the free programmes, the credits and the free tools everyone talks about? Founders ask it after our sessions, hackathon teams ask it on demo day, and alumni ask it the week they start building. This post is our answer.

Because here’s the thing: most founders in Sri Lanka and across the region will never claim any of this money.

That isn’t because they don’t qualify. It’s because nobody told them these programmes exist, or the pages looked like they were written for founders in San Francisco. Many of them aren’t. A good number are open to bootstrapped teams, solo builders and students, wherever they are.

We know because we just went through it ourselves. This month Cocoon was accepted into Claude Startups, Anthropic’s programme for early-stage companies. While mapping AI companies for our partner work (who funds builders, who backs hackathons, who gives credits to people learning), we kept finding programmes our cohort participants, hackathon teams and alumni could use today. Cocoon exists to upskill people, and keeping a list like this to ourselves would miss the point.

So here it is: 92 startup programmes from 92 different providers, plus 11 accelerators, investors and prizes, with what each one gives, who it’s for and the link to apply. Add up the top tier of the 48 programmes that publish a dollar figure and it comes to about US$2.7 million, before counting the free years and discounts the other 44 offer. Nobody gets all of it, since the biggest tiers need investor backing, but even the bootstrapped tiers add up to real runway. Programmes change often, so read the terms on each page before you apply.

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An independent guide. Cocoon is not affiliated with, endorsed by or sponsored by these programmes, apart from being a member of Claude Startups. Every link goes to the provider’s own page, which is always the final word on amounts and eligibility. Details were checked between 28 September and 11 October 2026.

Before you apply: which group are you in?

Almost every programme falls into one of four groups. Knowing yours saves you from applying to things you can’t get yet.

Who it’s forWhat you usually needExamples
AnyoneA free accountNebius AI Builder, AMD AI Developer Program, Hedra Builders
BootstrappedA real product, a website, often a registered companyAWS Activate Founders, Cloudflare, Google pre-funded, Make, Exa, You.com
Early-stageSome traction or a small raise (pre-seed to Series A)Claude for Startups, ElevenLabs, Deepgram, Resemble AI, CAMB.AI, Together AI
FundedVenture or angel backing, sometimes from a named partner fundFireworks AI, DeepInfra, LlamaIndex, Replit’s $25K tier

If you’re early, start with the first two rows. They’re the easiest to win, and they compound: a working product built on free credits is what gets you into the later ones.

Your application kit

Most forms ask for the same things. Put these together once and you can apply to ten programmes in an afternoon.

Be specific. Programmes want to back teams that will build real things on their platform. “We’ll use your speech-to-text for Sinhala customer support calls, about 200 hours a month” beats “We want to explore AI.”

No website yet? Our free Build Lab walks you through making one with AI, and it’s enough for most of these forms.

Get the credits tracker

All 92 programmes in one spreadsheet: link, offer, eligibility, plus columns for applied, approved and expiry dates. Opens in Google Sheets or Excel.

The tracker downloads straight away. We’ll email you when this list changes. No spam, unsubscribe any time.

The directory: 92 programmes

Filter by who each programme is for. The figure on the left is the most a programme gives; your eligibility decides what you’ll actually get.

Showing all 92 programmes.

AI models and APIs 14 programmes

Credits for the models themselves, the engine of most AI products. If you only apply to one group, make it this one.

Agent infrastructure: sandboxes, search, memory and evals 12 programmes

If you're building AI agents, these cover the plumbing around the model: code sandboxes, web search, memory, tool connections and the evals that tell you whether it works.

Voice, video and creative AI 14 programmes

Voice and video are where the most generous grants are right now. If your product talks, listens, dubs or generates media, this group can carry you for a year.

Cloud and compute 16 programmes

The big clouds have the largest headline numbers, but the top tiers usually need an investor. The bootstrapped tiers are still worth thousands, and they're where most readers should start.

Databases, analytics and data 13 programmes

Where your product's data lives and how you learn from it. Analytics programmes are some of the most generous on this page.

Developer tools, auth and observability 12 programmes

Login, error tracking, monitoring, search and messaging APIs: the parts of a product nobody sees until they break.

Business software and productivity 11 programmes

These cover the tools you build and run the company with. They're smaller, but they free up cash you'd otherwise spend every month.

11 accelerators, investors and prizes

Credits keep the lights on. These can put money in the bank and investors and mentors around you. Two firm deadlines are coming up: Y Combinator and Entrepreneur First Bangalore both close their next rounds on 2 November 2026. We checked Sri Lankan programmes too (ICTA, SLASSCOM and others); none had an open call on 11 October 2026, so we’ll add them when they do.

Putting it to work: four stacks you could run on credits

Credits are only useful if they turn into a product. The trick is to pick a stack first, then apply to the programmes behind each layer of it. Here are four we’d build in Sri Lanka today.

1. A Sinhala and Tamil voice support line. Speech in from Deepgram or AssemblyAI, reasoning from Claude or any model through OpenRouter, a voice back from ElevenLabs or Cartesia, hosted on Cloudflare. For Indic languages, test Sarvam too. That’s five programmes covering a year of a product few others are building.

2. A research agent for a niche industry. Search from Exa and You.com, retrieval with LlamaIndex or LangChain once you’ve raised, open models from Together AI or Nebius, and a cloud tier from AWS or Google.

3. A content studio for brands. Images and video from fal and Runway, talking presenters from Hedra, voiceovers from Murf or CAMB.AI for dubbing, and the workflow glued together with Make.

4. An AI agent that does real work. Run its code safely in E2B or Daytona sandboxes, connect it to everyday apps with Composio, give it memory with Mem0 and the web with Firecrawl or Linkup, and check its answers with Langfuse. Track who uses it with PostHog.

Notice the pattern: one programme per layer, chosen because you’ll use it, not because the number is big. That’s also what makes your application believable.

How to apply well: a 30-day plan

The founders who get the most out of these programmes treat applying as a small project, not a lottery ticket. Here’s the order we’d follow.

  1. Days 1–2: build your application kit. It takes an afternoon, and every form after that takes minutes.
  2. Day 3: claim the open-to-anyone offers. Nebius, AMD and Hedra cost nothing and get you building.
  3. Week 1: apply to the bootstrapped tiers. AWS Activate Founders, Cloudflare, Google pre-funded, Make, Exa and You.com.
  4. Weeks 2–3: match the rest to your stack. Pick the model, voice and cloud providers you’ll actually use, then apply to their programmes. Don’t collect credits for tools you won’t touch.
  5. After a raise: the funded-only programmes. When you close an angel or seed round, ask your investor whether they’re a partner of AWS, Cloudflare, Replit or LangChain, since partner backing unlocks the biggest tiers.

Make the credits count

Want to build the product, not just claim the credits? AI for Startups is four weeks with Cocoon’s trainers: research, product, go-to-market and operations, built on your own business.

See AI for Startups →

Notes for founders in Sri Lanka

Let’s build together

None of these programmes will build your product for you. What they do is remove the excuse that serious AI tools are too expensive to try. The cost of experimenting has never been lower, and the people who move first will learn the most.

Cocoon started with a simple belief: people in Sri Lanka and across the region can build with AI at the same level as anyone, anywhere. Sharing what we learn is part of that. If this list helps you claim even one programme, pass it on to someone else who’s building. And if you get in, tell us. We’d love to see what you make with it.

Let’s build this community. Let’s build together. Let’s transform together.

Take the list with you

Download all 92 programmes as a tracker you can fill in as you apply, and hear from us when programmes open, close or change.

The tracker downloads straight away. We’ll email you when this list changes. No spam, unsubscribe any time.

Frequently asked questions

Can founders in Sri Lanka apply to AI startup programmes?

Yes. Almost every programme on this list is global. Some ask for a registered company, a website on your own domain and a company email, so set those up first. A private limited company with a PV number covers the registration question.

Which AI startup programmes can I join with no funding?

Three are open to anyone with a free account (Nebius AI Builder, the AMD AI Developer Program and Hedra Builders), and 24 welcome bootstrapped startups, including AWS Activate Founders, Cloudflare for Startups and the Google for Startups Cloud Program’s pre-funded tier.

What is the largest offer on the list?

Google for Startups Cloud Program and Cloudflare for Startups both go up to US$350,000 for their top tiers, but those tiers need investor or partner backing. Bootstrapped teams usually get US$2,000 from Google and US$10,000 from Cloudflare.

Do startup credits expire?

Most do, usually after six or twelve months. Apply when you are ready to build, and keep a simple sheet with the amount, the approval date and the expiry date for each programme.

Do I need a company to apply?

For many programmes, yes, or at least a real product, a website and a company email. The open-to-anyone programmes only need a free account, which makes them the right place to start while you register.

How do I improve my chances of being accepted?

Be specific about what you will build on their platform, who it is for and how much you will use. Be honest about your stage and funding, because programmes check. If you are rejected, ask why, fix it and reapply once you have more traction.

Building something with AI? Cocoon’s AI for Startups programme helps founders turn credits into a product, with trainers who build every day.

Explore AI for Startups →

TURN CREDITS INTO A PRODUCT, WITH PEOPLE WHO BUILD

Credits pay for the tools. Cocoon, the region's AI training company, helps founders and teams build real things with them, with specialists, a cohort and real deliverables:

Delivered on-site and online across Sri Lanka, Singapore, Malaysia, Cambodia, India and Dubai.

AI FOR STARTUPS →BOOK A FREE CALL

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