AI Grant
AI-focused equity accelerator for pre-seed/seed AI startups, run day-to-day by Hersh Desai and Lenny Bogdonoff and backed by a $10M commitment from Nat Friedman and Daniel Gross (who remain active public backers); participated in Reality Defender's $15M Series A (October 2023). Relaunched in Fall 2022 from an earlier (2017) non-dilutive open-source AI research grant program of the same name.
AI Grant is an accelerator for pre-seed and seed-stage AI startups building AI-first products. It invests $250,000 per company via an uncapped SAFE (no discount, MFN terms), plus roughly $600,000+ in cloud and partner credits (Microsoft Azure, PostHog, Replicate, Anthropic, Modal, OpenAI, and others) — a package valued at roughly $850,000 total. The program favors technical, product-focused founders over pure researchers. It began in 2017 as a non-dilutive open-source AI/ML research grant program ($5,000-$50,000 per project) and relaunched as the current equity-accelerator model in Fall 2022.
Overview
- Firm
- AI Grant (Nat Friedman & Daniel Gross)
- Headquarters
- San Francisco, CA
- Founded
- 2022
- AUM
- Avg. check
- $250K (uncapped SAFE) + ~$600K in cloud/partner credits (~$850K total package)
- Stages
- Pre-Seed, Seed
- Thesis
- Backs technical, product-focused founders building AI-first products, providing capital plus heavy compute/cloud credits on the view that compute access, not funding, is the binding constraint for early AI startups.
Portfolio companies1
Partners0
No linked records yet.
Frequently asked
- What is AI Grant?
- Backs technical, product-focused founders building AI-first products, providing capital plus heavy compute/cloud credits on the view that compute access, not funding, is the binding constraint for early AI startups.
- What stages does AI Grant invest at?
- AI Grant invests at Pre-Seed, Seed, with typical checks of $250K (uncapped SAFE) + ~$600K in cloud/partner credits (~$850K total package).
Sources & citations4
Each claim links to its underlying source. Confidence reflects how directly the source supports the claim.
- 1
The round was led by DCVC, with participation from Comcast, ex/ante, Partnership Fund for New York City, Rackhouse Venture Capital, and Nat Friedman's AI Grant
PR Newswire: Deepfake Detection Platform Reality Defender Secures $15 Million in Series A Funding Led by DCVCVerified2023-10-17 - 2
Current program structure: $250,000 uncapped SAFE (no discount, MFN), $350,000 Azure credits plus partner credits from PostHog, Replicate, Anthropic, Modal, OpenAI; total package ~$850,000
AI Grant: AI Grant homepageVerified2026-08-09 - 3
Microsoft supported AI Grant's first cohort under the current equity-accelerator model 'last fall' (i.e. Fall 2022); second cohort's application window ran through July 10, 2023
Microsoft for Startups: Microsoft for Startups Supporting Second Cohort of AI Grant to Propel AI-First StartupsVerified2023-06-29 - 4
AI Grant is run day-to-day by Hersh Desai and Lenny Bogdonoff; backed by a $10M commitment from Nat Friedman and Daniel Gross; originally launched 2017 as a non-dilutive research grant program
Sky9Capital: AI Grant Program Profile: What It Actually Is and What Founders Need to KnowVerified2026-08-09