Posted by Rich Hyndman, Global Tech Lead, Google Launchpad

Launchpad Studio is an acceleration program for the world's top startups. Founders work closely with Google and Alphabet product teams and experts to solve specific technical challenges and optimize their businesses for growth with machine learning. Last year we introduced our first applied-ML cohort focused on healthcare.

Today, we are excited to welcome the new cohort of Finance startups selected to participate in Launchpad Studio:

• Alchemy (USA), bridging blockchain and the real world
• Axinan (Singapore), providing smart insurance for the digital economy
• Aye Finance (India), transforming financing in India
• Celo (USA), increasing financial inclusion through a mobile-first cryptocurrency
• Frontier Car Group (Germany), investing in the transformation of used-car marketplaces
• Go-Jek (Indonesia), improving the welfare and livelihoods of informal sectors
• GuiaBolso (Brazil), improving the financial lives of Brazilians
• Inclusive (Ghana), verifying identities across Africa
• m.Paani (India), (em)powering local retailers and the next billion users in India
• Starling Bank (UK), improving financial health with a 100% mobile-only bank

These Studio startups have been invited from across nine countries and four continents to discuss how machine learning can be utilized for financial inclusion, stable currencies, and identification services. They are defining how ML and blockchain can supercharge efforts to include everyone and ensure greater prosperity for all. Together, data and user behavior are enabling a truly global economy with inclusive and differentiated products for banking, insurance, and credit.

Each startup is paired with a Google product manager to accelerate their product development, working alongside Google's ML research and development teams. Studio provides 1:1 mentoring and access to Google's people, network, thought leadership, and technology.

"Two of the biggest barriers to the large-scale adoption of cryptocurrencies as a means of payment are ease-of-use and purchasing-power volatility. When we heard about Studio and the opportunity to work with Google's AI teams, we were immediately excited as we believe the resulting work can be beneficial not just to Celo but for the industry as a whole." - Rene Reinsberg, Co-Founder and CEO of Celo

"Our technology has accelerated economic growth across Indonesia by raising the standard of living for millions of micro-entrepreneurs including ojek drivers, restaurant owners, small businesses and other professionals. We are very excited to work with Google, and explore more on how artificial intelligence and machine learning can help us strengthen our capabilities to drive even more positive social change not only to Indonesia, but also for the region." - Kevin Aluwi, Co-Founder and CIO of GO-JEK

"At Starling, we believe that data is the key to a healthy financial life. We are excited about the opportunity to work with Google to turn data into insights that will help consumers make better and more-informed financial decisions." - Anne Boden, Founder and CEO of Starling Bank

"At GuiaBolso, we use machine learning in different workstreams, but now we are doubling down on the technology to make our users' experience even more delightful. We see Studio as a way to speed that up." - Marcio Reis, CDO of GuiaBolso

Since launching in 2015, Google Developers Launchpad has become a global network of accelerators and partners with the shared mission of accelerating innovation that solves for the world's biggest challenges. Join us at one of our Regional Accelerators and follow Launchpad's applied ML best practices by subscribing to The Lever.

Google is an artificial intelligence-first company. Machine Learning (ML) and Cloud are deeply embedded in our product strategies and have been crucial thus far in our efforts to tackle some of humanity's greatest challenges - like bringing high-quality, affordable, and specialized healthcare to people globally.

In that spirit, we're excited to announce the first four startups to join Launchpad Studio, our 6-month mentorship program tailored to help applied-ML startups build great products using the most advanced tools and technologies available. Working side-by-side with experts from across Google product and research teams - including Google Cloud, Verily, X, Brain, ML Research -, we intend to support these startups on their journey to build successful applications, and explore leveraging Google Cloud Platform, TensorFlow, Android, and other Google platforms. Launchpad Studio has also enlisted the expertise of a number of top industry practitioners and thought leaders to ensure Studio startups are successful in practice and long-term.

These four startups were selected based on the novel ways they've found to apply ML to important challenges in the Healthcare industry. Namely:

1. Reducing doctor burnout and increasing doctor productivity (Augmedix)
2. Regaining movement in paralyzed limbs (BrainQ)
3. Accelerating clinical trials and enabling value-based healthcare (Byteflies)
4. Detecting sepsis (CytoVale)

Let's take a closer look:

Reducing Doctor Burnout and Increasing Doctor Productivity

Numerous studies have shown that primary care physicians currently spend about half of their workday on the computer, documenting in the electronic health records (EHR).

Augmedix is on a mission to reclaim this time and repurpose it for what matters most: patient care. When doctors use the service by wearing Alphabet's Glass hardware, their documentation and administrative load is almost entirely alleviated. This saves doctors 2-3 hours per day and dramatically improves the doctor-patient experience.

Augmedix has started leveraging advances in deep learning and natural language understanding to accelerate these efficiencies and offer additional value that further improves patient care.

Regaining Movement in Paralyzed Limbs

Motor disability following neuro-disorders such as stroke, spinal cord injury, and traumatic brain injury affects tens of millions of people each year worldwide.

BrainQ's mission is to help these patients back on their feet, restoring their ability to perform activities of daily living. BrainQ is currently conducting clinical trials in leading hospitals in Israel.

The company is developing a medical device that utilizes artificial intelligence tools to identify high resolution spectral patterns in patient's brain waves, observed in electroencephalogram (EEG) sensors. These patterns are then translated into a personalized electromagnetic treatment protocol aimed at facilitating targeted neuroplasticity and enhancing patient's recovery.

Accelerating Clinical Trials and Enabling Value-Based Healthcare

Today, sensors are making it easier to collect data about health and diseases. However building a new wearable health application that is clinically validated and end-user friendly is still a daunting task. Byteflies' modular platform makes this whole process much easier and cost-effective. Through their medical and signal processing expertise, Byteflies has made advances in the interpretation of multiple synchronized vital signs. This multimodal high-resolution vital sign data is very useful for healthcare and clinical trial applications. With that level of data ingestion comes a great need for automated data processing. Byteflies plans to use ML to transform these data streams into actionable, personalized, and medically-relevant data.

Early Sepsis Detection

Research suggests that sepsis kills more Americans than breast cancer, prostate cancer, and AIDS combined. Fortunately, sepsis can often be quickly mitigated if caught early on in patient care.

CytoVale is developing a medical diagnostics platform based on cell mechanics, initially for use in early detection of sepsis in the emergency room setting. It analyzes thousands of cells' mechanical properties using ultra high speed video to diagnose disease in a few minutes. Their technology also has applications in immune activation, cancer detection, research tools, and biodefense.

CytoVale is leveraging recent advances in ML and computer vision in conjunction with their unique measurement approach to facilitate this early detection of sepsis.

More about the Program

Each startup will get tailored, equity-free support, with the goal of successfully completing a ML-focused project during the term of the program. To support this process, we provide resources, including deep engagement with engineers in Google Cloud, Google X, and other product teams, as well as Google Cloud credits. We also include both Google Cloud Platform and GSuite training in our engagement with all Studio startups.

Join Us

Based in San Francisco, Launchpad Studio is a fully tailored product development acceleration program that matches top ML startups and experts from Silicon Valley with the best of Google - its people, network, and advanced technologies - to help accelerate applied ML and AI innovation. The program's mandate is to support the growth of the ML ecosystem, and to develop product methodologies for ML.

Launchpad Studio is looking to work with the best and most game-changing ML startups from around the world. While we're currently focused on working with startups in the Healthcare and Biotech space, we'll soon be announcing other industry verticals, and any startup applying AI / ML technology to a specific industry vertical can apply on a rolling-basis.

The mission of Google Developers Launchpad is to enable startups from around the world to build great companies. In the last 4 years, we've learned a lot while supporting early and late-stage founders. From working with dynamic startups---such as teams applying Artificial Intelligence technology to solving transportation problems in Israel, improving tele-medicine in Brazil, and optimizing online retail in India---we've learned that these startups require specialized services to help them scale.

So today, we're launching a new initiative - Google Developers Launchpad Studio - a full-service studio that provides tailored technical and product support to Artificial Intelligence & Machine Learning startups, all in one place.

Whether you're a 3-person team or an established post-Series B startup applying AI/ML to your product offering, we want to start connecting with you.

The global headquarters of Launchpad Studio will be based in San Francisco at Launchpad Space, with events and activities taking place in Tel Aviv and New York. We plan to expand our activities and events to Toronto, London, Bangalore, and Singapore soon.

As a member of the Studio program, you'll find services tailored to your startups' unique needs and challenges such as:

• Applied AI integration toolkits: Datasets, testing environments, rapid prototyping, simulation tools, and architecture troubleshooting.
• Product validation support: Industry-specific proof of concept and pilots, as well as use case workshops with Fortune 500 industry practitioners and other experts.
• Access to AI experts: Best practice advice from our global community of AI thought leaders, which includes Peter Norvig, Dan Ariely, Yossi MatiasChris DiBonaand more.
• Access to AI practitioners and investors: Interaction with some of the best AI and ML engineers, product managers, industry leaders and VCs from Google, Silicon Valley, and other international locations.

We're looking forward to working closely with you in the AI & Machine Learning space, soon!

"Innovation is open to everyone, worldwide. With this global program we now have an important opportunity to support entrepreneurs everywhere in the world who are aiming to use AI to solve the biggest challenges." Yossi Matias, VP of Engineering, Google