Google has announced that it will launch a machine learning competition for its own startups. Google will partner with seven different venture capital firms in running the competition, where the winning startup will take home a $500,000 prize.
To qualify for that prize, startups will not be required to use Google services. However, there are other prizes available for companies using Google Cloud and TensorFlow. The winner of the “Build with Google” prize will receive $1 million in GCP credits, an opportunity to engage with engineers at Google Cloud and 10 G-Suite seats for 12 months. The runner-up will receive half the GCP credits with identical accompaniments. All other finalists will get $200,000 GCP credits and the same G Suite license deal. Startups will be judged on the uniqueness of their underlying machine learning implementation. Traditional venture criteria like the ability to scale, the existence of product market fit and the skill set and preparedness of teams will also be in play.