Voicecamp, our accelerator for early stage companies building voice-based products, ended in June 2017. Betaworks was joined by co-investors Lightspeed Venture Partners, Launch Capital, and GGV Capital. Our program partners were GE, the Google Assistant, Gunderson Dettmer, and L’Oreal USA.
The program followed 2016’s Botcamp, Betaworks’ first accelerator program, which brought together eight founding teams working on conversational interfaces and chatbots. Similarly, Voicecamp was designed to support early-stage companies working at the forefront of voice-controlled conversational software, including applications for emerging platforms such as the Google Assistant and Amazon Alexa, other native voice apps, and enabling software or hardware technologies.
Voice-based computing represents the evolution of conversational interfaces to a more natural and frictionless end user experience. In addition, as computers become more seamlessly installed into our daily lives, in connected homes, in automobiles, and in various wearable and augmenting devices, voice-based interfaces will become a staple of human-computer interaction.
The above mentioned partners were joined by leading players in the ecosystem as mentors to help the development of participating companies. Those included tech platforms such as Amazon, Microsoft, Slack, SoundHound, and IBM. Venture capitalists like Greylock, Benchmark, KPCB, Bessemer, Homebrew, ENIAC, NextView, SV Angel, and LocalGlobe. Related startups like Anchor, Gimlet, IFTTT, and Voicelabs. And media companies like The Guardian, The New York Times, WNYC, and Quartz.
What is Voicecamp?
Voicecamp is an eleven-week program for a select group of builders that began on April 17, 2017 and concluded June 30, 2017. During that time, participating companies worked with Betaworks and leading thinkers on conversational interfaces, verbal computing, and AI. The Betaworks team, along with industry partners, work with the teams on product, platform integration, data science, branding, and fundraising.
Next Camp?
We are currently accepting applications for Synthetic Camp, our upcoming 11 week in-residence program kicking off in February 2019. We are particularly interested in companies building around:
- deep tech and tools for creating synthetic media
- detection systems for artificially created or modified media
- consumer applications that enable new modes of entertainment or connection
If you are building in one of these areas, please apply here.