Accel AI Innovate: Amsterdam
The rules of company building are being rewritten in real time
The next generation of founders is right here in Europe and they're thinking globally from the start.
With AI shortening the path from idea to product, founders can now move faster than ever before, but what does the future hold and who will be building it?
AI Innovate is where Future Founders can come together, share ideas, build and meet the people worth building with across five cities. Amsterdam is the second stop and we can't wait to see the ideas of Future Founders come to life.
Join the hackathon, imagine what comes next and build it. In one day!
Future Founders: From Open Model to Real Product
In one day, build a working AI product for a real customer using at least one approved open-weight model served through Nebius Token Factory. You should then be able to prove the edge your model and infrastructure choices give you: better quality, lower cost, faster performance, or adaptability.
Nebius Token Factory is your engine, required and central to what you build. Lovable and Tavily are there as optional accelerators. Build with a curated shortlist of open models across reasoning, coding, speed, long-context and multimodal, or bring your own.
Build something a real person would use, and show why it's only possible now.
The day, 23 September
8:30 Morning: registration, breakfast, kickoff and challenge brief
9:30 - 15:00 Day: single day build, Nebius Token Factory support and mentors on the floor
12:00 Lunch
15:00 - 16:00 Submission deadline
16:00 - 17:00 top eight pitch live, ~1 hour, five min on stage each.
17:00 - 18:00 winners announced, drinks and networking
18:00 - 20:30 “off the record” register here (Separate event!)
For builders who ship
This one is built for technical builders with founder intent.
You'll thrive here if you can take an AI product from zero to working in a single day, you've built real things before (bring a demo, GitHub or portfolio), you understand a real customer and the problem you're solving for them, and you're seriously exploring something that could become a company.
Come as a founding team with complementary product and technical skills, or solo if you move fast alone. This is a room for people who ship. If that's you, apply.
Leave with a running start
Win here and you leave with a Founders Pack: everything you need to turn a one-day build into a company. A stack of AI credits, tools, mentorship, and a direct line to investors.
Every builder gets the Builder Pack
Nebius Token Factory credits to build with, plus credits from partners
Founder swag from day one
Winners take the Founders Pack
Follow-on Nebius Token Factory credits to keep building after the day
Major AI credit grants from ElevenLabs, Lovable, OpenAI
A year of n8n Cloud Pro
Mentorship with the Accel and Lovable teams
A Pocket device and the AI Innovate winner's backpack
Substance over showmanship
Winners are chosen by a panel, including a Nebius Token Factory judge, with the emphasis on substance over showmanship:
Product and user value
Problem and company potential
Measurable model advantage
Technical execution and use of Token Factory
Demo clarity
Responsible design
To enter, each team submits a working product, a named customer and the problem it solves, the model and Token Factory architecture, evidence or a benchmark of the advantage, a short business case, and a live demo. Every entry is reviewed, the strongest teams pitch live, and winners are announced on the day.
Runs on BuilderBase
The hackathon runs on BuilderBase. Approved applicants are added to the event there and contacted with next steps. You can also apply on the BuilderBase event page directly: builderbase.com/event/accel-ai-innovate-amsterdam
Applicants complete the Official Competition Rules, the Entrant Agreement, the Code of Conduct and the privacy consents on BuilderBase.
This event is co-hosted by Prosus.
Hackathon partners: Nebius, Tavily, Lovable, AI House, AISO, Tulip, Hackathon Hub
Prize partners: Anthropic, ElevenLabs, Lovable, Miro, Modal, n8n, Nebius, OpenAI, Supabase, Tavily, Vercel