AI Sparks: Founders, Funds & Future
⚡️ AI Sparks: Founders, Funds & Future
A Curated Gathering of Builders and Backers
🌍 Overview
AI Sparks is a curated afternoon gathering that brings together founders, investors, and AI builders to explore how intelligence is evolving across infrastructure, agents, and applications.
This event focuses on dialogue, discovery, and collaboration — combining startup showcases with a forward-looking VC panel to examine how innovation and capital are converging in the next wave of AI development.
Multiple Managing Partners and senior investors from leading Silicon Valley firms, including SSG Accelerator, Eastlink Capital, Acorn Pacific Venture, Nvidia, Embedding VC, Foothill, and Upscale X will be in attendance — with additional venture leaders joining as the lineup expands.
Expect candid discussions, hands-on demos, and meaningful connections between the builders creating the next AI breakthroughs and the investors shaping their trajectories.
💡 What to Expect
✨ Startup Showcases: Six curated AI startups share product insights, early traction, and live demos.
💬 VC Panel: A forward-looking conversation featuring investors and ecosystem leaders on the future of AI innovation and capital formation.
🍷 Networking: A relaxed, high-quality networking hour with founders, funds, and ecosystem partners.
🗓️ Agenda
1:00 – 1:30 PM | Arrival & Networking
Check-in, light refreshments, and casual networking among founders and investors.
1:30 – 1:40 PM | Opening Remarks
Welcome and brief introduction to the AI Sparks theme — exploring how builders and capital are redefining intelligence.
1:40 – 1:55 PM | Keynote: Tanka
Tanka builds the memory and collaboration layer for teams, turning everyday communications into persistent, retrievable knowledge. The keynote will share how long-term AI memory reshapes productivity and collective intelligence in organizations.
1:55 – 2:10 PM | Keynote: WaveSpeedAI
WaveSpeedAI develops high-performance infrastructure for multimodal content generation across image, video, and audio. The keynote will explore how next-gen compute acceleration enables faster, more scalable creative AI systems.
2:10 – 3:10 PM | Startup Showcases
Six curated startups share short presentations and live demos, each followed by a brief Q&A.
Focus areas include Agentic Systems, Infra & Compute, Applied AI, and Data Intelligence.
3:10 – 3:20 PM | Break & Coffee Reset
Quick refresh before the panel discussion.
3:20 – 4:00 PM | VC Panel – “Investing in Intelligence”
A forward-looking discussion featuring investors and thought leaders from Silicon Valley’s top venture funds.
Topics include:
• Shifting AI investment theses and emerging trends
• Infra vs. application value capture
• Building defensible AI companies in the agentic era
4:00 – 5:00 PM | Networking Reception
Open networking with founders, investors, and ecosystem partners. Light drinks and casual conversations continue.
👥 Who’s Attending
Founders building in AI Infra, Agentic Systems, and Applied AI
VCs, CVCs, and angels exploring the next wave of AI investments
Ecosystem partners from cloud, data, and innovation platforms
Managing Partners and senior investors from:
SSG Accelerator · Eastlink Capital · Nvidia · Acorn Pacific Venture · Embedding VC · Foothill · Upscale X
(with more top-tier funds continuing to join the lineup)
📅 Date: November 1, 2025 (Saturday)
🕐 Time: 1:00 PM – 5:00 PM
📍 Location: Palo Alto, California
🤝 Co-hosted by
EPIC Connector – A cross-border connector aligning AI product builders with real industrial needs and demand-side adopters. Business value from day 1.
Nexus 3 – A global innovation network bridging Silicon Valley with emerging market energy. Backed by SSG Accelerator, Nexus 3 helps turn lab prototypes into global ventures.
SSG Accelerator – A US-compliant venture platform backed by university endowments and partnered with Chicago Booth. Supports AI-native founders across Asia with mentorship, capital, and curriculum.
WhaleFlux – A full-stack AI model lifecycle management platform enabling efficient, scalable deployment and fine-tuning for enterprise-grade agents.
Beta University – Beta University is the #1 and the largest pre-accelerator in Silicon Valley, helping early-stage founders build VC-fundable startups. Learn more about us here.