# 2026 Vercel AI Accelerator recap **Published:** April 28, 2026 | **Authors:** Alli Pope, Caroline Ciaramitaro, Madison McIlwain --- On April 16th, 39 teams took the stage to pitch investors at Demo Day. During the prior six weeks, founders worked shoulder-to-shoulder with the Vercel team, our partners, and industry leaders to shape their ideas into the next generation of AI applications. ![39 teams spent six weeks building and learning, then pitched investors and AI leaders on Demo Day.](//images.ctfassets.net/e5382hct74si/4JDTMTiVvde1AfobgXoPaD/126994ecb4e4f0479b84baee4d6b8423/187_260416_NN_5195.jpg) ## Six weeks with the 2026 cohort [Teams](https://vercel.com/blog/2026-vercel-ai-accelerator-cohort) from around the world joined the 2026 cohort, building agents, developer tools, consumer apps, and vertical AI for finance, security, healthcare, and robotics. Each week, the cohort joined two sessions: a hands-on technical workshop and a fireside chat with an external speaker. The workshops covered the technical side of building AI products, from agents and models to deployment and scale. > Moving fast is everything in the AI era. We’re building AI for finance operations, and it was a no-brainer to run on Vercel alongside partners like Browserbase, WorkOS, and Braintrust. The Accelerator brought together a rare mix of startups, partners, and AI leaders who helped us move faster and stay accountable in the early days. > — Merlin Kafka, Co-founder @ Rex The fireside chats brought in industry leaders, Vercel experts, and investors. Speakers included Peter Steinberger (OpenAI/OpenClaw) and the Windsurf team, with topics ranging from the state of AI to pricing, legal, sales, marketing, and fundraising. ### Builder day Halfway through the program, the cohort came together with the broader Vercel startup ecosystem for Builder Day at Vercel's office. The day combined technical workshops, hands-on office hours with engineers from accelerator partners like AWS and Anthropic, open time to build and connect, and a special fireside chat between Malte Ubl (Vercel CTO) and Stephen Haney (Paper CEO). ![Founders building and networking at Vercel headquarters in San Francisco.](//images.ctfassets.net/e5382hct74si/16OXOENJxdiMEfDGZlPQoJ/1c78381375ad64fe5c8bc4907878a3eb/032_260416_NN_4889.jpg) ### $8M in infrastructure and credits Beyond the programming, every team got over $200K to build with on Vercel and across the AI stack: - **Vercel AI stack**: [AI Gateway](https://vercel.com/ai-gateway), [Sandbox](https://vercel.com/sandbox), [Workflows](https://vercel.com/workflow), [Fluid Compute](https://vercel.com/fluid), [v0](https://v0.app), and more - **Partners**: [AWS](https://aws.amazon.com/), [Anthropic](https://www.anthropic.com/), [OpenAI](https://openai.com/), [Browserbase](https://www.browserbase.com/), [ElevenLabs](https://elevenlabs.io/), [Auth0](https://auth0.com/), [WorkOS](https://workos.com/), [Notion](https://notion.com/), [Modal](https://modal.com/), [Neon](https://neon.tech/), [Supabase](https://supabase.com/), and [more](https://vercel.com/ai-accelerator) ### Demo Day After six weeks of building, the cohort showed their work at Demo Day. [Auth0](https://auth0.com/) hosted the event at their offices, and each team had a few minutes to present to a room of VCs, AI leaders, and partners, with a panel of judges from across the AI ecosystem selecting the winners. ## Winners On Demo Day, judges scored teams on problem validity, technology fit, product quality, and each team's final pitch. Three teams took home $100K+ in credits and prizes, and the first-place team also received an investment from Vercel Ventures. ### 1st: Rex [Rex](https://rex.inc/) is building AI for the enterprise finance back office, unifying customer context across systems so agents can run accounts receivable end to end. In addition to credits, Rex received an investment from Vercel Ventures. ![Rex was founded by Merlin Kafka and Lewis Blackwood.](//images.ctfassets.net/e5382hct74si/5HILBQVwoWJi2b21XS7MNw/f701178e36cbc01c4e35a63658b72ef0/236_260416_NN_6405.jpg) ### 2nd: Hacktron AI [Hacktron AI](https://hacktron.ai/) is an AI teammate for security. As AI writes more of the code shipping into production, vulnerabilities scale with it. Hacktron integrates into the development lifecycle to find and remediate real, exploitable issues. ![Hacktron AI was founded by Zayne Zhang, Mohan Pedhapati, and Harsh Jaiswal.](//images.ctfassets.net/e5382hct74si/7npCvXopypGH2zbVh46HFG/e121d3257627872f83a79ea414f7f794/237_260416_NN_6414.jpg) ### 3rd: Roots [Roots](https://roots.homes/) is rebuilding how people buy and sell homes. Buyers save hundreds to thousands of dollars a month, and sellers net thousands more at closing. ![Roots was founded by Lauren Self and David Golovin.](//images.ctfassets.net/e5382hct74si/eQC2k6xrMhQr0ky5DE8xs/5ba2eabff955ed86c004f3f7855d66cf/235_260416_NN_6395.jpg) ## $100M+ in fundraising, and counting The 40 alumni from the last cohort have raised over $100M in venture funding, and several have been accepted to Y Combinator. [Stably](https://vercel.com/blog/How-Stably-ships-AI-testing-agents-in-hours-not-weeks), the 2025 winner, is now converting enterprise pilots into contracts and shipping new product lines in hours instead of weeks. > The Accelerator gave us a front row seat to how fast you can move with the right people in the room. The Vercel team was generous with feedback, super tactical, and deeply in the weeds with us from day one. We shipped things in six weeks that would have taken us months on our own, and walked away with a cohort we are still swapping ideas and intros with. > — Jungkeun Hong, Co-founder @ Carbyn Other teams from past cohorts, including [Jigsaw Stack](https://jigsawstack.com/), [Belli AI](https://belli.ai/), and [General Translation](https://generaltranslation.com/), have signed enterprise customers and formed partnerships through the program. ## Apply to the next cohort If you're an early-stage founder building in AI, you can apply for the next AI Accelerator program. We will open applications later this year. Visit our [startup hub](https://vercel.com/startups) to learn more and connect with our startups team. --- **More posts:** [View all blog posts](https://vercel.com/blog/sitemap.md) | [Changelog](https://vercel.com/changelog/sitemap.md)