This press release was issued by Meta.

In a boost to the region's innovation ecosystem, Meta has announced the launch of an AI Accelerator program for Asia Pacific startups. This new long-term program will empower innovative companies and developers to seamlessly integrate Llama, Meta's open source AI model, into their products. By providing access to the latest open source models and resources in AI, Meta is supporting these organizations to create pioneering solutions to help shape the next wave of innovation.

The launch was held at Meta’s APAC headquarters in Singapore, in conjunction with the Meta APAC AI Accelerator Finals. It was witnessed by Mrs Josephine Teo, Singapore’s Minister for Digital Development and Information, alongside Nick Clegg, President of Global Affairs at Meta.

During the event, Clegg announced plans to launch a Singapore-focused incubator program which will support 100 enterprises to deepen their understanding of GenAI and Llama. It will help connect 20 participants with technical and business experts who will mentor them as they develop, refine and launch Llama-powered solutions for their businesses. The initiative, supported by Digital Industry Singapore (DISG), is aligned with Singapore’s National AI Strategy 2.0 (NAIS 2.0) to promote the development and adoption of AI by businesses and startups.

At the event, Minister Teo and Clegg had a fireside chat, where they discussed responsible approaches for AI development and deployment, including for GenAI, as well as how Singapore encouraged AI innovation. Minister Teo also shared her thoughts on how Singapore’s collaborations, with leading industry players like Meta and the open source community, can contribute to realizing Singapore’s vision of AI for the Public Good and is aligned with Singapore’s refreshed Smart Nation vision.

Over 720 companies and developers from across the region, including Singapore, submitted their projects showcasing impactful use cases of Llama to tackle challenges in education, public services and economic development. The top finalists from 13 markets came together at Meta’s headquarters in Singapore to showcase their solutions and win a grant to further their work.

Traversaal.ai from Pakistan, the winner of the regional finals, has received a $100,000 USD grant for their innovative use of Llama to create a state-of-the-art Urdu Llama model aimed to connect 250 million Urdu speakers around the world. The first and second runners-up from Indonesia and New Zealand also received grants of $15,000 USD and $10,000 USD respectively to further develop their proposals.

Meta has been supporting AI innovation globally through various initiatives, partnering with governments, AI associations, innovation incubators and others. The company gave out Llama Impact Innovation Awards to startups around the world for using Llama 2 or 3 as a core element of their work to take on challenges for social good. AiSee by the National University of Singapore received the award for developing an affordable wearable assistive device to help visually impaired people “see” with the help of AI.

Learn about the winners of Meta’s Llama Impact Grants and Innovation Awards.