Station F: F/ai accelerator opens second AI cohort in September

Station F is gearing up to run a second F/ai accelerator cohort this September, after launching the program in January of this year and designing it to move AI startups from early product to real revenue in weeks. The program targets €1 million in revenue within six months for each cohort.

What is F/ai and what's new in the second cohort?

F/ai is an accelerator for AI-focused startups launched in January, and its second batch will start this September, adding new corporate partners Eleven Labs, Nebius, Rippling, OpenRouter, HubSpot, and GitHub. The program was created to bring major industry players together and make it easier for AI startups launching in Europe to connect with them, a goal Station F director Roxanne Varza has described.

The first cohort already included an extensive list of backers: AMD, Anthropic, AWS, Clay, Google, G42, Hugging Face, Lovable, Meta, Microsoft, Mistral AI, OpenAI, OVHcloud, Snowflake, and Qualcomm, plus several VC funds. Station F positions F/ai as part of a broader set of startup offerings on its 538,000 square foot campus.

How did the first cohort perform?

The inaugural F/ai cohort comprised 20 AI startups; together they raised $34 million in pre-seed funding, and Station F reports that 80% of those startups were founded by repeat entrepreneurs, with one third of founders holding PhDs. Two teams from that first batch already picked up international recognition: Alpic won the global grand finale of The Pitch, organized by Deel, and Rippletide won the OpenAI Codex Hackathon.

Beyond awards, F/ai’s stated commercial ambition is explicit: the program aims for participating startups to hit €1 million (about $1.14 million) in revenue within six months. Station F says this target addresses criticism about the slow pace of commercialization among European startups and is intended to bring outcomes "on par with what investors are seeing in the U.S."

Why does Station F matter for European AI startups?

Station F leverages scale, capital links, and political visibility to offer something beyond desk space. It has welcomed no fewer than 11 presidential visits since President Macron’s inaugural tour in 2017 and has hosted high-profile tech figures such as Sam Altman and private sessions with Turing Award winner Yann LeCun. Since 2022 Station F has also taken equity stakes in companies it highlights through programs like Future 40, Varza said: "We have been investing [in these companies] since 2022." This combination of corporate partnerships, investor attention, and institutional ties gives European startups access to networks they might otherwise seek in the U.S.

Investors appear receptive: Station F points to the $34 million in pre-seed capital raised by the first cohort as a concrete sign that the model can attract funding quickly. The selection process for F/ai is exclusive and recommendation-driven, which helps explain the experienced founder profile among cohort members.

What to watch

Track whether the second cohort meets the program’s commercial benchmark: does the new batch hit €1 million in revenue within six months. Also watch whether F/ai’s intake process evolves: teams currently enter by recommendation from founders, partners, and investors, but Varza said startups can contact partners and potentially alumni in future cycles, which would change how broadly startups can access the program.