Oregon AI Accelerator Announces 20 Startups for its Pilot Program
- Asad Butt
- 1 day ago
- 5 min read
Startups Fueling the Next Wave of AI Entrepreneurship in the Region
Oregon AI Accelerator, a first-of-its-kind statewide initiative designed to support early-stage founders in building transformative, AI-first companies, announced the first group of 20 startups to take part in its pilot program.
Backed by seed funding from Google, and supported by the Metro Regional Innovation Hub, Portland State University, Oregon Health & Science University, Oregon State University, the Oregon Entrepreneurs Network, the Technology Association of Oregon, and TiE Oregon, the Accelerator launched today and will run through May 2026.
The startups include:
Accent Innovations Inc (Beaverton, OR) - Accent Innovations saves lives through clearer pilot communication. Its AI platform trains non-native English speakers to be understood by air traffic control in safety-critical situations. With miscommunication contributing to 80% of aviation accidents, its proprietary methodology transforms speech intelligibility to prevent dangerous errors worldwide.
AHO! Wellness Tech (Portland, OR) - AHO! is a mission-driven wellness tech company weaving ancestral wisdom with AI. We help people reduce stress, prevent burnout, and lead with wholeness through culturally rooted coaching, community experiences, and personalized AI-guided wellness plans.
Alerty (Corvallis, OR) - Alerty’s Transcribbit uses AI to improve in-person learning with live transcription, real-time importance detection, simplified summaries, and automatic assignment and calendar scheduling. We help schools support all learners without long accommodation delays.
Akaya (Portland, OR) - Akaya is an AI-native knowledge system that captures deep human expertise within complex organizational processes. By transforming team knowledge into a secure, just-in-time intelligence asset, Akaya ensures that employees have human-vetted, high-fidelity insights at their fingertips, no matter what business process they want to execute.
AlignICP (Portland, OR) - AlignICP helps revenue leaders discover and operationalize the Ideal Customer Profile. CRMs create data blind spots, leading to misaligned GTMs teams and compromised growth rates. AlignICP helps marketing and sales teams create a high-quality pipeline that creates predictable and scalable growth.
Allegory (Portland, OR) - The first Vertical AI SaaS platform connecting impact to capital.
Caravel Bio, Inc (Portland, OR) - Caravel has built a platform for the machine-learning guided directed evolution of proteins beyond nature's bounds. We're using our platform to create products in industrial catalysis and health while also creating novel ML models using our proprietary data.
decisio media (Portland, OR) - decisio media helps you discover what to watch without endless scrolling. Our ad-free platform eliminates decision fatigue for users seeking effortless entertainment choices.
Decky (Portland, OR) - Decky turns your company's Google Slides into brand-controlled systems that let anyone generate personalized presentations—from a prompt, data upload, or API call.
Deviceflow, Inc. (Portland, OR) - In the medical device industry, it takes 12 messages, 8 people, and 3 days to get a single instrument tray ready for surgery. Sales reps text and email to make sure they have what they need and operations teams manually piece it all together. Deviceflow turns those unstructured communications into action automatically — without changing how reps work, accelerating revenue for manufacturers while eliminating admin work for commercial teams.
DockChron (Vancouver, WA) - DockChron is an AI-powered SaaS platform that helps trucking companies automatically recover lost revenue from accessorial charges, while delivering unprecedented transparency in freight payments for shippers. By turning operational data into real-time revenue intelligence, DockChron enables fleets to improve profitability without adding administrative burden or fueling payment disputes.
Doctor Notes (Portland, OR) - Doctor Notes helps patients remember what happened at their medical appointments by recording visits and generating clear, shareable summaries. We’re building a patient-owned platform that supports medical autonomy and connects users to trusted partners, including complementary care and discounted supplements, to support health and wellness beyond the visit.
Fridie Outdoors (Hillsboro, OR) - Fridie Outdoors uses the power of AI and technology to forge a new path for every person to get camping and outdoors. Fridie Outdoors provides the know-how to help people explore with confidence, and experience the unique joy that comes from being in nature. The Fridie Outdoors app is available on the App Store and Google Play.
HindSight VIP Inc (Boardman, OR) - Hindsight VIP Inc. is a software company focused on making emerging technologies impactful and safe, so everyday users can use them with confidence. Our goal and vision are to simplify complex systems, empower and protect users by making critical information clear, and actionable.
Menu Mingle (Portland, OR) - MenuMingle is a video-first food discovery platform that helps diners see every dish in a city and restaurants showcase their menus through engaging visual content. We turn local dining into a modern, interactive experience.
Nav Surgical (Portland, OR) - Our AI delivers real-time expert second opinions to surgeons in the OR. Unlike systems that only recognize steps or anatomy, our foundation model reasons about surgical strategy, technique, and next moves - democratizing surgical expertise. Reasoning, not just recognition.
Plentiful.ai (Portland, OR) - We're using a digital twin of buildings to enable utilities to use AI powered systems in order to implement programs, interact with customers, promote energy efficiency and flexibility programs, and automate project management.
PourUp (Beaverton, OR) - PourUp is an AI platform for wine tourism that turns wine tastings into personalized, real-time experiences for guests while giving wineries measurable insight into engagement, sales, and scheduling.
RS Works (Portland, OR) - AI-powered career platform serving 50K+ jobseekers annually through workforce orgs like Year Up & Goodwill. Proven results: 10% boost in job placements, employer satisfaction up from 33% to 85%.
StarStack (Portland, OR) - StarStack is an AI-powered storytelling and publishing platform that helps independent creators and teams inside companies turn long-form content into books, magazines, and audio—at scale.
20 Startups for its Pilot Program
The three-month hybrid accelerator experience combines in-person sessions in Portland with virtual programming. Participants will receive mentorship, validation support, and access to Oregon’s thriving innovation ecosystem and will compete for up to $50,000 in equity-free grant prizes.
The Oregon AI Accelerator builds on the success of the Oregon AI Bootcamp, which trained more than 40 founders in June 2025 and demonstrated strong regional demand for deeper, hands-on support. The new Accelerator expands on that model with a comprehensive program designed to help founders refine their business models, strengthen technical capabilities, and prepare for investment.
The program is coordinated by the Metro Region Innovation Hub, which is part of Business Oregon's statewide network of regional Innovation Hubs dedicated to maximizing support for innovation-based entrepreneurs.
About the Oregon AI Accelerator
The Oregon AI Accelerator is a collaborative initiative uniting Oregon’s leading tech organizations, investors, and universities to launch and scale AI startups. The Accelerator empowers early-stage founders to build globally competitive companies while remaining grounded in values of innovation, equity, and community impact. Learn more at www.oregonaiaccelerator.com.
About the Metro Regional Innovation Hub
The Metro Regional Innovation Hub’s mission is to provide Portland-area entrepreneurs with the resources, mentorship, and opportunities they need to succeed. The Hub exists to foster collaboration between entrepreneurs and entrepreneur support organizations, ensuring mutual trust and access to essential resources, as we work together to build a stronger, more inclusive innovation ecosystem in the Portland Metro region. Learn more at https://www.portlandmetrohub.org/.