Amazon Web Services is pouring $30 million into early-stage startups built by underrepresented entrepreneurs.
The cloud services arm of Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN), which maintains an East Coast hub in Herndon, said it will make the investment over the next three years by launching multiple accelerator programs for companies led by Black, Latino, LGBTQ and women founders.
The first AWS Impact Accelerator, announced Wednesday and now accepting applications, will serve Black founders. That program, open to companies headquartered within the U.S., starts in June — to be followed by an accelerator for female founders in the second half of 2022, and those for LGBTQ and Latino founders in 2023.
The company said it will give up to $225,000 in cash and credits to each venture. That includes a $125,000 cash grant and up to $100,000 in AWS credits for storage, analytics, machine learning, compute, database and Internet of Things services.
It will also offer resources such as AWS IQ, to…
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