Montreal-based startup accelerator FounderFuel is making a call to startups to apply to its new Spring 2016 cohort. The program will begin April 19, as general manager Sylvain Carle announced on Wednesday.

FounderFuel spans 13 weeks in length and focuses on pre-seed to seed-stage companies. In exchange for $100,000, those teams selected will give up five per cent of equity. Successful companies “typically raise a seed round of $500,000 - $1.5 million after going through FounderFuel,” according to the accelerator. As well, all teams will have the opportunity to pitch at Demo Day, an event held at the conclusion of every cohort that usually attracts a crowd of over 1,200.

In the blog post, Carle reiterated FounderFuel’s desire to remain as an on-location, intensive, cohort-based program in an open and collaborative environment. He also indicated the program will place an emphasis on artificial intelligence in the selection process.

When we launched FounderFuel in 2011, three major trends were on our radar: open source, cloud computing and mobile. These three things led to ubiquitous connectivity and the exponential reduction in the cost of software development, data storage and processing power. We are now reaching a point where the brute force of computers is matching, and often exceeding, humans’ mental capabilities, most notably in the area of decision making capabilities. AI.

We see that the additive nature of AI to the current technology environment will be broad and profound. Incumbents will once again be usurped by a new generation of companies, and other companies will rise by empowering both the incumbents and the usurpers with AI tools as they battle for customers. An AI world therefore presents an unprecedented opportunity for a new wave of entrepreneurs and we are confident that we can help these entrepreneurs succeed.

-Sylvain Carle, general manager, FounderFuel

FounderFuel is seeking out startups with two to three cofounders, one of which being technical, and a solid MVP or beta version of the product (ready to go to market).

Seven startups graduated from FounderFuel’s previous cohort, which culminated with a December Demo Day at the Teatre Realto. The startups were Delve Labs, GradeSlam, OneSet, PACTA, Periodic, Sphere Play and Zora.