Rise is a three-year start-up program from Akamai Cloud that provides up to US$120,000 in cloud credits during the first year, along with guidance from solutions engineers, community networking, and dedicated account management. In the second and third years, participants continue to receive discounted cloud services, ensuring affordable scalability for early-stage businesses.
Scale Your Start-Up with Akamai Rise: Expert Guidance and Scalable Cloud
Benefits
Access world-class cloud infrastructure and AI-based tools while unlocking exclusive benefits tailored to accelerate your success.
Become a Rise start-up program member
Rise membership eligibility: established businesses fewer than seven years old that use Akamai Cloud, plan to grow workloads, and are new to Rise.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
- You must be an early-stage, for-profit company that is fewer than seven years old.
- Revenue and company size are factors. We are looking for at least one of the following: paid employees outside of founders; active users that are non-friends/family/investors; generating initial revenue; VC funding.
- Defined plan on how you will scale your infrastructure as the company grows.
- Plans include Akamai Cloud as one of the primary providers of your infrastructure.
Yes, if your business has not received more than US$3,000 in prior infrastructure credits and your business meets the program qualifications, one of our team members will schedule an interview with you to review your application. Following acceptance to the program, your credits are added to your Akamai Cloud account, and the next steps are established with the program coordinator.
Yes. Before applying for the Rise start-up program, you must create a new account for your start-up with 1) the corporate email address associated with your company domain, and 2) a valid credit card. For security reasons, applicants must include a working website and a matching corporate email address using a domain aligned with the corporate entity’s web property. Please also make sure the account gets designated as a commercial account via having a corporate entity in the Company field.
We welcome all start-ups, but we prioritize SaaS, media, and gaming start-ups. Managed hosting providers, MSPs, system integrators, and other resellers are not eligible. If you are a reseller, please navigate to our Partner page for the application, and they can work with you on your eligibility.
If you exceed the monthly credit limit, we will charge you for the additional usage for that month.
First-year credits and unused credits do not roll over month to month or to subsequent years. Rise is a three-year program with discounts offered in years two and three.
We provide a dedicated account manager, access to our Customer Success team, and access to our Solutions Engineering team free of charge! Our Support Engineers are complimentary and available 24/7/365.
Most applications are reviewed within one to two weeks. Additional time may be needed if more details are required.
Not immediately. Many start-ups begin by deploying new workloads or migrating selected components. However, the program is intended for companies that plan to scale on Akamai Cloud over time.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
Apply to the Rise start-up program
Receive between $500 and $120,000 in cloud credits during your first year in Rise. Fields marked with * are required.