# Co-Connect Is in Google's 2026 AI Accelerator

URL: https://nanosolutions.io/co-connect-google-for-startups-accelerator-2026
Date: 1788134400
Description: Co-Connect, the remote-workforce platform we built and co-own, is one of 15 startups in Google's 2026 Australia & New Zealand AI accelerator cohort.

---


<div class="post-tldr">
  <p class="post-tldr__label">The short version</p>
  <ul>
    <li>Co-Connect is one of fifteen startups in Google's 2026 Australia &amp; New Zealand AI accelerator cohort, announced 31 August.</li>
    <li>It is one of our own ventures rather than client work — Nano Solutions built the platform and is its founding technical partner.</li>
    <li>The program runs ten weeks and is equity-free, with an in-person bootcamp at Google's Sydney office and mentoring across the rest.</li>
    <li>The cohort is mostly industrial, clinical and operational — almost nothing consumer.</li>
  </ul>
</div>

We're in.

[Google announced](https://blog.google/intl/en-au/company-news/google-for-startups-accelerator-introducing-our-2026-australia-new-zealand-ai-cohort/) the 2026 Australia & New Zealand AI accelerator cohort this morning, and [Co-Connect](https://www.coconnectapp.com/) is one of the fifteen. Listed there as "an all-in-one workforce platform keeping frontline and remote workers informed, engaged, safe, and connected" — a fair description of the thing we have spent years building.

We have known for a little while. We could not say anything until Google published, which is a strange sort of quiet to sit in. So this post is mostly just: it is real, it is public, and we are very happy about it.

Co-Connect is one of [our own ventures](/ventures) rather than client work — Nano Solutions built the platform and is its founding technical partner. Being picked out of a national field for something we own feels different to shipping someone else's project well.

<figure>
  <img src="/images/blog/google-accelerator-2026-google-sydney.webp" alt="Erin Bell, founder of Co-Connect, at the Google office in Sydney on the first day of the accelerator bootcamp" width="1400" height="788" loading="lazy" />
  <figcaption>Erin Bell, Co-Connect's founder, arriving at Google's Sydney office for the bootcamp. Photo by Nano Solutions.</figcaption>
</figure>

## What the program is

The [Google for Startups Accelerator: Australia & New Zealand](https://startup.google.com/programs/accelerator/australia-new-zealand/) runs ten weeks, equity-free, for seed and Series A companies working with AI and machine learning. There is an in-person bootcamp at Google's Sydney office, then mentoring and sprint work across the rest of it. Founders bring their hardest technical problems and get paired with people who work on that class of problem for a living.

That last part is the bit we are here for. Co-Connect runs on phones at remote sites — mine sites, camps, night shifts — and we have a list of questions we cannot answer on our own. Ten weeks with Google's engineers is a good place to take them.

## The rest of the cohort

Worth a look, because it is a decent snapshot of where applied AI in this part of the world actually is:

<figure>
  <img src="/images/blog/google-accelerator-2026-cohort-slide.webp" alt="A presentation slide at Google Sydney welcoming the 15 startups of the 2026 Australia and New Zealand AI accelerator cohort" width="1400" height="1073" loading="lazy" />
  <figcaption>The welcome slide on day one of the bootcamp. Photo by Nano Solutions.</figcaption>
</figure>

| Startup | What they do |
| --- | --- |
| [Blunge](https://www.blunge.ai/) | AI design agent turning ideas into finished, branded, editable designs |
| [Bower](https://bowerlabs.ai/) | An operating system for capturing lab experiments and automating research admin |
| [**Co-Connect**](https://www.coconnectapp.com/) | **All-in-one workforce platform for frontline and remote workers** |
| [CounterCurrent](https://countercurrent.ai/) | Maritime forecasting and decision support for ship routing and safety |
| [Eyes of AI](https://eyesofai.com/) | AI dental imaging for diagnosis and clinical decision-making |
| [Gheorg](https://www.gheorg.com/) | A robot companion for children's mental health and neurodiversity |
| [Kimia](https://kimia.ai/) | A chemical intelligence layer for materials manufacturing |
| [Mentana](https://www.mentana.ai/) | Autonomous supply chain management with AI-led forecasting |
| [Merchmix](https://merchmix.co/) | An AI inventory operating system for retail planning |
| [Rainstick](https://www.rainstick.com.au/) | Variable Electric Field technology for sustainable seed growth |
| [RossOps](https://rossops.com/) | Operational memory for manufacturing floor intelligence |
| [Terria](https://terria.com/) | Spatial data intelligence for urban planning |
| [Tiliter](https://www.tiliter.com/) | Computer vision turning imagery into operational data |
| [Totex Energy](https://www.totexenergy.com/) | Building energy management and renewable load shifting |
| [Unseen](https://www.unseen.id/) | A trust layer for commercial real estate asset verification |

Mostly industrial, clinical and operational problems. Almost nothing consumer. That tracks with what we see from Perth: the money and the pain are both in operations.

## We are in Sydney

Erin Bell, who founded Co-Connect, and I flew over for the bootcamp, so the announcement landed while we were sitting in a Google meeting room in lanyards, trying to look like people who do this all the time. Ten weeks start here.

<figure>
  <img src="/images/blog/google-accelerator-2026-founders.webp" alt="Petr Červenka and Erin Bell in front of a Google for Startups Accelerator backdrop in Sydney" width="1000" height="1333" loading="lazy" />
  <figcaption>Erin and me at the bootcamp, doing the obligatory backdrop photo. Photo by Nano Solutions.</figcaption>
</figure>

<figure>
  <img src="/images/blog/google-accelerator-2026-google-letters.webp" alt="Petr Červenka and Erin Bell beside the coloured Google letters in the atrium of Google's Sydney office" width="1400" height="1050" loading="lazy" />
  <figcaption>The letters in the atrium. Nobody walks past these without stopping, and we were not going to be the exception. Photo by Nano Solutions.</figcaption>
</figure>

We will be posting more as the ten weeks go — what we are working on, what we get wrong, and whatever we learn along the way.

<figure>
  <img src="/images/blog/google-accelerator-2026-cupcake.webp" alt="A cupcake iced with the Co-Connect logo at the Google for Startups Accelerator bootcamp" width="1000" height="1250" loading="lazy" />
  <figcaption>Google iced a cupcake for every company in the cohort. Ours tasted like being taken seriously. Photo by Nano Solutions.</figcaption>
</figure>

---

**Image credits.** The header graphic is the official Class of 2026 line-up published by [Google for Startups](https://blog.google/intl/en-au/company-news/google-for-startups-accelerator-introducing-our-2026-australia-new-zealand-ai-cohort/). The photographs from the Sydney bootcamp are our own.

## Sources

- [Google for Startups Accelerator: Introducing our 2026 Australia & New Zealand AI Cohort](https://blog.google/intl/en-au/company-news/google-for-startups-accelerator-introducing-our-2026-australia-new-zealand-ai-cohort/) — The Keyword, Google Australia, 31 August 2026. The cohort list and all company descriptions.
- [Google for Startups Accelerator: Australia and New Zealand](https://startup.google.com/programs/accelerator/australia-new-zealand/) — program page. Duration, equity-free structure and format.
- [coconnectapp.com](https://www.coconnectapp.com/) — the product, and our [Co-Connect case study](/portfolio/co-connect-app) for how it was built.