How to Apply to Betaworks Camp in 2026
Each Betaworks Camp runs on a theme, so your application is judged against Betaworks' current thesis, not just your market. Here are the windows, the terms, and the residency cost.
How to Apply to Betaworks Camp in 2026
How to apply to Betaworks Camp: find the live theme for the session you want, then apply in the December to January window for Spring or the June to July window for Fall. Camp runs 12 weeks in New York, takes 8 to 12 companies, and invests up to $500,000 (Betaworks).
You do not apply to Betaworks Camp, you apply to a theme. Camp is a thematic investment and in-residence program for early-stage startups building in frontier technologies, with two sessions each year (Betaworks). The live Fall 2026 thesis is The New Agentic Economy (Betaworks). Reviewers read your company against that sentence, not against your market.
Check which camp is actually live before you write anything. The evergreen Camp page and the announcement post for a specific session can name different themes, and the announcement post is the one reviewers are working from. As of August 24, 2026, the Fall 2026 window has closed (Betaworks), and the theme for the next session has not been announced.
How to apply to Betaworks Camp in 6 steps
The whole thing is one form, and the theme does most of the filtering before a human reads you.
- Open the announcement post for the camp you want, not the evergreen Camp page. The Fall 2026 post defines the thesis you are measured against (Betaworks).
- Apply inside the window. Applications run December to January for Spring and June to July for Fall (Betaworks).
- Write the one sentence truth about the future that makes your company possible. The application asks for exactly that (Betaworks).
- Record the demo and the three videos. The application asks for a product demo or rough prototype and three short videos (Betaworks).
- Fill in the operating detail: technical details, competitors, distribution strategy, team background, and prior funding (Betaworks).
- Confirm you can be in New York for the first and final two weeks (Betaworks).
Read the live Betaworks Camp theme before you write a word
The theme is the rubric, so a strong company outside the thesis loses to an ordinary company inside it.
The Fall 2026 thesis covers AI-native organizations, products shaped by second-order effects of AI, systems that steer or certify human-agent work, marketplaces for non-human consumers, and AI interacting with the physical world (Betaworks). Pick the one you belong to and name it in the first line. Applications that straddle three of those bullets read as unfocused rather than broad.
What the Betaworks Camp application asks for
The Betaworks Camp application is a thesis test wrapped in a product form.
Alongside the demo, videos, competitors, distribution strategy, team background, and prior funding, it asks for one sentence of truth about the future that makes your company possible (Betaworks). That sentence is the field that decides you. Make it dated, specific, and losable.
✅ Good: Within two years, most B2B purchase requests will be initiated by an agent with a budget, not a human with a cart. Works because it carries a date, a mechanism, and a way to be wrong.
❌ Bad: AI will transform how businesses operate over the next decade. Fails because nobody disagrees with it, so it tells the reader nothing about you.
The Betaworks Camp deal: up to $500,000 and a 5% common stake
Camp pays in two tranches, and the equity is not all inside the SAFE.
| Source | Amount | Instrument |
|---|---|---|
| Betaworks Ventures | Up to $250,000 | Uncapped SAFE, 25% discount, plus a 5% common stock stake |
| Syndicate partners | Up to $250,000 | Uncapped SAFEs, same 25% discount |
Both rows are the terms stated on the current application (Betaworks).
Price the 5% common stake, not the headline $500,000. An uncapped SAFE defers your valuation to the next priced round, so its cost depends on a number nobody has set yet. The common stock is dilution you take on day one. For context on what a capped instrument would have looked like instead, the median valuation cap for post-money SAFEs in the $500,000 to $1 million range was $10 million in 2024 (Carta).
The Betaworks residency program: what in residence costs a non-NYC founder
Camp is based at Betaworks offices in New York City's Meatpacking District, and attendance is only partly negotiable.
- In person is required twice: teams must participate in person during the first and final two weeks, while hybrid or remote arrangements may be discussed (Betaworks).
- No program fee, but the trip is yours: Betaworks does not charge program fees, and founders are responsible for travel to New York and housing while they are there (Betaworks).
- Four weeks of New York housing is the floor: that is what the two in-person blocks imply, before any optional weeks in the middle.
Do not open with a request for hybrid. It is described as something that may be discussed, not a policy, and leading with it signals you are optimizing for absence before you have been selected.
Betaworks Camp cohort size and the 2026 calendar
A Betaworks Camp cohort is 8 to 12 companies over 12 weeks (Betaworks).
| Session | Applications | Program runs | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Spring | December to January | March through May | Next window, theme unannounced |
| Fall | June to July | August through November | Closed for 2026 |
Windows, dates, and cohort size: Betaworks.
Betaworks does not publish an acceptance rate for Camp, so treat any percentage you find as invented. The cohort number tells you enough. Eight to twelve companies selected against a single thesis makes this a thematic accelerator in NYC with a narrow door, not a batch program you can brute-force with a strong generic application.
When this matters for your raise
Camp money is a bridge, not a round: the maximum is $500,000 (Betaworks) against a median seed round of $3.5 million in 2024 (Carta). What the 12 weeks actually buy is thesis-aligned proximity in a city that captured 13% of US pre-seed cash in 2024, versus 39% for California (Carta), so leave with a named point partner who can carry you into a partner meeting (First Round Review). If you are running outreach while a window is closed, Causo matches you to investors by stage and sector so a missed deadline is not a lost quarter. Compare Camp against a16z Speedrun, the HF0 residency, and current AI startup funding activity.
FAQ
What is Betaworks Camp? Betaworks Camp is a thematic investment and in-residence program for early-stage startups building in frontier technologies, with two sessions each year, per Betaworks. Each camp runs 12 weeks and typically selects 8 to 12 companies, per Betaworks. Companies in the current application can receive up to $500,000, split between Betaworks Ventures and syndicate partners, per Betaworks.
When are Betaworks Camp applications open? The standard windows are December to January for the Spring session and June to July for the Fall session, per Betaworks. As of August 24, 2026, the Fall 2026 window has closed, which makes the Spring window the next one to target. The theme for the next session has not been announced, so watch for the announcement post rather than assuming the Fall thesis carries over.
Is Betaworks Camp in person? Partly. Camp is based at Betaworks offices in New York City's Meatpacking District, and teams must participate in person during the first and final two weeks, while hybrid or remote arrangements may be discussed, per Betaworks. Betaworks does not charge program fees, but founders are responsible for travel to New York and housing while they are there.
What themes does Betaworks Camp fund? Themes change from session to session. The live Fall 2026 thesis is The New Agentic Economy, covering AI-native organizations, products shaped by second-order effects of AI, systems that steer or certify human-agent work, marketplaces for non-human consumers, and AI interacting with the physical world, per Betaworks. The theme for the following session has not been announced.
How big is the Betaworks Camp cohort? Camp runs 12 weeks and typically selects 8 to 12 companies, generally March through May for Spring and August through November for Fall, per Betaworks. Betaworks does not publish an acceptance rate for Camp, so any percentage quoted on a third party page is not a Betaworks figure.
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