Google has partnered with Accel to search out and fund India’s earliest-stage AI startups in a first-of-its-kind collaboration for the Google AI Futures Fund, launched earlier this yr.
On Tuesday, Accel and Google introduced a partnership to collectively make investments as much as $2 million in every startup by means of Accel’s Atoms program, with each corporations contributing as much as $1 million. The 2026 cohort will concentrate on founders in India and the Indian diaspora constructing AI merchandise from day one.
“The thought course of is constructing AI merchandise for billions of Indians, in addition to supporting AI merchandise inbuilt India for international markets,” Prayank Swaroop, a companion at Accel, advised TechCrunch.
India is an interesting market with the world’s second-largest web and smartphone base after China and its deep engineering expertise. Nonetheless, it’s additionally a rustic that lacks frontier mannequin improvement and hasn’t produced many firms pushing the technical frontier of AI, the place improvement stays concentrated within the U.S. and China.
Exercise is beginning to shift, nonetheless, as main corporations together with OpenAI and Anthropic have just lately introduced places of work within the nation, and international buyers step up early-stage commitments. The guess is that a big, mobile-first inhabitants, increasing cloud infrastructure, and comparatively low software program prices may flip India right into a significant AI market — if the ecosystem can translate expertise and demand into unique analysis and merchandise.
Swaroop stated investments might be geared towards nearly any space: creativity, leisure, coding, and work. “The way forward for work right here is extra encompassing, which is actually SaaS, and all different functions,” he advised TechCrunch. “It may even be foundational fashions.”
Swaroop stated the corporations will even attempt to determine areas the place massive language fashions are more likely to advance over the subsequent 12-24 months and search for Indian startups constructing in these instructions.
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Alongside capital, founders will obtain as much as $350,000 in compute credit throughout Google Cloud, Gemini, and DeepMind, in addition to early entry to Gemini and DeepMind fashions, APIs, and experimental options. This system will embrace help from Google Labs and DeepMind analysis groups, co-development alternatives, month-to-month mentorship with Accel companions and Google technical leads, and immersion classes in London and the Bay Space, together with Google I/O. Founders will even get advertising and marketing help by means of Accel and Google’s international channels, in addition to entry to the Atoms founder community and Google’s AI builder ecosystem, the businesses stated.
“India has an unbelievable historical past of innovation, and we firmly consider that its founders are going to be taking part in a number one position within the subsequent era of AI-led international expertise,” Jonathan Silber, co-founder and director of the Google AI Futures Fund, advised TechCrunch. “That is the Futures Fund’s first such collaboration wherever on this planet, and we selected India for a motive. Google has been a dedicated companion within the nation’s journey to digital transformation, with multibillion-dollar investments over time.”
The partnership follows Google’s current $15 billion plan to construct a 1-gigawatt information heart and AI hub in India. The corporate additionally introduced a $10 billion digitization fund in 2020, which has backed corporations together with Bharti Airtel, Reliance Jio, and Walmart-owned Flipkart. Final month, Google partnered with Reliance to supply thousands and thousands of Jio customers free entry to AI Professional.
Google launched the AI Futures Fund in Could as a devoted car to spend money on and collaborate with AI startups globally. It has backed firms together with Replit and Harvey, and has additionally invested straight in Indian startups resembling Toonsutra and STAN.
Silber advised TechCrunch that Google would seem on the cap tables of startups funded by means of the partnership and could be “a fabric presence,” however declined to share how its fairness stakes would evaluate with Accel’s.
“That is our try and work with the market chief within the house who is aware of the nation extremely properly, that may get us speaking to earlier-stage founders at an early informative stage, that may transfer the needle,” Silber stated.
Whereas utilizing Google merchandise is, maybe, a given for candidates to this program, each Silber and Swaroop advised TechCrunch there could be no necessities for startups to completely use Gemini or every other Google product.
“Generally, Google’s expertise is the most effective. Different instances, you’ll see Anthropic or OpenAI. So, we’re not placing agency necessities that say you’ll be able to solely use Google’s fashions,” stated Silber. “What we’re hoping to do, although, is locate a few totally different distinctive integrations that we are able to do with these firms that leverage Google AI expertise.”
Launched in 2021, Accel’s pre-seed and seed platform, Atoms, has backed greater than 40 firms which have collectively raised over $300 million in follow-on funding. The agency expanded this system this yr to incorporate Indian-origin founders based mostly abroad.
The newest collaboration comes days after Accel’s partnership with Prosus to co-invest in Atoms X, backing early-stage Indian founders constructing large-scale options with the potential to serve the lots within the nation.
Silber advised TechCrunch that Google is just not structuring the partnership as a pathway to future acquisitions, and even future cloud clients.
“We’re not a gross sales workforce, so we’re not particularly trying to enroll new cloud clients. That’s not our aim,” he stated. “By way of KPIs, our goal is solely to see the subsequent wave of innovation within the AI house popping out of India.”