Google teams up with Accel to hunt for India’s next AI breakouts

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 announced a partnership to collectively make investments as much as $2 million in every startup by Accel’s Atoms program, with each corporations contributing as much as $1 million. The 2026 cohort will deal with 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 associate at Accel, informed 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 growth and hasn’t produced many companies pushing the technical frontier of AI, the place growth stays concentrated within the U.S. and China.

Exercise is beginning to shift, nonetheless, as main corporations together with OpenAI and Anthropic have not too long ago introduced workplaces within the nation, and international buyers step up early-stage commitments. The wager 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 authentic analysis and merchandise.

Swaroop mentioned investments shall 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 informed TechCrunch. “It may even be foundational fashions.”

Swaroop mentioned the corporations can even attempt to determine areas the place giant language fashions are prone to advance over the following 12-24 months and search for Indian startups constructing in these instructions.

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 embody assist 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 can even get advertising and marketing assist by Accel and Google’s international channels, in addition to entry to the Atoms founder community and Google’s AI builder ecosystem, the businesses mentioned.

“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, informed TechCrunch. “That is the Futures Fund’s first such collaboration anyplace on the earth, and we selected India for a purpose. Google has been a dedicated associate within the nation’s journey to digital transformation, with multibillion-dollar investments over time.”

The partnership follows Google’s latest $15 billion plan to construct a 1-gigawatt information middle 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 hundreds of thousands of Jio customers free access to AI Pro.

Google launched the AI Futures Fund in Might as a devoted car to put money into and collaborate with AI startups globally. It has backed firms together with Replit and Harvey, and has additionally invested instantly in Indian startups comparable to Toonsutra and STAN.

Silber informed TechCrunch that Google would seem on the cap tables of startups funded by the partnership and can be “a cloth presence,” however declined to share how its fairness stakes would examine with Accel’s.

“That is our try to work with the market chief within the area who is aware of the nation extremely effectively, that may get us speaking to earlier-stage founders at an early informative stage, that may transfer the needle,” Silber mentioned.

Whereas utilizing Google merchandise is, maybe, a given for candidates to this program, each Silber and Swaroop informed TechCrunch there can be no necessities for startups to completely use Gemini or every other Google product.

“Typically, Google’s expertise is the perfect. 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,” mentioned Silber. “What we’re hoping to do, although, is use 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 the program this year to incorporate Indian-origin founders primarily based abroad.

The most recent 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 informed TechCrunch that Google isn’t structuring the partnership as a pathway to future acquisitions, and even future cloud prospects.

“We’re not a gross sales group, so we’re not particularly wanting to enroll new cloud prospects. That’s not our aim,” he mentioned. “By way of KPIs, our goal is just to see the following wave of innovation within the AI area popping out of India.”