Google groups up with Accel to hunt for India’s subsequent AI breakouts

Google has partnered with Accel to seek 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 way of Accel’s Atoms program, with each companies contributing as much as $1 million. The 2026 cohort will give attention to 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 in-built India for international markets,” Prayank Swaroop, a accomplice 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 nation that lacks frontier mannequin improvement and hasn’t produced many corporations pushing the technical frontier of AI, the place improvement stays concentrated within the U.S. and China.

Exercise is beginning to shift, nevertheless, as main companies together with OpenAI and Anthropic have not too long ago 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 might flip India right into a significant AI market —if the ecosystem can translate expertise and demand into authentic analysis and merchandise.

Swaroop mentioned investments can 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 might even be foundational fashions.”

Swaroop mentioned the companies can even attempt to establish areas the place giant language fashions are more likely 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 help from Google Labs and DeepMind analysis groups, co-development alternatives, month-to-month mentorship with Accel companions and Google technical leads, and immersion periods in London and the Bay Space, together with Google I/O. Founders can even get advertising and marketing help by way of 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 unimaginable historical past of innovation, and we firmly imagine that its founders are going to be enjoying a number one function within the subsequent technology 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 wherever on the earth, and we selected India for a cause. Google has been a dedicated accomplice 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 knowledge middle and AI hub in India. The corporate additionally introduced a $10 billion digitization fund in 2020, which has backed companies together with Bharti Airtel, Reliance Jio, and Walmart-owned Flipkart. Final month, Google partnered with Reliance to supply tens of millions 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 corporations together with Replit and Harvey, and has additionally invested instantly in Indian startups equivalent to Toonsutra and STAN.

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

“That is our try and work with the market chief within the area who is aware of the nation extremely nicely, 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 could be no necessities for startups to completely use Gemini or every other Google product.

“Generally, Google’s expertise is the most effective. Different occasions, 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 locate a few totally different distinctive integrations that we are able to do with these corporations that leverage Google AI expertise.”

Launched in 2021, Accel’s pre-seed and seed platform, Atoms, has backed greater than 40 corporations 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 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 is just not structuring the partnership as a pathway to future acquisitions, and even future cloud clients.

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