Google teams up with Accel to hunt for India’s next 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 means of Accel’s Atoms program, with each companies 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 accomplice at Accel, instructed Trendster.

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 growth and hasn’t produced many firms 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 companies 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 can be geared towards nearly any space: creativity, leisure, coding, and work. “The way forward for work right here is extra encompassing, which is basically SaaS, and all different purposes,” he instructed Trendster. “It may even be foundational fashions.”

Swaroop mentioned the companies will even attempt to determine areas the place massive language fashions are prone to advance over the subsequent 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 will even get advertising assist 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 mentioned.

“India has an unimaginable historical past of innovation, and we firmly consider that its founders are going to be enjoying a number one function within the subsequent era of AI-led international know-how,” Jonathan Silber, co-founder and director of the Google AI Futures Fund, instructed Trendster. “That is the Futures Fund’s first such collaboration anyplace on the earth, and we selected India for a motive. 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 put money into and collaborate with AI startups globally. It has backed firms together with Replit and Harvey, and has additionally invested straight in Indian startups corresponding to Toonsutra and STAN.

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

“That is our try to work with the market chief within the house 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 instructed Trendster there could be no necessities for startups to completely use Gemini or some other Google product.

“Generally, Google’s know-how is the very best. Different occasions, you’ll see Anthropic or OpenAI. So, we’re not placing agency necessities that say you possibly can 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 know-how.”

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 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 instructed Trendster that Google just isn’t structuring the partnership as a pathway to future acquisitions, and even future cloud prospects.

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