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Google has partnered with Accel to find and fund India\u2019s earliest-stage AI startups in a first-of-its-kind collaboration for the Google AI Futures Fund, launched<\/a> earlier this year. <\/p>\n On Tuesday, Accel and Google announced<\/a> a partnership to jointly invest up to $2 million in each startup through Accel\u2019s Atoms program, with both firms contributing up to $1 million. The 2026 cohort will focus on founders in India and the Indian diaspora building AI products from day one.<\/p>\n \u201cThe thought process is building AI products for billions of Indians, as well as supporting AI products built in India for global markets,\u201d Prayank Swaroop, a partner at Accel, told TechCrunch.<\/p>\n India is an appealing market with the world\u2019s second-largest internet and smartphone base after China and its deep engineering talent. Still, it\u2019s also a country that lacks frontier model development and hasn\u2019t produced many companies pushing the technical frontier of AI<\/a>, where development remains concentrated in the U.S. and China.<\/p>\n Activity is starting to shift, however, as major firms including OpenAI<\/a> and Anthropic<\/a> have recently announced offices in the country, and global investors step up early-stage commitments. The bet is that a large, mobile-first population, expanding cloud infrastructure, and relatively low software costs could turn India into a meaningful AI market \u2014 if the ecosystem can translate talent and demand into original research and products.<\/p>\n Swaroop said investments will be geared toward just about any area: creativity, entertainment, coding, and work. \u201cThe future of work here is more encompassing, which is essentially SaaS, and all other applications,\u201d he told TechCrunch. \u201cIt could even be foundational models.\u201d<\/p>\n Swaroop said the firms will also try to identify areas where large language models are likely to advance over the next 12-24 months and look for Indian startups building in those directions.<\/p>\n Techcrunch event<\/p>\n \n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSan Francisco<\/span> Alongside capital, founders will receive up to $350,000 in compute credits across Google Cloud, Gemini, and DeepMind, as well as early access to Gemini and DeepMind models, APIs, and experimental features. The program will include support from Google Labs and DeepMind research teams, co-development opportunities, monthly mentorship with Accel partners and Google technical leads, and immersion sessions in London and the Bay Area, including Google I\/O. Founders will also get marketing support through Accel and Google\u2019s global channels, as well as access to the Atoms founder network and Google\u2019s AI builder ecosystem, the companies said.<\/p>\n \u201cIndia has an incredible history of innovation, and we firmly believe that its founders are going to be playing a leading role in the next generation of AI-led global technology,\u201d Jonathan Silber, co-founder and director of the Google AI Futures Fund, told TechCrunch. \u201cThis is the Futures Fund\u2019s first such collaboration anywhere in the world, and we chose India for a reason. Google has been a committed partner in the country\u2019s journey to digital transformation, with multibillion-dollar investments over the years.\u201d<\/p>\n The partnership follows Google\u2019s recent $15 billion plan<\/a> to build a 1-gigawatt data center and AI hub in India. The company also announced a $10 billion digitization fund<\/a> in 2020, which has backed firms including Bharti Airtel<\/a>, Reliance Jio<\/a>, and Walmart-owned Flipkart<\/a>. Last month, Google partnered with Reliance to offer millions of Jio users free access to AI Pro<\/a>.<\/p>\n Google launched the AI Futures Fund<\/a> in May as a dedicated vehicle to invest in and collaborate with AI startups globally. It has backed companies including Replit<\/a> and Harvey<\/a>, and has also invested directly in Indian startups such as Toonsutra<\/a> and STAN<\/a>.<\/p>\n Silber told TechCrunch that Google would appear on the cap tables of startups funded through the partnership and would be \u201ca material presence,\u201d but declined to share how its equity stakes would compare with Accel\u2019s.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is our attempt to work with the market leader in the space who knows the country incredibly well, that can get us talking to earlier-stage founders at an early informative stage, that can move the needle,\u201d Silber said.<\/p>\n While using Google products is, perhaps, a given for applicants to this program, both Silber and Swaroop told TechCrunch there would be no requirements for startups to exclusively use Gemini or any other Google product. <\/p>\n \u201cSometimes, Google\u2019s technology is the best. Other times, you\u2019ll see Anthropic or OpenAI. So, we\u2019re not putting firm requirements that say you can only use Google\u2019s models,\u201d said Silber. \u201cWhat we\u2019re hoping to do, though, is find a couple of different unique integrations that we can do with these companies that leverage Google AI technology.\u201d<\/p>\n Launched in 2021, Accel\u2019s pre-seed and seed platform, Atoms, has backed more than 40 companies that have collectively raised over $300 million in follow-on funding. The firm expanded the program this year<\/a> to include Indian-origin founders based overseas.<\/p>\n
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