Google and venture capital company Accel have stated that they will collaborate to fund at least 10 Indian-based early-stage AI companies in India, the first venture of its kind for Google in the nation. The partnership, which is a part of Google AI Futures Fund, is meant to speed up innovation in the rapidly expanding AI ecosystem in India, including entertainment, creativity, coding and future-of-work apps.
Each startup will be able to draw up to 2 million dollars of funding under the partnership where Google and Accel will contribute up to 1 million dollars respectively. He says that the program seeks to help Indian founders and startups in the Indian diaspora develop AI products up to the ground-up.
Jonathan Silber, Co-founder and Director of the Google AI Futures Fund, said: “ Our goal is not simply to sell cloud services. This partnership is about identifying and supporting startups that can shape the next wave of AI innovation”
Global tech giants have found India to be a key target and Microsoft, Amazon, and OpenAI have increased their operations in the country. India has almost one billion people who can use the internet, providing a huge mobile-first and engineering talent pool. According to industry body NASSCOM and consulting firm BCG, the AI ecosystem in the country is expected to be 17 billion dollars by 2027. The adoption of AI in the global economy is predicted to exceed 2 trillion dollars in 2026, as compared to approximately 1.5 trillion dollars in 2025, a study by market research firm Gartner reveals.
The AI Futures Fund, which was introduced by Google six months ago, has already made investments in more than 30 companies, including Toonsutra, an Indian webtoon company, and Harvey, a U.S. based legal-technology company. The program also includes access to Google Cloud, Gemini AI, and DeepMind compute credits as well as mentoring by Google technical teams and Accel partners, on top of funding. Co-development opportunities, marketing assistance and access to the AI builder ecosystem of Google are some of the benefits founders enjoy.
The project is part of the 15 billion investment strategy that Google has made in developing an AI and data hub center in Andhra Pradesh, the biggest investment in India up to now. Also, Google has recently collaborated with Reliance Jio and offered free access to Gemini AI to more than 505 million users, increasing the reach of AI in the country.
Atoms program under which the partnership will be conducted is an initiative by Accel that has already supported over 40 startups raising exceeding 300 million dollars as follow-on financing. Recently, the program has been extended to the Indian-origin founders located abroad as part of the increased focus on developing AI talent that is related to India.
We are not merely trying to sell cloud services. This collaboration is regarding discovering and investing in startups that will define the next generation of AI innovation, Silber said.
The program will make investments in various fields based on creativity tools, SaaS tools, entertainment services, and workplace-oriented AI tools. Although Google will have its AI products on the market, including Gemini and DeepMind, startups will not be restricted to Google technology since founders will have the option to support other AI platforms, including OpenAI and Anthropic.
The rising AI adoption and the developing cloud infrastructure in India, coupled with the low prices of software and large number of tech-savvy population, allow developing a unique opportunity to create scalable solutions that would be able to serve their markets nationally and globally. The partnership of Google and Accel will trigger the creation of AI innovation at an initial stage, making India one of the contributors to the world of AI.
