Google becomes a 'healing hand' for 20 Indian Startups amid arisis

Bengaluru, September 23: Extending full-fledged support to the Indian startup companies, Google announced that they are supporting 20 Indian startup companies under its Google for Startups (GFS) accelerator program. This comes amid when the effects of the pandemic will be felt the most to these startups.

 

 

These 20 startups will receive three months of support from the network of internal and external mentors in India. The ongoing support ranges from access to Google teams, tech guidance on projects, machine learning related support, among other things.

 

The 20 Indian startups include Antwak the experiential micro-video platform that offers byte-sized videos for professionals to learn leadership skills, build a professional network, and more, BharatAri which offers end-to-end decision making support for Indian farmers. This company also includes Gram power which is an energy technology company that has developed and patented the industry's lowest cost smart electricity metering system.

 

Apart from this 3, it also includes BlackLight Games, Decoder, Factors.ai, Foxy.in, Gram Powder, InnerHour, Leher, Lokal, Math Buddy, Mera Cashier, Mosaic Wellness, my HQ, Navia Life Care, Orowealth, Virohan, Wellthy Therapeutics, Womaniya, and Zee Auto. According to the tech giant, it comprises startups from key categories that require urgent innovation, such as workplace collaboration and connection tools, mental health and wellness, health-tech, fintech, and agritech.

 

Google has been running its Google for the Startups Accelerator program in India since 2015. The key objective of GSF is to spur innovation and entrepreneurship. They aimed to provide informed, knowledgeable mentorship capital to the start-ups. The tech giant says that it has mentored over 600 startups and accelerated over 60, which have collectively raised over $700 million in funding and played a key role in making India the second largest startup ecosystem in the world.

 

Every year GFS Accelerator program selects 10 startups companies and backs them. However this year they had doubled its batch size from 10 to 20 startups and expanded the scope of the program, to include startups that are using cutting-edge tech to meaningfully help India and the world adapt and move forward from the pandemic.

 

“GFS Accelerator’s mission is more important in the present times when this ecosystem faces unprecedented odds. Hence, we aim to focus single-mindedly on helping startups tide over the next 18-24 months, when the effects of the pandemic will be felt the strongest,” said Paul Ravindranath G, Programme Manager, GFS Accelerator, Google India.

 

Earlier in July Google CEO Pichai announced Google’s $10 billion investment fund for India during his meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi. He had briefed Modi on the fund, which would entail a mix of equity investments, partnerships, and operational, infrastructure, and ecosystem investments to launch new products and services, increase internet penetration, and leverage technology for social causes such as health, education, and agriculture.