Started in 2018, Google for Startups Accelerator Program (GFSA) recently announced its fifth cohort of start-ups, spanning across sectors like agritech, fintech, healthtech, media and entertainment among others.

Google for Startups Accelerator India is a three-month cohort based program and there are typically two cohorts a year. The latest batch of 16 start-ups were shortlisted out of 700 applicants and will graduate in November 2021. BusinessLine spoke to Paul Ravindranath G, Program Manager, about the new cohort and the accelerator’s vision at large.

The cohort of Google for Startups Accelerator India has a diverse range of start-ups from fintech to healthtech, agritech and more. Is there a binding characteristic in all these companies?

The Google for Startups Accelerator India is aimed at mentoring start-ups that are addressing systemic issues which are core to the Indian economy. The program provides start-ups with three months of mentorship and assistance from Google and our network of industry experts in areas such as cloud, user experience, android, web, product strategy, and marketing.

Also see: Meet the 31 start-ups most likely to become unicorns soon

The accelerator targets start-ups across maturity levels that are not only utilise cutting edge tech but are also meaningfully helping India, and potentially the world, adapt and move forward through this pandemic season. It has nurtured companies solving for meaningful challenges that are more pronounced in light of the pandemic. We have supported start-ups across sectors such as edtech, healthtech, fintech, retail & logistics, media, productivity, and agritech, but are not restricted to these.

How has the performance of past cohorts of Google for Startups Accelerator India been?

With our ongoing efforts, GFSA continues to offer the best of Google to India's growing start-up ecosystem, leveraging global skills and knowledge to assist entrepreneurs in developing the finest innovations. The accelerator has mentored over 80 start-ups, who have collectively raised over $1.9 billion in funding and contributed significantly to India being one of the world's largest start-up ecosystems.

We count many wonderful start-ups including a unicorn (Sharechat) in our list of alumni. Start-ups solving for key large scale opportunities that India presents such as Drivezy, Nestaway, Sharechat were part of our early cohorts. Several companies like Niramai that apply cutting edge AI/ML tech in healthcare, specifically early detection of breast cancer, have benefited with our technology input. These start-ups, along with all the others in the previous batches of GFSA, continue to make an impact in the country.

Why does the accelerator has a special focus on creating artificial intelligence and machine learning capabilities among its cohort? Do you think these deeptech technologies are crucial for solving India specific challenges?

GFSA assists start-ups in innovating by sharing expertise about growing successful organisations, adopting strong tech architectures, methodology, and business practises in administration.

New-age technologies are assisting start-ups in scaling their businesses, detecting operational difficulties, and enabling rapid responses to minimise and control them. We see an inclination among start-ups towards AI and ML, where they adopt predictive decision-making capabilities, making them vital for organisations. The Indian start-up ecosystem has gone through various stages of maturity. More recently, there is a robust appetite among Indian entrepreneurs to take on challenges that are more systemic in nature like healthcare, financial inclusion, sustainability. This increased appetite comes on the back of technological advancements seen in the fields of ML/AI, that now offer the kind of multiplier impact needed to scale a product to make meaningful impact in a country like India.

As a program, while we can offer good AI/ML insights and support, we don't only focus on that but take a 360° approach to helping start-ups with the best technology based approach to address the challenges they are dealing with.

Please elaborate on the mentor profiles and expertise that GFSA offers?

The accelerator program connects start-ups with mentors from across the world. We have over 20 Google teams and hundreds of industry experts as part of the program that helps with operational, technology and business challenges.

Mentors bring expertise across a wide range of areas such as user experience and user research, technology covering android, cloud, web and more. marketing & growth, leadership are other key areas. Additionally, start-ups also find themselves to be eligible for the various other perks, once they are part of the Google for Startups Accelerator Programme. These include equity-free support, partnership on an advanced technology project, technical training on design, people, product, and growth marketing, support on high-level company and product strategy and Google product credits and early access to new services.

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