Google Aims To Expand Its Launchpad Accelerator Program In India

Parvati Misra - Dec 20, 2018


Google Aims To Expand Its Launchpad Accelerator Program In India

Google has been making plans for scaling its India-based mentorship program for startups, which is known as Launchpad Accelerator. The program is aiming at 1000 startups in India the following year.

Google has been making plans for scaling its India-based mentorship program for startups, which is known as Launchpad Accelerator. The program is aiming at 1000 startups in India the following year.

Google Launchpad

According to Paul Ravindranath G – Launchpad Accelerator’s programme manager in India, Google will be cooperating with multiple accelerators and incubators to increase the Launchpad’s mentor network, objectives & key results, design sprint methodology, machine learning boot camps and escalate these validated engagement engines across all partners.

Back in 2018, Google introduced its first India-based programme Launchpad Accelerator to guide startups which use machine learning and artificial intelligence to build for local demands. Furthermore, the company states that approaching partnerships will encourage the implementation of machine learning and artificial intelligence for all startups in India.

Although India region hasn’t landed any accelerator partnership yet, in a global aspect, there have been ten associates who are currently taking part in the program “Powered by.” A program where incubators and accelerators are supported by Google Launchpad.

There have been 10 startups which were chosen amongst thousands of startup candidates for the initial accelerator programme for a period of three months. The startups went through training for two weeks providing mentorship, experts and technologies, and opening up Google’s network.

An Internet of Things startup known as Savemom, for example, has invented numerous hardware products to tackle poor healthcare for pregnant women. According to Senthil Kumar, who is the founder of Savemom, their most significant results came from the product validation from mentorship and industry experts regarding prioritizing the guideline of different products.

To persuade pregnant women to put on the device free of worry, Savemom constructs their IOT sensor looking like a rudraksha mala which is put on around the neck. The device then records health data such as sleep patterns or heartbeat rates and informs the doctor.

As stated by Vinish Kathuria, Google Launchpad’s mentor, the quality of startups has improved significantly. The founders are now more accomplished, more of them sprung from a non-metros background, and many of them are solving practical obstacles that can use the implementation of AI.

Other startups such as Genrobotics, a semi-automatic robot with the purpose of cleaning manhole, Wysa, an AI chat therapy for mental health care, and Slanglabs, a voice interface of multiple languages for mobile apps. These are amongst the top 10 startups which were the first cohort’s participants.

Startups not only get to be trained in leadership training but also learned UX (user experience), UI (user interface), AI, machine learning along with marketing from professional technical coaches. Until now, 40 Indian startups have been mentored by Google and the inquiry process for Google Launchpad's second cohort has been opened.

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