Breaking Down Google's Decade of Supporting Indian Entrepreneurs In the last decade, Google has backed more than 230 startups across sectors, providing mentorship, infrastructure, technology, and more.

"Next Billion Users" headlined Google's events in India for the longest time. These billion users referred to the internet adopters who skipped the PC era and came online through smartphones. This also meant Google broadening its purview from the likes of Silicon Valley or London to places like India and Indonesia among other emerging markets.

The billion users happened, at least in India. The country now has more than 950 million internet users with 95.15% villages having access to the internet. There's ecommerce, quick commerce, fintech, and lots more, byproducts of the rapid growth of affordable and fast internet.

Google has remained a constant and critical part of this journey. Even as it has launched several consumer-facing products that too evolved with the digital evolution and pretty much Indianized, the company also invested extensively on supporting local entrepreneurship. 2025 marks Google's decade of supporting Indian entrepreneurs through its 'Google for Startups' program.

Turning Back the Clock with Google

A decade ago an internet economy existed but it was too constrained by limited connectivity and relatively expensive data prices. Things radically changed with Reliance Jio disrupting the telecom industry with free high speed internet access for everyone. If you look closely at the 100-odd Indian unicorns of today, quite a few were born between 2015 and 2017. This includes ShareChat, Moglix, upGrad, and Spinny to name a few.

In a conversation with Entrepreneur India, Apurva Chamaria, Global Head of Venture Capital & Startup Partnerships at Google India, recalled that a decade back India's entrepreneurial journey was very much a 'me too' i.e. Uber of this, Netflix of that.

"... And we started our program right then…. [our effort was] to empower the best product builders with the best access to the ecosystem, expertise and platform capabilities. We started with a one-week bootcamp. It was not an accelerator and it did increasingly well," Chamaria added. "... we were able to get a lot of value back from the ecosystem."

Apart from Google for Startups program, the company also ran different programs. One of the most notable of these was the Internet Sathi program, which aimed to bridge the digital gender divide in rural India by promoting digital literacy among women. The company also launched Digital Unlocked, a program under which the company helped free training for small and medium businesses (SMBs) to use and leverage the internet.

He also stressed that these years have also been a learning journey for Google. The company is now engaging with founders across different seasons as it is also learning about how to solve for markets like India, and subsequently, provide a solution space for its platforms and technology.

Portfolio Impact & Post-Covid Transition

Overall, Google has backed 237 startups across sectors.

The companies supported by Google have gone on to raise more than USD 4.5 billion, the Google executive revealed. He also added that they have seen a 96% survival rate in their portfolio of startups. Moreover, these startups have created up to 12,000 jobs over the years. ShareChat and Magicpin are some of the top names from Google's portfolio.

The pandemic brought about some massive changes to our internet economy. Virtual platforms like Zoom and categories like edtech and quickcommerce started to become popular. Online play became more pivotal than ever before.

This was also the time when Google invested USD 4.5 billion in Reliance's Jio Platforms to acquire 7.7% stake. Since then Google and Jio have entered into partnership for various purposes, including cloud, sustainability, and of course, AI.

Google's entrepreneurial program too saw a radical shift. While the accelerator continued, albeit online, the company gradually fine tuned its programs to focus on startups that are population scale solutions now.

"It's no longer about the 'me too' or run-on-the-mill companies but startups that are actually going deep, using data to solve for population scale," Chamaria added.

The Google executive said that the company has backed both B2B and B2C firms, and the program remains a stage and sector-agnostic.

Deep Tech, AI Focus, and Tech for Good

Chamaria noted that Google's commitment through the years of India's transformation has focused on facilitating all Indian builders with the best tech platforms and tools.

These days it's about providing the best state-of-the-art AI models that not only have platform access but also support programs that support top talent and startup ecosystems. There is also focus on providing deep ecosystem connections.

Chamaria highlighted that the AI era is upon us, and it's time for the program and company to build towards it. Google has introduced an ambitious 'AI Futures Fund', which as the name implies, will support AI-focused founders and startups. Selected startups will receive backing from Google in the form of up to USD 350,000 in Google Cloud credits, access to the latest Gemini models from DeepMind, technical mentorship from AI experts, and potential equity investment for breakthrough ideas.

The announcement builds on Google's I/O Connect Bengaluru where the company announced Gemini 2.5, Gemma 3 (supporting six Indian languages), Imagen 4, Veo 3, and new APIs like Maps Weather — alongside India-specific pricing and local Gemini Flash processing to empower developers.

Paul Ravindranath, senior program manager for Google for Startups Accelerator India, told Entrepreneur India that the company is interested in working startups that use the latest technologies, including AI, to solve social problems. Ravindranath noted that there are a few startups in the Google for Startups cohort that are doing so for things not limited to mental health, stammering, and breast cancer screening.

For instance, Google supports a company called DeepVision Tech, which is essentially an AI-powered communication platform that translates sign language to text/speech and vice-versa in real-time, aiming to help people with hearing or speech impairments. Similarly, there is a startup that is solving for increased time spent by kids on TV. Another one is solving for speech impediments.

Chamaria said that there is a huge increase in the number of startups applying to the company's accelerator program that focuses on AI companies. He disclosed that the company received nearly 1,600 applications for a cohort of 20, making it harder for the team to shortlist.

"So the idea of having some, something like a light wrapper on top of an LLM and trying to solve something versus startups that are doing proprietary or using proprietary data to build very custom solutions like in healthcare, fintech and so on… so those are the kind of startups that we are working with," he said on handpicking the real impact players from a crowd.

"We are very aware of this and that's why the program is designed in a manner that it's not just a tech accelerator but is a 360-degree founder program. We help them with pricing models, access to the ecosystem, and where they should grow the markets."

Takeaways,

Google executives revealed that Indian founders are now solving population scale problems that are "technically very complex," showing "a lot more technical depth" in their solutioning compared to other markets.

The cohort, however, will continue to have up to 20 startups per cohort (most likely two cohorts every year), as Google executives believe this allows them to spend optimal time with them. While the accelerator size is limited, Google executives noted that the company has built several partnerships with different accelerators and incubators to support more than 2,000 startups annually.

They also stressed the need for building boldly but at the same time "responsibly." This focus builds on the idea of Responsible AI and security, ensuring end users put their faith in the authenticity and safety of such AI-powered tools, products, and services.