Major tech giant Google has announced the opening of applications for the 2026 cohort of its ‘startups accelerator’ in India. This three-month, equity-free program is designed to support AI-focused startups in the country. The accelerator is specifically targeting Indian startups involved in areas like Agentic AI, Multimodal AI, Physical AI, and Sovereign AI as the industry transitions from experimental use cases to large-scale, workflow-driven implementations.
Startups at Seed to Series A stages that are AI-first and are developing solutions for India-specific challenges or specialized models for global industrial applications are eligible for this program. Participants in the 2026 cohort will benefit from equity-free support, gaining access to Google’s advanced AI models such as Gemini, Gemma, Imagen, Veo, and Lyria, as well as hands-on technical collaboration.
Moreover, startups will receive one-on-one mentorship from experts in Google DeepMind, Cloud, Health, and Android teams. They will also have access to cloud infrastructure, including TPUs and credits, based on eligibility criteria. The accelerator program will offer structured support through weekly tracking and dedicated success managers to assist startups in achieving product, technology, and growth milestones.
In previous cohorts, the program has shown tangible results. For instance, Dview witnessed a four-fold increase in revenue, while Superjoin enhanced accuracy and latency by 50% using Gemini 3.0. Pulse, another participant, identified $3 million in at-risk revenue through extensive feedback analysis. Various startups have utilized AI to tackle sector-specific challenges. AiSteth developed an offline smart stethoscope that screened over 75,000 patients across multiple states, while Vaani AI scaled voice processing and significantly reduced manual calls. Resilience AI improved climate analytics performance, and VideoSDK boosted efficiency and reduced costs through AI-driven solutions.
The 2026 accelerator program will kick off in late June with a week-long in-person bootcamp in Bengaluru and will culminate with a Demo Day in October. The application window for interested startups will close on April 19.
