Start-ups to join Google class in June

Google announced on Wednesday six Indian startups would join its Launchpad Accelerator at the tech giant headquarters at Silicon Valley in California in June.

This would be the second class of Indian start-ups. They will join 18 promising new companies from Brazil, Indonesia and Mexico.

The two-week boot camp, starting 13 June, will determine each start-up’s challenges and deploy precise mentors and try to find solutions. Google resources would also be provided to enable the products or applications of these companies to scale up.

Those from India include Taskbob and Programming Hub from Mumbai, ShareChat and PlaySimple Games from Bengaluru, and RedCarpet and Magic Pin from Delhi.

“The Indian startup ecosystem is maturing very fast. Entrepreneurs are not shying away from the risks and are very eager to learn. Access to good mentoring and advice at early and middle stages has been a big gap which we’re looking to fill,” said Paul Ravindranath, program manager, Google India.

He said: “In our experience, many start-ups struggle with UX, building scalable architectures and go to market strategy. Launchpad Accelerator Program brings together mentors and experts from within Google and outside to help these start-ups succeed. The first batch from India has benefitted a great deal and we are excited to get on board the second batch.”

The six-month-long mentorship program for startups will include $50,000 in equity-free funding, a twoweek all-expenses paid boot camp at the Google headquarters, six months of ongoing mentorship and access to Google’s full suite of Launchpad initiatives, and connections and product credits including Google Cloud and other products.