Google Announces 10 Indian Startups For Class III Of Launchpad Accelerator Programme

Google, on October 9, has announced the names of ten Indian startups, which qualified for the third edition of the three-month long programme Google Launchpad Accelerator. The programme was launched in the country in 2018 with the aim to accelerate home grown startups, which are using scalable tech like artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) to find solutions for the pressing problems in the country.

The Class III of the Google Launchpad Accelerator India begins on October 14, 2019, with the following startups.

1. Agricx
   Founder: Saurabh Kumar, Ritesh Dhoot
   Founded: 2016
   Headquarters: Thane, Maharashtra
   Agricx is an agritech startup which uses smartphone imaging to assess, standardise and digitise the quality of agri-produce.
2. Ambee
   Founders: Akshay Joshi, Madhusudhan Anand and Jaideep Singh Bachher
   Founded: 2017
   Headquarters: Bengaluru, Karnataka
   Ambee is an environmental analytics startup that makes hyperlocal and real-time air quality data and intelligence available to developers and researchers.
3. Artivatic
   Founders: Layak Singh
   Founded: 2017
   Headquarters: Bengaluru, Karnataka
   Artivatic is an AI-backed insurtech and healthtech startup that powers insurance, finance and healthcare businesses with intelligent systems and solutions to enable seamless business and customer relations.
4. CureSkin
   Founders: Guna Kakulapati, Ramakrishna R, Charu Sharma
   Founded: 2017
   Headquarters: Bengaluru, Karnataka
   Cureskin is an AI-backed skin care platform that can identify skin-related problems using image recognition techniques.
5. Intello Labs
   Founders: Milan Sharma, Himani Shah, Nishant Mishra, Devendra Chandani
   Founded: 2016
   Headquarters: Gurugram, Delhi NCR
   Intello Labs is an AI-backed agritech startup, which tracks post-harvest commodity, quality assessment through mobile applications.
6. Jiny
   Founders: Kushagra Sinha, Sahil Sachdeva
   Founded: 2017
   Headquarters: Bengaluru, Karnataka
   Jiny is an assistive user-interface (AUI) platform that allows businesses to enable voice assistance to the users.
7. Nayan
   Founders: Jayant Ratti
   Founded: 2015
   Headquarters: Delhi
   Nayan is a road safety and traffic monitoring startup that detects traffic violations and aims to improve road safety through Artificial Intelligence on crowdsourced video data.
8. Nira
   Founders: Rohit Sen
   Founded: 2017
   Headquarters: Bengaluru, Karnataka
   Nira is an fintech startup that works on an app-based credit line, that grants a credit of upto INR 1 Lakh to approved users.
9. PerSapien
   Founders: Dr Shashi Ranjan
   Founded: 2017
   Headquarters: Delhi
   PerSapien is a device that can neutralize pollution from the atmosphere and can be used to clean up the air.
10. SustLabs
    Founders: Kaushik Bose
    Founded: 2016
    Headquarters: Mumbai, Maharashtra
    SushLabs makes a product that is attached to electric meters to decodes real-time electricity consumption of a house.

The selected startups will have to go through an intensive one week-long mentorship bootcamp, followed by mentorship sessions from the Google team and other industry experts. Apart from this the startups will also receive “customised support” from Google, which includes:
Tech guidance on specific projects

• Machine learning related support
• Design sprints for identified challenges
• Leadership workshops
• Access to Google teams
• Interactions with industry experts, mentors
• Networking opportunities at industry events, PR support and much more

Google has been trying to collaborate with startups in India through various initiatives such as Google Launchpad Accelerator Programme and Internet Saathi Programme. Under the Saathi programme, the programme plans to equip women in villages in India with basic digital literacy.

The Google Launchpad Accelerator Programme, on the other hand, has so far announced two cohorts, which included Wysa, MultiBhashi, GenRobotics, etc.

 Meanwhile, Sequoia Capital also introduced the second cohort for its accelerator programme, Surge, for startups in Indian and South-East Asian Startups.