Meet The 100 Indian Startups That Are Part Of Google And MeitY’s Appscale Academy Initiative

The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) and tech giant Google have announced a new cohort of 100 Indian startups under its AppScale academy initiative.

As part of the programme, the accelerator will enable 100 local early to mid-stage startups to scale up globally. Under the endeavour, the academy will also help these startups to build high quality games and apps to drive engagement and innovation in the arena..

The startups were selected from among 400 applications after evaluating them on a slew of parameters. These parameters, according to Google, included ‘creative ideas and innovation, product quality, product scalability, and talent diversity.’

The selected startups include live learning platform, BitClass, social media platform for farmers, Farmyng Club, preschool learning app, Kutuki, assistive learning startup, Stamurai, among others.

The selected startups span a host of sectors including healthtech, fintech, social media, ecommerce and gaming.

Google, in a statement, also said that as.many as 35% of the selected startups came from Tier-2 and Tier-3 cities including Surat, Kanpur, Vadodara, Lucknow and others. In addition, as many as 58% of the cohort startups had a woman in a leadership role.

MeitY Joint Secretary, Bhuvnesh Kumar, said, “Startups and developers are key drivers of India’s digital transformation journey. We are seeing them drive meaningful solutions for India and the world, a spirit that is today widespread across the country with a new wave of creative app-preneurs emerging from different parts of India. We at MeitY value our partnership with Google, and it gives me immense delight to further boost this spirit of innovation with the Appscale Academy Program.”

Speaking at the launch, Google Play partnerships’ vice president, Purnima Kochikar said, “Today, India is uniquely positioned to become a leading hub for global app innovation with tremendous opportunity for Indian startups across the country, regardless of size and location, to thrive in the global app ecosystem. We thank MeitY Startup Hub for their partnership and vision and look forward to taking another step towards growing a diverse app ecosystem in India together. Welcome to the inaugural Appscale Academy class, a cohort of 100 promising app-preneurs who have inspired us by their creativity and audacity.”

Under the initiative, the startups will be trained via a custom designed curriculum to help them develop high quality apps for the global markets. 

The startups will also be mentored on different verticals of business planning including UX designing, business monetization strategies, international expansion best practices, and data safety and security practices.

The virtual programme will also provide these startup founders with guidance from industry professionals. In addition, a select few startups will also get an opportunity to pitch to leading venture capitalists and raise funding.

According to Google data, global users, on an average, spent 150% more time on Indian apps and games in 2021, compared to 2019.

Earlier last month, as many as 21 Indian startups featured on Y Combinator’s Winter 2022 cohort. Earlier on March 2, VC firm Accel launched a $650 Mn fund for early-stage Indian startups.

This was preceded by venture capital firm, WestBridge Capital, announcing an investment of $9 Mn in SaaS accelerator Upekkha’s UP funds in February this year.

The announcement reaffirms the positive image of the Indian ecosystem on the global scale. This was reflected in the overall funding flowing into Indian startups last year. Home-grown startups raised over $42 Bn in funding last year with an average ticket size of $32 Mn. The year 2021 also saw 42 startups entering the Unicorn club and 11 startups getting listed.

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