New Delhi, March 31 (IANS) Major tech giant Google on Tuesday opened applications for the 2026 cohort for 'startups accelerator' in India, a three-month, equity-free programme aimed at supporting AI-focused startups in the country. The accelerator is targeting Indian startups working in emerging areas such as Agentic AI, Multimodal AI, Physical AI, and Sovereign AI, as the ecosystem shifts from experimental use cases to large-scale, workflow-driven deployments, according to Google India.The tech firm said that the programme is open to AI-first startups from Seed to Series A stages that are building solutions for India-specific challenges or developing specialised models for global industrial applications.

Under the 2026 cohort, startups will receive equity-free support, including access to Google’s advanced AI models such as Gemini, Gemma, Imagen, Veo and Lyria, along with hands-on technical collaboration.Participants will also get one-on-one mentorship from experts across Google DeepMind, Cloud, Health and Android teams, besides access to cloud infrastructure, including TPUs and credits, subject to eligibility.The accelerator will further provide structured support through weekly tracking and dedicated success managers to help startups achieve product, technology and growth milestones.

The programme has delivered measurable outcomes in previous cohorts. Startups such as Dview reported a four-fold increase in revenue, while Superjoin improved accuracy and latency by 50 per cent using Gemini 3.0. Pulse, another participant, identified $3 million in at-risk revenue through large-scale feedback analysis.Several startups have also leveraged AI to address 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 reduced manual calls significantly. Resilience AI enhanced climate analytics performance, and VideoSDK improved efficiency and reduced costs through AI-led solutions.The 2026 accelerator will begin in late June with a week-long in-person bootcamp in Bengaluru and conclude with a Demo Day in October. Moreover, the applications will be closed on April 19.

/IANS