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Google’s Association With AI Startups In India Was At An All-Time High In 2017

Google’s Association With AI Startups In India Was At An All-Time High In 2017

Google’s Association With AI Startups In India Was At An All-Time High In 2017

Published 2017-12-28T05:30:00.000+05:30Updated 2020-05-02T05:30:00.000+05:30

Key takeaways

Google is at the forefront of an AI-centric model for service delivery, influencing many organisations.
The company is pursuing an 'AI first' approach through acquisitions and support for AI startups.
Google's Launchpad Accelerator programme includes a diverse portfolio of startups across multiple continents.
In India, 30 startups have participated in the programme, focusing on AI, deep learning, and machine learning.
AI significantly enhances the speed of problem-solving, as highlighted by Google's programme manager.

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The shift towards an Artificial Intelligence-centric model of delivering services is soon becoming the norm of many organisations and Google is leading the way along with its contemporaries. The global search giant who is looking at an ‘AI first’ world, has been working towards that end through acquisitions and by extending its support to AI startups. Google’s Launchpad Accelerator programme proves that the company takes its push towards an AI first world very seriously. The programme boasts of a portfolio of startups across various countries in Asia, Africa, Europe and Central/South America. In India alone, 30 startups have been a part of the programm so far. Making their way into the list are sizeable a number of AI, deep learning and machine learning startups. “The pace at which you can solve problems is so much faster when you apply (AI),” Paul Ravindranath G, program manager, Google India told a newspaper. “We have begun including companies that are meaningfully solving problems using AI and machine learning,” he added. From healthcare to cooking apps, startups across diverse backgrounds using these technologies have received backing from the company. Some of the notable startups that made it to the programme are:

EdGE Networks - an HR solutions provider that uses AI to help in talent acquisition and workforce optimization
SigTuple - a healthcare startup provides screening solutions that enables better diagnosis through AI-powered analysis of visual medical data
Recipe Book - an intelligent cooking app that uses technology like AI and image recognition to provide recipes and other suggestions
RailYatri - a big data platform that uses crowd-sourced content, data analytics and intelligence to help travellers in decision making
SocialCops - a data intelligence company seeking to solve critical issues faced by humanity using data intelligence.

Google has a zero equity stake in all these associations. The backing purely comprises of mentoring and networking activities. With assistance from the tech giant, the startups have an opportunity to bolster their scale. Google itself is a leading provider of the services required by these startups to grow and they do not have to look far away. With a revenue of $90.27 billion in 2016, this symbiotic relationship could further add to the Google’s future revenues. As far as acquisitions go, Halli Labs, a Bangalore-based AI firm, was acquired by Google earlier this year for an undisclosed amount. The then four-month-old startup became Google’s first acquisition in India. With many Indian AI-startups falling under Google’s radar, the companies push towards an ‘AI first’ world could see a significant contribution coming from the country.