India is a critical market for generative AI and tech giant Google is doubling down on the market. The next unicorn founder in GenAI will come from India, Jonathan Silber, cofounder and director of the Google AI Futures Fund, told ET.
Silber said that India has an incredible history of innovation. Google AI Futures Fund, which invests in AI startups globally, was first launched in May 2025. It was introduced in India in November 2025 in partnership with Atoms, the early-stage platform of venture capital firm Accel India.
âThis is the first time that Googleâs AI futures fund has done such a collaboration anywhere in the world. We didnât do it randomly, like very intentionally chose India, because we think thereâs tremendous opportunity here,â Silber said. Accel is a major backer of leading AI firms globally and some of their investments include firms such as Anthropic and Synthesia, Cursor.
As a part of its first cohort of its joint investment programme in India, the two organisations have selected five startups in March, where the companies will invest $1 million each and will offer $350,000 in compute credits along with other benefits such as access to top foundational models from Google.
The five startups, which were selected from 4,000 applications, include K-Dense, Dodge.ai, Persistence Labs, Zingroll and Level Plane. India is seeing significant growth in startups working on AI in the last couple of years. Prayank Swaroop, partner, Accel, said that in 2024, AI was fairly new and most of the ideas were wrappers on top of the models for solutions across marketing, hiring and edtech markets, with only 10% being unique.
âNow the situation is 40% unique because how the same AI can apply to different sectors have changed,â he said. With the rise of agentic and voice AI, a lot of founders are beginning to understand how AI applies to the Indian business and consumer context, and how they can compete in the global landscape.
Silber said that India has an incredible history of innovation. Google AI Futures Fund, which invests in AI startups globally, was first launched in May 2025. It was introduced in India in November 2025 in partnership with Atoms, the early-stage platform of venture capital firm Accel India.
âThis is the first time that Googleâs AI futures fund has done such a collaboration anywhere in the world. We didnât do it randomly, like very intentionally chose India, because we think thereâs tremendous opportunity here,â Silber said. Accel is a major backer of leading AI firms globally and some of their investments include firms such as Anthropic and Synthesia, Cursor.
As a part of its first cohort of its joint investment programme in India, the two organisations have selected five startups in March, where the companies will invest $1 million each and will offer $350,000 in compute credits along with other benefits such as access to top foundational models from Google.
The five startups, which were selected from 4,000 applications, include K-Dense, Dodge.ai, Persistence Labs, Zingroll and Level Plane. India is seeing significant growth in startups working on AI in the last couple of years. Prayank Swaroop, partner, Accel, said that in 2024, AI was fairly new and most of the ideas were wrappers on top of the models for solutions across marketing, hiring and edtech markets, with only 10% being unique.
âNow the situation is 40% unique because how the same AI can apply to different sectors have changed,â he said. With the rise of agentic and voice AI, a lot of founders are beginning to understand how AI applies to the Indian business and consumer context, and how they can compete in the global landscape.
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