Google kick-starts mentorship bootcamp for AI startups in India

Search giant Google hosted a four-day mentorship bootcamp for 10 Indian startups focused on artificial intelligence and machine learning.

The bootcamp was part of the firm’s Launchpad Accelerator programme. The startups received expertise in product, UX/UI and latest technologies, including machine learning and AI to help solve India's local needs.

“In the last few years, we have seen the growth in entrepreneurial and startup activity that goes beyond the big metros. We’re seeing a whole new generation of entrepreneurs and founders who’re innovating to solve for real challenges across agriculture, healthcare, environment, retail, education, microfinance and the Indian language web. With this program, our objective is to build a bridge between startups and the industry ecosystem and provide them with the right technology support and mentorship to help them succeed,” Karthik Padmanabhan, developer relations lead, ‎Google India said.

The 10 startups were shortlisted from 160 homegrown firms across 15 cities in India.

At the bootcamp, founders and their teams spent four days in one-on-one consultations with experts from Google and external mentors from the industry to solve the critical product and growth challenges of the startups, Padmanabhan added.

The bootcamp, which is Google’s first in India, saw participation from founders of startups such as Nebulaa, Slang Labs, PregBuddy, LegalDesk, PaySack, Vokal, FarMart, Meesho, Pratilipi and M-Indicator.

Last year in May, the company had shortlisted six Indian startups for its fourth accelerator programme, which was conducted at the Google Developers Launchpad Space in San Francisco. It had then said that the fourth batch, which began July 17, would include a two-week-long, all-expenses-paid mentorship bootcamp featuring veterans from Silicon Valley’s top technology companies and venture capital firms. Apart from the six Indian startups, the camp was expected to also host early-stage ventures from Asia, Latin America, Africa and Europe.

In December 2017, the company had shortlisted four Indian startups for its fifth edition of Launchpad. The shortlisted ventures included BabyChakra, m.Paani, Niramai and SocialCops.