New Delhi, Nov. 25 -- Global venture capital firm Accel has joined hands with Google's AI Futures Fund to launch the Atoms AI Cohort 2026, a platform to support pre-seed and seed-stage startups in India. This marks the first such partnership for the Silicon Valley-based technology giant.
Through the AI Futures Fund, launched earlier this year, Google, alongside Accel, will co-invest up to $2 million (Rs 17.8 crore) in each startup selected for the programme.
The investments will target startups building at the intersection of artificial intelligence and areas such as work, software engineering, creativity, and entertainment.
"Together with Google's AI Futures Fund, this partnership will jointly back India's next generation of AI founders, combining Accel's early-stage expertise with Google's frontier technology, research, infrastructure, and full-stack AI capabilities," Accel said in a blogpost. "The partnership gives founders access to an unmatched range of resources, from capital and compute to mentorship and early access to Gemini and DeepMind models, helping them build and scale globally from day one."
Founders chosen for the cohort will receive technical support and up to $350,000 in compute credits across Google Cloud, Gemini, and DeepMind.
The programme is open to Indian and Indian-origin founders building AI-first products for India and global markets across sectors including developer tools, productivity, applied AI, among others.
Google launched the AI Futures Fund in May to give startups at various growth stages early access to Google DeepMind's latest AI models, as well as resources, technical expertise, and equity funding. Its portfolio includes companies such as Spline, Harvey, Replit, Synthesia, Volley, and Toonsutra, among others.
Published by HT Digital Content Services with permission from VC Circle.