Google invests in two Indian startups

On Tuesday, Google announced that it had invested in two Indian start-ups, Glance and VerSe Innovation, as part of its US$ 10 billion Google for India Digitisation Fund, to empower them further expand the availability of content in various formats across multiple Indian languages.

Though Google did not reveal specifics of its recent investments, investor companies' separate announcements revealed that Google was involved in Glance's US$ 145 million (~Rs. 1,071.5 crore) and VerSe Innovation's US$ 100 million (~Rs. 739 crore).

In July 2020, Google Chief Executive Mr. Sundar Pichai revealed a Google for India Digitisation Fund of US$ 10 billion (Rs 75,000 crore) that will be allocated over the next five to seven years to help boost the country's adoption of digital technologies.

Reliance Industries reported that Google would acquire a 7.7% stake in Jio Platforms for Rs. 33,737 crore (US$ 4.56 billion) in the same month.

In a blog post on Tuesday, Google Vice President Mr. Caesar Sengupta said, “We are also willing to support India's wider ecosystem, particularly local startups that innovate in this space. When we shared details of the India Digitization Fund in July 2020, we described empowering affordable access and knowledge for every Indian in their own language, whether Hindi, Tamil, Malayalam, Gujarati, and more, as a central aspect in order to advance India's digitization.”

He stated that the company has invested in Indian start-ups, Glance Inmobi and VerSe Innovation, to enable them to further expand the availability of appropriate and engaging content across different Indic languages in different formats.

Mr. Sengupta said, “These investments highlight our strong belief in a deep partnership with creative start-ups in India and our dedication to working towards the common objective of creating a truly inclusive digital economy that will benefit all.”

A US$ 145 million investment round from Google and established investor Mithril Capital has been concluded by Glance, a part of the SoftBank-backed InMobi Group.

VerSe Innovation, which operates the Dailyhunt and short video app Josh, has accomplished an AlphaWave, Google, and Microsoft funding round of over US$ 100 million (~Rs. 739 crore), pushing the company's valuation to over US$ 1 billion.

Mr. Sengupta said, “In recent years, enhanced connectivity and more accessible data have laid the foundation for India's start-up ecosystem to accelerate and meet the needs of the increasing number of internet users in the world.”

Not only has the pandemic increased internet usage in a few months, it has also expanded how individuals use the internet to get things done in their everyday lives, he added.

Recognizing that in the last two years, 100 million new internet users have come online from rural India, rural consumption now accounts for approximately 45% of the country's total mobile data use and is mainly based on online video.

Teams at Google have been working in a variety of ways over the years to overcome this problem. We have created new products and features that allow individuals to build, consume, and interact more easily through more Indian languages.

Disclaimer: This information has been collected through secondary research and IBEF is not responsible for any errors in the same.