Google has announced a new market access initiative and unveiled two open-source AI models at the Google AI Startups Conclave in New Delhi, reinforcing its commitment to helping Indian AI startups move beyond early pilots to sustainable, global scale. The announcements signal a sharper focus on one of the ecosystem’s biggest gaps—enabling AI-first startups with proven prototypes to translate technical innovation into enterprise-ready products and long-term business growth.
At the centre of the initiative is the Google Market Access Program, which targets startups that have progressed past the prototype stage but struggle with go-to-market execution. The programme is designed to equip founders with enterprise readiness training, exposure to global sales channels, and direct access to Google’s network of CIOs and CXOs. Participants will also benefit from international immersion opportunities through partnerships with organisations such as TiE Silicon Valley and Alteus, helping them better understand global customer expectations and buying cycles.
Highlighting the rationale behind the move, Preeti Lobana, VP and country manager for India at Google, said, “Indian startups are building serious deep technology and solving population-scale problems with AI.” She pointed out that while the journey from research labs to working prototypes has become more efficient in recent years, the challenge of scaling remains significant. The new programme, she noted, is designed to close this gap by supporting startups as they transition from innovation-led experimentation to enterprise adoption and revenue growth.
In parallel with the market access initiative, Google also introduced two new open-source AI models aimed at accelerating applied AI development. MedGemma 1.5 is a 4-billion-parameter model purpose-built for medical and healthcare AI workflows, enabling developers to build and customise solutions for clinical, diagnostic, and health data use cases. FunctionGemma, meanwhile, is a lightweight, on-device model optimised for function calling and AI agents, making it suitable for edge deployments and responsive, agent-driven applications.
These launches build on Google’s broader AI investments in India. The company has established a Global AI Hub in Visakhapatnam and continues to expand Project Vaani, which has released more than 27,000 hours of speech data across over 100 Indic languages. Together, these efforts aim to strengthen India’s AI ecosystem by improving access to foundational models, local language data, and global market opportunities.
With the new programme and model releases, Google is positioning India not just as a hub for AI innovation, but as a source of globally scalable, enterprise-grade AI companies.
