Google announces 2026 cohort of Google Play Accelerator India program

TOI Tech Desk / TIMESOFINDIA.COM / Aug 03, 2026, 14:37 IST

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Google announces 2026 cohort of Google Play Accelerator India program

2026 cohort of Google Play Accelerator India program includes 20 startups

Google has announced the 2026 cohort of Google Play Accelerator India, selecting 20 AI-powered startups building across education, healthcare, gaming, agriculture, finance, e-commerce, productivity, lifestyle, and entertainment. The three-month, equity-free program will provide the selected startups with hands-on support across AI integration, app quality, security, growth, and monetization. The program brings together Google Play’s product expertise with the wider Google stack to help Indian app founders build trusted, useful, and globally relevant products from India.Aditya Swamy, Managing Director, Google Play Partnerships, said “India’s next wave of app innovation is being built with AI at the centre. Through Google Play Accelerator India, we want to support founders across the full journey, from product quality and AI integration to growth, security, monetization, and global scale. The 2026 cohort reflects the ambition of Indian startups to build trusted, useful products for India and the world”.Paul Ravindranath, Regional Lead, Developer and Startup Programs, Google, said “Google Play Accelerator India is designed to give high-potential app and game startups practical, hands-on support at the stage where it matters most. Over the next three months, we will work closely with these founders on product quality, responsible AI integration, security, growth, and monetization, helping them strengthen their apps for users in India and global markets. This cohort reflects the depth of India’s app ecosystem and the growing ambition of founders to build AI-powered products that solve real everyday problems”.

List of startups selected for 2026 Google cohort

The 20 startups selected for the 2026 cohort are:

Chaupal (Entertainment): A regional OTT platform exclusively dedicated to Punjabi, Haryanvi, and Bhojpuri content.
ChennaiGames (Gaming): An Indian game studio creating globally loved mobile racing and multiplayer experiences like MR RACER.
Dalvoy (Education): An AI-powered daily practice platform providing hyper-personalized revision for Indian government exam aspirants.
Frontier Markets (Finance & E-commerce): A rural women economic empowerment platform transforming entrepreneurs into digital storefronts for underserved households.
GAPE Labs (Gaming): An AI-first mobile gaming company building next-generation mid-core games for global players.
Grape (Lifestyle): A fashion discovery and shopping app re-imagining how Indian women shop through outfit-led discovery and AI.
HeyDoc AI (Health): Building India’s AI-powered health operating system to help families manage and improve their health over time.
Kisanwala (Agriculture): India’s first AI-first AgriTech platform providing input marketplaces and machinery rentals for 6.5M+ farmers.
Lingopanda (Education): Helps learners speak English confidently through AI conversations and real-life practice.
LUZO (Lifestyle): An app that allows users to browse, book, and pay for services at salons, spas, and dermatology clinics.
Machaxi (Health): Uses Vision AI to make sports coaching smarter by tracking posture, movement, and player progress.
MetaShot (Gaming): A hardware and platform play converting cricket fans into interactive gamers, building the “Wii of India.”
MindYourLogic Studios (Gaming): Builds Indian-origin edutainment IPs, spanning mobile games, videos, and interactive media.
MrMed (Health): Online super-specialty pharmacy focused on making critical and chronic care medicines accessible and affordable.
Plutus Labs Inc. (Gaming): Enables users to build production-ready casual games with AI and monetize them in minutes.
Regain (Productivity): Builds AI tools to solve doomscrolling and provide strict focus for students and professionals.
Swipe (Finance & E-commerce): Enables small businesses to invoice via WhatsApp and get paid faster without an accountant.
UrbanPro (Education): An online learning marketplace connecting students with verified tutors for live online classes.
Zave AI (Finance & E-commerce): A consumer tech product that helps shoppers discover the right products at the right price.
Zet (Finance & E-commerce): A credit-builder platform helping underserved Indians access affordable credit by building their credit scores.

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