Up to $50,000 will be given in equity-free funding, said Roy Glasberg, Google’s global lead for its Launchpad programmes. The company will look for those startups that can have a clear impact on their home markets, while not having to worry about return on investment.
Here’s what startups can expect, apart from the funding. Google will fly the founders down to its head-office in Mountain View, California, for a two-week bootcamp, starting January. They will meet with mentors, who comprise both people working in Google and the wider startup community, and will be given individualised tasks in areas like marketing and strategy, user experience design and others. Once this is done, they will return to their home countries, where Google will provide them space to work, and continued access to mentors and its own developer platforms.
The new accelerator will be part of Google’s existing Launchpad programme that was started in 2013. The company plans to bring about 50 of the most promising startups each year in the accelerator programme, and do hands-off mentoring to another 200 that will not go through the bootcamp. Startups that show more promise in the latter group will be made part of the full accelerator program.
The report mentioned that the first batch of startups include Brazil’s ProDeaf, that translates spoken language into sign language, and Jojonomic, a fintech startup from Indonesia.
