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Six Indian start-ups shortlisted for Google's Launchpad

The six-month-long programme will include $50,000 in equity-free funding and a two-week all-expenses paid boot-camp at Google headquarters. Google will also provide access to a full suite of Launchpad initiatives, connections and product credits including Google Cloud and other products

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Google has shortlisted six Indian start-ups under the Google Launchpad Accelerator Programme for mentorship at its headquarters in Silicon Valley, California.

The start-ups -- Taskbob, Programming Hub, ShareChat, RedCarpet, PlaySimple Games and Magicpin -- will join 18 other global start-ups from Brazil, Indonesia and Mexico.

Google said in a statement on Thursday that the six-month-long mentorship programme for mid-to-late stage start-ups will include $50,000 in equity-free funding and a two-week all-expenses paid boot-camp at Google headquarters. Google will also provide them access to a full suite of Launchpad initiatives, connections and product credits including Google Cloud and other products.

Google India programme manager Paul Ravindranath said, "Access to good mentoring and advice at early to mid-stage has been a big gap which we are looking to fill. In our experience many start-ups struggle with UX, building scalable architectures and go-to market strategy."

He said the Launchpad Accelerator Programme brings together mentors and experts from Google and outside to help the start-ups see success.

Interestingly, Mumbai, Bengaluru and Delhi have equal representation, with each city contributing two start-ups.

Mumbai-based Programming Hub provides an app to learn as many as 15 programming languages like Python, HTML, C and others. Taskbob, also from Mumbai, offers a range of home services.

Bengaluru-based ShareChat is a social networking chat platform in Indian languages which enables sharing videos, jokes, songs, images and others. PlaySimple Games, also from Bengaluru, empowers a user to build simple and fun social games.

While Delhi-based start-up RedCarpet gives instant credit for online purchases to be paid by in instalments, Magicpin, another start-up up from the national capital, enables users to discover local merchants and transact with them.

For their first batch of the Launchpad Accelerator, Google had handpicked Indonesia, Brazil and India because of the tremendous growth opportunities in each country. The alumni from last year include Doormint, JustRide, Holachef, Murmur, Super, Nestaway and EnglishDost.

"If you believe you can build a world class product, the mentors will push you to bet on yourself. We have benefitted a great deal from this programme and have just closed a $30 million Series C in India this year," said a top official of Nestaway.

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