New Delhi, Jan 15 (NationPress) On Thursday, Google unveiled the Google Market Access Programme, a groundbreaking initiative focused on assisting Indian startups in enhancing their go-to-market strategies and accelerating their transition from local pilots to a global scale. The announcement occurred at the ‘Google AI Startups Conclave’, where the tech giant reiterated its ongoing commitment to India’s swiftly evolving AI startup ecosystem.

This innovative programme targets AI-first startups that have successfully moved beyond the prototype phase but encounter difficulties in transforming successful pilots into enduring enterprise contracts.

By providing structured learning, international exposure, and direct connections with senior business leaders, Google aims to assist founders in overcoming what it calls the “commercial last mile” of innovation.

Through the Market Access Programme, selected startups will receive training on enterprise sales, global pricing strategies, and understanding international buyer behavior.

Additionally, they will gain facilitated access to Google’s extensive network of CIOs and CXOs, along with opportunities for immersion in critical international markets through collaborations with ecosystem partners such as TiE Silicon Valley and Alteus.

During the event, Preeti Lobana, Country Manager for India at Google, expressed that Indian startups are innovating with deep technology to address challenges on a large scale.

“India excels at transforming ideas into prototypes, yet many startups struggle during the scaling phase,” Lobana noted.

In conjunction with this programme, Google introduced new enhancements to its open Gemma model family to support advanced AI applications.

The company launched MedGemma 1.5, an open medical AI model that empowers startups to engage with complex medical imaging such as CT scans, MRI scans, histopathology slides, and medical reports.

This model is anticipated to facilitate next-generation healthcare diagnostics and research.

Moreover, Google introduced FunctionGemma, a lightweight model optimized for function calling and on-device AI agents.

This allows applications to translate natural language commands into direct actions on devices, providing fast, private, and low-latency AI solutions even without continuous internet access.