Google to invest in startups working in the digital assistant ecosystem

Google has announced that it is opening a new investment initiative for startups developing solutions in the digital assistant ecosystem, namely the Google Assistant Investments programme.

The announcement was made on Wednesday (2 May) in a blog post by Google vice president for corporate development Sanjay Kapoor, and Nick Fox, Google’s vice president of product.

“We’re welcoming companies across a diverse range of fields, including startups that are developing technologies that broaden the Assistant’s set of features, or are building new hardware devices for digital assistants, or that focus on a particular industry such as travel, games, or hospitality,” Kapoor and Fox stated.

The Google Assistant Investment programme will provide startups with investment capital, access to Google teams, Google credits and early access to new features and programmes

The initiative is led by head of Google Assistant investments Illya Gelfenbeyn, alongside founding lead Brock Huber and technical partnerships consultant Sudipta Chatterjee.

The new investment programme will see Google provide innovators with investment capital that will finance development, hiring and management of selected startups. Selected startups will also receive advice and technical guidance from Google staff.

In addition, in order to bring the startups products as quickly as possible, Google will provide the selected startups with early access to upcoming features and tools.

Other features of the new investment programme include Google Cloud Platform access, and promotional support through Google’s marketing channels.

Startups can sign up for the programme here.