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Check out the six startups selected for Google's accelerator programme

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google_startupGoogle has announced the second batch of Indian startups that will receive up to $50,000 (around Rs 33 lakh) in equity-free seed funding as part of being selected for its startup accelerator programme, Google Launchpad. Home services startup Taskbob, mobile social gaming firm PlaySimple Games, social networking chat platform ShareChat, online credit firm RedCarpet, online promotions platform MagicPin and programming language tutorial app Programming Hub will get a two-week all-expenses paid bootcamp at the Google headquarters, six months of mentorship and access to Google's full suite of Launchpad initiatives and connections and product credits, including Google Cloud and other products, besides the equity-free funding.

The six startups together form the second batch of the accelerator programme, along with 18 others from Brazil, Indonesia and Mexico. They will join the six-month long mentorship programme at the Google headquarters in Silicon Valley, California on June 13, 2016.

Google Inc had announced the equity-free accelerator programme for late-stage mobile startups in India, Brazil and Indonesia last year.

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Last year, Google CEO Sunder Pichai had announced that its newly launched division Google Capital has set aside $20 million (Rs 133.7 crore) as grant to help startups grow their businesses in India.

"Access to good mentoring and advice at early- to mid-stage has been a big gap which we're looking to fill. In our experience, many startups struggle with UX, building scalable architectures and go-to market strategy. Launchpad accelerator programme brings together mentors and experts from within Google and the external world to help these startups succeed," said Paul Ravindranath, programme manager, Google India. Here is a sneak peek at the six Indian startups and what they do.

Taskbob: The Mumbai-based startup provides a range of home services such as home cleaning, car spa, handymen services, drivers, appliance repair, maids on demand and at-home beauty services. It had recently secured $4.5 million (around Rs 30.8 crore) in Series A funding led by IvyCap Ventures with participation from existing investors Orios Venture Partners and Mayfield India.

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Programming Hub: The startup provides an app to help learn programming languages such as Python, Assembly, HTML, VB.NET, C, C++, C# (C Sharp), JavaScript, PHP, Ruby, R Programming, CSS, Java programming and more.

ShareChat: Bangalore-based ShareChat provides a social networking chat platform in Indian languages. With ShareChat, users can share videos, jokes, audio songs and funny images in Hindi, Telugu, Marathi, and Malayalam.

RedCarpet: This Delhi-based startup provides instant credit for online purchases. Users can buy any product from any site and pay back in easy installments.

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PlaySimple Games: A Bangalore-based startup, it builds mobile social games. It has earlier received seed funding from IDG Ventures.

MagicPin: Delhi-based MagicPin provides a platform for offline merchants in a locality and offers real-time promotions and loyalty programmes while helping users to discover local merchants and transact on the platform.

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