Google is in talks with a number of local telecom operators, including state-owned BSNL, to launch its Google Loon project, The Economic Times reports, citing unnamed sources aware of the discussions. Google India managing director Rajan Anandan declined to name the operators that Google is in talks with. "To me Loon works — but at a simplistic level, it is infrastructure in the sky. And we'll partner with a local telco. Because the actual provisioning of the service is done by a local telco. So, we're talking to a number of local telcos”, Anandan said.
Anandan did not rule out the possibility of the company setting up an office for its early-stage investment fund Google Ventures in India in the future. Back in 2015, Google set up an office in India for its late-stage investment fund dubbed Google Capital.
"Google Capital is here (in India). Google Ventures is only a matter of time... India actually has 50 Series-A investors, we only have five Series-D investors. So, there is a gap in late-stage investing and we decided to close that gap. What are the gaps? How can we as a company help address those gaps? So, that's the lens that we apply — we just don't want to do that because you have something," said Anandan.
Google now plans to focus only on mentoring early-stage startups, instead of immediately setting up ventures. According to Anandan, Google Capital would increase the pace of investments in India. "So for early stage we said, instead of ventures, let's focus on mentoring. The reality is that there are enough people writing cheques. We want to improve the quality of the founders and the products," said Anandan.
Google is also "looking into the 6 percent equalisation levy", Anandan said. Last week, the government imposed the 6 percent levy to indirectly tax companies such as Google and Facebook. The move is expected to set the stage for taxation of cross-border digital transactions and potentially increase costs for advertisers.
