Google has revealed it wants to funnel money in Google Assistant startups, launching an investment programme to help new and small companies get new voice-related ideas off the ground.

“We’re opening a new investment program for early-stage startups that share our passion for the digital assistant ecosystem, helping to push new ideas forward and advance the possibilities of what digital assistants can do,” wrote Nick Fox, VP of search and Google Assistant, and Sanjay Kapoor, VP of corporate development at Google, in a blog post.

Alongside the cash businesses may need to help their ideas become a reality, take on new staff and manage the startups, Google will also offer the businesses coming onboard early access to its upcoming features and tools, advice from Google engineers, product managers, and design experts and the use of its Google Cloud Platform as the means on which to build the tools on.

Google also said it will help businesses promote their new products through its marketing channels, which could be one of the most helpful parts of the new programme, bearing in mind Google’s massive reach.

The tech giant said it will help businesses bring their products and services to market as quickly as possible, presumably reducing risk for Google as well as the startups it’s supporting.

However, Google didn’t reveal how much money would be pumped into the new scheme, but any companies interested on getting onboard and joining the initial investments (GoMoment, Edwin, Pulse Labs and BotSociety) are able to apply online.

Fox and Kapor said the investment scheme is an extension of its Google Assistant and Actions development schemes, which are helping people “get things done in new ways we couldn’t have predicted just a few years ago”. 

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