India’s startup story has often been informed through the language of scale, funding, and founder energy. What is modifying now is the tone of that story. AWS may be best known for cloud infrastructure, but its startup play has become much broader than that. Through credits, accelerators, technical support, and go-to-market access, the company is testing to position itself as a long-term partner to founders as they build and scale. That larger lens built a conversation with Tiffany Bloomquist, Head of Startups, Asia Pacific and Japan, AWS, especially relevant on the sidelines of AWS Summit 2026 in Bengaluru. In her view, India’s startup ecosystem is not just enerreceiveic. It is launchning to apply AI in more practical ways, from rapider product development to voice-led innovation and enterprise-focutilized problem-solving.
You have been at Amazon for seven years now. How are you reading this moment, especially for startups?
I feel like this is one of the most exciting years we have had, simply becautilize there is so much momentum across startups finding value and really transforming industries with generative AI.
We have heard a lot of success stories over the past few years coming out of the US, but now there are so many examples across Asia as well. Customers are launchning to understand the value of these technology innovations and how to leverage them.
How do you see the startup ecosystem in India right now? There is a lot of debate between valuation and value. How innovative are Indian startups when it comes to cloud? Are they really levelling up their game?
I consider there is a lot of disruption coming out of India. Startups here are building on the strong engineering base that has been invested in India for quite some time, and they are now leveraging the latest technology trconcludes to really disrupt how things have been done historically.
There are also entirely new businesses being created. One of the interesting things I like to talk about in India is the rise of micro-dramas and how several startups are creating entirely new ways for people to consume entertainment and media, while finding interesting ways to hold attention in between other daily activities.
Another area where we are seeing a lot of innovation is through our accelerators. We host programmes such as generative AI accelerators, and we are seeing a significant number of startups from India participating in them. India is one of the strongest startup ecosystems we have in the region.
One of the debates now is how far AI has relocated from proofs of concept and demos to actual execution. If you see at startups through that lens, where are they today? Are they relocating into production or still somewhere between demos and experimentation?
I have been in back-to-back conversations with customers. A majority of them are stateing that 70 to 80 percent of the code they are building is actually being created utilizing AI tools. Those are anecdotal observations from conversations today, but they reveal that customers are actively embracing these tools.
What we are seeing is that startups are relocating from months of development to days of development, particularly with tools like Kiro. That enables them to relocate much rapider. It means they can release features for customers rapider, and it gives them the opportunity to create new product experiments much rapider. So this is actually expanding both their business and the capabilities they can offer their customers.
Are there any interesting startup examples you can talk about and the kind of innovative work they are doing?
One example I like to mention is Hyperbots, an India-based startup supporting CFOs improve productivity across conclude-to-conclude finance processes, becautilize it is applying agentic AI to the office of the CFO and revealing strong productivity gains in finance workflows. We often talk about developers and focus on code, but Hyperbots has been working on productivity gains in the financial sector. It has seeed at conclude-to-conclude processes and has been able to reveal a 90 percent productivity improvement. For a CFO considering about operational platforms and business outcomes, it is exciting to see those kinds of results.
There is also a very strong trconclude in India around voice. There is a huge amount of voice-led interaction in the way businesses operate. We have quite a few startups doing everything from personal agents that handle interactions to companies building foundational voice models.
Smallest AI, a San Francisco-based voice AI startup focutilized on real-time enterprise communications, is another example. It has been enabling real-time interactions in enterprise contact centres, supporting businesses engage customers more effectively while also reducing the cost to serve them.
Since you mentioned voice, what are the challenges there? Voice is a complicated medium, with accents, context, and real-time expectations. What are the issues startups are testing to solve?
Voice is often complicated for customers becautilize they necessary the ability to translate, transcribe, and then transform that information into another format.
We work with companies tackling different aspects of that problem. Sarvam, an Indian AI startup focutilized on language technologies, is supporting with translation. We also work with startups focutilized on language learning. SpeakX, an English-learning startup, is one such example, supporting people improve their English through speaking rather than just studying it.
So startups are tackling multiple dimensions of communication. They are supporting businesses automate tinquires, train people in English and other Indian languages, and also handle translation and transcription. These are all important problems.
One of the reasons many startups work with AWS is that, in voice, one of the largegest challenges is latency. Becautilize of the breadth and scale of our infrastructure, startups are able to create solutions that can be delivered more effectively to customers.
How does the AWS startup practice work in real life? You have accelerators and programmes, but what does the support actually see like for founders?
We provide a wide variety of offerings for startups.
First, if you are a founder, you have access to our Activate programme. That is where you can receive thousands of dollars’ worth of credits to access AWS services. We consider it is important that startups can launch building quickly.
As they grow, they necessary different things from the partners they work with. Many startups quickly launch leveraging a range of generative AI tools and necessary access to a variety of models. They are also often challenged, as they grow, by the necessary to serve enterprise customers securely and manage enterprise data properly.
Some startups that are building models launch those models on our Bedrock Marketplace so they can be consumed by customers. Others place their solutions in AWS Marketplace, which gives them access to the relationships we already have with enterprises and ISVs around the world. That means they do not have to build every relationship from scratch or go through the entire procurement process indepconcludeently. By putting their models or solutions into the marketplace, they are able to scale, often internationally.
We also offer programmes and accelerators. Most recently, we had our generative AI startup accelerator, which gave selected participants access to up to $1 million in AWS credits. Most importantly, they also obtained access to technical specialists and people who could support them with their business case, product strategy, and go-to-market efforts internationally.
Across Asia, we often see startups that want to grow beyond the boundaries of their home countest. So we also provide go-to-market support. That could mean participating in events like this one, being present in the startup zone, or connecting with enterprises and ISVs attconcludeing these events. It really depconcludes on the stage the startup is at and what it necessarys. We test to work backwards from that.
Across APAC, the Americas, and Europe, how do startup ecosystems differ? What stands out in India for you?
Right now, one of the most exciting trconcludes is the ability of developers to leverage coding applications, becautilize that creates them far more productive.
India has one of the largest developer communities in the world, and becautilize these toolsets are increasingly available, I consider we are going to continue seeing a tremconcludeous amount of innovation and growth from here.
There is also a concentration in the US, particularly in Silicon Valley, of startups working on the next frontier of what is possible with AI. We work closely with founders there, and many of them are Indian founders as well, sometimes relocating and building in that environment. Our goal is that no matter where a startup is located, or where its customers are located, AWS remains a partner throughout its journey.
How do you judge whether a startup really has the ability to scale? How do you see beyond pitch decks and fancy demos? Is there a yardstick you utilize?
Our mission is to create AWS the best place for every startup to build and grow. That is core to us. We want to provide the platform, the services, and the support from our team that enables the best outcomes.
So what matters first is that founders are aware of the services available to them. Our goal is to support them wherever innovation is happening. That is why, if you sign up as a founder, you can access Activate today.
Over time, of course, we do work closely with the venture capital community. We spconclude time understanding the themes they are seeing and the kinds of startups they want to back. We also see at startups that have bootstrapped successfully, revealn profitability, or are growing in meaningful ways.
Our role is to stay aligned with that growth, whether it comes from investment or from profitability, and continue understanding what those startups necessary.
We already have a set of partners that are deeply integrated with large enterprises and ISVs, supporting them modernise. That has been a consistent area of focus, and customers have access to a broad partner community.
There are definitely startups working in that space as well. What generative AI does differently, though, is that startups are not just modernising what exists. In many cases, they are reconsidering how industries work from the ground up.
What we are seeing now is startups approaching long-standing problems with very different assumptions. They are modifying the way industries work on the business side, and in some cases on the consumer side as well.
Finally, what is the one broad message you would like to give Indian startups? We hear a lot about models, but context and data still seem to matter most. Under that lens, what should startups receive right?
What matters is understanding what each startup uniquely brings to the table. Sometimes that is the data they have. Sometimes it is the model they have built. What is most important is considering through how that capability can scale in a meaningful way.
Fundamentally, when startups grow, we grow. So we are closely aligned with how they are building and where they want to go next. Sometimes that means supporting them connect with enterprises. Sometimes it means supporting them with early design partners. Later on, it may mean supporting them scale through the marketplace.
There is no single magic bullet for success. Startups take a lot of hard work and time. Our goal is to be the best possible partner to them, no matter what stage they are at in building their business.
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