Microsoft announces finalists for startup accelerator programme in India

Microsoft has unveiled the names of the 11 tech startups that will be incubated at the Microsoft Accelerator for Windows Azure in Bangalore. The program was announced in May this year and received more than 200 applications from startups.

Starting September 3, 2012, the four-month incubation programme will kick off at Microsoft's Bangalore office. Microsoft won't pick any equity stake in the selected companies but at the end of the four-month period, it will organise a 'demo day' when the startups will pitch their ideas to angel investors and VCs for funding. Each startup will also get $60,000 in Azure credit through the Microsoft BizSpark Plus programme.

Amit Chatterjee, MD, Microsoft India (R&D) Pvt Ltd, said, "While we were accepting applications from startups, we were also finalizing the list of mentors from Microsoft and the industry. Today our program has more than 60 mentors that include senior technical leaders from Microsoft as well as successful entrepreneurs, VCs and angel investors from the industry."

Here's a quick look at the finalists-

Amplyfy.me: A mobile app that provides real-time TV guide for upcoming as well as shows currently playing in India. It also provides reminders and recommendations for shows to its users and comes integrated with Foursquare and Facebook publishing capability. Users can also read/write reviews for shows and get into discussions with other users about their favourite shows. The app is available for download free of cost from the Google Play store.

Caeruz Ventures: An online health and wellness platform for India.

CipherGraph: Has launched a Cloud virtual private network (VPN) service that acts as a unified Cloud security service to allow secure and regulated access to users Cloud and physical data centers from all their devices, including smartphones and tablets.

CloudInfra: Offers logs, metrics hosting, and analytics systems on the Cloud.

Gameizon: Gaming startup focused on developing social and interactive games on 'Live Sports'.

HireRabbit: Enables designing of recruitment sites on social networks. Customers can build and manage their employer presence on Facebook/Twitter to decrease talent acquisition costs.

Nowfloats: An app that allows its users to discover and be a part of the buzz of a location. For example, if you make a 'Float' near Taj Mahal, like say 'the pinnacle of Mughal architecture', other Nowfloat users visiting the Taj Mahal will be able to read your Float.

Plustxt: It is a texting platform that allows its users to communicate securely and privately. It can be used by both consumers as well as enterprises.

Sparsha Learning: A learning technology startup that provides solutions to create active learning content and integrate it to existing learning solutions. Sparsha works with education content providers, publishers, online learning companies, universities and autonomous institutes to develop custom solutions for activity based learning solutions across K-12 and higher education domains.

Whitesharkk: A Cloud-based learning and building platform for developers that teaches them to build their own software and application in an interactive and step-by-step process that includes the use short videos interlaced with a gaming environment.

WorldWithoutMe: A platform that allows its users to digitally create their autobiography, build their legacy and plan their digital afterlife.

Microsoft has already launched a similar programme in Israel and announced another in Seattle.