Microsoft integrates all startup programmes in India under one roof

Tech giant Microsoft said it has brought all its startup initiatives in the country under one umbrella including venture investing arm M12, ScaleUp and partner division One Commercial Partner.

The Redmond, Seattle-based company had earlier this year announced its rebranded venture investing arm M12's launch in India with its first investment in healthcare tech startup Innovaccer.

"Today every company wants to increase its tech intensity by pulling data and analysing it on the cloud, in large driven by artificial intelligence (AI). This provides a great opportunity for startups. We hope that India can grow from 20 unicorns at present to 100 by 2025 and we would like to help grow the ecosystem," said Anant Maheshwari, president of Microsoft India.

The startups also need to be careful to address issues like security, privacy, transparency and compliance, Maheshwari said, adding that Microsoft with its programmes can assist startups in building, marketing and selling their offerings.  

Last year, Microsoft replaced its flagship accelerator programme with one focusing on more established startups.

According to Microsoft, the portfolio development team at M12 will support and scale companies. Microsoft for Startups is also helping startups become enterprise-ready at a global level by leveraging Microsoft’s Azure cloud marketplace, enterprise sales team, and rapidly growing partner ecosystem to reach customers globally. 

Microsoft for Startups has closed more than 120 co-sell deals with more than $126 million in the active pipeline for startups.