Microsoft Ventures Launches Two New Programs for Later Stage Startups in India

Microsoft Ventures in India today announced the launch of its two new accelerator programs while unveiling its Summer 2015 batch. The two new programs – Accelerator Plus and Scale Up – will focus on helping later stage startups in growing traction.

At the launch, Ravi Narayan, Managing Director, Microsoft Ventures in India along with Samir Kumar, Managing Director, Inventus Capital and Phanindra Sama, Cofounder, Redbus.in unveiled the Summer 2015 batch. The batch comprises of 11 new technology startups – AdPushup, Frilp, iReff, DailyRounds, Uninstall, iBot, FortunePay, CustomerXPs, FlamencoTech, WAGmob and UberLabs.

“The Indian startup ecosystem has evolved and has new challenges now. One of the key issues we identified at the last All India Accelerators & Incubators Meet was that there was little or no help available for later stage startups in India. This concurred with similar observations made during the pilot of Accelerator Plus, where we noticed that the 10 later stage startups who went through the pilot program benefitted more from the mentoring and showed better results, faster. This prompted us to bring in new accelerator programs to help the later stage startups,” said Ravi Narayan, Managing Director, Microsoft Ventures in India. The All India Accelerators & Incubators Meet was held at Microsoft Ventures’ semi-annual event ThinkNext in November 2014.

The final 11 emerged after several rounds of shortlisting from the original list of 1,400+ applications. “Two-third of the applicants have been referred by VCs, Angels and organizations like Nasscom and TiE. This shows that they too feel that we are on the right track, and have the resources and expertise to help these startups.” Ravi added. “We were also surprised to note that there was a spike in applications from later stage startups, 63% startups who applied are already in seed stage.”

Speaking on the occasion, Samir Kumar, Managing Director, Inventus (India) Advisors, said, “India is witnessing an unprecedented surge in entrepreneurship, as a large number of new companies are launched every day. The angel and seed ecosystem has matured to help them get a good start. However, today, scaling up is the real challenge for an Indian entrepreneur. With Microsoft Ventures’ Scale Up & Accelerator Plus programs set to address the requirements of middle to later stage startups, we'll see the mature startups propel themselves faster to the next orbit. As an investor, I believe, this is a very important step in the maturing of the startup ecosystem.” Samir and Phanindra were among the jury for the shortlisting process of the Summer 2015 batch.

The startups were selected for the programs based on their current customer traction, market potential and funding stage. The current batch has five startups under Accelerator Plus and six under Scale Up programs. It also included few international startups – three of them making to the final list – iBot from Singapore and Uninstall and UberLabs from the US.

Phanindra Sama, Co-Founder, RedBus.in said: “As an entrepreneur myself, I understand the woes of later stage startups – poised on the inflection point – but don’t know whom to turn to for help. When mature startups are ready to pivot, with bigger goals and gameplan, right mentoring at that stage can be that much-needed adrenalin to help them zoom to the next level.”

Ravi also added that the top 200 shortlisted startups who applied for the Summer 2015 will be referred to the next batch of Microsoft Ventures Partnered Accelerator Programs and the early stage startups will be invited to join the BizSpark program.

About Microsoft Ventures:

Microsoft Ventures is a global initiative to help entrepreneurs build great companies. Working with startups at every stage of maturity, the initiative provides the tools, resources, and expertise startups need to succeed. Visit Microsoft Ventures at www.microsoftventures.com to learn more about how Microsoft is helping the next generation of smart companies take flight.

About Microsoft India:

Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT”) is the worldwide leader in software, services, devices and solutions that help people and businesses realize their full potential. Microsoft set up its India operations in 1990. Today, Microsoft entities in India have over 6,500 employees, engaged in sales and marketing, research and development and customer services and support, across nine Indian cities - Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Chennai, Delhi NCR, Hyderabad, Kochi, Kolkata, Mumbai and Pune. Microsoft is committed to touching and transforming lives and businesses in India through technology.