Microsoft Ventures, the investment arm of US-based software producer Microsoft, launched two new programmes for middle and later stage startups in India on Wednesday.
The programmes, Accelerator Plus and Scale Up, are designed to help startups with a track record of development that are looking to scale up their business.
Ravi Narayan, managing director of Microsoft Ventures in India said: “One of the key issues we identified was that there was little or no help available for later stage startups in India.
“This concurred with similar observations made through the pilot of Accelerator Plus, where we noticed that the 10 later stage startups who went through the programme benefited more from the mentoring and showed better results, faster.”
The accelerator has chosen 11 qualified startups for the two initiatives from more than 1,400 applications, five for Accelerator Plus and six for Scale Up. Three of them are based abroad – one from Singapore and two from the US – while the other eight are from India.