A number of senior executives from Microsoft Asia-Pacific R&D Group attended the event, including Dr. Ya-Qin Zhang, Corporate Vice President and Chairman who was joined by Accelerator mentors, Microsoft partners and representatives from venture capital firms.
Dr. Zhang said that in spite of being established in China for just over a year, Microsoft was excited that the Accelerator has already received recognition from local governments, leading organizations, and the investor community. “We are uniquely positioned to partner with visionary entrepreneurs to help emerging forces of innovation flourish in China and Asia-Pacific at large,” said Zhang.
Since its inception in China in July 2012, the Microsoft Ventures Accelerator in Beijing has provided participating startups with free cloud services, a state-of-the-art workspace and direct market exposure. The Accelerator also provides access to the capital market, marketing and HR compliance services to support start-up growth. Accelerator participants have each received an average of $250,000 (RMB1-1.5m) worth of resources.
In just over a year, 47 startups have received in-depth entrepreneurship support from the Microsoft Ventures Accelerator in Beijing. The companies cover diverse areas including finance, Internet, tourism, retail, petroleum, agriculture and education. Of the 47 start-ups selected after rounds of screening, 90% have received recognition and investment from capital firms and achieved rapid business growth. For example, 91Jinrong, an online financial intermediary website graduating from the third class, received $9.9m( RMB 60m) in Series A funding during its participation in the Accelerator program, with over $49.6m (RMB300m) in daily loan transactions. Its finance product Zeng Zhi Bao received RMB 300m in subscriptions in the first week after its launch.
In recruiting Microsoft Ventures Accelerator in Beijing’s fourth class of participants, the programme received applications from 420 start-ups. After multiple rounds of screening, 19 outstanding companies were selected.