Nagraj Kashyap will lead a corporate venturing fund newly formed by software provider Microsoft, according to a blog post yesterday.
The fund will invest directly in startups and take the name of Microsoft Ventures from the firm’s accelerator program, which will be renamed Microsoft Accelerator.
Microsoft had launched a corporate venturing fund called Bing Fund in 2012 to invest in technology that would complement its Bing search engine, before merging it with the firm’s BizSpark innovation initiative and global accelerator network to form the previous iteration of Microsoft Ventures in 2013.
Microsoft Ventures will operate with “a small but nimble team” out of offices in Silicon Valley, Seattle, New York City and Tel Aviv, though it aims to expand into other countries in time.
The unit will focus on companies developing technology that can facilitate the transition to the cloud, and will look at startups building software products compatible with Microsoft’s Azure, Windows, HoloLens and Office 365 programs.
Machine learning and security technology startups could also receive strategic investments from the fund.
Kashyap will run Microsoft Ventures as corporate vice president, in partnership with Peggy Johnson, Microsoft’s executive vice president of business development. He joined Microsoft in January this year from chipmaker Qualcomm, where he headed its corporate venturing unit, Qualcomm Ventures.