New Entrant of the Year: Microsoft Ventures

At the time of the launch, Microsoft called its new unit a “coordinated global effort that offers the tools, resources, expertise and routes to market by providing mentorship, technology guidance, seed funding, joint selling opportunities and other benefits”.

Microsoft has been working with startups since 2008. The corporate investor claims to have helped more than 75,000 startups from more than 100 countries by providing them with tools and resources through the BizSpark programme.

Then in 2011, Microsoft launched its accelerator programmes, from which more than 114 startups have graduated, and nearly all of those seeking a subsequent round of funding have since received it.

Microsoft’s appetite for venture investing grew. In 2012 it launched the Bing Fund, which is dedicated to seed investments in startups looking to improve their in-house technology. Microsoft Ventures is evolving the Bing Fund by adding additional funding to support even more startups. Startups can receive direct funding from Microsoft after achieving early business success.

So why set up Microsoft Ventures in the first place? According to the company, it “knew it could do more”. It wanted to give entrepreneurs a single point of entry to engage with Microsoft.

Microsoft said: “Startups have enough to worry about. We want to make access to us as intuitive and friction-free as possible. And for promising startups focused on enterprise, Microsoft is uniquely positioned to help, whether by accessing our domain expertise or an introduction into the partner ecosystem.”

SkyGiraffe, a cloud company that emerged out of the Microsoft Israel Accelerator, became Microsoft Ventures’ first investment. The startup provides a software-as-a-service platform that helps businesses deploy enterprise-grade mobile applications on any device without the need for writing code.

“Given the demand for smartphones and tablets in the workforce, application services are a strategic priority for enterprise companies,” said Microsoft Ventures.

SkyGiraffe was founded in Israel by Boaz Hecht and Itay Braun in 2012. Hecht noted that “Microsoft’s backing, initially as part of BizSpark, then by participating in Microsoft Ventures Accelerator in Israel, provided an incredible set of resources and technical experts to get our business off the ground. Now that we are ready to scale our sales capabilities, gaining Microsoft as an investor and partner is a great vote of confidence and an unmatched distribution partner to massively increase our trajectory in the enterprise services market.”

Now it is up to SkyGiraffe and Rahul Sood, general manager of Microsoft Ventures, to attract clients to the company’s mobile solution.

Another Microsoft Ventures investment, in February 2014, that is buzzing in the social media scene is Askem, which integrates with Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Tumblr and Instagram, allowing users to upload photos accompanied with a polling facility. A plug-in also gives networking sites an embedded polling capability.

However, what also makes Microsoft Ventures stand out from the crowd is its work in emerging entrepreneurial markets, helping to make those markets more competitive. In 2013 Microsoft ventures expanded its partnership programme into Africa through its first African accelerator partner, 88mph.

Through the BizSpark programme, Microsoft has already helped support 625 African startups by providing access to Microsoft tools and technologies. And for the second consecutive year, the company has sponsored Demo Africa, a startup competition in Nairobi, Kenya.

Shortlist

• 7-Eleven – 7-Ventures
• Alibaba – US Team
• Bloomberg – Bloomberg Beta
• Diageo – Distill Ventures
• E.On
• KPMG – KPMG Capital
• Mahle – Mahle Corporate Venture Capital
• Microsoft Ventures
• Randstad – Randstad Innovation Fund