Microsoft(NASDAQ:MSFT) has announced the opening of applications of Microsoft Accelerator for Windows Azure in India for the 2013 winter batch. This is valid till June 7. Microsoft will receive online applications from technology start-ups and the final list of up to 15 start-ups will be announced on July 1. The four-month incubation process at the Microsoft office in Bangalore will begin on July 15 and end with Demo Day on November 15 when the start-ups will showcase their ideas to key industry influential, top angel investors and VCs.
Mukund Mohan, CEO-in-Residence, Microsoft Accelerator for Windows Azure (India), said, “Our programme helps early stage start-ups accelerate their dreams of building lighthouse companies from India, on Cloud, Internet and Mobile. Any application that can leverage these technologies, such as e-commerce, mobile, media, social applications, gaming, education, healthcare, etc can apply. Once a start-up has these in place, our Accelerator provides all possible support to help them fulfil their dreams.”
He further added, “We have applied the learning’s from the first batch to make some significant changes in our incubation process. Among other things, we are adding more seed stage/ angel investors to our list of mentors, focussing more on product definition and product roadmap, strengthening the validation steps for customer connection, and providing stronger UX support to the teams. In the last one and half months, the teams have made rapid progress, and I am very hopeful of seeing some very strong and confident companies emerge when this batch graduates in end June.”
The summer batch of 13 start-ups is currently present at the Accelerator. This winter batch would be the third at the Microsoft Accelerator for Windows Azure (India).
