Microsoft announced its Ventures startup accelerator project a few months back and now unveiled a new website that highlights its portfolio in order to provide more transparency on the investments in various companies and their areas of focus.
Microsoft Ventures Website
Microsoft Ventures' new website highlights its portfolio of investments. However, the website is not disclosing the amount Microsoft's Ventures arm has invested in each company.
According to MS Power User, the startup accelerator project has invested in business SaaS, in companies such as Helpshift and Outreach. In communications and productivity Microsoft Ventures has invested in three companies: Kahoot, Layer and Comfy. In cloud infrastructure, the startup accelerator has invested in Rescale.
In the emerging field of machine learning, Ventures has invested in CrowdFlower, as well as CognitiveScale, more recently. In the field of digital security, Microsoft's startup accelerator program has invested in Team8 and Aqua Security.
Microsoft Ventures's Aim
Corporate Vice President at Microsoft Ventures Nagraj Kashyap said that the momentum is already underway in the first few months, following the official debut of Microsoft Ventures in late May. He explained that the aim of Microsoft Ventures project is to use their funds in order to encourage those innovators who align to Microsoft's investment focus in cutting-edge technologies that bring digital transformation.
Microsoft Ventures is providing financing and strategic relationships with Microsoft to entrepreneurs in various locations worldwide, such as Seattle, Tel Aviv, San Francisco and New York. The startup accelerator has already completed 13 investments across several B2B categories, from Series A to Series C.
According to ZDNet, Microsoft Ventures has been just the small early stage investment group created by the high-tech giant with the aim to target startups in the emerging fields of cloud, machine learning, security, productivity, big data and analytics. This new group assumed at first the old "Microsoft Ventures" name. However, the entity formerly known as Microsoft Ventures owned by the Developer Evangelism team, was later rebranded to "Microsoft Accelerator."
