Microsoft Ventures Accelerator in India graduates third batch of 13 tech startups

BANGALORE, INDIA: Microsoft Ventures in India announced the graduation of its Winter Batch from the Microsoft Ventures Accelerator program in India.

At a Demo Day held at the Microsoft Lavelle Road office, the 400 plus audience of mentors, industry influencers, venture capitalists, angel investors and media professionals witnessed the amazing progress made by each company over the last four months at the Accelerator.

The 13 startups that graduated are AdSparx, ShieldSquare, Chance, Frrole, Native5, SignEasy, TommyJams, Whalelogix, Scibler, HasGeek, Nanobi, Tookitaki and 1000Lookz.

Ravi Narayan, director, Microsoft Ventures in India said: "The last four months have been exciting and a great learning experience for all of us-the startups and the Microsoft Ventures in India program team. The companies in the batch ranged from first-time entrepreneurs to more seasoned, experienced entrepreneurs who have just hit upon their best idea with this venture. Hence, we had to cater to a very varied set of asks from the batch - from improvements in UX, to global expansion, customer acquisitions and product development.

"I am extremely proud that we could make some really successful customer acquisition and investor connections for some of the startups. In this context, I would also like to thank some of our mentors for the amazing support they provided us."

Manu Prasad, director, Social Strategy at GroupM who has mentored several startups in this batch, said: "This batch was a true reflection of the diversity in the Indian start-up space - from music to makeovers to media, this batch had it all. It is also heartening to see how they have evolved in the four months they have spent in the program.

"A good share of the credit belongs to the Accelerator team as well, because many a time, it is their perspectives and involvement that has converted ideas into a robust plan of action. I expect to see some huge success stories from this batch and am delighted to have been associated with them."

The Microsoft Ventures Accelerator team in India is now busy shortlisting applications for the fourth batch, which will start in January 2014. After rigorous screening, the final list of up to 15 startups will be announced soon. The four-month incubation process at the state-of-the-art Microsoft office in downtown Bangalore will begin on January 22, 2014 and end with Demo Day in May.