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Microsoft received more than 350 applications from early stage technology start-ups, with ideas across Big Data, augmented reality, healthcare, education, mobile applications, social networking, security, and so on, in the two month period starting November 23, 2012.The final 13 were selected after several rigorous rounds of screening by a panel of judges comprising senior leaders from the industry and Microsoft.Starting March 1, 2013, the 13 start-ups will be hosted in the Accelerator facility in Microsoft's Lavelle Road office in Bangalore, and undergo a four-month deep immersion program under the guidance of elite mentors from the industry and Microsoft.
Mukund Mohan, CEO-in-residence, Microsoft Accelerator for Windows Azure, said, "Apart from India and the US, we received applications from countries like Spain and Australia. This clearly signals the strengthening of a global start-up culture. We decided to host two batches every year, and also expand each batch size. This is our summer batch, the winter batch will open up for application on May 1, 2013."
Microsoft had announced the Microsoft Accelerator for Windows Azure program in India in 2012. For four months starting September 3, 2012, the first batch of 11 start-ups, comprising amplyfy.me, CipherGraph, CloudInfra, Gemeizon, HealthigyMe, HireRabbit, Nowfloats, Plustxt, Sparsha Learning, Whiteshark and World Without Me were incubated in the Accelerator facility in Microsoft's office.
Under the guidance of 100 plus mentors from Microsoft and the industry, they underwent a immersion program to help them achieve the product-market fit, a go-to-market strategy, branding, connection with customers/partners/investors, and develop teams. The first batch graduated on January 11, 2013.
Describing the four month incubation period for the second batch, Mukund said, "All 13 start-ups have great ideas. But they need support in a few critical areas to be able to mature those ideas into long-term profitable businesses. Our program is intended to focus on those areas.We will provide them access to our 100+ mentor network, from within and outside India, who are fully committed to ensure their success. We will connect them to our vast network of early adopters so that they can define their product/market fit before a formal launch to market. And we will drive these four months as an intense boot camp where we will track the weekly progress of each startup and share reports with their mentors. It is going to be a lot of hard work, while we learn from each other, and have a lot of fun too!â
