Microsoft Accelerator is the Redmond company’s program for assisting startups and entrepreneurs in gaining access to the funds and resources they need to create new products and services. The organization is regional, and today Microsoft announced that Accelerator team in India is seeing some changes in management.
Specifically, as Techcircle reports:
Microsoft has appointed former Zinnov executive Bala Girisaballa as chief executive officer-in-residence to lead Microsoft Accelerator in India while Ravi Narayan, it’s former head, has been elevated to the role of Global Director.
“Bala will lead the Accelerator’s efforts to help market-ready startups and entrepreneurs to scale up and become successful businesses through the technology enablement, global go-to-market efforts and deep business advisory in the form of Hi-Po and Scale-Up programmes,” the company said in a statement.
Prior to this, Girisaballa was with Zinnov as partner and practice head.
The changes are a part of a general restructuring that Microsoft has been engaged in regarding its entire ventures program, whereby Microsoft Ventures is transitioning into a “pure venture unit that will focus on Series A and beyond investments in North America and Israel.” The Microsoft Accelerator, on the other hand, will focus on enabling startups.
According to the Techcircle, Microsoft’s efforts have been effective:
The accelerator programme in India has produced 95 startups so far, of which 87% received venture capital funding raising around $177 million. The programme also witnessed nine acquisitions so far, the latest ones being Calm.io, from its most recent batch, acquired by Nutanix and Profoundis acquired by US-based FullContact.
We’ll be keeping our eye on this and other changes to Microsoft’s various investment efforts. The more that companies like Microsoft invest in startups and entrepreneurship, the better our chances of receiving access to innovative new products and services.
Further reading: Investments, Microsoft, Microsoft Accelerator, Microsoft Ventures
