Microsoft Ventures launches accelerator for mature startups to scale up faster in India

Microsoft Ventures has identified a problem in the rapidly maturing Indian startup ecosystem. Startups find it easier than before to get a start with angel and seed funding. But many of those which reach a point of scaling up and follow-up funding suddenly falter without adequate help.

“The Indian startup ecosystem has evolved and has new challenges now. One of the key issues we’ve identified is that there’s little or no help available for later stage startups in India,” says Ravi Narayan, managing director of Microsoft Ventures in India.

This has prompted Microsoft Ventures to launch two new accelerator programs for middle and later stage startups in India, called Accelerator Plus and Scale Up, respectively. They will focus on helping startups that have already proven themselves to gain traction fast.

Accordingly, Microsoft Ventures India has selected 11 middle and later stage startups for its 2015 summer batch. Five of them will be in Accelerator Plus while the remaining six have qualified for Scale Up. The 11 startups are AdPushup, Frilp, iReff, DailyRounds, Uninstall, iBot, FortunePay, CustomerXPs, FlamencoTech, WAGmob, and UberLabs. Three of them are from abroad – Uninstall is from Singapore, while iBot and UberLabs are from the US.

Samir Kumar, managing director of VC firm Inventus (India) Advisors, who was part of the jury that shortlisted the startups, says:

Today, scaling up is the real challenge for an Indian entrepreneur. With programs like Microsoft Ventures’ Scale Up and Accelerator Plus, we’ll see mature startups propel themselves faster to the next orbit. As an investor, I believe this is a very important step in the maturing of the startup ecosystem.

The startups for these two new accelerator programs were selected on the basis of their customer traction, market potential, and funding stage.

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Phanindra Sama, co-founder of bus ticketing portal RedBus acquired by Ibibo in 2013, who was also in the jury for selection, says: “As an entrepreneur myself, I understand the woes of later stage startups, poised on the inflection point but not knowing whom to turn to for help. When mature startups are ready to pivot, with bigger goals and gameplans, right mentoring at that stage can be that much-needed adrenaline to help them zoom to the next level.”

It was during the pilot program of Accelerator Plus that Microsoft Ventures identified the need for a program focusing on later stage startups. It observed that the 10 more mature startups in the pilot program were better positioned to benefit from the mentoring and showed results. Ravi Narayan also points out that nearly two-thirds of the startups applying to Microsoft Ventures were already in the seed stage.

Apart from the two new programs, Microsoft Ventures has a BizSpark program for early stage startups.