Microsoft Ventures Accelerator has opened Batch 5 applications — fellow tech founders, seize the opportunity and apply!
Just yesterday, on April 10, 2014, Microsoft Ventures Accelerator officially announced the start of recruitment for its fifth batch of startups. TMT (technology, media, telecom) startups can apply online starting today. Selected teams will move into the office space inside Microsoft’s Asia-Pacific R&D building in Zhongguancun, Beijing in mid-July 2014. Over the following six months, beyond working out of the fancy Microsoft accelerator offices, you’ll get plenty of additional services — lots of internal, behind-closed-doors training sessions, investor matchmaking, and more. Starting with this batch, selected startups will also have the chance, through Microsoft Ventures Accelerator’s global network, to join Microsoft accelerators in the US, India, Israel, and other countries — an enormous convenience for Chinese startups looking to go global.
During the Batch 5 recruitment and selection period, Rahul Sood — Global General Manager of Microsoft Ventures — will visit China in late April to meet startups face to face. As the founder of VoodooPC and many other ventures, he’ll share his legendary entrepreneurial story and hard-won experience, and serve as a mentor offering guidance to startup teams. He’ll also share more details about Microsoft Ventures Accelerator’s global footprint and future plans.
This is a group photo of us — the founders of the Batch 4 accelerator companies. It somehow ended up on a screen in Times Square, New York… I grabbed a good spot: the guy in the green T-shirt in the middle is yours truly, right next to the great Ya-Qin Zhang. Here’s a bigger version:
SegmentFault’s own experience
At the end of 2013, we happened to come across Microsoft Ventures Accelerator’s Batch 4 recruitment. In the end, SegmentFault fought its way through the competition and joined Batch 4, becoming an accelerator alumnus. In the blink of an eye, more than four months have passed. When we first applied, we were a tiny team of just three — me, @joyqi, and @fenbox. Now we’ve grown to nearly ten people, and a few new colleagues have joined our Beijing office at the accelerator.
On the very day of the announcement event for our batch, backed by the endorsement and recognition of the Microsoft accelerator, we drew attention from many investment institutions. In a very short time, SegmentFault closed an angel round of several million RMB from IDG Capital and Media DreamWorks (under Zhejiang Daily Media Group).
The Microsoft accelerator organizes one or two professional internal sharing sessions every week — you pick up a lot of new tricks — and there are regular founders’ gatherings where alumni from every batch get together to swap experiences and lessons learned.
As typical programmer-founders, my co-founders and I know firsthand how hard entrepreneurship is. After these few months with Microsoft Ventures Accelerator, two things stand out: first, we’ve grown tremendously; second, what Microsoft is doing here is genuinely cool. It changed a lot of my preconceptions about Microsoft as a “big and heavy” giant. The accelerator program is truly, charitably helping startups that want to change the world realize their dreams.
- After joining the accelerator, you no longer chase investors — investors chase you every day -,-
- Hardware and software perks, a fancy office, professional internal sharing sessions, connections to all kinds of resources
- A huge alumni network — many alumni companies have already made it big…
For those thinking about applying, I hope my earlier post helps: “SegmentFault Got Into Microsoft Ventures Accelerator Batch 4 — and the Story Behind It”
And now, time for the humble-brag photo dump. Hahaha.
Hello everyone — yes, this one was staged… but the office really is that fancy.
Exchanging notes with the accelerator’s CTO, the omnipotent Qiang Ge.
Discussing China’s developer ecosystem with Joe Wilson, General Manager of Worldwide Regional Operations for Microsoft’s Developer Tools & Platform division!
What is Microsoft Ventures Accelerator?
Microsoft Ventures Accelerator (formerly known as the “Microsoft Cloud Accelerator”) is the first startup accelerator Microsoft launched in China, in 2012. Microsoft Ventures Accelerator aims to go deep into China’s startup ecosystem, encouraging more entrepreneurs to build and innovate on Microsoft’s cloud platform, while providing companies with all-around startup support resources to help entrepreneurs realize their dreams. Alongside China, Microsoft launched accelerator programs in Israel, India, and Seattle, USA at the same time.
Startups that apply and are selected into the accelerator receive, for the duration of the batch (4–6 months), free office space provided by Microsoft inside its Asia-Pacific R&D building in Zhongguancun, Beijing; support and guidance from a mentor group made up of thought leaders, industry experts, and technical experts; as well as training in many areas, investor matchmaking, and various startup resources. Every selected company also receives USD 60,000 worth of Windows Azure cloud services.
As of today, Microsoft Ventures Accelerator has successfully incubated three batches — 47 startups in total — and over 90% of them have secured market funding! Our Batch 4 has 19 companies, all accelerating away as hard as we can~
What’s the relationship between Microsoft Ventures and Microsoft Ventures Accelerator?
Microsoft Ventures is a global initiative providing tools, resources, and expertise to help entrepreneurs conceive, build, and grow their startups. It takes a full-spectrum view, working with entrepreneurs at every stage of maturity in the startup ecosystem. The initiative includes the BizSpark community program, accelerators (Microsoft Ventures Accelerator), and seed funds.
The most important point: Microsoft’s accelerator program is genuinely charitable and open — completely free, and it takes zero equity from companies. You can feel that they’re truly building an ecosystem around the startup industry chain! Huge kudos this time — I’m speaking from firsthand experience!
P.S.
With its strong technical capabilities and comprehensive startup support system, Microsoft Ventures Accelerator has provided all-around support to 66 startups since launching in China in July 2012. Over 90% of them have obtained funding to varying degrees — a full vote of confidence from investment institutions in the accelerator’s strength. After the six-month acceleration period, startups show major improvement in technical capability, team building, marketing, and fundraising ability; many rapidly grow into industry leaders in market and user scale during the program itself, achieving business growth of varying degrees — up to a staggering 17x.
Helen Gao, Entrepreneur-in-Residence of Microsoft Ventures Accelerator China, said: “The entrepreneurial atmosphere in China is vibrant, and the startup ecosystem is maturing and improving. We’re delighted to see the exciting, healthy, and rapid growth achieved by the companies supported by Microsoft Ventures Accelerator. Microsoft Ventures Accelerator has always spared no effort in integrating resources to help startups improve their products and services and with ‘finding people, finding money, finding markets, and finding users,’ according to each team’s needs. Beyond our standing commitment to free resources and zero equity from selected teams, companies selected for Microsoft Ventures Accelerator may also join Microsoft accelerators in the US, Europe, and multiple countries around the world, providing maximum convenience for startups entering international markets. We look forward to outstanding teams with an innovative spirit and execution ability joining us to work toward our dreams together.”