Microsoft to conduct meetings with start-ups

Meetings to take place with start-ups across 7 cities in India

Starting from October 21, a Microsoft Ventures team will spend a day each in seven cities - Delhi, Chennai, Bangalore, Mumbai, Pune, Kochi and Hyderabad - to meet entrepreneurs who are looking to find the right accelerator, as well as start-up aspirants who need to have their questions answered before they take the final plunge into entrepreneurship, the company said in a release.

Those interested need to register on the link for the city of his or her choice, provided in the company's website.

Ravi Narayan, director, Microsoft Ventures in India, said informal meets like these, where a lot of like-minded people met and experts answered questions, were very helpful. "We conducted similar meet-ups last year too and they had good response," he said.

"While the start-ups benefited by getting their doubts cleared, we benefited from feedback and insights that prompted us to introduce a few changes in our programme that made it more robust. We intend to build deep connections with all relevant start-ups in India, anyone who is looking to make it big in Cloud, internet, mobile and data analytics technologies," Narayan added.

Microsoft Ventures in India features a community evangelism programme called BizSpark, an accelerator programme and a seed fund, offering start-ups a single point of entry to engage with Microsoft. Microsoft Ventures Accelerator started operations in India in August 2012, and 22 companies graduated over the first two batches, 80 per cent of whom received funding.

Currently, 13 start-ups are being accelerated in the third batch, and are scheduled to graduate on November 29. The fourth batch will commence on January 22, 2014 and graduate in May.