In its efforts to accelerate the startup ecosystem, Microsoft has made a commitment of $500M to support startups and local startup ecosystems around the world to grow, build and connect. Microsoft for Startups through its ScaleUp program provides a platform for Series A startups to co-sell with their sales teams, get access to top tech venture capitals (VCs) in the global arena and get strategic intervention from world class thought leaders and industry mentors. In less than 18 months, Microsoft for startups has closed about 127 co-sell deals by getting $20M as startup revenue and has more than $126M in active pipeline for startups.
Startups have seen a significant growth in their business but face challenges in expanding globally due to lack of viable technology solutions and limited access to large enterprises. To address this issue, Microsoft has designed a co-sell motion which consists of a dedicated resource to help navigate the co-sell process. With one of the largest sales team, Microsoft enables entrepreneurs to sell qualified solutions into their customer accounts based on the startup’s value and expand into international markets.
“Being an entrepreneur for 17 years, I understand the dynamics of the challenges and shortcoming startups face while trying to scale. Microsoft for Startups offers entrepreneurs access to technology and infrastructure. Our programs like ScaleUp allows startups understand the length and breadth of Microsoft. We are committed to enrich the startup ecosystem and our co-sell motion aims to provide a joint sales experience for them to scale,” said Lathika Pai, Country Head, Microsoft for Startups, MENA & SAARC.
During the key note session at the recently held TiE Delhi-NCR India Internet Day, Lathika spoke about how ScaleUp acts as a platform for innovation and was launched under the Microsoft for Startups initiative. The program is currently present in eight cities worldwide and supports pre-series A/Series A B2B tech-enabled startups that aspire to evolve from being market ready to enterprise ready. The current portfolio of Microsoft consists of startups across a variety of industries including Fintech, Healthcare, Enterprise SaaS, Mobility Solutions and Robotic Process Automation.
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