Microsoft Accelerator Programme Selects 13 Startups For Ninth Cohort

Bengaluru-based Microsoft Accelerator has selected 13 startups for its startup accelerator programme. It is the ninth batch of Microsoft’s Accelerator Programme.

According to an official statement, the average age of selected startups is 4.5 years, whereas some of them were launched as early as 2008. A few of the lot have already achieved more than $2Mn (INR 13 Cr) revenue.

The startups entering the programme will receive mentoring and guidance from some of the leading players of the startup ecosystem. This move is in conjunction with Microsoft Accelerator’s new curriculum for market-ready startups that aims at increasing revenues and market opportunities.

The 13 selected startups are:

1. Whodat: Whodat is an augmented reality company, with its primary thrust areas being building products that harness the power of technologies to help people visualise products to consumers so that they can make informed decisions.

2. Uncanny Vision: It is a B2B startup that functions in the area of AI-based computer vision for IoT devices like surveillance cameras.

3. Talview: Talview offers video-mobile recruitment and assessment technology solutions that facilitates businesses workforce by reviewing candidates. It essentially aims at replacing the traditional hiring process. It has provided services in 102 countries.

4. Transaction Analysts: It is a fintech startup that aims to bring affordable digital payment services to Indian citizens through its digital partner network using unique strategic licenses from RBI, Aadhaar, NPCI, and product IPs.

5. Surukam: It provides AI solutions (NLP and machine learning) to manage drafting, redlining as well as post-contract management of contracts.

6. MoveInSync: It works in the areas of managing employee transportation. It comes with SaaS that aims at making transportation efficient, transparent, and safe. It is presently used by 100,000 employees across 40 enterprises including Microsoft, Google, Facebook, Amazon, Wipro, Oracle, etc.

7. Allizhealth: The platform addresses information on non-communicable and lifestyle related diseases. It also enables its users to figure their health risks early and use various resources to track and manage the same. At present, it is being used by over 500,000 users and insurance and health care providers in India.

8. Betaout: Betaout is an ecommerce-based B2C marketing software that lets users communicate via personalised email, on-site engagement, SMS, mobile push, and cart recovery with their customers.

9. Epictions: It is a data analytics company that uses artificial intelligence and machine learning to create content and digital PRs.

10. Faircent: It is a P2P loan platform which enables lenders and borrowers to connect with each other after registering on the platform. The company’s platform allows users to know the borrower by their profession, caste, and mother tongue.

11. FarEye: It is a SaaS-enabled mobility platform for business operations. FarEye aims to optimise businesses by moving their operations to mobile.

12. Germin8: It is a social media-based platform that collects and analyses conversations in real-time from public and private sources, whereby it converts them into industry-specific insights and analytics.

13. Meddiff Technologies: It is a tech-enabled healthcare platform that focusses on product development. Its products include Teleradiology, Picture Archiving and Communication Systems. Meddiff has built six applications till date.

Five of the nine funded startups have raised series A funding till date, the average funding being $1.8Mn. Amongst the 13, four are bootstrapped startups.

Prior to this in March 2016, Microsoft Ventures announced the names of 12 startups that were selected for its  eighth Accelerator batch of its Hi-Po & Scale Up Program. The cohort was selected from over 2,100 applications. In June 2016, Microsoft also entered into a global partnership with Singapore-based investment company Temasek to help support and scale startups across the world.