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Bengaluru-based Microsoft Accelerator has entered into a partnership with Wipro Limited, an information technology, consulting and business process services company to boost startups by providing them with opportunities to innovate and grow their businesses.
The announcement was made at the accelerator’s flagship event – Think Next 2016. The event also marked the graduation of 13 startups from its ninth cohort. According to an official statement, the average age of the graduating 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.
Commenting on the development, Bala Girisaballa, CEO-In-Residence, Microsoft Accelerator said, “Microsoft Accelerator #CoInnovate programme bridges the gap between corporates and startups. Connecting startups to corporates and crafting a win-win relationship is a critical need of the ecosystem today. The partnership with Wipro allows us to leverage our combined strengths and market reach to provide a whole new level of market access for our startups.”
The newly established partnership is a part of the accelerator’s #CoInnovate programme which provides startups with go-to-market opportunities by working with enterprise businesses. According to an official statement, Wipro will also refer selected startups for Microsoft Accelerator programmes and events.
Under the terms of the partnership, referred startups will gain access to ‘Wipro Open Innovation’ initiatives, including a global go-to-market reach to rapidly scale up, access to integrate their respective solutions with Wipro Solutions, assistance in building a global customer base, and enhanced marketing support for proactive business opportunities, among others.
Commenting on the partnership, K.R. Sanjiv, Chief Technology Officer, Wipro Limited said, “Wipro has built strong connects in the global startup ecosystem, over the last three years, as part of our focus on building new open innovation capabilities. We are confident that our partnership with Microsoft Accelerator will be an important enabler in developing critical solutions for our customers, harnessing both the innovation taking place within Wipro and the external ecosystem.”
This alliance will allow startups an access to the innovative technology solutions emerging from the selected technology startups in the country. In addition, they will get a robust technology solution backed by the delivery and support platform provided by Microsoft and Wipro.
The 13 startups that graduated are:
In addition to this, Microsoft also hosted the third edition of ‘All India Accelerators & Incubators Meet’, where it aimed to bring together 35+ accelerators and incubation partners to boost the startups.
The event also hosted a panel discussion with speakers like Sharad Sharma, fellow iSPIRT, VCs Shekhar Kirani, (Accel Partners) & Samir Kumar (Inventus Capital), and Aditya Sood, Sr. Director Engineering & Products, Nutanix, among others. The panelists deliberated on the need for Indian startups to globally scale themselves and talked about the potential of India as a market for growth. Before the main event, Microsoft presented a curated set of startups to a selected audience of investors, CMOs and ecommerce businesses in a session called VC Speed Dating and two Market Access Programs.
Microsoft Accelerator is currently accepting applications for its 10th cohort, which is scheduled to start in February 2017.
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