QuasiPreneur.com

Microsoft India launches BizSpark for startups

Microsoft India launches BizSpark for startups

Deepti Chaudhary - Wednesday, December 17, 2008 3:53 PM

In its bid to woo startups in India, Microsoft Corp (India) Pvt Ltd. has launched Microsoft BizSpark - a program designed to provide free access to Microsoft’s professional software. Under the initiative, BizSpark will offer access to the company’s current development tools, platform technologies as well as production licenses at no cost.

“The initiative is targeted at the startups for whom affording software means capital expenditure. We want to be an enabler for them,” said Moorthy Uppaluri, general manager, developer and platform evangelism, Microsoft Corp (India). The incentives include, access to design tools, development test and demonstration, IT operations servers, and support resources (both technical and non technical) and integration with Microsoft's sales team and product groups.

In order to help the start ups in getting access to professional guidance, mentoring, idea validation, technology readiness and visibility, the company has struck five network partnerships. These include The Indus Entrepreneurs (TiE), NEN, Proto, NASSCOM and IDG Ventures, a venture capital firm. Other VC firms supporting the initiative include - Draper Fisher Jurvetson (DFJ), Helion Venture Partners and Accel Partners. “For the first time, an entire ecosystem of stakeholders is coming together with Microsoft to enable a vibrant startup ecosystem in India,” said Uppaluri.

For signing up for the program, a start up needs to be engaged in the development of software-based product or service, that is core to their business model. It needs to be privately held, with lees than three years in business. Also, the firm should have less than $1 million in annual revenue. Microsoft Corp (India) will take $100 from the startup when it (the startup) exits the program after three years.

Uppaluri says 75 startups have already signed for the program. Sanjay Mehta, chief executive, MAIA Intelligence, which signed up for the program a few weeks ago, says their credibility has increased in their customer’s eyes due to the usage of a Microsoft platform.