Microsoft Ventures India Accelerator have just announced the Winter batch 2013, which is also the third batch, for Microsoft Ventures Accelerator in Bangalore, India. Eight companies, namely AdSparx, ShieldSquare, Chance, Frrole, Native5, SignEasy, TommyJams and Whale Logix were selected from 1000+ applications received over two months and after several rigorous rounds of screening by a panel of judges comprising senior leaders from Microsoft and the industry. Scibler, the ninth company, is from the 2013 Summer batch, staying on to achieve more aggressive milestones.
The winter batch, hosted in the 8,300 sq ft state-of-the-art Accelerator facility in Microsoft’s Lavelle Road office, is currently undergoing a four month deep immersion program which will end with Demo Day in late November.
Profiles of Selected Startups
- Adsparx : AdSparx is instream video ad platform which caters to internet video publishers & video content distributors. AdSparx uses patented server-side technology to serve device independent, high quality, targeted, pre & mid-roll video ads for linear TV, live events and videos on demand. It works with existing content delivery systems like Wowza, Adobe Flash Media Server, Apache and CDNs. AdSparx also acts as Ad Mediation since it allows the publisher to work with multiple advertisers and networks.
- ShieldSquare : ShieldSquare innovative platform that provides invisible and comprehensive account breach protection to any internet or web app users' logins and help online businesses protect their users against account breaches.
- Chance : Chance is an early age startup that solves the problem for people who seeks advice, solution, tips from people who are experts/influencers in their relevant fields. Chance platform allows people to schedule advice/tips from these experts/influencers and pay for advises and experts get paid for advises they give, Chance on other hand keep 30% of this money.
- Frrole : Frrole is a social newspaper and intelligence engine that performs analysis across tens of millions of data units in real-time. It uses this analysis to build a 'local buzz graph', where Frrole knows what each neighborhood, city and country is talking about. Currently powering Frrole News - a news application that creates a universal view of news across cities and countries, regularly breaking news tens of minutes before professional media or other social news apps.
- Native5 : Native5 is a next generation cloud platform that helps you create, distribute and monitor applications across desktops, mobiles & tablets.
- SignEasy : SignEasy is an mobile app for Android and BlackBerry mobile platforms that provide businesses and professionals to legally sign documents from smartphones and tablets. With SignEasy app you go paperless and forget the hassles of printing, scanning, faxing and overnight shipping.
- TommyJams : TommyJams is an inexpensive online community of Artists, Venues and Fans in India. Tommy Jams tries to act as a bridge between artists and venues gigs, and ensures that there is a degree of professionalism from both the parties. Venues, like restaurants and bars, can sign up for their service on their website and host an event by filling out a form.
- Whale Logix : WhaleLogix is an innovative platform that will help online retailers revolutionize their customer experience and make more money. No further explanation is available of what WhaleLogix exactly do as it is in developing stage.
Apart from these nine, four more companies, HasGeek, Nanobi, Tookitaki and 1000Lookz will also be closely associated with the Accelerator during this period.
Announcing the third batch, Ravi Narayan, who recently joined the Microsoft Ventures in India leadership team, said: “I am very excited about leading this team. This is the first batch to join the Accelerator after we aligned all startup related activities under a single umbrella called Microsoft Ventures, to be able to engage with entrepreneurs at every stage of their journey from ideation to maturity. Microsoft Ventures Accelerator is a key element in that effort, bridging the gap between early-stage and mid-stage startups. We worked with several accelerators, incubators and industry bodies to source the best companies. We chose them very carefully, from a huge list of applications received across e-commerce, entertainment, digital media, education, enterprise, cloud infrastructure and mobile. Our aim was to make sure that they are at the right stage of their entrepreneurial journey to be able to benefit from the best in class and comprehensive resources the Accelerator provides, namely access to our huge network of mentors, technical experts, partners, early stage customers, investors and industry connections.”
Narayan is responsible for Microsoft Ventures Accelerator and its connections with other community initiatives in India. Explaining his vision, he said: “Microsoft Ventures, with its breadth of offerings, and its vast and varied resources is uniquely positioned today to guide the entrepreneurial ecosystem of India. The Accelerator has so much to offer that it would not be fair to restrict its benefits to only those startups which constitute our two batches every year. We are keen to help any highly motivated technology startup which we feel could benefit from our association. That is why we decided to work with HasGeek, Nanobi, Tookitaki and 1000Lookz, four companies that emerged from the BizSpark program in India. For the same reason we decided to retain Scibler for another four months--they are at a critical juncture of product development and would benefit from the technology mentoring at the Accelerator.
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