Microsoft's Israel Accelerator Inspires India
Bangalore: Microsoft has got this image for years that it exists mainly to slap copies of Windows and Office on as many PCs as it can. But Microsoft is trying very hard to erase that image. One step is the launch of a Microsoft Accelerator branch in Tel Aviv where 13 of Israel's best start-ups are working on everything from retail apps to software. The accelerator has proven such a success that Microsoft is duplicating the format in new accelerators the company opened in India and China.
Finding Funding
Already, some of the companies from the first round of the four-month programme that began in March 2012 have made prominent progress on funding. In the eight months since the programme was started, it has accomplished the equivalent of seven years of work that most other accelerators in the world are able to achieve. $6.5m has been invested in eight of the 11 start-ups from the first group, about $800,000 on average per start-up.
