Microsoft Ventures Israel's incubator - the Microsoft Ventures Accelerator for Windows Azure - today opened its third class at its offices in Herzliya, after becoming the test case for Microsoft Corporation's (Nasdaq: MSFT) accelerators around the world. Microsoft Israel Accelerator director Hanan Lavi said that 11 start-ups were selected from the 370 applicants.
"We saw big data companies, quite a few augmented reality companies, and traditionally, possibly because of the success of the first two classes, companies affiliated with e-medical and sports. We also met many start-ups founded by entrepreneurs with track records in the field," Lavi said.
The participants in the new class, which will last for several months, include Kanarit, which has developed technology for personalized music therapy for treating stress and tension; Kytera, which has developed a solution for helping the elderly carry on living at home; Navin, which is developing a system for navigation in closed structures; Appaxia, which enables retailers to build and manage a mobile presence; and ConferPlace, which has developed a platform for virtual conferences.
"We are constantly asked how we measure a start-up's success," says Microsoft Ventures senior director Zack Weisfeld, who heads Microsoft Corporation's global accelerator program. "If the companies don’t show business success in a year's time, we'll feel that we didn’t do our work properly." He added that start-ups in the first two classes raised an average of $1 million each.
The third class follows Microsoft Corporation's launch of Microsoft Ventures, which aims to promote development of the accelerators in Israel and other countries. The success of the Israeli accelerator led to the opening of other accelerators in India, China, and most recently, in Seattle, near the company's headquarters in Washington State. Four more accelerators will open in the coming year in Berlin, Paris, Moscow, and Brazil.
Weisfeld says that the new accelerators are a dramatic step for Microsoft. "The idea is to build extraordinary start-ups around the world and to provide them access to Microsoft customers and partners," he says.
Another arm of Microsoft Ventures will focus on seed investments in start-ups around the world, together with other venture capital funds, micro-venture capital funds, and private investors.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on July 10, 2013
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