Microsoft VC unit launches India operation
Microsoft Corporation's venture arm M12 has established a presence in India by opening an office in the start-up hub of Bengaluru.
Microsoft said M12 would pursue early and growth-stage investment opportunities across the region focusing on software start-ups servicing enterprise customers. Areas of interest include applied artificial intelligence, business applications, infrastructure, security, and emerging technologies.
It has already backed three start-ups with Indian back offices, most recently FarEye, the developer of a predictive logistics platform. Earlier, it led a $35 million Series B round for Innovacer, a US-headquartered healthcare data analytics developer, and a $17 million Series A for LoginRadius, a customer identity and access management platform headquartered in Canada.
B2B software-as-a-service (SaaS) start-ups with Indian back-office operations are expected to rise in popularity as an investment theme, according to local investor Iron Pillar, mirroring the growth of technology outsourcing companies in previous decades. The trend is supported by the growing importance of cloud-based technology in the West.
“Typically, we see the greatest hurdles in a start-up’s journey as they scale from local success to global challengers, and then again when they go on to become category leaders. Both inflection points require specific and deep organizational strength, proven talent, go-to-market partnerships, and global investor,” said Abhi Kumar, India investments lead for M12, in a statement.
Portfolio companies will get preferential access to Microsoft resources, co-marketing opportunities, and engagement with the multinational's engineering teams to explore product integrations with its product suite.
Founded in 2016, M12 has invested in 90 companies and achieved 10 exits so far. Excluding companies with Indian operations, it has also invested in two Australian companies – corporate training marketplace GO1 and crop health analytics provider FluroSat, according to AVCJ Research. M12 has offices in Israel, the UK and the US, in addition to India.
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