A new first of its kind Microsoft B2B startup program to help SaaS-based startup is announced today.
Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) has taken note of the Indian startups that are heavily inclined towards taking the SaaS route and therefore, today the tech giant reportedly launched a programme aimed at all such B2B or business-to-business Saas startups.
On Monday, Microsoft announced that 100 companies and 100 early growth stage SaaS startups will be brought together through their programme called Microsoft 100X100X100. Over the course of a total of 18 months, $100,000 will be spent by each committed company.
Other highly motivating benefits of participating in this initiative of Microsoft’s programme includes having exclusive access to prospective clientele at the Microsoft industry and customer events. The participating companies will also get access to the technology platform of Microsoft. In addition to all this, they will also receive proper guidance to optimise their existing business model to help them expand.
“This initiative will help build scale and create amazing opportunities for startups. Businesses can now fast-track their digital journeys through easy adoption of enterprise-grade solutions,” said Anant Maheshwari, President of Microsoft India, in a statement.
However, this isn’t the first time Microsoft has been heavily participating in the Indian startup ecosystem. They are already well known to run ‘Microsoft for Startups’ wherein their company’s Azure marketplace and enterprise-grade sales team is made available to early-stage B2B startups. M12, their corporate venture fund, was also expanded to India last year.
A lot more information and details will be available regarding the launch of this brand new programme by Microsoft after their Chief Executive Officer Satya Nadella will be addressing the media and other prominent personalities of the industry in Bangalore in the next two days.
Why Are Global Tech Giants Interested In India’s Saas Startups?
According to a study conducted jointly by Google and Accel, India is likely to become a $10 billion revenue industry with an eight per cent share of the global SaaS by 2025.
The first generation of Indian SaaS startups such as Zoho, Freshworks, and Druva, have already proved that its possible to effectively be able to sell software to the world remotely from India. This further goes to show that geographical barriers aren’t a constraint anymore, provided the products and buying experience are good.
After taking notes from the first generation of Indian Saas startups, many such Indian companies in recent years have emerged in hopes of duplicating their massive success. The main profitability of Saas startups lies in their huge margins as they need not build hardware or disburse any loans.
For the global tech behemoths like Microsoft, the idea is simple. They are betting on these Indian SaaS startups to make it big using their technology solutions such as Cloud platforms which makes these companies their customers. If they succeed, they will, in turn, be beneficial to several other thousands of customers.
Companies such as Google and Amazon who are global tech rival to Microsoft have also been actively participating in the Indian SaaS startup ecosystem by offering thousands of dollars worth of credit for the use of their cloud platforms, sponsoring countless events as well as giving away free goodies.
