Summary: Microsoft and its venture capital partner are looking for the next million-dollar security idea.
Microsoft Ventures, Microsoft's startup investment
arm, is to set up its first accelerator dedicated solely to companies in the
cybersecurity area.
The four-month programme aims to provide startups
with tools to succeed in business, from mentorship to help with development to
marketing expertise. Companies that get through the program will have an
opportunity to get $1m in funding, courtesy of Jerusalem Ventures Partners
(JVP), which has partnered with Microsoft Ventures on the project.
Now in its third year of operations, Microsoft
Ventures' accelerators have hosted dozens of startups in the six cities across
the world where it now operates — starting out in Tel Aviv, where the model for
the franchise was first developed.
Companies in the Ventures Accelerator programs get
to work with mentors who teach them the tricks of the trade — how to
develop a presentation, how to reach and appeal to investors, and how to
navigate a company towards an exit. The 40 companies that have graduated from
the accelerator in the past two years have raised an average of over a $1m
each.
Israel is now trailblazing another path for
Microsoft Ventures, with the country hosting its first accelerator dedicated
specifically to security.
The accelerator will be located in Beersheba, a city
in southern Israel where a new industrial park dedicated to cybersecurity is
being built. The Beersheba Advanced Technologies Park (ATP) will eventually
include almost two dozen buildings with 190,000 square metres of office and
shopping space.