Microsoft Accelerator initiated in China one year ago today. Now it has hosted two batches of startups — six months for each. The program offers startups free working space, cloud storage and mentoring, but funding.
Some from the second batch, however, have secured investments in the past half a year. fxiaoke, a tool for customer relationship management, recently announced Series A financing from IDG Capital Partners, the official partner for the Accelerator. Wiz, a note taking and knowledge management service, is reportedly receiving some tens of thousands yuan investment from GOBI PARTNERS (report in Chinese).
Others from this batch cover sectors including education, business services, software development tools, music or video sharing, and even agriculture and shale gas.
Another 17 teams debuts today that will also spend six months at Microsoft Asia-Pacific R&D Group in Beijing. The new ones will work on social data mining, e-finance, data sharing, wearable and sensor technology, etc.
Microsoft consolidated its startups support programs, including Bizspark, Accelerator and Seed Fund, and launched Microsoft Ventures ten days ago. Today Microsoft Asia-Pacific R&D Group announced its landing in China.