M12, Microsoft’s venture fund that empowers B2B entrepreneurs through investments, insight, and unparalleled access to Microsoft, announced that it has set up an office in Bengaluru that will bolster efforts in pursuing investment opportunities, according to an ETtech report. M12 is based in San Francisco, Seattle, London, and Tel Aviv.
The local office will pursue investment opportunities across the region, focusing on B2B software startups in the sectors of applied artificial intelligence, business applications, infrastructure, security, and vanguard technologies, a statement said.
M12 said that it is looking to invest in enterprise software startups in the Series A through Series C funding stages, targeting both local and cross-border solutions. M12 has been remotely investing in Indian startups since 2019 such as Innovaccer and FarEye. Globally, it has backed 90 companies so far.
“Typically, we see the greatest hurdles in a startup’s journey as they scale from local success to global challengers, and then again when they go on to become category leaders,” M12 India Lead Abhi Kumar said.
He added that both inflection points require specific and deep organisational strength, proven talent, GTM partnerships, and global investors.
“M12 is proud to be co-located in the region, and to bring experience and resources that will help startups successfully navigate these inflection points,” he said.
Post-investment, the startups in M12’s portfolio can elect to work with the fund’s Portfolio Development team.
M12’s portfolio companies are actively supported through connections to Microsoft’s go-to-market resources, access to Microsoft technology and internal thought leaders, co-marketing opportunities, and engagement with engineering teams to explore product integrations, the statement said.
M12 invests in early-stage startups transforming the enterprise with a focus on AI and ML, big data and analytics, business SaaS, cloud infrastructure, productivity and communication, security, and frontier technologies.
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