In April, Microsoft picked 11 startup companies to participate in their Kinect Accelerator mentoring program. Today, Microsoft announced the 10 startups that will participate in a similar program, the Microsoft Accelerator for Windows Azure.
In a blog post written by Microsoft executive Scott Guthrie, the company said that the program had almost 600 applications. The 10 companies that were picked for Microsoft Accelerator for Windows Azure will move to Seattle for three months, where they will receive advice from Microsoft team members, as well as other entrepreneurs and venture capitalists, on how to develop products that will use Microsoft"s Windows Azure cloud-based services. The 10 startups are.
- Advertory – Berlin, Germany. Advertory helps local businesses increase revenue and build customer loyalty.
- Appetas – Seattle, WA. Appetas" mission is to make restaurants look as beautiful online as they do on the plate!
- BagsUp – Sydney, Australia. Find great places from people you trust.
- Embarke – San Diego, CA. Embarke allows developers and companies the ability to integrate with any human communication channel (Facebook, Email, Text Message, Twitter) without having to learn the specifics, write code, or spend time on any of them.
- Fanzo – Seattle, WA. Fanzo puts sports fans in the spotlight. Find other fans, show off your fanswagger and get rewarded for your passion.
- MetricsHub – Bellevue, WA. A service providing cloud monitoring with incident detection and prebuilt workflows for remedying common problems.
- Mobilligy – Bellevue, WA. Mobilligy revolutionizes how people pay their bills by bringing convenient, secure, and instant bill payment support to mobile devices.
- Realty Mogul – Los Angeles, CA. Realty Mogul is a crowdfunding platform for real estate where accredited investors pool capital and invest in properties that are acquired, managed and eventually resold by professional private real estate companies and their management teams.
- Staq – San Francisco, CA. Back-end as a service for APIs.
- Socedo – Bellevue, WA. A simple and effective web application for lead generation and relationship management on Twitter.
The companies will spend their first month in the program coming up with the ideas behind their products and businesses, followed by two more months of designing and creating their products. In January 2013, the program comes to an end as the 10 startups will present their final Windows Azure-based products and/or services to potential investors and Microsoft partners.
Source: Scott Guthrie"s blog | Image via Microsoft