Today, Microsoft announced that its corporate venture fund, M12, will be extending its coverage to India. Innovaccer, a provider of Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) solutions to healthcare organizations, becomes the first startup in the county in which Microsoft has invested through M12. All investments in India will be overseen by Rashmi Gopinath, a partner at the tech giant"s venture capital arm.
Innovaccer has offices located in both India and the U.S., furnishing care management modules across 500 practice locations for over 10,000 healthcare providers. This is one of the reasons why the company seemed an attractive prospect for investment to M12. Interestingly, Microsoft quite recently partnered up with Walgreens Boots Alliance with the aim to innovate in the healthcare space.
Microsoft has also highlighted the "unique competitive advantages" offered by India, due to the Redmond giant"s belief that some of the best technical talent can be found in the country. Nagraj Kashyap, Global Head of M12, noted his delight at the venture capital fund"s expansion, and went on to mention how working with Indian startups would "help disrupt enterprises and industries ripe for digital transformation" in the future.
Abhinav Shashank, CEO of Innovaccer, also commented on the planned collaboration with M12, and by extension, Microsoft, noting:
"Our unique value proposition is a holistic healthcare data platform that offers data aggregation and key analytics to help healthcare systems and insurance providers to align with value-based care models and realize significant cost savings and operational efficiency. We are excited to work with M12 and Microsoft in order to leverage their best-in-class technical, industry, and go-to-market expertise to help address needs for healthcare organizations across the world."
M12 arm has now invested in over 70 startups globally. It also recently held a Female Founders competition to help fund women-led startups. Microsoft"s venture capital arm is made up of veteran employees of the tech giant, as well as experienced venture capitalists.