Microsoft commits $500 million over next two years to new startup program

Microsoft for Startups logo
Microsoft for Startups logo (Image credit: Microsoft)

Microsoft has announced a new program intended to help startups accelerate their growth and sell their products. Called Microsoft for Startups, the program will see Microsoft commit more than $500 million over the next two years to provide access to technology and new community spaces, along with joint sales engagements.

Through the program, Microsoft says it will offer co-selling resources to startups in order to help them sell their cloud solutions to enterprise organizations. Startups will also get access to specific technical support and development tools, along with free Azure credits. From Microsoft:

The program provides startups with up to $120,000 in free Azure credits, enterprise grade technical support and development tools – supporting the languages of their choice, such as Node.js, Java and .NET. In addition, qualified startups also get access to productivity and business applications, including Office 365 and Microsoft Dynamics 365.

Microsoft for Startups is bolstered by Microsoft's other startup efforts, including Microsoft ScaleUp and Microsoft Ventures. New Microsoft Reactor spaces are also set to open up in London, Sydney, Tel Aviv, Berlin, Shanghai, and Beijing over the next month, Microsoft says. These join the existing Reactor spaces in Redmond, Seattle, San Francisco, and New York.

You can learn more about Microsoft's latest efforts at the Microsoft for Startups website.

Dan Thorp-Lancaster

Dan Thorp-Lancaster is the former Editor-in-Chief of Windows Central. He began working with Windows Central, Android Central, and iMore as a news writer in 2014 and is obsessed with tech of all sorts. You can follow Dan on Twitter @DthorpL and Instagram @heyitsdtl