SYDNEY, Australia – 11 February, 2019 – Microsoft Australia last week hosted its inaugural ScaleUp Showcase for the first cohort of startups to complete the four month program, which kicked-off in September.
At the showcase, which took place at the Microsoft Reactor in the Sydney StartUp Hub, each of the 12 participants pitched their company to industry experts, showcasing their business strategy and products. The Australian startups who took part in the program included Auror, FreightExchange, Hyper Anna, InDebted, Kapiche, Karbon, Makers Empire, SimpleKYC, StartVR, Teamgage, VendorPanel and Winimy AI.
“Sydney has a reputation for being one of the key startup ecosystems globally. Validation of this was in our inaugural class,” said Emily Rich, Managing Director of Microsoft for Startups ANZ. “After working closely with the companies over the last several months and seeing what was pitched at the Showcase, the calibre of innovation coming out of Australia is extremely impressive.”
Sydney is the eighth city to host the Microsoft ScaleUp Program, joining the likes of Bangalore, Beijing, Berlin, London, Seattle, Shanghai and Tel Aviv, with a mission to empower entrepreneurs to build better companies. Through its ScaleUp Program, Microsoft works with emerging companies to provide the tools, resources, connections, knowledge and expertise they need to become highly disruptive and enterprise-ready by scaling every aspect of their business.
Scaleup participant Auror, which transforms the way police and communities prevent and solve instore crime, found the program invaluable. “The ScaleUp Program has been invaluable to helping Auror’s growth and business development. The resources we had access to and the expertise we were able to tap into over the four months has enabled us to take our solution to the world faster than would have otherwise been possible. We are excited to be partnering with Microsoft to enable the future of retail crime intelligence,” said Phil Thomson, Co-founder and Co-CEO, Auror.
Following graduation, Microsoft will serve as a strategic partner for all alumni of the program, providing unparalleled avenues to market by connecting them with Microsoft’s global network of customers, partners and venture capital firms.
During the event Rich announced ScaleUp’s mission for 2019, which is to run the program in a rolling format to further support startups and their development on an on-going basis. “In the vein of constantly evolving, we want to ensure we’re supporting startups throughout the year in an on-going basis. Moving forward we will be accepting companies year-round so that whenever organisations are ready to join the program they can.”
To get involved in the Microsoft Sydney ScaleUp Program, contact [email protected] or visit: https://startups.microsoft.com/en-us/ .
