Microsoft Corp. has become known for its suite of software and products tailored for enterprise businesses. Now it wants to be known for doing the same for startups.
On Tuesday, the Redmond tech giant launched a free platform for startup founders called the Microsoft for Startups Founders Hub, which provides earlier-stage startups with access to tools that it says are worth upwards of $300,000.
One of the tools is OpenAI, a San Francisco-based artificial intelligence platform that Microsoft invested $1 billion in a few years ago.
The qualifications for startups that apply to the hub include being headquartered in a country where there's access to Azure infrastructure, pre-Series D, privately held and for-profit, and developing a proprietary product or service that's software-based and core to their business.
Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) says that 6,000 founders have signed up during a private beta test since October.
“Our ambition is to make the global startup ecosystem more representative of the world at large regardless of background, location, progress or passion,” Microsoft for Startups VP Jeff Ma said in a statement. “As an experienced founder, access to a diverse network – to validate ideas, get advice and coaching – was instrumental in my success and is something we aim to provide to every founder through the Microsoft for Startups Founders Hub.”
Founders who are approved for the program will get $1,000-worth of credits to use at OpenAI and a free consult as well three free months of OpenAI's API Innovation License.
In addition to that, access to the hub also includes up to $150,000-worth of Azure credits, free GitHub, free Microsoft 365, technical support, access to a network of mentors and training materials.
Various credits are unlocked over time as a startup scales across four stages that Microsoft has designated as: ideate, develop, grow and scale.
Microsoft bought GitHub in 2018 for $7.5 billion in an all-stock deal. GitHub has more than doubled the number of developers using its platform since then to 73 million.
