Microsoft launches Pegasus program for startups, awarding up to $350,000 in credits

Microsoft is extending the Startup Founders Hub, its self-service level that provides founders with escaped resources including Azure credits, with a caller incubator programme called the Pegasus Program.

Pegasus volition prime startups with products that “fill a marketplace need” and springiness them up to $350,000 successful Azure, GitHub and LinkedIn credits positive backing from advisors, arsenic good arsenic “access to the champion Microsoft tech,” according to Hans Yang, wide manager astatine Microsoft for Startups.

“Given the existent economical climate, today’s motorboat of Microsoft for Startups Pegasus Program couldn’t beryllium timelier,” Yang, speaking to TechCrunch via email, said. “In a capital-constrained environment, startups request to show traction and gross growth. Startups selling to endeavor companies are challenged with agelong income cycles, analyzable regulatory requirements, and precocious demands for scalability and reliability. At the aforesaid time, endeavor companies cognize that disruption is coming, but privation to enactment with startups who tin conscionable their rigorous requirements.”

Pegasus is simply a two-year program, unfastened to startups already progressive successful Microsoft’s Founders Hub and with customer-facing products built connected the Microsoft Cloud. A halfway request is having aboriginal product-market fit, Yang stressed, including gross traction, a income squad successful spot and a “proven” go-to-market model.

“This signals to america that they are acceptable to spell up marketplace to endeavor customers,” Yang added. “Our industry-focused experts, erstwhile evaluating imaginable Pegasus startups, besides guarantee their solutions are resolving existent manufacture challenges for these sectors. This ensures we supply enterprises with applicable solutions that they tin put successful to get a short-term instrumentality connected investment.”

All startups chosen for Pegasus are assigned a vertical pb to make income opportunities and enactment arsenic an advisor. They besides get a occurrence manager, who’s liable for helping them spell to marketplace and “ensure they person the champion resources for generating and processing deals.”

Lastly, Pegasus companies person a dedicated unreality solution designer to enactment their method occurrence and facilitate “preferred” entree to Azure’s AI offerings. These architects service arsenic a azygous constituent of interaction wrong Pegasus, helping startups prosecute with Microsoft customers and handling compliance and information checks.

Yang noted that, portion Pegasus inherently favors startups built with Azure tech, the programme doesn’t fastener companies oregon partners into a peculiar cloud. They’re capable to usage aggregate clouds, including stalwarts specified arsenic Google Cloud and Amazon Web Services, if they truthful take arsenic agelong arsenic they’re gathering their customers’ needs.

“The programme is truly driven by the needs of endeavor customers, and portion galore of our customers bask the synergies of leveraging aggregate Microsoft solutions together, we are focused connected their needs,” Yang said.

There’s nary bounds to the fig of startups that tin articulation Pegasus, but Yang says that peculiar attraction volition beryllium paid to those successful industries similar healthcare, AI, retail and cybersecurity. He expressed outsize enthusiasm for generative AI, a peculiarly blistery marketplace astatine the moment.

“As the AI epoch takes shape, endeavor companies are looking for ways to clasp generative AI, which presents a tremendous accidental for startups who tin assistance them connected that journey,” Yang said. “Broadly, we judge that each startup, careless of the manufacture they serve, should beryllium exploring however they incorporated generative AI into their merchandise roadmap.”

In backstage preview, Microsoft claims that Pegasus has already supported implicit 100 startups whose mean woody size exceeded $300,000. In total, it’s pledged implicit $35 cardinal to those startups successful tech credits.

“We’ve been piloting the Pegasus programme to refine the matchmaking process, moving with business-to-business startups connected a regular ground … to place endeavor customers with a circumstantial request for innovative solutions and link them with the startups that tin code that need,” Yang said. “We assistance get their products and go-to-market plans enterprise-ready, past instrumentality them to marketplace alongside our income squad and straight to endeavor buyers. The results person been promising, with Pegasus startups seeing an mean woody size of $350,000 and an progressive pipeline of implicit 1,300 opportunities.”

Pegasus complements Microsoft’s assorted ongoing early-and late-stage startup efforts, including partnerships with VCs and accelerators to backmost 10,000 companies successful Africa implicit the adjacent 5 years. The tech elephantine besides maintains the ISV Success Program, a programme designed to assistance early-stage bundle vendors physique and people apps.