Microsoft has launched a founders’ hub in Asia to help start-ups meet their ambitions and use innovation to drive economic and societal progress.

The Microsoft for Startups Founders Hub is a digital and inclusive platform for founders in Asia. The platform offers over $300,000 of benefits and credits, giving start-ups free access to the technology, tools and resources they need to build and run their business, from a secure, open-source cloud platform, to developer and productivity tools including GitHub Enterprise, Visual Studio Enterprise and Microsoft 365.

Beyond access to technology, the hub aims to empower entrepreneurs to innovate and grow by connecting them with mentors who will provide them with industry, business and technical support. In addition, founders will have access to Microsoft Learn and various start-up and unicorn programmes to help them build connections with customers and accelerate their growth.

The hub is designed for early-stage start-ups to lower the barriers of business creation, be a catalyst for entrepreneurship and innovation, and contribute to easing the journey from an idea to a unicorn. It is available to all start-ups in Asia, including those without third-party backing.

Asia has become a hotbed of innovation over recent years, with one of the most dynamic start-up scenes. CB Insights reports that Asia was the top region for global venture deals in 2021. Asia is also home to three out of the top ten countries leading in the number of unicorns created year on year – China, India and South Korea. In India, a unicorn is created almost every week.

“Born in Asia creativity and innovation is accelerating Asia’s position to become the start-up region of the world,” said Jesus Martin, chief strategy officer for Microsoft in Asia. “We are a trusted partner who wants to empower the ambition of start-ups from idea to unicorn. As a platform company, our cloud services are designed to empower founders to concentrate on what they do best – innovate at their own pace. Our aim is to give start-ups access to the technology that will power their innovation, connect them with customers, and an ecosystem of developers, partners and investors to help them scale in Asia and beyond.”

He said the hub was created following extensive research and conversations with hundreds of founders who shared their need for access to a digital ecosystem that promoted opportunities and democratised innovation regardless of background, location, progress or passions.

“We look forward to how our new offering will support more founders in Asia and provide access to the technology, tools and resources they need to build and run their business,” said Martin.

In China over the past ten years, Microsoft has supported the growth of over 700 start-ups and the Microsoft ScaleUp programme has been ranked as best accelerator in China for six years in a row by China Venture Info.

Yanchao Li, co-founder and chief technology officer of six-month old start-up, Shopastro, has rapidly scaled the cross-border ecommerce service platform with Microsoft cloud.

“My ambition has been to empower local sellers to leverage Shopastro as a powerful platform to take their businesses and products beyond China and into the global market,” said Li. “Thanks to Microsoft cloud we have been able to scale our business.”

A recent report by Bain reports that Indian SaaS firms could corner about eight to nine per cent of the global market by 2025. Salesken, a conversation intelligence platform that assists sales representatives in real-time customer conversations, relies on Microsoft cloud as well as its ecosystem and co-sell opportunities.

“Starting my business has not been without its challenges, including my family’s concern in leaving my stable job,” said Surga Thilakan, co-founder and CEO of Salesken. “Thanks to my connections in the industry, I have been able to expand Salesken’s vision and scale, and attract investment from Sequoia India, and a series B round of funding led by M12, Microsoft’s Venture fund.”

Japanese start-up Scalar was started after its co-founder and CEO Wataru Fukatsu realised the issue around trust in blockchain technology could be resolved by combining the scalability of a distributed database with the tamper detection technology of blockchain. Based on the Microsoft cloud platform, Scalar is now supplying services to enterprise companies. It is working with Toyota Motor to enable automatic proof preservation for large volumes of electronic documents and the preservation of electronic documents that exceed ten years, even when timestamps expire.

“We are thrilled to be able to leverage Microsoft technology and create innovations for enterprises like Toyota Motor, allowing them to introduce significant efficiencies and redefine their business operations,” said Fukatsu.

Across Asia Pacific, Naomi Vowels, the co-founder of Givvable, is helping businesses solve problems around sourcing and tracking supplier sustainability credentials.

“I have always been passionate about sustainability and wanted to combine the power of technology with a topic I am passionate about,” said Vowels. “The Microsoft cloud platform has enabled us to help more businesses spend with impact. At Givvable, we are replacing hours of manual work with a fully automated, smart solution that leverages Microsoft’s AI and machine-learning software and Power BI to find, capture and track supplier sustainability.”

CEO Owen Darby of Phytrac, a New Zealand-based cleantech company that combines science, technology and nature to produce sustainable products by optimising phytoremediation through a dynamic driven platform, said: “As an entrepreneur, it is important that I can focus on my core offering while having access to technology, tools and resources that allow me to easily build my business. For someone that doesn’t have a development background, what I’ve found most useful with Microsoft for Startups Founders Hub is the Power Platform, Power Automate and Power BI Pro.”

Katrina Lee, CEO of Singapore-based Savour, a B2B platform aimed at securing savings for SMEs, non-profits and social enterprises while also tackling food insecurity and wastage, added: “Most start-ups spend so much time trying to find the right partner and the right support. More than just having the best tools, it’s important to be able to connect with experts that can help you unlock the full potential of these tools to increase your productivity, grow your customer base and even improve your marketing. The ability to connect with mentors within Microsoft for Startups Founders Hub has been a big help for me.”

Microsoft last year started a multi-year partnership with global start-up platform She Loves Tech to provide women-led start-ups in the community with access to Microsoft technologies, dedicated programmes and global ecosystem. Microsoft also expanded Project Amplify, in collaboration with Accenture, to support start-ups across Asia focused on sustainability and social impact, with hands-on support and technologies, mentoring and collaboration opportunities.

“Microsoft believes start-ups from Asia have the potential to change the world,” said Martin. “In fact, they have already played a role in transforming Asia’s economy. Asian-born businesses have changed ecommerce, fintech, social media and gaming. They have given us super apps, which are changing the way we live. As the cloud platform of choice, we will continue to work with our partners and regional ecosystem to get technology and resources in the hands of start-up founders in Asia, to empower them to innovate and ultimately succeed.”