Bala is CEO-in-Residence for Microsoft Accelerator, Ravi to be global director

Microsoft on Tuesday announced that Bala Girisaballa will be leading Microsoft Accelerator in India as CEO-in-Residence. Ravi Narayan will assume the role of global director at Microsoft Accelerator.

A global initiative built to empower entrepreneurs around the world, Microsoft Accelerator in India has graduated 95 startups so far in the last four years, and 167 startups in its extended portfolio. “Of the 95, about 84% of startups have received funding and nine startups have been acquired. Close to $177 million funding have been raised by these startups,” said Narayan, adding globally that over 500 startups have been graduated so far.

In his new role, Narayan will help Microsoft Accelerator in eight locations around the world to become market-ready, focused and accelerate these startups that have or will raise institutional funding from VCs. He will also focus on scaling the startup acceleration model through global partners.

Girisaballa, who was earlier with Zinnov as Partner and Practice Head helping MNC R&D companies, said he was excited about his new role. “In the last five years, startups have really grown a lot. Over a period of time, India has become the third largest ecosystem in the world for startups with 800 startups coming up every year. Our focus is exclusively on late-stage startups,” he said, adding that future plans include scaling up, which is focused on helping market-ready startups in growing traction and CoInnovate, which will serve as a platform for the startups and corporates to work together for growth.

“While early-stage startups are more into raising funds, late-stage startups focus on revenue traction and enabling success. We want to influence $40 million of pipeline creation for startups by connecting them with customers,” he added.