Microsoft announced a new Programme to help Indian Agritech Startups grow

Microsoft came out with its new programme on June 3, 2020 to help Agritech startups in India to build industry-specific solutions, scale, and grow with the help of its deep technology, business, and marketing resources.

The Microsoft Agritech Startups programme will provide Agritech Startups access to the latest technology and business enabled resources to help startups innovate and scale-up, according to a press release.

Sangeeta Bavi, Director, Startup Ecosystem, Microsoft India said, “Agritech startup innovations are addressing some of our key challenges connected to agriculture and food production. The Microsoft for Agritech Startups programme is among the early steps in our journey towards empowering these startups in India and transforming global agricultural practices”.

Microsoft Agritech Startups Programme Features

This programme will offer tech and business resources to Series C startups, which can boost their business with Azure benefits, technical support, marketing strategies, and new sale opportunities also help with Azure Marketplace, the company said in a statement.

Startups that already have enterprise-ready solutions can scale up swiftly with market strategies, unlimited technical support, and new sale opportunities. Companies that have plans to build digital agriculture solutions now have the opportunity to co-build customized solutions Azure FarmBeats with no new investments in deep data engineering.

Azure FarmBeats Benefits

Azure FarmBeats allows aggregation of agricultural data sets across providers and generates insights by building artificial intelligence and Machine Learning (ML) models which are based on fused datasets.

“Using Azure FarmBeats, startups can acquire, aggregate and process agricultural data and rapidly develop their own AI/ML models,” said the company.

At present, India has more than 450 Agritech sector startups which are growing at 25 per cent according to the Nasscom report. Agritech startups received more than 248 million funding in the first half of 2019 which is 300 per cent more than they received in 2018.

“With its strong focus on startups, advanced technology resources and a rapidly growing partner ecosystem, Microsoft is uniquely positioned to help Agritech startups build solutions, scale across global markets, and grow with industry-leading partnerships,” the statement said.

The aim is to bring start-ups, corporates, government bodies, industry bodies, investors together on one platform for learning and innovation said Microsoft in the statement.