Startups Bangalore-bound for the Microsoft BizSpark Challenge National Finals

BANGALORE, India, June 5, 2013 /PRNewswire/ --

A talented convoy of India's brightest startups will assemble in Bangalore on Friday, June 7, eager to be the 2013 winner of the Microsoft BizSpark India Startup Challenge - an annual platform celebrating entrepreneurial excellence across the country by helping fast-track the success of young startups with software, support and visibility, providing a platform for the best startups in India to gain national recognition. Winning startups across Regions will be rewarded with combined cash grants of $ 70,000 as well as $2 million worth of non-cash prizes. One national winner and two runners-up will also receive product prizes and design branding packages to help further achieve their business plans.

The teams travelling to Bangalore have already won in their first-of-a-kind regional finals over the last few weeks, and are now set to face each other in the much anticipated Grand Finale.  Now in its third year, the BizSpark India Startup Challenge has expanded to represent a bigger and more diverse competition, with winners from 10 regional finals held in Hyderabad, Kolkata, Cochin, New Delhi, Pune, Chennai, Ahmedabad, Mumbai, Coimbatore and Bangalore forming the pool for the final line-up.

Microsoft's Accelerator facility in Bangalore will play venue to the national finale. Rajinish Menon, Microsoft India's Director of ISV and Cloud Strategy, expressing the collective excitement, said, "The national finals represent the culmination of hard work, application and achievement that these startups have showcased throughout a high-caliber competition.  This year's addition of regional finals to compose the selection of grand finalists on show in Bangalore has further added to the quality of entries and has demonstrated how local innovation and entrepreneurship is in good health in these cities."

The finals follow in the footsteps of last year's event in Bangalore which saw Aurus Networks picking up the grand prize in the Cloud Category, and NowFloats Technologies as the winner under the Mobility category. Both startups have gone on to expand their businesses since then.

Those who are interested in witnessing the excitement at the National Finals, please visit and register at http://www.microsoft.com/india/bizsparkstartupchallenge/

About BizSpark

The Microsoft BizSpark Program has helped more than 2,725 Indian start-up entrepreneurs by providing strong grounds to stand, grow and improve their functioning. The idea behind Bizspark is to fast-track the success of young startups with software, support and visibility. Selected start-up businesses receive business development and technical training at highly subsidized or no costs. More information about the Bizspark Program is available at  http://www.microsoft.com/bizspark

About Microsoft India

Founded in 1975, Microsoft (NASDAQ "MSFT") is the worldwide leader in software for personal and business computing. The company offers a wide range of products and services designed to empower people through great software - at any time, any place and on any device. Microsoft Corporation (India) Private Ltd is a subsidiary of Microsoft Corporation, USA. It has had a presence in India since 1990 and currently has offices in nine cities - Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Chennai, Hyderabad, Kochi, Kolkata, Mumbai, New Delhi and Pune.

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