Be The Partner That Enables Success Of Later-Stage Startups
Microsoft India
Brand | Media Relations | Start-Up Development
India’s startup ecosystem has become the third largest in the world, with over 4,000 startups and USD 5 billion invested in 2015 alone.
THE CHALLENGE
During the 2014 All India Accelerators & Incubators Meet, a key point of discussion was the lack of help available for later-stage startups in India. From their own experience, Microsoft felt that these startups needed greater support in terms of mentoring, technology and market access to scale up their business which was lacking in the ecosystem and decided to shift its focus towards them.
THE EXECUTION
From a media point of view, there remained the challenge of telling the growth and scaling story in a space overwhelmingly dominated by funding and valuation news. We conducted media engagements around major company events over a period of 12 months.
THE OUTCOME
The media engagements resulted in more than 65 large format stories across key mainlines, financials and startup publications in 8 target cities. It also helped build a strong brand for the startups – leading to increased business enquiries and opportunities for them and Microsoft.