Microsoft Ventures, Microsoft’s venture-funding group, has been adding more companies to its investment portfolio over the last couple of months.
In May, Microsoft announced plans to create Microsoft Ventures, a small early-stage investment group targeting startups in the cloud, security and machine-learning markets. In October, Microsoft created a new site for its Ventures arm that listed 10 concerns in which it had invested to date. (At that time, Microsoft execs said Microsoft Ventures had invested in 13 companies, but three had not been publicly named.)
As of this week, the Microsoft Ventures site now lists 14 entities in which Microsoft has made investments of undisclosed amounts. The newest additions:
CloudSimple (May 2016): Next-generation private cloud as a service
Paxata (October 2016): Platform for business analytics
Zipwhip (October 2016): Business texting software-as-a-service (SaaS) provider for existing landlines, VOIP and toll free numbers
i3 (Israel IoT Innovation) Equity Partners (November 2016): Investor for early-stage investments in Israeli IoT startups
Yesterday, Israel Internet of Things Innovations and i3 Equity Partners consortium announced they’d established a new investment consortium in conjunction with Tel Aviv University to develop IoT technologies. In addition to Microsoft Ventures, consortium members include GE Ventures, HNA EcoTech, Qualcomm Ventures, and Tata.
These new Microsoft Ventures additions join the already-announced list of 10 Microsoft Ventures investment targets: Team8, Comfy, Rescale, Outreach, Helpshift, CrowdFlower, Layer, CognitiveScale, Kahoot, and Aqua.
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