ABCK-AmCham Kuwait in collaboration with Microsoft hosted a regional webinar on ‘Achieving Growth with Microsoft for Startups’. The virtual webinar was organized with the support of AmCham Abu Dhabi, AmCham Bahrain, AmCham Oman, and AmCham Qatar.
The webinar started off with opening remarks by Mr. Frank Belonus, the Chairman of the Board of ABCK-AmCham Kuwait, as he welcomed the participants and introduced Mr. Roberto Croci- Managing Director of Microsoft for Startups, Middle East & Africa.
Mr. Croci opened the discussion by talking about what startups need to succeed in the market and the Middle East startup ecosystem. “For us, there are 2 main things, the first being technology- as we are a technology-based company, we can help and support startups to build on the cloud and leverage other solutions and products that Microsoft has. We help startups build products that can scale with solid and reliable architecture. Second: Startups need access to costumers to close deals and be visible. This area connects with value, as we also help startups connect with investors and access to talent”. – Mr. Roberto Croci
Mr. Croci then spoke about how to build a “connected ecosystem”, starting with Incubators and Accelerators: where there are startups that are working with these players for access to technology and markets🡪Funders and Venture Capitals: in order to go through the startup’s portfolio and focus on the targets where they can add value as this will work to increase the valuation of the startups 🡪 Microsoft Partners (MSP, GSI, (i) CSPs) which can provide scale and provide access to different markets for startups🡪 Government and Public Sector: the ecosystem is mainly government led when it comes to startups, as they have seen that the economy in the GCC is turning from being oil based to knowledge based, which means that governments are building policies to support startups🡪 Microsoft (MSfs, OCP, SMC): which provides the startups with knowledge solutions🡪 Technology and Business upskilling (Cloud Society and MS Learn): there are regional initiatives that have been launched, and there will be more initiatives for Microsoft for startups when it comes to training and skilling around entrepreneurship and focusing on youth.
One major asset that Microsoft offers is their worldwide scale, as this offers global support for companies that wish to emerge into new regions/markets, they also offer customer sales/support which aid startups from being market-ready to be enterprise-ready. Mr. Croci spoke about Microsoft’s technical expertise that is offered to startups, which start with infrastructure and cloud, including advanced services like Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning. Microsoft helps startups to build solid architectures and optimizing the cost to integrate them with other solutions. He also mentioned that Microsoft’s program can introduce startups to venture capitals and mentorship programs in which companies have access to opportunities to grow.
Microsoft for Startups’ focus is on Business-to-Business (B2B) startups that have “traction”, as they are launching a program in August 2021, in which they will work with 15 startups in corporate engagement for 3 months with workshops, mentorships, and investor demo day. World-class mentors and experts will work with these 15 startups to make them more sellable to corporates and “market-ready”. For the long term they will have an initiative that will start with youth’s entrepreneurship, as the program will come with a layer of certifications provided by Microsoft; this will support the youth with employability and will help them learn different entrepreneurial skills.
Mr. Croci finalized the discussion by informing participants that during June 2021, Microsoft for Startups will launch a competition that will be done through ‘Growth X’. With these programs, there is added vision and real programs that can cover the different stages and cycles across startups to have a global impact in the local ecosystem. The program schedule for Microsoft Startups Global has the mission to help B2B Startups scale their business via technology enablement and access to the market. Some of the benefits of this program include USD$25,000 – USD$250,000 Cloud credits, enterprise licenses for github, PowerApps, Visual Studio & O365. They also will support those startups with co-marketing, as well as exposure to governments, corporates, and investors.
To conclude the event, Mr. Belonus thanked Mr. Croci for his input, as well as participants for their engagement. He also encouraged attendees to follow Microsoft for Startups to stay informed about their upcoming competition.
For more information, visit Microsoft for Startup’s website at https://startups.microsoft.com/en-us/, and follow us on social media at ABCK-AmCham Kuwait for more upcoming events.
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