From the outside, M12’s mission likely seems simple to most: Invest money from the second-most valuable technology company in the world, put its monstrous go-to-market machine behind said investment, and then create a unicorn.
In reality, Microsoft’s venture arm must navigate complexities and obstacles not seen by traditional venture firms—and even many corporate venture arms—as it looks to drive returns back to the Redmond, Washington-based tech giant. At the same time, M12 must build the vast ecosystem Microsoft plays in, such as cloud, AI, business applications, infrastructure, security and deep technologies, and support the entrepreneurs it invests in.
“Over the past five years, M12 has established the expertise, playbook and growth engine to meaningfully accelerate the success of our portfolio companies,” said Michelle Gonzalez, corporate vice president and global head of M12. “We have a unique opportunity to support startups with global ambitions through Microsoft’s scale.”
The fund
M12 invests from a single fund that is replenished by Microsoft—the fund’s sole limited partner—off the company’s balance sheet. M12 does not release any details on how much it has invested since being founded in 2016 or the size of the fund currently, but just as the venture world has grown in the last five years, M12 also has increased the size and speed at which it makes investments, according to Crunchbase data.
In 2016, M12 made 15 investments in its first year as a fund, according...
Read Full Story: https://news.crunchbase.com/news/under-the-hood-microsofts-m12-quickens-investment-pace/
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