Microsoft Corp. wants a slice of the early stage cloud startup pie and announced Monday a new venture arm that will do exactly that.

Called Microsoft Ventures, the formalized initiative will be focused on early stage startups that are developing products and services that complement Azure infrastructure, building new business Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) applications, promoting more personal computing by enriching the Windows and HoloLens ecosystems, new disruptive enterprise, consumer productivity, and communication products around Office 365.

Put more simply, Microsoft wants to financially support companies that are building products that work with Microsoft’s existing products, which in turn would boost sales and usage of those platforms and services.

Microsoft’s Corporate Vice President (Microsoft Ventures) Nagraj Kashyap, who previously led Qualcomm’s venture capital arm for 12 years, is heading the new group, which will also see a change in previous investment initiatives, including what was previously known as Microsoft Ventures (a name used by a team in Microsoft’s Developer Evangelism group) now becoming Microsoft Accelerator, a “startup enablement program” that provides early-stage firms with business consulting and access to the company’s technology; Microsoft Ventures will then sit in the middle between the software and cloud services provider’s startup accelerator initiatives and Microsoft’s larger investments and acquisitions.

“There are often questions around corporate venture programs versus venture capital firms, and whether or not they are at odds or create disadvantages for entrepreneurs,” Kashyap said in a blog post. “In our case, we are driven by the desire to help early stage companies take advantage of Microsoft’s financial, technical and GTM resources.”

“While we have aspirations to have global impact in new and different ways, we don’t believe we need a large team to do it. In fact, we feel pretty firmly that true advancement will require the efforts of many organizations within Microsoft being smart and focused in what they do best and collectively work to help startups scale.”

Growing trend

Perhaps the only surprising thing about the announcement is that Microsoft hadn’t announced a venture fund dedicated to early stage startups before.

Venture arms are a growing trend for all sorts of companies in 2016, not just tech ones, with even the likes of 7-Eleven, Inc. and JetBlue Airways Corp. having venture arms, according to Siliconbeat.

Microsoft’s decision to enter the space is unquestionably welcomed, and a combination of capital, along with access to consulting and technology services will immediately make them a popular potential partner for companies who use Microsoft services and are looking to raise funds.

Image credit: Ben Frankse/ Wikipedia/ GFDL