by Angela Guess

Taylor Soper reports in GeekWire, “Microsoft Ventures today announced its third batch of Seattle Accelerator startups that are focusing on machine learning and data science. Microsoft’s accelerator in Seattle first launched in 2014 with a cohort of home automation startups. Last year, it welcomed ‘digital work’ companies for its second batch. Now, the third cohort is all about cognitive technologies. Microsoft cited a Deloitte study that noted $1 billion of venture capital invested in machine learning and data science over the past two years. Microsoft spent the past several months on a cross-country tour across 12 cities in the U.S. and Canada to select the 10 new startups for its third Seattle accelerator class. Companies from more than 50 countries applied to be in the program.”

Soper continues, “For the next four months, each company in the accelerator will get a helping hand from Microsoft experts as well as extra perks like access to Azure cloud services and a $25,000 grant. The entrepreneurs will pitch their startups at a Demo Day in June. Microsoft Ventures helps the Redmond company invest in early-stage startups and run accelerator programs around the world. Microsoft recently tapped former Qualcomm Ventures leader Nagraj Kashyap to run its own startup investment program. Here are the 10 new startups, with descriptions from Microsoft.”

Read about the ten companies here.

photo credit: Microsoft Ventures