Microsoft has changed the name of its venture capital (VC) fund from Microsoft Ventures to M12, two years after its official launch.
The Microsoft Ventures name actually predates the VC arm by a few years, and it was used as an overarching term for Microsoft’s accelerator programs, which did include some seed-funding initiatives. That part of the company was renamed Microsoft ScaleUp when Microsoft Ventures was spun out into a venture funding firm, and it appears this has caused some confusion over the years. Indeed, Microsoft Ventures — as with most VC firms — takes equity in startups that it invests in, whereas Microsoft’s accelerator programs don’t.
