M12, Microsoft's Venture Fund

At last week's #AccelerateTogether event, CVP and Global Head of M12 Michelle Gonzalez uncovered four themes reshaping the future of software. What stood out to us at M12 is how these shifts are already playing out across our portfolio: 🚀 Product engineers using AI to own the full build cycle are driving faster iterations in areas like dev tools and cloud infra 🤖 Early agent deployments are changing how startups think about ops efficiency and customer engagement 💸 The economics of software are evolving fast; we’re hearing real questions from founders about balancing comp with inference spend 🌐 Partnerships are becoming the unlock for scale, especially in enterprise AI adoption The bottom line for startups? The next wave of category leaders will be defined by how they embrace AI, rethink incentives, and partner smart. https://lnkd.in/e5EwE8Tp?

AI is rewriting the rules of marketing — and our portfolio company Typeface is leading the charge. This week, Microsoft for Startups featured Founder & CEO Abhay Parasnis in their Founder Friday Spotlight — and next week the conversation continues live. Join Typeface CMO Jason Ing and Ran Wei Baker of Microsoft for Startups for a discussion on where true differentiation comes from in an AI-driven marketing landscape, how CMOs can turn AI excitement into practical implementation, and what the future of advertising looks like. 🗓 Friday, Sept 26 ⏰ 1:00 PM ET | 10:00 AM PT Register to join the LinkedIn Live: https://lnkd.in/eQG6mvKz

Momentum builds when capital, founders, and innovation collide. At the Microsoft Bay Area Accelerate Together event, we connected with brilliant VCs and founders to explore how AI is reshaping the startup journey, from bold ideas to scaled companies. The conversations reinforced what we see every day at M12: with the right support, a good idea becomes a great company. We’re fired up to keep fueling what’s next 🚀 https://lnkd.in/etnbE7TT

🚀 Big news: M12 portfolio company RegScale has raised a $30M+ Series B to reshape how enterprises manage cyber GRC. As cyberattacks escalate and regulatory requirements grow more complex, compliance can no longer be a slow, manual process. With cyber threats rising and regulatory pressure increasing, organizations need security and compliance that move at the speed of business. RegScale’s AI-powered continuous controls monitoring platform is already delivering results: ✅  60% faster audit prep ✅  3–4x faster FedRAMP High authorizations ✅  Up to 80% greater accuracy ✅  10x staff efficiency gains This raise will accelerate RegScale’s expansion across highly regulated industries — from government and financial services to energy and utilities — where real-time compliance is mission-critical. We look forward to supporting Travis Howerton and the RegScale team as they expand into this next phase of growth! https://lnkd.in/gyveNjPt

We're thrilled to welcome the micro1 team to the M12 portfolio! micro1 partners with leading #AI labs to help teams find and manage top engineering talent for data labeling and training. As AI models scale, talent is becoming just as critical as compute. Data pipelines depend not just on infrastructure, but on the people building, labeling, and maintaining them. Congratulations to Ali Ansari and the micro1 team on your Series A. We’re looking forward to working with you and helping accelerate growth together. 🚀

🚨 The latest M12 Founders Feature is here! 🚨 This month, we spoke with Kylan Gibbs, co-founder of M12 portfolio company Inworld AI. In just a few years, Inworld scaled from startup to a $500M leader in consumer AI, powering next-gen gaming, media, and interactive experiences. At the core is their groundbreaking AI Runtime, which helps developers go from prototype to production in days and scale to millions of users with minimal code changes. In our feature, Kylan shares: 💡 How Inworld is transforming interactive entertainment 💡 Why consumer AI is the next frontier beyond chatbots 💡 His advice for founders building the next generation of applications Read the full conversation: https://lnkd.in/eg4Tdxvr

CISOs and CIOs have faced an impossible tradeoff: move fast with #AI, or keep data secure. That tradeoff ends today. M12 portfolio company Relyance AI launched the world’s first Data Defense Engineer — an AI-native breakthrough that continuously maps, monitors, and protects sensitive data at machine speed. And the early results? 1,660% jump in visibility in just 3 weeks for one customer. Proof that secure AI at scale is here — not out of reach. Read more in Help Net Security: https://lnkd.in/gfccTwMD

Kudos to M12, Microsoft's Venture Fund portfolio company d-Matrix on today's unveiling of JetStream, an input/output (I/O) card designed to deliver data center–scale AI inference. Learn more below about how this innovation is unlocking the next age of AI by enabling greater performance, efficiency, and scalability ⬇️ https://lnkd.in/eg_W-NcS

Scaling to production is where startups prove their strength. At M12, we see again and again that the magic moment comes not just from breakthrough technology, but from reducing friction, integrating seamlessly into workflows, and enabling teams to adopt with confidence. Michelle Gonzalez captures it perfectly: pilots are just the beginning. True impact comes when startups build systems that can scale, sustain, and deliver value at the enterprise level.

Congrats to our portfolio company Sola Security on their $35M Series A funding — fueling their mission to transform cybersecurity for the AI era and redefine how the toughest security challenges are solved. As M12 Managing Partner Todd Graham shared: "Sola is exactly the kind of company we love working with: a founding team with an extraordinary vision, a product that proves itself quickly, and a team that sees opportunity in every challenge." We’re excited to support Sola during this next chapter. https://lnkd.in/eSNm3R-x