HispanicBusiness

Microsoft on Monday announced a major expansion of its BizSpark outreach program to startups.

Since its founding three years ago, BizSpark has given more than 45,000 new companies access to the Redmond, Wash. giant's software and services and limited access to its Azure cloud-services program.

Under a new wrinkle knows as "BizSpark Plus," select startups will be granted far greater access to Azure -- up to $60,000 apiece per year.

"It's the right way to reach the startup community," Dan'l Lewin, Microsoft's top emissary in Silicon Valley, said in an interview.

Lewin said that to qualify for the enhanced program, startups must be referred by a network of angel investors and incubators, including Mountain View's Y

Combinator and 500 Startups and Boulder, Colo.-based TechStars. Eligible startups must be less than three years old, with under $1 million in annual revenues.

TechStars co-founder David Cohen said in a statement that access to the Azure platform will make it easy for startups to create web applications and services and deploy them to the cloud.

While Lewin wouldn't put an annual dollar value on how much the new program will cost Microsoft, he said there would be no limits on how many startups recommended by its network of referring investors can participate. "We believe in the long run, our success depends on their success," he said.