M12 - Microsoft’s Venture Fund partners with Women in Cloud on #empowHERaccess initiative

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M12 - Microsofts Venture Fund partners with
Women in Cloud on empowHERaccess initiative
1888PressRelease - M12- Microsofts Venture Fund,
today announced the extension of partnership with
Women in Cloud, an economic development
organization advancing gender inclusion in
technology. Redmond, Washington M12-
Microsofts Venture Fund, today announced the
extension of partnership with Women in Cloud, an
economic development organization advancing
gender inclusion in technology. The partnership
enables the empowHERaccess initiative, an annual
digital advocacy campaign to accelerate economic
access for women. This year, the campaign
celebrates stories of pivots and perseverance in
response to the COVID-19 pandemic. According to
the Bureau of Labor Statistics, more than 2.2
million women are unemployed globally as a result
of the pandemic. A report from Kaspersky
published in January found that roughly half of
the 6,500 women surveyed believe the pandemic has
hurt them professionally. The empowHERaccess
campaign seeks to raise awareness of the outsized
impact of COVID-19 on women, promote stories of
womens professional resilienceespecially in
technology entrepreneurshipand accelerate
economic recovery. There are four pillars to the
empowHERaccess campaign A COVID-19 impact
report measuring the impact of the COVID-19
pandemic on women technology entrepreneurs
globally The empowHERaccess Awards,
recognizing the work of individuals to provide
stability and opportunity to women in technology
over the course of the pandemic Champion
spotlights, a digital celebration of mentors,
advisors, executives, influencers, and
entrepreneurs increasing economic access in
tech A collective action pledge for leading
global companies to commit to unlocking
opportunity through procurement and investment
vehicles
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Women in Cloud is developing the next generation
of women entrepreneurs and leaders to advance
gender parity in cloud computing and the
technology industry at large. M12 is committed to
a more inclusive VC and startup ecosystem, and
has twice hosted the Female Founders Competition,
in addition to partnership efforts with Women in
Cloud, All Raise, and Project W. Beyond the
emplowHERaccess initiative, M12 team members
will support Women in Cloud pitch competitions
and connect with women B2B SaaS founders early in
their company lifecycle. M12 portfolio companies
will have access to promotional opportunities for
their technology on the Women in Cloud Solution
Marketplace and customer introductions via the
Women in Cloud Fortune 100 Lunch Learn
Series. Were thrilled to continue our work
with Women in Cloud, and expand our collaboration
to the empowHERaccess initiative, said M12
General Manager and Managing Director Tamara
Steffens. Women in Cloud has consistently
supported women founders building enterprise
technology solutions with their cloud
accelerator. This partnership will provide new
opportunities for our team to connect with and
support those incredible female
founders. Were thankful for M12s consistent
support over the past several years and are
excited to launch a great collaboration with the
empowHERaccess advocacy campaign, said Chaitra
Vedullapalli, Co-founder and President, Women in
Cloud. We have big plans to meaningfully move
the needle on economic access for women in
technology, and Im looking forward to our
continued partnership. About Women in
Cloud Women in Cloud is a community-led economic
development organization taking action to
generate 1B in net new global economic access
for women entrepreneurs by 2030 through
partnerships with corporations, community
leaders, and policymakers. Women in Cloud is
built on the following core values Inclusion,
Collective Action, and Economic Access to help
contribute to the UN 2030 Sustainable Development
Goals. For further information visit
womenincloud.com or contact vibhac ( _at_ )
womenincloud dot com