Halifax-based Affinio is one of the first companies accepted into a new program offered by Microsoft in which the tech giant’s sales team helps to sell startups’ products.

TechCrunch, the respected Silicon Valley tech publication, said earlier this month that Microsoft has launched a new program called Microsoft for Startups, which brings technology and marketing expertise to startups. Most important, said TechCrunch, the program includes “a co-selling program that allows startups to piggyback on Microsoft’s existing sales force.”

The article said Affinio has already made a sale through Microsoft’s new program, and has 20 more potential clients in the pipeline with Microsoft for Startups. TechCrunch added that the Affinio management team plans to push more than 100 sales opportunities into the pipeline by the end of the first quarter.

By joining Microsoft for Startups, Affinio is deepening its relationship with the maker of such products as Windows, Office and Explorer. Affinio attended the Microsoft Accelerator program in Seattle in 2016 and has remained in touch with the company.

“The unique thing with this is that Microsoft has this down to a science — all the way down to the playbook,” Affinio CEO Tim Burke was quoted by TechCrunch as saying.

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Burke, CTO Stephen Hankinson and a few other co-founders started Affinio about five years ago as a company that could monitor social media data and present a visual analysis that would help users understand consumer intentions. In its first few years, the team largely targeted advertising agencies, and has since moved on to targeting major brands, especially in the consumer packaged goods and media sectors. The Affinio system can work with data collected by the client and also with social media, bringing machine learning and visualization platforms to help clients understand their markets.

TechCrunch said that Affinio has been quietly testing Microsoft for Startups for a few months. As part of the program, Microsoft gave Affinio a clear playbook to follow, as well as helping the Halifax company create collateral content (which is a collection of media used to support sales), case studies and video content.

Burke said that Microsoft didn’t just give him a checklist to follow but worked closely with Affinio to make sure the program was beneficial. “It’s amazing how the organization as a whole has bought in,” Burke told TechCrunch. “Everybody knows the goal and direction.”

In November, Affinio announced a US$9 million (C$11.4 million) funding round, led by Toronto-based Round13 Capital, a new investor in the company. The other participants in the round are Whitecap Venture Partners of Toronto and Halifax-based Build Ventures, both of which invested in Affinio previously.

The Series B funding came two years after Affinio raised a $4-million VC round from Whitecap, Build, New York-based Social Starts, New York-based BRaVeVentures, and several angel investors. Before that, Build backed the company in its $1.5-million seed round in 2013.

That means the company has raised upward of $15 million in five years, and Burke said the company hopes to raise its next round in mid-to-late 2019.