LONDON, UK – 16 December, 2011 – Springboard, the 13-week accelerator boot-camp programme, today announced an early Christmas present for start-ups who apply to the Springboard London programme - a virtual goodie bag.

With support from Microsoft, SendGrid, Twilio, Google, FreeAgent and Pivotal Tracker, Springboard has created a virtual goodie bag worth over £350 for any start-up who makes an application for the Springboard London programme, which starts in early 2012.

In addition, start-ups selected to participate in the Springboard programmes both in London and Cambridge will get additional services from a number of these companies. Microsoft, for example, has generously offered £40,000 of free cloud hosting over two years to each Springboard team.

“Springboard regularly receives offers from supportive technology businesses to help the teams who participate in the Springboard programmes,” said Jon Bradford, MD for Springboard. “However, there are many start-ups who could benefit from support from these businesses and we’re grateful for their generous offers to help any team that applies to Springboard.”

"Entrepreneurship is a critical driver of economic growth, at Microsoft we support entrepreneurs around the world in every way we can," said Cliff Reeves, a General Manager in Microsoft's Emerging Business team. "That includes working with proven startup accelerators like Springboard to ensure that their high-potential startups get friction-free access to our best technology as well as our ecosystem of partners worldwide."

The deadline for entrepreneurs to compete for one of ten places on the programme in 29 January, 2012. To apply for a place on Springboard London visit Springboard