I’ve written before about the Kinect Accelerator  and Microsoft Accelerator . On Monday, the Microsoft Accelerator for Windows Azure companies were announced. The program begins this week and ends in mid-January. Since the program is powered by TechStars, it’ll follow the standard TechStars timeline, finishing up with a demo day at the end of the program.

This is a global class. The companies included in this group hail from from Australia, Germany, San Diego, San Francisco and Los Angeles to join the program in Seattle. I’m psyched to see what these companies build for and on top of Microsoft Azure.

Meet the ten Microsoft Accelerator for Windows Azure companies that made the cut:

                 
                 
     

Follow the program on Twitter: @bizspark  and @windowsazure .