Ok, it was started by a former MS exec and funded by Gates... that's shitty, but Microsoft has lots of former employees and I'm sure Gates invests in lots of things. For all we know it was a family office investment that he wasn't even aware of... or the dude was a friend or something.
Microsoft doesn't have a stake in the company nor do they provide the company with any assistance..? Unless there's more to the story I think it's kind of a stretch to say that this is a Microsoft operation. According to Wikipedia they've actually _sued_ Microsoft.