SAP today announced the graduation of 16 startups from the second cohort of its accelerator program, SAP Startup Studio. The announcement was made at SAP Startup Social event. Six of these startups are developing co-innovation products with SAP, while a few others are building on the SAP Leonardo platform which combines emerging technologies like artificial intelligence, machine learning, advanced analytics and blockchain to solve specific business problems.
SAP Startup Studio, is a two-year old startup accelerator program which provides a one-year end-to-end engagement platform for startups to accelerate their growth journey. Graduating startups will continue to work with SAP as an alumni member and receive support from the program to scale further. This year, the cohort also saw an increased interest from the venture capital community. Skillate, an early stage startup which entered the program with just three founders, went on to raise funds and grow their team to 14 members over the year. Another successful startup is Entropik Tech which closed a Pre-series A round of $1.1 Million to scale its AI-based platform and launch more IP-based products and expand its footprint.
Speaking at the SAP Startup Social event today Dilipkumar Khandelwal, President – SAP HANA Enterprise Cloud, SAP SE & Managing Director, SAP Labs India said, “The Startup Studio perfectly fits into our philosophy of fostering entrepreneurship and promoting innovation for growth and development. We are tirelessly working to nurture and build a strong startup ecosystem in India by providing best in class infrastructure, expert mentorship and networking opportunities startups need to become successful. As part of that effort, the Startup Social is meant to give these startups direct access to meaningfully engage with the leading ecosystem think tanks and the investor community in India.”
Monis Khan, Co-Founder & CEO, Datoin said, “SAP Startup Studio gave us an excellent platform during our growth stage. We have gained significantly by being a part of the SAP’s startup accelerator program.”
Ranjankumar, Founder & CEO, Entropik Tech said, “Partnering with SAP provided us a platform to accelerate our growth. In the one year of incubation we had access to SAP’s technology mentors, sharpened our go to market strategy and benefited through the multiple connects and learnings from the startup ecosystem that SAP Startup Studio facilitated.”
SAP Startup Social saw a line-up of eminent speakers like Binny Bansal, Co-founder & CEO, Flipkart, Jitendra Gupta, MD PayU India, Peter Vesterbacka, who built Angry Birds franchise amongst others. The dignitaries addressed how startups are scaling up through effective synergies with the enterprises and working on design led innovations for the world. Additionally, global innovation specialist ‘Get in the Ring’ invited startups to their Enterprise Challenge to pitch their idea to a host of specialized judges and business leaders giving entrepreneurs the opportunity to practice their pitch, gain valuable feedback from mentors and connect with peers.
The event this year saw over 600 ecosystem participants, 50 investors and 32 CIOs in attendance. Launched in 2016, SAP Startup Social, the largest corporate startup accelerator driven summit in India is an annual commune for the various collaborators within the startup ecosystem in India.
