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In Press, Global

GCV Powerlist 2020: Ram Jambunathan

Ram Jambunathan has been leading SAP.iO, the corporate venture capital (CVC) subsidiary of Germany-based enterprise software producer SAP, as senior vice-president (SVP) and managing director (MD) since the unit was formed in July 2016.

Jambunathan additionally added the head of corporate strategy role in October 2019 at the parent firm. He said: “As head of corporate strategy I lead a team responsible for developing and aligning long-term strategy across various SAP organisational – board – areas, including cloud and application strategy, go-to-market strategy, technology and SAP’s lines of business.

“The team combines both a deep understanding of enterprise software with a structured approach to problem-solving that drives unique insights and an ability to help ‘see around corners’. Our understanding of where adjacent opportunities and disruption may come is informed by many sources, including the startup ecosystem, and particularly through SAP.iO, SAP’s strategic business unit focused on accelerating innovations and pathfinding new areas relevant to SAP and its customers.

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In Foundries, Tel Aviv, Press Release, Portfolio News

TVPage Inserts Salespeople into E-Commerce Storefronts with Its Ambassador Storefronts App, Now Available for Purchase on SAP App Center

 TVPage, the company that powers virtual brand ambassador storefronts for e-commerce, today announces that its Ambassador Storefronts application is now available for purchase on SAP App Center, the digital marketplace for SAP partner offerings.

TVPage’s Ambassador Storefronts integrates with SAP Commerce Cloud to enable online stores powered by SAP technology to launch e-commerce virtual ambassador storefronts. Brands using the new integration can transform sales teams into ambassadors to sell online through personalized virtual storefronts using shoppable video, product collections and live events to drive new revenue, traffic and extended consumer engagement.

The Ambassador Storefronts app empowers subject matter experts, in-store sales associates, influencers, and savvy consumers to promote products to social audiences and sell online. TVPage enables brands to engage with consumers more personally across digital channels with contactless guided shopping.

TVPage recently graduated from the SAP.iO Foundry Tel Aviv program for early-stage companies. TVPage’s participation in the program resulted in TVPage’s integration with SAP technology, addressing the growing need for stronger digital channels in a post-COVID-19 e-commerce world. Brands in North America and Europe across beauty, lifestyle, food and beverage, electronics, sports, and more turn to TVPage’s Ambassador Storefronts app to increase revenue and optimize the consumer path to purchase online.

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In Foundries, Podcast

#ZukunftsReady No. 3: Alexa Gorman

Alexa Gorman ist seit 1999 bei SAP und arbeitet dort seit Jahren eng mit Startups zusammen. Ihre Sicht auf das Startup-Ökosystem in Deutschland, den Ansatz von SAP, der „Next Partner Generation“ und welche Gedanken sich Corporates machen sollten, um erfolgreich mit Startups zusammenarbeiten, hört ihr in diesem Podcast.

In Fund, Press, Portfolio News

Hasura Raises $25M in Series B Funding

Hasura, a San Francisco, CA-based data access infrastructure company, raised $25m in series B funding.

The round, which brought the total raised to $36.5m, was led by Lightspeed Venture Partners with participation from existing investors Vertex Ventures US, Nexus Venture Partners, Strive VC and SAP.iO Fund and new angel investors including John Thomspon, the current chairman of Microsoft.

The company is using the funding to accelerate its hiring and investment in its open source and commercial product development to support its millions of users.

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In Press Release, Portfolio News, Foundries, New York

VNTANA Automated 3D CMS Now Available for Trial and Purchase on SAP® App Center

VNTANA announced that its Automated 3D CMS is now available for trial and online purchase on SAP® App Center, the digital marketplace for SAP partner offerings. The company’s Automated 3D CMS integrates with SAP Commerce Cloud and delivers high quality 3D web and Augmented Reality (AR) viewer to customers.

“COVID-19 completely altered the way we interact with the world. Overnight every retailer turned into a direct-to-consumer brand whether their digital channels were ready or not,“ said VNTANA co-founder and CEO Ashley Crowder. “To capitalize on the urgent need, VNTANA’s Automated 3D CMS allows companies to take existing design files and instantly create 3D web and AR experiences while enabling global collaboration through a cloud content management system—an experience that used to take days of manual work to accomplish.”

VNTANA’s Automated 3D CMS is unifying 3D digital content across organizations by providing three key features:

  • Optimization and conversion to the needed file types for web and AR, a process that used to take days of manual work by 3D artists, but now takes minutes with VNTANA’s software, which is compatible with Browzwaer, Clo, Optitext, Roman’s CAD, and other 3D design software
  • Digital Asset Management to keep track of thousands of 3D models at scale
  • Team collaboration tools to easily share, make comments, and QA 3D models with a global team

At SAP App Center, businesses can discover approximately 1,600 innovative partner solutions that integrate with and extend SAP solutions. There, customers can find the SAP-validated partner apps they need to grow their business. And for each purchase made on SAP App Center, SAP will plant a tree. Find, try, and buy SAP partner solutions digitally at http://www.sapappcenter.com.

VNTANA is part of SAP.iO, SAP’s strategic business unit to incubate startup innovation and drive new business models for SAP. Through the SAP.iO Fund & Foundries, we helps the next wave of enterprise software innovation build products, find customers and change industries by investing in and accelerating startup innovation. The SAP.iO Fund invests in breakthrough, pathfinding early-stage (Seed to Series A) enterprise software startups who are first to capitalize on emerging trends with potential to unlock significant value for SAP and its customers. The SAP.iO Foundries are SAP’s global network of equity-free startup accelerators that help promising startups integrate with SAP solutions and accelerate their entry into a curated, inclusive ecosystem whose offerings can be easily accessed and deployed by SAP customers.

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In Foundries, Article, Berlin, COVID-19

SAP Boosts Industry-Wide Innovation with Startup Partnerships

The COVID-19 pandemic is an extreme test in business agility, particularly across some of the hardest hit industries like healthcare, supermarkets, and manufacturing. Iristrace, a European-based startup, has developed a cloud-based platform that one hospital in Spain is testing to provide better patient care regardless of unpredictable demands.

Healthcare providers can use the COVID Patient Record Management mobile app to monitor real-time data about everything from hospital bed capacity by room to what equipment each patient is being treated with, and their vital signs.

“The algorithm helps simplify decisions for more informed and effective conversations about next steps,” said André Kingham, chairman of Iristrace. “Like most organizations, hospitals can’t easily rework IT systems to add new protocols. Our cloud-based solution allows the hospital to quickly evolve protocols and cascade compliance into patient care without IT expertise.”

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In Foundries, Article, San Francisco, Portfolio News, Network & Spend Management

Jet-Set Offset Swaps Your Frequent Flyer Guilt for Sustainable Air Travel

The air travel industry is waking up to a post-pandemic world filled with people who have a heightened awareness of climate change and sustainability. The entrepreneurs behind Jet-Set Offset are turning these concerns into action for both consumers and businesses.

Using the startup’s carbon-based offsetting tool, companies can donate one cent for every air mile flown by employees to environmental non-profit organizations.

“Individuals and companies are much more mindful that travel and commuting are a big part of their carbon footprint and need to be incorporated into their sustainability planning and actions,” said Anna Ford, co-founder and chief executive officer (CEO) of Jet-Set Offset. “Remote working has brought people together in more authentic ways, increasing demands to align personal values such as sustainability with working norms, including travel.”

Realistic Strategy for Sustainable Travel

Functioning like a fundraising tool for non-profit and charitable organizations that focus on sustainability, Jet-Set Offset’s mileage-based donations are tax-deductible and backed by a realistic business-oriented strategy. During its first year in business, thousands of Jet-Set Offset consumers made donations to a range of non-profits. These organizations offer products, education, and advocacy in areas such as clean transportation, renewable energy, land and wildlife conservation, reforestation, and green buildings. The startup’s next target market is enterprises.

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In Article, New York, Portfolio News, Foundries

Why We Put 137 People on Our Cover

2020 has been a tough year for everyone. To find new success on the other side of this crisis, we must work together.

Mustafa Nuur was born in Somalia but fled after terrorists killed his entrepreneurial father. He eventually settled in Lancaster, Pa., where he launched a startup called Bridge. It hosts cross-cultural experiences — ­dinners, gatherings, and so on — so that immigrants, refugees, and locals can better understand each other. “There’s nothing that can replace sitting across from someone who’s different from you and hearing their story,” he tells me.

But something would have to replace it, of course. When COVID-19 swept through America, sitting across from someone wasn’t an option. Nuur was scared. Then he had an idea. The immigrants and refugees he works with could become essential workers, helping homebound residents. For example, he has a Syrian refugee family who, just days before the lockdown, hosted a dinner in their home. One attendee was an elderly woman who lives alone. When the lockdown began, the family began delivering this woman’s groceries, running her errands, and calling daily at 6 p.m. to check in.

“It really made me think about how life should be every day,” Nuur says. “We should be having these relationships.”

I agree. And I think we can get there.

I have the privilege of meeting many entrepreneurs, which means I also witness their great collective irony. Even during good times, entrepreneurship feels lonely. We have chosen a path of self-determination, which can be maddening and isolating. And yet, here’s the crazy thing: We all deal with the same problems. Everyone has impostor syndrome. Everyone wrestles with management, or finances, or plans gone awry. We are alone together.

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In Foundries, Article, New York, Portfolio News, ERP & Finance

S/4HANA helps Queen of Raw improve textile sustainability

Queen of Raw’s S/4HANA-based textile marketplace app is helping suppliers of the fashion industry reduce waste by keeping unused inventory out of landfills.

SAP put a stake in the ground for sustainability when it debuted its Climate 21 initiative.

The initiative, which was unveiled at Sapphire Now Reimagined in May, provides businesses with resources to build applications on SAP S/4HANA, a next-gen ERP, and SAP C/4HANA, a customer experience and e-commerce platform, that can capture and use data to further global sustainability goals.

One of Climate 21’s target areas is the retail industry. Retailers can use SAP technology to not only become more environmentally responsible, but to also derive some of the economic benefits that go along with sustainable practices, such as waste reduction and supply chain improvements.

Queen of Raw, a textile marketplace in New York, was one of the first businesses to take advantage of the program, launching the Unused Inventory Onboarding and Sales Integration app, a global textile sustainability application based on SAP S/4HANA, in August.

Waste, inefficiency in textile supply chain

Waste is a significant problem for the textile industry, making it a perfect target for sustainability efforts, said Stephanie Benedetto, co-founder and CEO of Queen of Raw.

In 2014, Benedetto, an attorney who came from a family with deep roots in the textile industry, teamed up with Phil Derasmo, a technologist in the financial industry, to find solutions to the textile sustainability and waste problem.

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In Blog, COVID-19

Startup Boosts Industry-Wide Business Agility

The COVID-19 pandemic is an extreme test in business agility, particularly across some of the hardest hit industries like healthcare, supermarkets, and manufacturing. Iristrace, a European-based startup, has developed a cloud-based platform that one hospital in Spain is testing to provide better patient care regardless of unpredictable demands.

Healthcare providers can use the COVID Patient Record Management mobile app to monitor real-time data about everything from hospital bed capacity by room, to what equipment each patient is being treated with, and their vital signs.

“The algorithm helps simplify decisions for more informed and effective conversations about next steps,” said André Kingham, chairman of Iristrace. “Like most organizations, hospitals can’t easily rework IT systems to add new protocols. Our cloud-based solution allows the hospital to quickly evolve protocols and cascade compliance into patient care without IT expertise.”

Save time, reduce mistakes, improve patient care

Physicians, nurses, and other healthcare practitioners on the front lines can rely on the mobile app for continuity of daily patient care. Whether they are at the patient’s bedside or behind the scenes with testing and research, providers can use the app to reliably capture and analyze relevant information. This can speed up hospital admissions and patient transfers for surgery, and support safer handovers during shift changes along with better release decisions.

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In Article, Portfolio News

Outgage is now on the SAP App Center

Your favorite direct mail experts are now available on the SAP App Center!

If there’s anything we love more than direct mail, its partnerships with great people. 

Outgage recently became available on the SAP App Center, the enterprise marketplace where customers and partners are brought together on one simple, global online platform. Through the App Center, customers can discover and utilize SAP-validated partner applications that are built on or extend their existing SAP technology and solutions. 

Outgage for SAP Marketing Cloud enables you to optimize Direct Mail experiences and gets your audience to engage more than ever before. You can now link SAP marketing campaigns with Outgage campaigns, synchronize contacts and leads, and track your campaign results in one seamless, easy-to-use platform. 

Thank you to our fabulous partners at SAP and, of course, everyone on our hardworking team who made this happen. 

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In Article, Portfolio News

SAP Startup Spotlight: AiVidens

SAP invests in a lot of startups, and it’s sometimes hard to keep track of all of them. E-3 Magazine has selected the most interesting startups to showcase in our SAP Startup Spotlight Series. In this article, we will take a look at AiVidens.

Edouard Beauvois is co-founder and CEO of AiVidens. For more than 20 years, Edouard had gained international experience in building, implementing, selling and marketing software dedicated to finance. Passionate about artificial intelligence, he decided to put his experience to good use to help companies seeking optimization and innovation. That is why together with two friends, he recently co-founded AiVidens, a startup helping companies maximizing the use of their data in order to optimize their working capital. In this interview, he talks about what AiVidens has to offer and what comes next for the company.

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In Article, Portfolio News, Service Industries

Swap Your Frequent Flyer Guilt For Sustainable Air Travel

The air travel industry is waking up to a post-pandemic world filled with people who have a heightened awareness of climate change and sustainability. The entrepreneurs behind Jet-Set Offset are turning these concerns into action for both consumers and businesses. Using the startup’s carbon-based offsetting tool, companies can donate one cent for every air mile flown by employees to environmental non-profit organizations.

Read More…

In Article, Portfolio News

SAP and Adverity Optimize Paid Search with SAP Data Warehouse Cloud

SAP’s Global Marketing department runs digital campaigns in regions around the world. One of the campaigns they’re driving is Paid Search. To improve the performance and lower spending, the team works to optimize SAP landing pages for search keywords.

To get all the information in a user-friendly and visual dashboard, SAP partnered with Adverity, an expert in data-driven marketing. Adverity used their app to blend live data sources and historical data before connecting to SAP Data Warehouse Cloud and creating a dashboard in SAP Analytics Cloud.

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