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In Foundries, Article, Portfolio News, Technologies

H&M, Microsoft, PVH Corp Collaborate in Circular Fashion Initiative

H&M, Target, PVH Corp, Microsoft, Waste Management and others have collaborated on CircularID, an initiative designed to promote circularity by creating a new standard for communicating information about fashion products. The project would provide access to information such as materials, origin, authenticity, price, style and recycling instructions that stay with goods throughout their life.

CircularID™ is a Digital Identity standard that enables products to consistently communicate and share information about themselves essential for identification and management of the products and materials in the circular economy.

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In Foundries, Article, San Francisco, Portfolio News

AI-Based Career Mentoring for the Masses

Personalized career development is no longer a perk for the privileged few at the top. An intelligent mentoring app called Ellen matches mentors and mentees from all levels of the organization. Launched by San Francisco-based NextPlay.ai, the Ellen app is popular with a growing number of major companies worldwide, including in the U.S. and Asia. NextPlay.ai was among the HR startups that recently participated in the SAP.iO Foundry San Francisco.

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In Article, San Francisco, Portfolio News

AI-Based Career Mentoring For The Masses: When People Talk, Innovation Happens

Personalized career development is no longer a perk for the privileged few at the top. An intelligent mentoring app called Ellen is matching mentors and mentees from all levels of the organization. Launched by San Francisco-based NextPlay.ai, Ellen is popular with a growing number of major companies worldwide, including the United States and Asia. Unlike traditional manual mentorship tools, the machine learning algorithm generates better matches at a massive scale by factoring in numerous, individualized parameters.

For companies, mentoring can boost succession planning, diversity and inclusion efforts, and employee retention. Employees at one organization were 25 percent more likely to strongly recommend working at their company after six months of participating in the program. Another customer identified a multimillion-dollar business opportunity after Ellen linked a mentee in product development with the director of sales.

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In Fund, Foundries, Article, Global

SAP.iO Continues to Extend Resources and Investment to Startups

In 2017, SAP.iO, an open innovation model enabling visionary startups to use the power of SAP data, APIs, platform technologies and new business models, launched its two components, the SAP.iO Fund, and SAP.iO Foundries. The SAP.iO Fund invests in external, early-stage enterprise software startups that enable SAP customers to realize the new, highly incremental value to investments in SAP solutions. The SAP.iO Foundries are SAP’s global network of top-tier startup programs, including accelerators that enable startups to build innovative software that delivers value for SAP customers.

Since its launch, SAP.iO Fund and Foundries have driven early stage startup innovation helping its customers win in their markets. To date, SAP.iO has over 125 startups in more than 8 locations across 25+ industries. Last year, SAP.iO Foundry launched a demo event for nine female-led startups in New York.

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In Article, Inclusiveness

Gentry Women in Tech Conference 2019

On June 20th, SAP.iO & SAP presented the Gentry Women in Tech Conference 2019, themed: INVESTING IN FUTURE LEADERS in Palo Alto. It brought together some of Silicon Valley’s leading VCs, C-Suite Executives, Founders, and Entrepreneurs. The conference spotlighted innovative and creative ways women in technology are forging their careers and fostering up-and-coming women in the tech space. The packed agenda was kicked off by Judith Williams, Head of People Sustainability and Chief Diversity and Inclusion Officer @SAP and emceed by Diane Dwyer, Emmy-Award winning journalist. Anita Sands, Board Member @Symantec, Service Now, and Pure Storage gave an impressive speech on what “being a women in tech” means and how important it is to ensure more equality by shaping a diverse future in tech. She also encouraged the audience to focus on the 5 “A”s (ASK, ADVERTISE, AMPLIFY, ADVOCATE and ASSERT), in other words and bottom line: “If you don’t ask you don’t get and who gets the credit does matter”.  

Next was a great fireside chat with Anna Brockway, President and Co-Founder @ Charish and an insightful panel with another group of inspiring leaders including Jennifer Pardini (Moderator), Sr. Editor @ Gentry, Keri Yen NG, former VP Quality/Regulatory/Clinical @Willow, Meredith Hoffer, Director of Marketing @Google Search, Robyn Sue Fisher, Founder & Chief Brrrista @ Smitten Ice Cream and Sarah Schaaf, Attorney and Founder @Headnote. Main takeaway was to “drop the rubber balls and keep on juggling the glass ones”.

The afternoon continued with a discussion on THE POWER OF NEGOTIATION with Rachel Forin, PhD, CEO @Terapore as well as Derek Blazensky, Partner @ The Pareto Group, followed by the BUILDING A PERSONAL BOARD panel moderated by Sherri Douville CEO @Medigram including Kara Egan, Principal @ Emergence Capital, Vanila Singh, MD, CMO @ The US Dept of HHS, and Elizabeth Vilardo, MD, CEO of Foundations @ Sutter Health Bay Area. THE MALE ALLIES panel including Steve Sordello, CFO @ LinkedIn, Don Heider, Executive Director @ Markkula Center for Applied Ethics @ Santa Clara University and Mylea Charvat, PhD Founder + CEO @ Savonix  moderated by Kristi Markkula Bowers, CEO @ Flyx Systems highlighted the importance of male allies and how to work hand in hand with men as mentors, collaborators and sponsors. 

The event concluded with a rooftop cocktail party after two fireside chats with Linda Yates, CEO Mach49 in conversation with Linda Grasso, Host @ SheSez Podcast, editor In Chief @ Ventura Boulevard and Michelle Zatlyn, COO + Co-Founder @ Cloudfare in conversation with Judith Williams, Head of People Sustainability and Chief Diversity and Inclusion Officer @SAP. The conference celebrated the second annual gentry women in tech issue brimming with carefully curated interviews with some of technology’s most fascinating rising stars.

In Foundries, Article, Paris

La deuxième promotion de SAP.iO Foundry Paris mentorée par quatre grands groupes

Un véritable tremplin commercial : voilà l’idée derrière la deuxième saison de la SAP.iO Foundry Paris, qui a débuté le 4 avril dernier. Huit startups spécialistes du retail et de l’expérience client se sont lancées dans une intense préparation de dix semaines dans le but de se faire une place dans la galaxie de services associés à l’écosystème de solutions de gestion d’entreprise SAP. “Nous souhaitons leur donner toutes les cartes pour qu’elles se développent sur le marché de SAP”, appuie Sébastien Gibier, directeur de SAP.iO Foundry Paris.

Pas…

In Article, Inclusiveness, Global

Capital Database for Women Entrepreneurs

We all know the numbers by now: women CEOs get only about 2.3 percent of all venture capital. At Inc., we want to change that equation. There are now dozens of venture funds seeking out women-led businesses, one of those is SAP.iO. The only problem? There’s never been an easy way to figure out who these VCs are and what they’re looking for. With the Fundery, you can discover who’s looking to invest in female CEOs and diverse founding teams, in specific industries, geographical areas, and funding stages.

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In Foundries, Article, Berlin

SAP.io Foundry: Softwarekonzern stärkt Kontakt zu Gründerinnen

Um das eigene Produktangebot zu erweitern, setzt der Walldorfer Software-Entwickler auf Kontakte zu Start-ups. So organisieren mehrere internationale Förderprogramme des Konzerns jeweils für drei Monate Workshops und Mentoren-Treffen für junge internationale Unternehmen, die sich mit Software- und Tech-Innovationen befassen. Seit einer Woche arbeitet die sogenannte SAP.io-Foundry in Berlin mit sechs Start-ups, die speziell für Vielseitigkeit im Gründerteam stehen, wie der Konzern heute bekannt gab.
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In Fund, Foundries, Press, Article, Tokyo

SAP to launch its first Asian startup incubator in Japan

SAP, one of the world’s biggest enterprise software companies, is about to launch its first startup accelerator in Asia and has picked Japan for its first foothold in the region. While many large corporations see uprising startups as threats, SAP is developing a unique model that works for customers, the startups and itself.

The Japan accelerator will start in July. The application process for the Japanese program has closed, and there are more than 50 applications, from which SAP will select six to eight startups for the program.

Ram Jambunathan, managing director at SAP.iO, the Germany-based technology company’s business unit focused on incubating innovation, recently talked to the Nikkei Asian Review about what startups they seek in Japan and SAP’s ambitious game plan in Asia.

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In Portfolio News, Foundries, Article, Paris

SAP.iO and 25 Startups at Viva Technology Paris — Together a Winning Combination for Innovation

Innovation is a fundamental part of our DNA at SAP. On May 16–18 at Viva Technology in Paris, “the world’s rendezvous for startups & leaders”, SAP will once again demonstrate its bona fides as a world-wide leader for innovation, when we host 25 startups from the SAP.iO Fund and Foundry portfolios, of which 8 are international.

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In Article, Inclusiveness, Global, Portfolio News

Women-Owned Mobile Startup Leads Microlearning Revolution

Serial entrepreneur, So-Young Kang, is reinventing how people learn, with a personalized, mobile experience. Lightyears ahead of yesterday’s content delivery training, the Gnowbe microlearning mobile platform represents Kang’s life work to make learning easy – for as many people as possible. Instead of participant headcounts or feedback scores, Gnowbe measures skills development based on someone’s demonstrable capabilities before and after training. One customer saw improvements of almost 30 percent in the sales behaviors of employees who participated in microlearning modules on Gnowbe.

Gnowbe is among the HR startups participating in the SAP.iO Foundry San Francisco, an accelerator for early-stage enterprise tech companies. Besides mobile microlearning, these startups are using AI-enabled recruiting, and development tools based on behavioral science.

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In Inclusiveness, New York, Article

New York on Tech Announces Judges for the 2019 Innovators & Disruptors Awards

Sallie Jian, Program Manager, SAP.iO chosen as judge for the 2019 Innovators & Disruptors Awards. The Innovators and Disruptors Awards & Ceremony will celebrate the outstanding achievements of 20 leaders in technology and 5 Ultimate Innovators and Disruptors in the field. Award winners are diverse founders and professionals from some of the world’s most recognized companies and fastest growing startups who are leaving a measurable impact on the industry and in their respective fields of work.

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