Featured Archives • SAP.iO

Corinna Schmidt In Foundries, Munich, Featured, Energy & Natural Resources, Sustainability, Announcements

SAP.iO Foundry Munich Launches Sustainability and Energy Management Program to Drive Startup Innovation

September 27, 2023 — SAP SE (NYSE: SAP) today launched a virtual startup program focused on sustainability and energy management at SAP.iO Foundry Munich. A jury of experts from SAP, alongside SAP partners and customers evaluated numerous applicants and selected 12 startups to join the program.

The energy and natural resources industries have undergone a significant transformation in recent years, moving from centralized fossil fuel-based operations to a more decentralized and diverse landscape powered by renewables. This shift has been driven by environmental concerns and technological innovations that promise to make extraction and processing more efficient, cost-effective, and sustainable. The movement requires companies to develop intelligent solutions for energy generation and storage, water management, and circular production processes, while striving for energy efficiency in their own operations.

During the five-month, equity-free program, SAP will work with the selected startups to integrate and jointly offer solutions for this new more sustainable reality. The startups will receive curated mentorship, access to SAP® technology and application programming interfaces (APIs), and exposure to SAP customers with the opportunity to develop high-impact proofs of concept.

The following startups are participating in the program at SAP.iO Foundry Munich:

CibusCell provides a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) platform to companies in the hydrogen value chain for analyzing potentials, digitizing processes, and optimizing production and collaboration.
enercast provides accurate power generation forecasts that enable customers to efficiently operate their assets, ensure grid stability and increase their trading margins.
envelio offers an intelligent grid platform that transforms power grids into digital, flexible and interactive smart grids.
evergen provides an advanced energy management software platform that uses machine learning algorithms to optimize and digitize the use of renewable energy assets across the entire energy chain.
EZZING offers digital solutions that optimize the entire value chain of the photovoltaic sector and solar energy in the field of distributed generation.
greenventory builds a digital twin of a city or supply area and analyses its energy potential and uncovers future opportunities.
HData helps companies access and analyze energy regulatory information instantly, reducing the burden of regulatory work while enhancing the business value of energy data analysis.
Kerith supports companies to achieve maximal savings, secure their energy supply for the long term, and find the right strategy to realize their sustainability goals.
Recyda analyses the recyclability of a company’s entire packaging portfolio according to leading industry standards and automates the calculation of EPR fees and plastic taxes for international markets.
S1Seven provides a digital material passport that connects auditable quality and sustainability data.
Sympheny provides evolved energy planning through optimized energy supply solutions for buildings and districts.
Tronity helps companies gain full control over their EV data, benefitting from full transparency of their charging costs and take advantage of smart document management

For more information, visit https://sap.io/muc-f23/.

About SAP.iO
SAP.iO curates a relevant and diverse startup ecosystem that extends the value of SAP solutions and meets the continuously evolving needs of our customers. Our programs provide dedicated support to the most promising startups as they launch and scale relationships with SAP and our global network of customers, partners, and employees. Since 2017, we have connected thousands of SAP customers with innovative enterprise software startups, helping them find solutions to their unique needs. For more information, visit http://sap.io/.

Corinna Schmidt In Paris, Featured, Consumer Industries, Announcements

SAP.iO Foundry Paris Launches New Startup Program on Consumer Engagement

September 21, 2023 — SAP SE (NYSE: SAP) today launched its new startup program focused on the future of consumer engagement at SAP.iO Foundry Paris. 15 startups have been selected to join the program.

In today’s highly competitive market, retailers and consumer product companies face new challenges in the way goods are marketed, purchased, fulfilled and delivered. However, advancements in emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence present novel prospects to transform the consumer and shopper experiences.

The six-month program is primarily B2C (business-to-consumer)-oriented and aims to provide all necessary tools and solutions to significantly enhance the end customers’ experience, with a particular emphasis on shopping. The selected startups offer solutions that cover the entire supply chain, from selecting the right product to a timely delivery.

The SAP.iO program will support 15 startups, which were chosen based on several criteria, including their size and relative experience, the technical viability of their solutions, their uniqueness compared to existing technologies at SAP, and their commercial value.

The following startups are participating in the SAP.iO Foundry Paris cohort:

Anaphora designs and creates platforms to help international brands elevate and control their brand experiences across all digital touchpoints.
Booxi is an appointment booking software that enhances customer satisfaction, increases conversions and sales by facilitating seamless customer journeys from the website to the store.
With ChatLabs, brands can create a unique experience for each customer by combining content, products, and calls to action in highly personalized journeys, which are fully automated and powered by AI.
Digitoo is an AI-powered bookkeeping solution designed to tackle the industry-wide problems of understaffing, the high costs and complexity of handling paper documents and difficulty implementing automation systems.
Find & Order has been working with logistics and distribution leaders for three years to challenge their operations and information systems.
Frontnow is a GenAI-powered shopping assistant that helps online retailers offer a seamless in-store-like experience across channels with easy low-code implementation.
Logicbroker connects all participants in an organization’s supply chain through an integrated suite, regardless of their business model.
Measmerize offers a size recommendation solution for fashion that helps consumers know not only what size to buy, but also how it fits on their body, requiring minimal integration from retailers.
Notify uses AI to power an innovative CRM that reduces marketing pressure, personalizes and legitimizes the relationship, and optimizes the CRM’s carbon footprint.
Particular Audience’s solutions include bundled and automated offerings on price alignment policy, sponsored products, transformer-based vector search, visual search, recommendations, price information, and dynamic pricing.
Potions develops and deploys the first cookieless path personalization platform, delivering unique experiences for customer website visitors.
Q°emotion is a semantic and emotional solution that automatically analyzes customer reviews to detect and eliminate customer journey irritants.
Uncrowd is an experience analytics platform that helps companies build a customer journey map by combining customer experience observation, quantitative measures, and comparative results.
Unea enables retailers and brands to collaborate seamlessly by presenting products and reserving real-time placements.
YDISTRI specializes in managing unsold retail inventory, increasing efficiency and profitability while enhancing customer loyalty, sustainability, and supply chain resilience.

Corinna Schmidt In Shanghai, IoT Startup program, Featured, Energy & Natural Resources, Sustainability, Announcements

SAP.iO Foundry Shanghai Launches Modern Energy Startup Program

July 12, 2023 – SAP SE (NYSE: SAP) launched a startup program focused on modern energy at SAP.iO Foundry Shanghai. Eight startups have been selected to join the program, which focuses on artificial intelligence (AI) and the internet of things (IoT) as well as robotics and environmental, social and governance (ESG) to lead the sustainable energy transition together with SAP.

The energy sector is at a pivotal moment as the world strives to address the urgent challenges of climate change and achieve a more sustainable future. Reducing carbon emissions and ensuring secure and affordable energy supplies will require a transition from fossil fuel-based energy systems to net-zero carbon sources.

The SAP.iO program aims to support this mission. During the next five months, the selected startups will build and develop long-term partnerships with SAP by defining joint use cases and exploring product integration and various business development opportunities. SAP customers will also be involved in the program by evaluating opportunities for proof of concepts.

The following startups are participating in the SAP.iO Foundry Shanghai cohort:

Blue Tax connects government departments such as the tax bureau and corporate human resources to solve corporate tax calculation and social security issues, increasing collaboration efficiency by more than 80 times.
Carbongram aims to create a reliable and auditable carbon accounting infrastructure to help customers manage their own carbon emissions and that of their suppliers.
Fei Liu Tech applies AI in the fashion supply chain to provide digital solutions that cover the entire industry chain, including smart manufacturing, supply chain collaboration and smart marketing.
Inkelink focuses on new energy resources, promotes the digital upgrading of the industry, and develops the overall solution of digital smart factory and the Inkelink Industrial Internet platform.
Matterhorn provides companies with Industry 4.0 solutions, such as workshop-level cyber-physical systems, intelligent data collection, robots with machine vision and intelligent assembly.
MHP develops digital and innovative solutions for automotive and related manufacturing industries.
O-tech is a one-stop shop for trade compliance and customs consultancy services, foreign trade management system development and operation.
Skyco2.com provides monitoring, reporting and verification services for carbon emission data and carbon asset operation management to industrial, transportation and construction enterprises.

Corinna Schmidt In Sustainability, Announcements, Tokyo, Featured

SAP.iO Foundry Tokyo Accelerates Startups To Help Companies Run Intelligent Sustainable Enterprises

July 10, 2023 — SAP SE (NYSE: SAP) today launched its B2B startup program at SAP.iO Foundry Tokyo to help companies become intelligent, sustainable enterprises. Five startups working in multiple domains and industries have been selected to join the program. The goal is to provide innovative solutions to domestic and global SAP customers by integrating with solutions across the SAP portfolio.

“In the drastically changing market environment, SAP supports companies to become agile and intelligent sustainable enterprises that leverage the latest technology and allow employees to focus on higher value-added tasks and realize sustainable management.” said Hirofumi Suzuki, SAP Japan President and Representative Director. “To realize this, we focus on expanding our important partner ecosystem including innovative startups.. This program will encourage our customers to utilize a variety of new solutions or technologies with SAP systems brought by cutting-edge startups.”

Over the next four months, the selected startups will have access to curated mentorship from SAP executives, exposure to SAP® technology and application programming interfaces (APIs), and opportunities to collaborate with SAP customers around the world.

The Intelligent Sustainable Enterprise cohort at SAP.iO Foundry Tokyo includes the following startups:

ALGO ARTIS develops AI solutions to optimize complex operations in a short time with a single click.
Inspiration Plus provides a platform for advanced disaster prevention using digital technology for local governments and corporate business continuity plans.
Milk. offers manufacturing inspection software for industrial customers that is powered by AI-based hyperspectral technology.
primeNumber Inc. optimizes the process of data utilization by helping build an environment where anyone can quickly and easily use data.
SMITH&VISION uses image recognition technology to automatically capture information from packages for logistics.

Corinna Schmidt In Berlin, Featured, Public Services, Announcements

SAP.iO Foundry Berlin Kicks Off Startup Program to Support Digital Transformation in the Public Sector

June 20, 2023 – SAP SE (NYSE: SAP) today announced it has launched its next startup program focused on Public Services and Government Technology (GovTech) at SAP.iO Foundry Berlin. After months of scouting globally, five startups were chosen to join the program with the aim of addressing the needs of the public sector.

The public sector is facing many challenges in today’s environment. Outdated technology often makes it difficult to provide efficient and comprehensive services to citizens. Agility is key to responding quickly to the latest challenges and mitigate their impact. Thus, innovation is crucial as it enables public sector entities to personalize and automate processes and make predictions by leveraging data. The SAP.iO Foundry Berlin Public Services & GovTech program is focused on accelerating the digital transformation journey of SAP customers, including public sector entities. The selected startups have keen insight and expertise in citizen communication, social and environmental risk prediction, data democratization, government engagement, payments and more.

Over the next 6 months, the startups will have access to curated mentorship from SAP executives, exposure to SAP® technology and application programming interfaces (APIs), and opportunities to collaborate with SAP customers around the world.

The following startups are participating in the SAP.iO Foundry Public Services & GovTech program:

Urban Footprint is a resilient decision intelligence platform enabling a more efficient, equitable, and resilient future through powerful geospatial data insights.
Citibeats‘ ethical artificial intelligence platform harnesses collective intelligence and incorporates insights from citizens into decision-making processes, helping institutions to make better, faster, and more efficient decisions.
Opendatasoft is a global leader in the democratization of data and allows users to create their own data experiences with Opendatasoft’s all-in-one platform.
Convaise provides an intuitive and effective way of interacting with governments by leveraging their no-code software platform to help governments build intelligent chat assistants on their own.
PayIt delivers a digital platform that allows government agencies to streamline operations and offer residents a single profile to interact with state, local, and provincial governments.

SAP customers who want to support this cohort can expect to dive right into curated innovation and design thinking workshops, close collaboration on use case definitions, proof of concepts, and ready-to-implement integrations on SAP solutions at the end of the program.

If you want to learn more about how you can get involved and benefit from this cohort, check out the SAP.iO Foundry Berlin website. If you want to dive deeper, contact the team.

Max Kahn In Blog, Inclusiveness, Featured

Supporting LGBTQ+ Founders and Fostering Inclusion in the Tech & VC Industries

By Max Kahn, Director, SAP.iO

As an out and proud leader at SAP, I couldn’t be more excited to celebrate Pride Month and recognize the inspiring LGBTQ+ individuals who’ve made a significant impact in the world of tech, entrepreneurship, and venture capital. This month, we not only celebrate our community’s resilience and pride, but also reflect on the progress we’ve made and the work that still needs to be done to create a more inclusive and equitable world. In recent years, the world has seen a surge of innovative LGBTQ+ startup founders who’ve broken barriers and paved the way for a new generation of entrepreneurs. Despite these achievements, the world of venture capital continues to be primarily male & pale, with only a small percentage of investments going to startups founded by women, members of the LGBTQ+ community, and people of color.

According to a study by StartOut, LGBTQ+ entrepreneurs are less likely to receive funding from investors compared to their non-LGBTQ+ counterparts, despite having comparable or even better performance metrics. This disparity highlights the pressing need for greater representation and support for the LGBTQ+ community in the venture capital space. As corporates, we have a responsibility to do better and foster an inclusive environment that encourages and supports LGBTQ+ employees & founders.

Here are some ways we can contribute:

1. Educate investors and customers about the value of diversity: It’s proven that diverse teams lead to better decision-making and innovation. By educating about the benefits of funding underrepresented founded & led startups, we can continue to shift the narrative and encourage more inclusive investments. For example, companies that embrace pro LGBTQ+ policies outperform those without them in the stock market by more than three percent. In our SAP.iO portfolio, underrepresented startups make up 44% of our portfolio and tie or surpass their counterparts in benchmarks used to measure success including number of exits and likelihood to progress in their partnership with SAP.

2. Embrace inclusive policies & benefits: Encourage your company and portfolio companies to adopt policies and practices that are inclusive and supportive of LGBTQ+ employees. Join SAP by embedding inclusive language into the DNA of your company, offering comprehensive coverage for gender-affirming care, and providing fertility support and family-building benefits for people of all identities. Recognizing pronouns is also essential to creating an inclusive environment for transgender and nonbinary colleagues. I’m proud that employees can easily add their chosen name and personal pronouns to their people profiles in SAP SuccessFactors. In addition to building inclusive companies and ecosystems, lobbying for equality is more important than ever. It’s important to recognize that one-third of the countries worldwide still criminalize homosexuality.

3. Foster collaborations & partnerships: Collaborate with organizations, accelerators, and non-profits that specifically focus on supporting LGBTQ+ founders and funders. Partnerships create a stronger support network for LGBTQ+ entrepreneurs and contribute to their long-term success. In addition, supporting emerging LGBTQ+ VCs increases diversity within the VC community and drives more equitable decisions. Organizations like StartOut, Gaingels, and Out in Tech are fantastic resources for both startups and corporates to get involved with.

This Pride Month let’s celebrate the achievements of our community and continue working together to build a more inclusive and equitable future for all.

Corinna Schmidt In Tel Aviv, Featured, HR & People Engagement, Announcements

SAP.iO Foundry Tel Aviv Kicks Off Deskless Workforces & People Management Program

May 30, 2023 — SAP SE (NYSE: SAP) today launched a virtual startup program focused on supporting deskless workers and people managers at SAP.iO Foundry Tel Aviv. A jury of SAP SuccessFactors solution experts selected 10 international startups whose solutions address the personas’ unique challenges as specified in original SAP SuccessFactors research.

Research from SAP SuccessFactors reveals that deskless workers (workers who complete their work away from a desk and lack consistent access to technology or internal system) face unique challenges across the employee lifecycle, such as outdated hiring processes, inadequate rewards, and a lack of opportunities for meaningful development beyond ongoing required training. Deskless workers – and the managers and HR teams that support them – often lack fit-for-purpose technologies to solve their most pressing issues.

In addition to deskless workforces, SAP.iO is also addressing the challenges faced by people managers in this year’s program. Results from a new SAP SuccessFactors research program show that over 90 percent of people managers believe their role has changed in the past three years, with their roles becoming less tactical and administrative and focusing more on supporting their teams’ well-being and growth. However, people managers lack the technology and tools to thoroughly understand their team members’ needs, and HR leaders struggle to help managers navigate this change.

Driven by the findings of these research programs, SAP.iO aims to close these gaps through this program by establishing a partnership with 10 startups that address these challenges by integrating in SAP products.

”At SAP, we are committed to help our customers succeed in a rapidly changing world, and we understand the critical role employee experience plays in the success of any organization.” said Aaron Green, Chief Marketing & Solutions Officer at SAP SuccessFactors. “By combining our expertise with the innovative solutions of our partner startups, we are able to provide our customers with the capabilities they need to create a better employee experience, no matter where they work.”

Over the next 30 weeks, the startups will be guided and supported by SAP executives, receive exposure to SAP® technology and application programming interfaces (APIs), and opportunities to collaborate with SAP customers around the world.

The following startups are participating in the SAP.iO Foundry Tel Aviv program:

Arist allows Fortune 500 organizations to create, deliver, and analyze bite-sized courses and nudges experienced over SMS, WhatsApp, Teams, and Slack to drive behavior change.
Beekeeper gives frontline employees technology in one place to streamline their work, collaborate with teams, and access critical safety, maintenance and training information to be the best at their jobs.
Bites Learning Ltd. combines the captivating nature of short videos with interactive elements, empowering organizations to effectively share professional knowledge and engage their workforce.
Connecteam is a mobile first employee management platform to manage, train, and communicate with non-desk workforces.
LumApps provides ultra-personalized and media-rich communications, smart integrations and automation, and community spaces that enhance collaboration and knowledge sharing across the enterprise.
Operations1 digitizes operational shopfloor processes to empower workers.
Retrain.ai is a responsible AI-driven talent intelligence platform for talent acquisition, talent management and skills mapping.
Sense provides an AI-powered talent engagement platform that accelerates the hiring process by helping candidates find the right jobs and making recruiters more productive.
Winningtemp analyzes and presents employee experience data with the help of AI.
Yoobic offers a mobile frontline employee experience platform that is purpose-built for the retail, restaurant and hospitality industries.

About SAP.iO  
SAP.iO curates a relevant and diverse startup ecosystem that extends the value of SAP solutions and meets the continuously evolving needs of our customers. Our programs provide dedicated support to the most promising startups as they launch and scale relationships with SAP and our global network of customers, partners, and employees. Since 2017, we have connected thousands of SAP customers with innovative enterprise software startups, helping them find solutions to their unique needs. For more information, visit http://sap.io/.  

Corinna Schmidt In Featured, Announcements, Shanghai

SAP.iO Greater China Kicks Off 1st Pop-up Program in Taiwan

May 26, 2023 — SAP SE (NYSE: SAP) launched the first pop-up program for startups in Taiwan in parallel to the 2023 SAP NOW Taiwan event. The program specifically targets startups with sustainability use cases and/or startups with enterprise solutions that employ model based control (MBC), supply chain finance, robotics, AI, or data analytics technologies.

During this 5-month program, the five selected startups will build and develop long-term partnerships with SAP by defining joint use cases and exploring product integration and various business development opportunities. SAP customers will also be involved in the program by evaluating opportunities for proof of concepts.

The following startups are participating in the SAP.iO Greater China program in Taiwan:

BSOS is a B2B supply chain FinTech company that solves the asset liquidity problem with Web3 technologies.
e-Formula provides three major services of energy, communication and intelligence to make customers’ sustainable development intelligent, compatible and integrated.
BBTruck is a one-stop supply chain logistic service for every business.
RV Automation is a people-centric robotics solution.
MoBagel is a no-code generative AI/ML platform for enterprise analytics to build sustainability together.

Corinna Schmidt In Announcements, New York, Featured, Supply Chain Management

SAP.iO Foundry New York Kicks Off Supply Chain Management Program

May 24, 2023 — SAP SE (NYSE: SAP) today launched the 2023 program focused on innovation in supply chain management at SAP.iO Foundry New York. The 10 startups have been selected by a jury of SAP experts, partners, customers, and investment funds to join the program. 60 percent of the startups are led by underrepresented individuals.

 A strong digital supply chain strategy is largely a “behind-the-scenes” organizational function. It can differentiate and enable companies to improve efficiency, effectiveness and be resilient to disruption in the supply chain. The SAP.iO program targets B2B startups with innovative supply chain solutions looking to integrate their solutions with SAP products including SAP S/4HANA, SAP Business Technology Platform and SAP Supply Chain Management software.

During the 5-month program, the selected startups work to build and develop long-term partnerships with SAP by defining joint use cases, product integration and various business development opportunities. SAP customers will evaluate opportunities for proof of concepts.

The following startups are participating in the SAP.iO Foundry New York 2023 program: 

AutoScheduler.AI creates optimal warehouse plans and feeds them directly into the warehouse management system (WMS), dynamically optimizing activities based on constraints to ensure that each site runs at peak performance.
DARVIS simplifies and automates processes using computer vision and geo-referencing for logistics and healthcare.
Everstream Analytics delivers predictive insights and risk analytics businesses need to build smarter, more autonomous and sustainable supply chains.
MaintainX combines an intuitive mobile app and cloud technology to enable maintenance, operations, and safety teams to easily manage maintenance work orders, parts inventory, safety inspections, and other standard operating procedures in a single platform.
Morpheus.Network’s solutions help cargo owners, logistics service providers, and government agencies digitize, optimize, and automate their extended global supply chains.
Parsable is a connected workforce platform that digitizes frontline operations and empowers industrial leaders to increase efficiency, reduce costs and improve sustainability.
Partsimony enables organizations to build intelligent manufacturing supply chains that are more resilient and sustainable by unifying engineering and supply chain data.
Transmute‘s Verifiable Data Platform (VDP) digitizes the documents involved in global trade into verifiable credentials to streamline regulatory compliance, maximize business agility, and reintroduce identity, trust, and meaning into supply chains.
Vendia provides a data collaboration platform that increases supply chain visibility and enables real-time actions by all participants.
Versed AI‘s cutting-edge AI delivers relevant, rapid and secure supply chain visibility, pinpointing your risks across multiple tiers.

Corinna Schmidt In IoT Startup program, Singapore, Featured, Sustainability, Announcements

SAP.iO Foundry Singapore Kicks Off Intelligent Sustainable Enterprise Program

23 May, 2023 — SAP SE (NYSE: SAP) and Singapore’s Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA) have launched the Intelligent Sustainable Enterprise program, a 6-month program focused on supporting tech startups to build innovative solutions for businesses in the following areas: 5G, internet of things (IoT), robotics, data analytics and augmented, virtual, or mixed reality (AR/VR/MR).

As we continue to navigate the challenges of a highly disruptive and rapidly evolving world, it is becoming increasingly important for businesses to not only be profitable, but also sustainable and intelligent. By using innovative technology, enterprises can make informed decisions and respond to market changes quickly. Companies that are more agile and intelligent in their decision-making processes are best positioned for long-term success in today’s competitive business landscape.

“As one of the fastest-growing regions in the world, South East Asia is a hotbed of innovation and a hub for startups. With its diverse and dynamic economy, rich culture, and young, digitally savvy population, the region presents immense opportunities for businesses to grow and thrive. At SAP, we are committed to supporting co-innovation, and are excited to collaborate with IMDA to create a vibrant ecosystem for startups to achieve their goals,” said Verena Siow, President and Managing Director, South East Asia at SAP.

Highlighting the importance of sustainability of tech solutions within the business and to the environment, 9 startups have been selected by a jury of experts from SAP and IMDA, as well as selected SAP customers to join the program. The selected startups will gain opportunities to work with leading corporates and end users to demonstrate real-world applications of innovative technology to address challenges across various industries.

Through the Intelligent Sustainable Enterprise Program, the selected startups will be given resources and support to commercialise their innovative tech solutions with access to:

Dedicated mentorship by the teams at SAP and IMDA;
SAP’s enterprise customers and IMDA’s network of corporates, startups and industry partners;
SAP’s technology and application programming interfaces (APIs);
Resources in 5G, AR, VR and a panel of consultants on subjects such as design thinking, digital storytelling and UI/UX at IMDA’s innovation hub – PIXEL*

Where relevant, selected startups may enrich their own catalogue of services and offerings by participating in IMDA’s programmes – ranging from 5G, artificial intelligence (AI), trust tech to open innovation platform challenges.

“Innovation plays a critical role in today’s competitive landscape, and we believe in building the ecosystem alongside our partners. With the Intelligent Sustainable Enterprise program, in collaboration with SAP, we will bring in IMDA’s innovation, tech resources, business networks, and leverage SAP’s expertise, to accelerate the growth of our tech startups globally,” said Justin Ang, Assistant Chief Executive of Singapore’s Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA).

*PIXEL supports corporates and startups in digital innovation through customised consultation to identify opportunities and develop tech products based on their unique business needs. Powered by the Open Innovation Platform (OIP), corporates can crowdsource for innovative solutions from IMDA’s global network of over 12,000 solution providers. One of the top launchpads in South East Asia, PIXEL also houses specialised labs including AR/VR, 5G, usability testing, as well as co-working spaces.

The following startups are participating in the program:

Ackcio builds wireless monitoring systems to make industrial operations smarter and faster.
Delta Capture effortlessly manages the sustainability of agriculture supply chain
Intangles transforms fleet monitoring standards by leveraging on their proprietary digital twin technology.
QZense helps companies optimize food supply chain operations with their IoT-based automation and analytics solutions.
Scoutbee provides actionable supplier insights for better business outcomes powered by the Scoutbee Intelligence Platform.
SkyMap provides location-based data analytics to deliver sustainability related geospatial AI applications at scale.
Unbox Robotics elevates fulfillment for digital commerce with intelligent vertical robotic sortation.
UNL Global enables businesses to build highly scalable, hyperlocal services and applications with their mapping, location, and data tools.
xSquare leverages intelligent warehouse automation technology to optimize warehouse operations without changing existing configurations.

For program developments and opportunities to participate in innovation workshops with the selected startups, refer to the updates on https://sap.io/sgp-23/ .

About Infocomm Media Development Authority
The Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA) leads Singapore’s digital transformation by developing a vibrant digital economy and an inclusive digital society. As Architects of Singapore’s Digital Future, we foster growth in Infocomm Technology and Media sectors in concert with progressive regulations, harnessing frontier technologies, and developing local talent and digital infrastructure ecosystems to establish Singapore as a digital metropolis.

For more news and information, visit www.imda.gov.sg or follow IMDA on LinkedIn (IMDA – Singapore), Facebook (IMDAsg), Instagram (@IMDAsg) and Twitter (@IMDAsg).

For more information, please contact:

SAP.iO
Steven Tong
Director, SAP.iO Foundry Singapore
steven.tong@sap.com

Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA)
Elsa Kimy Yue
Communications Division
+65 8338 8942 | elsa_kimy_yue@imda.gov.sg

Corinna Schmidt In Financial Services, Announcements, Latin America, Featured

SAP.iO Foundry Latin America and Caribbean Kicks Off B2B Innovation in FinTech Program 

May 18, 2023 — SAP SE (NYSE: SAP) today launched the 2023 program focused on innovation in financial technology (FinTech) at SAP.iO Foundry Latin America and Caribbean. The 10 startups have been selected by a jury of SAP experts, partners, customers, and investment funds to join the program, with 90% of the startups led by underrepresented individuals.

2021 was a breakout year for venture capital deals in Latin America, with a total of $16.3 billion invested in startups – more than the previous five years combined. FinTech and financial services account for around 39 percent of this total investment. To address this demand, the SAP.iO program is designed for startups with innovative B2B FinTech solutions such as digital wallets, open banking, banking-as-a-service, and ‘Buy now, pay later’ (BNPL).

During the 5-month program, the selected startups will work to build and develop long-term partnerships with SAP by defining joint use cases, product integration and various business development opportunities. SAP customers will also be involved in the program by evaluating opportunities for proof of concepts. 

The following startups are participating in the SAP.iO Foundry Latin America and Caribbean 2023 program: 

Agrotoken creates a secure and frictionless ecosystem to make trading grains easier, more efficient and more reliable based on asset tokenization.
Bankuish simplifies access to personalized loans for gig workers and freelancers by translating their work into a language that financial systems can understand.
CryptoMate explores and launch Web3 digital transformation through simple APIs.
Jelou AI enables financial services via WhatsApp using AI.
Kanoo Pays is a digital wallet that allows users to make secure payments and transfer money from their mobile devices.
MetaMap eliminates manual and repetitive identity verification tasks for B2C FinTechs, helping them to onboard and verify new users.
Slice reimagines the financial orchestration by collecting data from multiple sources and structuring a data lake at a comprehensive ledger.
Synaptic is an open finance solution that automates capturing, processing and delivering data.
Toku Spa offers a simplified payment system that collects debts, reduces late payment and improves the fidelity of customers.
Wispok allows users to create QR codes, encrypted graphics, and payment links that are unique to each person and lead to a checkout where users can see the amount due for each payment.

About SAP.iO  
SAP.iO curates a relevant and diverse startup ecosystem that extends the value of SAP solutions and meets the continuously evolving needs of our customers. Our programs provide dedicated support to the most promising startups as they launch and scale relationships with SAP and our global network of customers, partners, and employees. Since 2017, we have connected thousands of SAP customers with innovative enterprise software startups, helping them find solutions to their unique needs. For more information, visit http://sap.io/.  

Corinna Schmidt In San Francisco, Featured, Service Industries, CRM & Customer Experience, Announcements

SAP.iO Foundry San Francisco Kicks Off B2B Innovation in Sales & Service Program

May 11, 2023 — SAP SE (NYSE: SAP) today launched the 2023 program focused on innovation in B2B Sales & Services at SAP.iO Foundry San Francisco. The 11 startups have been selected by a jury of SAP experts, partners, customers, and investment funds to join the program.

This program is for startups with innovative solutions for B2B sales and service processes and experiences to help improve the customer journey. Customer Experience (CX) is SAP’s largest addressable market with a strong demand for more CX partner solutions that SAP customers can leverage.

During this 5-month program, the selected startups will build and develop long-term partnerships with SAP by defining joint use cases, product integration and various business development opportunities. SAP customers have been involved in the cohort selection and will be supporting by evaluating opportunities for proof of concepts.

The following startups are participating in the SAP.iO Foundry San Francisco 2023 program:

Aisera is a leading provider of ChatGPT and Generative AI solutions for customer and employee experiences covering IT helpdesk, customer service/support, HR, sales, and finance.
Ascendo connects human and machine to achieve proactive support.
AmplifAI is the AI-driven performance enablement platform for employee-centric enterprises, helping hybrid teams maximize business outcomes, boost productivity and improve engagement.
Bounti AI-driven growth operating system turns customer data into real-time alerts and hyper-personalized actions for sales and customer experience representatives to drive customer expansion and retention.
InsideBoard is a digital success platform powered by AI, which brings business value to digital transformation programs. InsideBoard engages users to adopt digital solutions and processes, while also making sure they continue to perform optimally over time.
Knowmax works with Fortune 500 brands to help improve knowledge management capabilities for customer experience organizations by moving knowledge from being static to a guided-assist based approach, helping create a single source of truth.
Lucy serves as an ultimate AI Answer Engine℠ across the enterprise—getting users the right answer, at the right time, no matter where they sit in the organization.
Neuron7 provides AI-generated resolution intelligence for complex service organizations that need fast, accurate issue resolutions at scale.
Pryon rapidly transforms organizations’ untapped wealth of approved content into AI-powered experiences that greatly increase the productivity of customers, employees, and partners. By leveraging proprietary computer vision and large language models, the company fuses disparate sources to then deliver fully attributed and trusted answers that accelerate workflows.
Quiq helps enterprises deliver great digital customer experiences using its asynchronous messaging platform to automate 30-80% of customer issues with AI and handle the remainder with human agents working in Quiq’s digital contact center.
Salesroom is an AI-based meeting intelligence platform that gives customer-facing teams real-time coaching cues, suggests meeting agendas, automates note-taking, and generates highlights so sellers stay present, creating a lasting impression with buyers.

Corinna Schmidt In Featured, Announcements, Awards

SAP again recognized for its open innovation approach with startups and intrapreneurship

December 7, 2022 — For the third consecutive time, SAP SE (NYSE: SAP) was recognized with the Corporate Startup Stars Award 2022 as one of the Top 50 companies encouraging startup innovation. The annual award celebrates companies promoting best-in-class open innovation practices and fostering global corporate-startup collaborations.

SAP also received the Intrapreneurship Program Award for enabling employees to become intrapreneurs and transform their innovative ideas into new growth businesses for the company. On December 6, the International Chamber of Commerce and innovation advisory firm Mind the Bridge announced this year’s winners at the award ceremony in London.

SAP follows a holistic open innovation approach. With its strategic business unit SAP.iO, the company supports early-stage ventures to accelerate and scale new ideas inside and outside the company.

“Both the internal and external side of our open innovation is critical to the future of SAP as it helps our customers continue in their digital transformation processes,” said Alexa Gorman, Senior Vice President SAP.iO. “This recognition demonstrates that we continue to successfully help startups and employees scale to provide our customers with additional innovation that complements their investments in SAP’s products.”

SAP.iO offers a curated portfolio of more than 450 startup solutions.

Since 2016, the Corporate Startup Stars Awards have honored companies that are role models in open innovation and are strongly committed to collaborating with startups. Startups nominate the companies that they believe are most active in the area of open innovation.

“The combination of Intrapreneurship and Venture Studio that SAP.iO has developed over the past eight years is now one of the benchmarks at the international level,” said Alberto Onetti, Chairman of Mind the Bridge. “This is true both for the ability to deliver results, meaning high quality projects, and for the continuous improvement of reach and inclusion.”

About SAP.iO
SAP.iO delivers new partnerships and products for SAP by accelerating and scaling startup innovation as well as incubating employee ventures. SAP.iO brings together innovators from every region, industry, and line of business to transform how businesses run. Since 2017, SAP.iO has helped 450+ external startups and internal ventures accelerate their growth while enabling thousands of SAP customers to access innovation. For more information, visit http://sap.io/.

Corinna Schmidt In Foundries, Singapore, Featured, Announcements

SAP.iO Foundry Singapore and HCLTech Launch Intelligent Enterprise Program

November 25, 2022 — SAP SE (NYSE: SAP) and HCLTech launched a virtual startup program focused on the Intelligent Enterprise at SAP.iO Foundry Singapore. Five international startups have been selected by a jury of experts from SAP and HCLTech to join the program. These startups are building innovative solutions for companies in the following areas: Industry 4.0, sustainability, and the metaverse.

The long-term future of companies depends on their ability to proactively respond to today’s challenging, unprecedented market conditions. To compete in a highly disruptive and rapidly evolving world, companies must be able to rewire their organizations to create efficient, automated business processes – applying advanced technologies to transform static, siloed processes into agile, intelligent workflows.

“Asia is home to some of the most innovative countries in the world. Along with a huge and rapidly growing young talent pool, we are also seeing significant investments flowing into the region, making it a hotbed for startup innovation, said Paul Marriott, President, SAP Asia Pacific and Japan. “Through this collaboration with HCLTech, we are bringing together the right technology, support, and insight to further accelerate startup innovation and introduce game-changing solutions – especially in the areas most essential in building future-readiness – to more of our customers, more quickly.”

The 13-week program, in collaboration with HCLTech’s SAP Ecosystem Unit and eSTiP^TM, its flagship open innovation platform and program, offers startups access to curated mentorship from SAP and HCLTech executives, exposure to SAP^® technology and application programming interfaces (APIs), and opportunities to collaborate with SAP and HCLTech customers around the world.

“HCLTech is a catalyst for change, and our commitment to innovation only strengthens with this program that we are driving in collaboration with SAP.iO. We jointly aspire for accelerated growth for our customers, leveraging niche and meaningful innovations. We are keen to establish our thought leadership in the areas of sustainability and Industry 4.0, and this collaboration is a step towards that”, said Kalyan Kumar, Chief Technology Officer and Head, Ecosystems at HCLTech.

The following startups are participating in the program:

H3 Dynamics combines machine learning, remote telerobotics and off-grid capabilities for drone services that can deploy and manage commercial condition monitoring, security and safety solutions.
DeepBrain specializes in humanizing digital customer service and bridging the gap between enterprises and their customers.
Invigilo enhances workplace safety culture by enabling real-time and continuous monitoring using AI-video analytics.
WeavAir enables companies to measure carbon emissions based on energy consumed by real estate and transportation assets.
Versafleet automates modern supply chains with route optimization, electronic proof-of-delivery, instant notifications and real-time job-status tracking.

For program developments and opportunities to participate in innovation workshops with the selected startups, look out for updates on https://sap.io/sgp-f22/.

About HCLTech

HCLTech is a global technology company, home to 219,000+ people across 54 countries, delivering industry-leading capabilities centered around digital, engineering and cloud, powered by a broad portfolio of technology services and products. We work with clients across all major verticals, providing industry solutions for Financial Services, Manufacturing, Life Sciences and Healthcare, Technology and Services, Telecom and Media, Retail and CPG, and Public Services. Consolidated revenues as of 12 months ending September 2022 totaled $12.1 billion. To learn how we can supercharge progress for you, visit hcltech.com.

About SAP.iO

SAP.iO delivers new partnerships and products for SAP by accelerating and scaling startup innovation as well as incubating employee ventures. SAP.iO brings together innovators from every region, industry, and line of business to transform how businesses run. Since 2017, SAP.iO has helped 450+ external startups and internal ventures accelerate their growth while enabling thousands of SAP customers to access innovation. For more information, visit http://sap.io/.

Corinna Schmidt In Foundries, Tokyo, Featured, Announcements

SAP.iO Foundry Tokyo to Accelerate Startups Offering B2B Enterprise SaaS

November 4, 2022 — SAP SE (NYSE: SAP) today launched its B2B startup program at SAP.iO Foundry Tokyo with focus on B2B Enterprise SaaS. Four startups working in multiple domains and industries have been selected to join the program to provide innovative solutions to domestic and global SAP customers by integrating with solutions across the SAP portfolio.

“SAP has been shifting to a cloud-centric strategy and collaborating with a variety of cloud-native external startups enables us more to provide our customers with even more flexible, extendable, and innovative products in the cloud. At the same time, it helps them to realize their digital transformation,” said Hirofumi Suzuki, SAP Japan President and Representative Director. “This program will encourage our customers to utilize a variety of new solutions or technologies with SAP systems brought by cutting-edged startups.”

The equity-free program is designed to accelerate innovation and drive new business models for SAP’s customers. During the 13-week virtual program, the startups will have access to curated mentorship, exposure to SAP® technology and application programming interfaces (APIs), as well as collaboration opportunities with SAP customers.

The “B2B Enterprise SaaS” cohort includes the following startups:

A1A provides a SaaS solution for direct material purchasing in manufacturing procurement departments, specializing in identifying cost reduction potentials with quotation data.
OPRO offers solutions for digitally transforming industry-specific paperwork with forms in the cloud that customers can design themselves.
SmartShopping helps customers to easily automate their inventory and order management as well as optimize stock and streamline the supply chain with IoT.
Techtouch delivers a cloud-based digital adoption platform that helps customers to easily adopt digital tools.