The SAP.iO Foundry Accelerator Program opens a second cycle and seeks ventures led by women, founders from the Arab sector, the ultra-Orthodox sector or those operating from the periphery.
On Thursday, February 27, Joanna Maryewska, Principal at SAP.iO Fund hosted an event with Stanford Women’s Network of New York launching an initiative “Investing x Women” at SAP.iO Foundry New York.
After an introduction to SAP.iO Foundries’ mission, the event kicked off with a discussion on diversity on startup boards and why it increasingly matters to founders. Joanna was joined by Alexa von Tobel (Founder and Managing Partner at Inspired Capital), Rebecca Kaden (Managing Partner at Union Square Ventures), Jemma Wolfe (Head of Launch with GS). As only ~2% of VC funding went to female-only founding teams and ~10% to mixed gender teams, the discussion involved discussing ways to approach challenges and common biases – at the industry, organizational and individual level. As research points out – the best way to drive change is by addressing the structural and process-based factors. Therefore the discussion focused on actions to increase the number of women in VC with the goal of bringing more role models, and harnessing the power of professional networks.
Investor panel was followed by a conversation led by Alison Wyatt (Co-Founder and CEO of Female Founder Collective – network built by Ali and Rebecca Minkoff). Three members of FFC joined the discussion on Women collaboration networks: True value beyond the buzz. The guests (Gina Hadley – The Second Shift, Jennifer Justice – The Justice Department, Tina Wells – Buzz Marketing Group) shared their advice on how to make the most out of the professional networks, and how FFC has been supporting them in their entrepreneurial endeavors.
We also received flowers from Repeat Roses – a zero-waste company disrupting single-use-straight-to-landfill floral business. Its signature service transforms event flowers into bouquets that brighten hospitals, nursing homes, and shelters—then composts the blooms to keep waste out of landfills and ensure a closed loop solution. To date, they have donated over 53,000 arrangements on behalf of their corporate and wedding clients, and have diverted over 198,000 pounds of waste from winding up in North America’s landfills – and their customers receive data on environmental impact as well.
The event concluded with Joanna and other board members of Stanford Women’s Network inviting the attendees to continue being involved throughout the next events and small group dinners planned as part of the Investing x Women initiative.
SAP.iO, SAP’s strategic business unit that works closely with early-stage startups, made clear its commitment to inclusive entrepreneurship when it launched the SAP.iO No Boundaries initiative just over a year ago. No Boundaries offers venture capital and access to innovation for underrepresented entrepreneurs, with a goal of funding or accelerating at least 200 startups over a span of 5 years through SAP.iO Fund and Foundries. The SAP.iO Fund has committed to investing up to 40% of investible capital to inclusive entrepreneurship.
The ideal outcome of No Boundaries is that the startups will thrive in the SAP ecosystem, deliver great value to SAP customers, and as a trickling effect, other investors will see the value in these entrepreneurs and will want to support them as well. Another goal of No Boundaries is to inspire VCs and other ecosystem players to follow SAP’s lead and enable a culture of diversity.
Studies have shown that companies that have more diverse management teams have 19% higher revenue due to innovation (Boston Consulting Group). In 2018, companies founded solely by women received only 2.3% of the total capital invested in venture-backed startups in the US (Pitchbook). Racially and ethnically diverse companies perform 50% better than companies with only diversity of gender (McKinsey).
There is clearly work to be done.
L’an dernier, Qopius s’était fait connaître du monde de la supply chain en intégrant la 2ème promotion de l’accélérateur de start-ups SAP.iO Foundry Paris (voir NL 2911).
SAP SE (NYSE: SAP) has announced the six startups joining the latest SAP.iO Foundry Munich cohort focused on innovative marketing and commerce solutions.
Working closely with SAP Customer Experience teams and UnternehmerTUM, the Munich cohort will focus exclusively on business-to-business (B2B) startups that transform customer relationships and help SAP customers deliver even more engaging experiences.
“The Munich Foundry has received overwhelming support from the Munich entrepreneurial community,” said Philippe Souidi, head of SAP.iO Foundry Munich. “SAP.iO is helping to foster this ecosystem with its global reach, by building bridges between customers and partners. We look forward to shaping joint offerings that lead startups to success in the area of commerce.“
The selected startups will receive curated mentorship, access to SAP technology and application programmable interfaces (APIs), and opportunities to collaborate with SAP executives and customers.
The cohort consists of the following startups:
- StorifyMe makes it radically easy to create, publish and measure the impact of customers’ stories. The software-as-a-service (SaaS) solution enables companies to easily build mobile-first landing pages, microstores, ads and other content tailored specifically to their business goals and identity.
- nyris is a visual artificial intelligence (AI) search platform that provides customers a more natural way to find what they are looking for. Nyris delivers industry-leading performance on the measures that matter most: accuracy, speed, scale, privacy and security.
- squarelovin enables businesses to leverage authentic content from customers that provides inspiration, social proof and trust on every channel. The User Generated Content SaaS platform helps brands collect and curate images, seamlessly manage rights and activate visual commerce and analytics.
- Frontastic is the front-end management platform for the API-driven world, enabling enterprises to build customer-focused and state-of-the-art front ends, delivered as progressive web apps, for every device.
- Velou delivers personalized search results for shoppers and increases conversions and revenue for fashion e-commerce retailers. The solution features the only search and discovery algorithm built specifically for the fashion industry and leverages AI, natural language processing and advanced computer vision.
- Alcméon is an SaaS platform that lets enterprises reinvent and improve customer experience with centralized multichannel messaging. Alcméon’s hybrid technology combines intelligent automation, AI, chatbots and human intervention to reduce costs and increase customer satisfaction.
Of the many ingredients that go into quality healthcare, comprehensive patient data is close to the top of the list. No one knows this more than Mayur Saxena, CEO and founder of Droice Labs. Saxena created his startup while he was pursuing his doctorate degree at Columbia University, and working at healthcare company conducting clinical trials on new medication. He’s energized by the plethora of opportunities to improve healthcare using artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning.
“Patient data is notoriously disorganized and complex,” he said. “With machine learning, healthcare professionals can organize that information to better understand the disease of every patient and reach them faster with interventions that improve their lives. It’s an amazing feeling when you talk with someone who’s recovered from an illness because they received the right care.”
The idea behind Droice is to make messy data neat, so people can spend less time organizing it and more time analyzing it.
SAP Foundry Munich is an accelerator program that helps B2B startups develop customer-friendly solutions. Of course, one goal is being able to use the solutions for SAP itself. However, the accelerator also provides a very extensive network of partners and customers. How exactly do startups like Parcellab, Presize and Rapitag — to name a few graduates — benefit from being a part of the program? An interview with Erica Davis, Community Manager, and Philippe Souidi, Head of the SAP Foundry Munich.
בשנת 2019 הכריזה ענקית התוכנה SAP על הרחבת פעילות SAP.iO Foundry לישראל. SAP.iO היא זרוע פעילות של החברה ובאמצעותה היא משקיעה ומפתחת שיתופי פעולה עם סטארטאפים ברחבי העולם. לקבוצה שתי פעילויות מרכזיות: SAP.iO Fund שבאמצעותה משקיעה החברה בסטארטאפים בתחילת דרכם, ו-SAP.iO Foundry שהיא תוכנית האצה בת 12 שבועות הפועלת במספר ערים בעולם ובהן: ניו-יורק, סן-פרנסיסקו, תל אביב, ברלין, טוקיו, פריז, מינכן וסינגפור. מטרת התוכנית היא להעניק תמיכה לסטארטאפים נבחרים על ידי הענקת גישה ללקוחות החברה ועל ידי ליווי של מנטורים עסקיים ומומחים טכנולוגים. מאז שהחלה התוכנית ב-2017 ועד היום השתתפו בה 165 חברות מכל העולם.
La Maddy Keynote, sommet de l’innovation tricolore créé en 2015, tiendra sa 5ème édition les 30 et 31 janvier prochains au CENTQUATRE à Paris. À cette occasion, l’accélérateur d’SAP, SAP.iO Foundry Paris – l’un des principaux partenaires de l’événement – organisera un Démo-Day mettant à l’honneur plusieurs startups GreenTech & Entreprise Durable complémentaires des solutions SAP. Sept pitchs de startups feront suite à une table-ronde intitulée « Devenir une entreprise durable ». Après 3 mois d’accélération SAP.iO présentera ainsi les solutions innovantes, qui couplées avec SAP S/4HANA, améliorent la gestion des déchets, de l’énergie et des assets pour les clients B2B.
This article covers some of the most interesting startups that have recently finished accelerator programs in Israel. The article highlights SAP.iO Foundry Tel Aviv, and recognizes our participating startups EasySend, YOUTILIGENT, and ARpalus
Ce sameid 25 janvier, Julien Pierrepont, directeur Innovation chez Leyton, Sébastien Gibier, directeur de SAP.iO Foundry Paris et Emile Leclerc, directeur d’études chez Odoxa se sont penchés sur l’impact des technologies sur le climat dans l’émission 01 Business Forum
The sustainability conversation around textile waste often centers on heaps of consumers’ discarded clothing. But within the supply chain, there are billions of dollars’ worth of unused fabrics, sitting in mills, warehouses and factories, which are typically destined for landfills or incinerators.
New York-based startup Queen of Raw is saving these textiles for new uses through a marketplace that allows sellers and buyers to more easily move materials ranging from Italian wool and leather to cottons and performance fabrics. The increasingly global marketplace allows shoppers to search for materials nearby to their production facilities when possible, cutting back on the environmental impact of shipping textiles with geolocated matchmaking.
Debt collection and a great customer experience are two concepts not typically combined. The image of an intimidating, baseball bat-carrying debt collector is too ingrained in our cultural consciousness.
So being the “friendliest debt collectors in Europe” is quite a bold goal for troy, one of six startups invited to a dedicated financial technology (fintech) program focused on finance and governance, risk and compliance (GRC) in Berlin by the SAP.iO Foundries.
Philip Rürup, CEO of troy, makes clear that creating a friendly customer experience in debt collection is more than a marketing slogan; it is a mindset backed up by technology and proven key performance indicators (KPIs). By treating people as customers and not debtors, troy has found unique solutions to incorporate customer experience into the debt collection process. According to Rürup, this induces people to pay their debts faster, pay more, and even pay “happily.”
“We found that 50 percent of people simply forgot to pay, or just faced a short-term bottleneck,” explained Rürup. “So, it doesn’t make sense to use heavy-handed approaches here.”
SAP.IO, the early-stage venture arm of multinational enterprise software company SAP SE, has appointed Lior Weizman as director of its Tel Aviv-based accelerator program, SAP.IO Foundry, Weizman announced in a LinkedIn post Tuesday. In September, SAP.IO announced the seven startups selected for its first cohort.
SAP Israel’s first startup accelerator program finishes successfully, with six participating startups, two led by female entrepreneurs. One of the six startups is already taking major steps on the eastern part of the world; YOUTILIGENT won the startup contest at the World Internet Conference, winning $500,000 to open a hub in China.
