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WISY PLATFORMS: BRINGING VISIBILITY TO PRODUCT AVAILABILITY IN CPG RETAIL

Wisy Platforms is building a predictive, decision-analytics retail operations and execution platform to help retailers solve and overcome the product availability challenges that they have lived with until now.

Using Wisy;

  • Employees performing visual inspection of retail shelves experience an improvement in the amount of time they would otherwise spend doing this task. Practically speaking this is a reduction from 20 minutes of work doing manual inspections to no more than 1 or 2 minutes using Wisy’s AI-enabled platform.

  • Retailers, CPG manufacturers and brokers experience a 90% or higher improvement in the accuracy of data about product availability on store shelves, and

  • Retailers, CPG manufacturers and brokers experience revenue gains of between 3% and 10%.

In addition to bringing visibility to Product Availability, Wisy also offers the following:

  • Price checks,

  • Real-time share-of-shelf KPIs,

  • Planogram compliance checks, and

  • Competitive intelligence: Wisy detects known or unknown competitors’ products on the shelves and transforms the data into business intelligence. This is particularly useful for addressing an industry trend where new niche brands gain market share at a much faster rate than established brands. Wisy provides alerts when new competitors come into a category and keeps track of their growth over time and per location.

Wisy is currently working on real-time object tracking using the video mode on mobile phones. This feature makes it easier for users to capture large shelves without the need to take many pictures. Wisy is also developing predictive analytics to optimize product assortment and basket analysis.

The platform enables CPG retailers, manufacturers, suppliers,wholesalers and brokers to make better strategic, tactical, and operational decisions by decreasing the complexity of the systems they have to interact with while introducing simplicity and convenience into their workflows. Employees just have to be able to take pictures or videos of retail store shelves using any mid-range smartphone.

Wisy’s breakthrough is in its ability to instantaneously run all its analytics processes and algorithms on an employee’s mobile device without the need for an always-on internet connection.

Incumbent solutions are complex, difficult, slow, cumbersome, and impractical for the fast pace at which retail execution must move. Most incumbent solutions require a high speed internet connection in order to produce results.

Wisy is lightweight, portable, simple, fast, and affordable. Anyone who can use a smartphone camera can be trained to use Wisy to perform retail operations tasks. The platform works for large multinational CPGs and retail chains, and for smaller CPGs, retail stores and brokers. It works on a stand-alone basis. But, it can also be with retail execution systems, ERP systems, retail data clouds, retail analytics systems and so on. It can be integrated into a retailer, manufacturer or broker’s existing systems – for example, customers of SAP can find Wisy in the SAP App Center.

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New “Future of Shopping” Startup Program at SAP.iO Foundry Shanghai

October 27, 2022SAP SE (NYSE: SAP) launched a new startup program focused on consumer and retail technology that will shape the future of shopping at the SAP.iO Foundry Shanghai. A jury of SAP experts, partners, venture capitals, government innovation departments, and SAP customers, including Shui On Land and others, joined the selection committee and finalized seven startups to join the program and build partnerships with SAP.

The COVID pandemic has accelerated the process of global technology and digital transformation, gradually penetrating into every detail of our life. Consumption habits are undergoing tremendous changes, which also brings various business opportunities to new consumer and retail technologies.

SAP.iO Foundry Shanghai launched its “Future of Shopping” cohort to recruit retail and consumer SaaS startups, partnering with SAP to serve global customers in consumer, catering, retail, hospitalization, fashion, and more.

Sophie Zhang, General Manager of SAP Customer Experience (CX) Greater China, “I am very happy that the new SAP.iO cohort can work with CX. We are always looking for innovative solution partners to expand our portfolio and deliver local SaaS solutions to CX customers.”

Meng Xu, Vice President of SAP China Strategic Industry Consulting, adds: “The consumer, retail and fashion industries are the top priorities of China’s strategic industry group, accounting for 40% of our revenue. We pay great attention to the ecosystem of these industries. The seven startups we recruited this time can well meet the different requests of local customers.”

During the program, the startups will have access to curated mentorship from SAP executives, exposure to SAP® technology and APIs, and opportunities to collaborate with SAP customers worldwide.

The following startups are participating in the program:

  1. XForcePlus provides enterprises with supply chain information collaboration services and VAT invoice management solutions.
  2. Freemud focuses on rapidly upgrading chain brand stores into smart stores, so that stores can adapt to all the challenges of digital transformation.
  3. Reabam provides flexible configuration and highly scalable SaaS services for chain brand enterprises in the field of large consumer brands.
  4. Zjian offers enterprises with self-developed tools and shopping assistants to revitalize the company’s existing members to improve the customer experience.
  5. Shenyan Intelligent delivers full-stack solutions of data and business centers for domestic and foreign enterprises.
  6. Qiyuesuo is an electronic signing SaaS platform, providing electronic signing and certificate deposit services.
  7. Apexdata helps customers achieve intelligent credit assessment and enhance credit value.

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/.

Inspiring Innovators: Neha Singh Founder and CEO of Obsess, On Listening to Your Gut

At SAP.iO, we work with innovative people and new technologies that positively impact our world every day, and we think it’s time to share their stories with you! In our series, “Inspiring Innovators,” we get to hear how leaders of cutting-edge startup technologies overcame, thrived, and pursued their goals. SAP.iO’s Alexa Gorman sat down to discuss the road to success and lessons learned with some of our most inspiring startup founders.

Meet Neha Singh

Her unique path to entrepreneurship included combining her experiences with her ability to listen to her instincts and trust herself to know what to do. Neha Singh combined her love of fashion with her knowledge of technology to create something entirely new for the market, finding her right fit as the Founder and CEO of Obsess.

Neha studied computer science during undergrad and then attended MIT for her masters. Her appreciation for computer science gave her a way to build the things she imagined, prizing the logical aspect of how inputting a set of instructions can result in predictable outcomes. Her accomplishments are many; for Google, she was on the team that created the first dashboard for Google Ad Words. She then spent time on Google News which she described as an amazing learning experience. At this point, she realized she liked the product side, specifically figuring out how to build something and defining it based on how users interact with it.

Neha took fashion design classes discovering she would excel on the technology side of fashion. When she joined an eCommerce marketplace startup, she realized that all eCommerce sites look the same and have a grid-of-thumbnails database interface. This was because that’s the template the eCommerce platforms provide brands and retailers to showcase their products.

After that experience, Neha was the Head of Product at Vogue and worked on projects for launching the Vogue digital properties, including Vogue.com and Vogue Runway. She saw how much luxury brands were struggling with their online eCommerce experience and especially their mobile experience.

As more brands move online and look to differentiate their experience to engage consumers, Neha knew things had to change. To spearhead this effort, Neha launched Obsess in 2017, creating the next-generation eCommerce interface for today’s consumers. Obsess is a Metaverse Shopping Platform that enables brands and retailers to create highly interactive, visual, and branded Virtual Stores on their websites and metaverse platforms. The Obsess platform creates HD-quality, beautiful, photorealistic 3D 360 experiences that increase awareness, engagement, and conversion. Her team combines expertise in platform engineering, consumer web, mobile tech, fashion, e-commerce, gaming, and 3D. Obsess customers include Coach, Ralph Lauren, Charlotte Tilbury, Mattel, General Mills, and NBC Universal among others.

“When your entire brand gets reduced to four to six thumbnails on a mobile screen, you cannot translate the brand experience you are creating in retail stores, fashion shows, and events, into a digital shopping format. That’s when I understood the need in the market for a better digital shopping experience.”

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SAP.iO Launches Carbon Accounting Startup Program to Help Customers Enhance Sustainability Efforts

October 19, 2022 SAP SE (NYSE: SAP) launched a virtual startup program focused on carbon accounting at the SAP.iO Foundry Tel Aviv. A jury of SAP experts, partners, investment funds, and SAP customers, including ABInBev, DSV Global Transport and Logistics, and more, selected six international startups to join the program and build partnerships with SAP.

The increased awareness of sustainability has impacted consumers and investors alike. They are more and more choosing socially and environmentally responsible companies that consider their impact on people and the planet in their business activities. The finance sector continues to evolve as people and businesses transform how they spend, save, borrow, and invest.

SAP.iO Foundry Tel Aviv introduced the “Carbon Accounting” program to help customers enhance their sustainability efforts. The startups will work with the Foundry team as well as leading companies from various fields on integration and partnership with SAP.

Gunther Rothermel, Senior Vice President and Head of SAP Sustainability Engineering, “Data is a critical driver toward sustainability success. Enterprise data collection is a challenge where SAP helps its customers on their journey to Net Zero. It is about using the right tools and the latest innovation to achieve this goal.”

During the program, 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 worldwide. This includes creating new partnerships and value propositions.

The following startups are participating in the program:

  1. Connect Earth offers API-based data products that track the carbon footprint of financial transactions.
  2. ESGgo leverages machine learning to analyze and optimize enterprise environmental, social and governance (ESG) posture and score.
  3. ESG Enterprise provides integrated SaaS and data analytics for businesses to reduce compliance costs, automate carbon accounting, data collection, and reporting.
  4. SustainCert enables the digital verification of impact claims across carbon markets and value chains, bringing credibility to climate action.
  5. Sustain.Life enables companies to easily measure, manage and report their ESG impacts for shareholders and regulatory disclosure requirements and requests using global regulatory frameworks.
  6. Unravel Carbon helps companies track and reduce their carbon emissions, specializing in Scope 3.

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/.

SAP.iO Foundry New York Kicks Off Web3 in Future of Work Program

October 17, 2022 SAP SE‘s (NYSE: SAP) SAP.iO Foundry New York has launched its latest startup program focused on Web3 in the Future of Work with SAP SuccessFactors. Five startups have been selected by a jury of SAP experts, partners, customers, and venture capital funds to join the program.

The startups selected for the program center on emerging technologies, including blockchain, token economy (NFTs), digital assets (crypto, wallets, identity), artificial intelligence (AI), and metaverse (augmented and virtual reality). Over the next 12 weeks, they 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 worldwide.

The following startups are participating in the SAP.iO Foundry New York Fall 2022 program:

  1. Beem enables communication using real humans in augmented reality, allowing users to communicate in the most credible and immersive way possible.
  2. BitPay builds enterprise-grade tools to send and receive cryptocurrencies, enabling employees to receive a portion of their pay in crypto.
  3. Gmetri is a no-code browser-based metaverse toolkit, providing the complete web 3.0 infrastructure to create, publish and track your own metaverse.
  4. Talespin is building a spatial computing learning platform to power talent development and skills mobility for the future of work. ­­
  5. Veremark runs faster and smoother background checks with secure, reusable data through blockchain-based verified credentials.

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/.

SAP.iO Launches Industry 4.0 Startup Program to Drive Startup Innovation in Collaboration with Accenture

October 11, 2022SAP SE (NYSE: SAP) is collaborating with Accenture on a virtual startup program focused on Industry 4.0 and based at the SAP.iO Foundry Munich. A jury of experts from SAP and Accenture, alongside SAP partners and customers evaluated numerous applicants and selected 11 startups to join the program.

Various factors are forcing companies to relocate their production back to their core markets. The pandemic, for example, has shown how vulnerable global supply chains are to disruption. In addition, extreme weather events such as droughts, forest fires or floods are increasing and putting even more strain on production. The unreliable supply chain requires companies to open new, highly automated production facilities to meet demand in a timely manner. SAP and Accenture are committed to helping companies create and discover new innovations that drive the total reinvention of supply chain processes.

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

“At SAP, we are always on the lookout for transformative solutions that address key customer pain points”, said Shwetha Shetty, Product Owner, Digital Supply Chain Solutions at SAP. “We are excited to team up with Accenture and build this new cohort to help customers realize the promise of Industry 4.0 technologies at scale.”

The following startups are participating in the Industry 4.0 program:

  1. 36Zero is a vision solution that revolutionizes visual inspection by replacing hardware with software, improving inspection results by 1800% and empowering workers for easy and independent installation – better, quicker, more efficient.
  2. aiomatic has developed a digital maintenance assistant to help maintenance engineers in large productions reducing unplanned downtimes using explainable AI.
  3. Aisight develops AI-powered sensors for predictive maintenance to eliminate machine failures and avoid downtime.
  4. Andonix optimizes factory efficiencies through Smart Work Station, a digital hotline and factory collaboration platform that connects machines with frontline workers and supervisors.
  5. Cintoo bridges the gap between reality capture and building information modeling or digital twins. Its SaaS platform Cintoo Cloud manages 3D scanned data collected from the built environment to enable collaborative asset management workflows.
  6. Ecoplant helps industrial organizations reduce electricity consumption and CO2 emissions as well as improves operational efficiency and profitability using IoT and AI.
  7. Kreatize is a leading cloud manufacturing procurement platform that enables mechanical engineering companies to handle the entire process from ordering to delivery of industrial components in a digital, fully transparent and sustainable manner.
  8. Sparetech provides transparency for industrial spare parts that enables companies to automate their spare parts management processes, thereby reducing inventories, costs, and CO2 emissions. 
  9. Surveily allows businesses to automatically monitor and understand what happens on their CCTV cameras observing people, vehicles and processes – 24/7, automatically and in real time.
  10. ThroughPut, Inc. provides an AI-powered supply chain software that predicts demand, reorients production capacity, reassigns warehouse space, and reorders materials optimally for better business, operational, financial and sustainability outcomes.
  11. Zerynth helps companies digitalize their production processes and develop connected industrial products through a plug-and-play IoT platform.

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/.

New SAP.iO Foundry Paris Promotion Shapes the Future of Retail

The eighth edition of the SAP.iO Foundry Paris program extends the company’s commitment to startups, with this round focused on the retail experience. The final selection of participating startups has just been announced, with the support program to begin in October and continue until the beginning of 2023. Odilia von Zitzewitz, Interim Lead SAP.iO Foundry Paris, said: “The start-up members of this new cohort respond in an innovative way to issues that fully concern the future of our consumption patterns. It is exciting to see them in action and to imagine building positive solutions for the future together.”

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Geek+’s PopPick wins European Product Design Award

Geek+, the global leader in autonomous mobile robots, has been awarded the 2022 European Product Design Award in the Industrial Robot category for its innovative PopPick solution.

Geek+ co-founder and VP of Picking and Smart Warehouse Products, Kai Liu, said: “The PopPick solution represents the evolution of the goods-to-person technology that Geek+ has worked so hard to become the leader in. We are extremely proud to have been recognized with this award. Occasions such as this are a validation that we are meeting the high goals we set for ourselves.”

Geek+ has established itself as the most innovative automation solutions provider, with goods-to-person technologies forming the backbone of its success. PopPick, launched in early 2022, is already being deployed in warehouses in Asia and the United States. The PopPick system comprises picking robots carrying movable shelves from storage locations to PopPick workstations where intelligent robotic arms present totes or boxes to the operator. The system can increase picking speed to up to 650 totes per hour, improve warehouse storage density by 50%, and double throughput capacity.

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Bidgely Selected as 2022 S&P Platts Global Energy Awards Finalist

Bidgely has been named a finalist in the 24th Annual Platts Global Energy Awards. The 2022 Finalists were announced by event host S&P Global Commodity Insights, the leading independent provider of information, analysis and benchmark prices for commodities, metals, petrochemicals, energy and energy transition markets. Often described as “the Oscars of the energy industry,” the Platts Global Energy Awards recognize corporate and individual innovation, leadership and exemplary performance in 19 categories spanning the entire energy and chemicals complex.

“We are honored to be named a finalist in the ‘Grid Edge’ category for the second consecutive year – recognized for our commitment to advancing today’s electric grid,” said Gautam Aggarwal, chief revenue officer for Bidgely. “We’re proud to support our utility partners with behind-the-meter intelligence that turns the impending wave of EVs into an opportunity for creating a more reliable, cleaner grid.”

Most notable in today’s evolving energy grid is the rise of electric vehicles (EV) and global clean energy commitments, with global EV sales expected to surge from 3.1 million in 2020 to 14 million in 2025. Bidgely’s EV Solution leverages applied artificial intelligence (AI) to first identify homes with EVs across entire service territories and then offer a personalized customer journey that educates consumers about their charging patterns and energy consumption. Bidgely EV Solution deployments with Avangrid’s United Illuminating and other leading utility providers are being recognized by S&P Global Commodity Insights for alleviating grid congestion, supporting high energy demands from EV charging and more.

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SAP.iO Foundry Latin America Kicks Off Sustainability in Agriculture Program

October 6, 2022 SAP SE (NYSE: SAP) today launched its very first program focused on sustainability in agriculture at SAP.iO Foundry Latin America. Seven startups have been selected by a jury of SAP experts, partners, customers, and investment funds to join the program.

The selected startups innovate on efficient and sustainable farming and optimizing agricultural logistics processes. Over the next 16 weeks, they 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 Latin America Fall 2022 program:

  1. Altum Lab (Chile) predicts the quality of raw material months in advance using AI and makes suggestions on how to use it in the production process to satisfy commercial contracts.
  2. CargoSnap (Brazil) is a mobile app that enables businesses to easily perform visual cargo inspections, resulting in less claims, less damage and happier customers.
  3. DigiFarmz (Brazil) provides smart agronomic recommendations for higher yield, profitability, and risk mitigation with less environmental impact.
  4. Drivin (Chile) optimizes deliveries and reduces transportation costs by delivering efficiency and visibility to every process, simplifying management and optimizing the transportation and distribution operations.
  5. goFlux (Brazil) digitizes the entire logistics process, including qualifying carriers, pre-approving suppliers and providing ways of negotiating freight, managing the entire process from contracting, operations to the payment process to the carrier.
  6. Solena Ag (Mexico) turns soil data into diagnostics insights through its proprietary AI engine that provides customized recommendations, helping farmers increase nutrients, productivity, and profitability, while reducing their carbon footprint.
  7. Woocar (Argentina) combines AI and behavioral sciences to improve efficiency, safety, and sustainability in transportation while reducing the carbon footprint and operational inefficiencies.

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/.

SAP.iO selects seven startups to join its Future of Work program in Berlin

September 26, 2022SAP SE (NYSE: SAP) is about to launch its next startup program focused on the future of work at SAP.iO Foundry Berlin. After months of scouting and evaluating more than 90 startups from 22 countries with 25 experts from within and outside of SAP, seven startups made it into the program.

“As organizations navigate the post-pandemic world, the future of work continues to be a top priority,” said Meg Bear, President & Chief Product Officer at SAP SuccessFactors. “To make sure we continue to help customers put people at the center of every aspect of work, we constantly expand our ecosystem with new and exciting startup partners.”

During the program, the startups will receive mentorship from SAP executives and leading industry experts from Capgemini as well as access to SAP® technology, application programming interfaces (APIs), and opportunities to collaborate with SAP customers.

“Business today are looking for innovative solutions that help shape their future of work strategies. This includes solving complex business challenges around cloud, digital and platforms,” said Martin Schmidt, Head of People & Technology Consulting at Capgemini in Germany. “Understanding the skills that are needed to drive this transformation is crucial for them to stay ahead of the curve. We’re excited to work with the selected startups to foster innovation and deliver sustainable value to our joint clients.”

The selected startups represent and deliver innovation in four different categories: Talent Management, Core HR & Payroll, Human Experience Management and Workforce Planning & Analytics. The following are joining the program:

  1. Cobrainer addresses the war for talent from within by automatically profiling employees’ skills and ambitions and providing personalized internal growth recommendations in seconds.
  2. Fifty bridges the intention-action gap in trainings and business transformations. Fifty’s eDoing platform enables rapid and measurable adoption of new behaviors. It combines nudge and artificial intelligence for use at scale.
  3. gradar is the job grading system for the modern workplace. It’s the complete solution to design and manage a job architecture helping businesses perform consistent job evaluation that establishes fair and transparent pay structures.
  4. Onwards HR is a risk mitigation platform that streamlines employee separations and provides advanced analytics to help organizations support their DEI and talent strategies.
  5. Rolebot is the world’s first AI-powered ‘job board in reverse’ for top-tier passive talent, surfacing the other 75% of the skilled workforce who never apply. Its customers provenly land diverse, fresh talent in half the time and exceed their DEI goals.
  6. shyftplan is an AI-based solution for shift scheduling and focused on manufacturing customers. One of the key capabilities in shyftplan is the automation of the scheduling process. The solution is scalable to thousands of employees, even for complex cases.
  7. Workmotion enables companies to grow and expand their teams without regard to national borders. It digitizes and simplifies time-consuming onboarding processes, helping companies create employment contracts instantly and onboard talent from all over the world quickly, easily and with compliance.

With this announcement, SAP.iO Foundry Berlin goes into the next phase and is calling innovative businesses who run on SAP SuccessFactors and want to be the frontrunners in adopting and bringing new value to their workforce, leaders and HR teams.

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, get in touch with the team.

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/.

 

 

SAP.iO Foundry Paris launches new startup program on “Future of Retail and Consumer Products”

September 21, 2022 – SAP SE (NYSE: SAP) has launched a new startup accelerator program focused on the “Future of Retail and Consumer Products” at SAP.iO Foundry Paris. 12 international startups were selected by a jury of SAP experts, partners, customers and investment funds to join the program. These startups were recognized as pioneers in this year’s chosen field, a theme that is more topical than ever with the upheavals in customer habits and the customer journey due to effects of the pandemic and the accelerated digitalization of all businesses.  

SAP.iO Foundry Paris, SAP’s equity-free startup accelerator in France, has already helped more than 65 growth businesses develop their business or their solution. The Foundry’s efforts helped meet France’s overall startup investment goal set at the #ChooseFrance summit, France’s flagship forum for economic attractiveness. 

“SAP.iO is committed to accelerating startups to help customers run at their best. For this program, our focus is on retail, addressing the traceability and authenticity of products as well as offering consumers an improved and differentiating purchasing experience”, said Odilia von Zitzewitz, Interim Lead at SAP.iO Foundry Paris. “We are very proud to accompany this new class of startups and help them scale their innovations.” 

Over the next five months, the startups will have access to personalized mentoring from SAP France executives, exposure to SAP® technology and application programming interfaces (APIs), as well as opportunities to collaborate with SAP customers around the world. 

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

  1. Sorga Technology supports retail brands in their digital innovation by offering a low-energy solution ensuring the transparency and traceability of their products.
  2. Arianee provides businesses with simple solutions for building direct relationships with consumers, respectful of user data and independent of large technology platforms.
  3. CollectID can be used to guarantee product authenticity, improve the physical experience and establish a direct communication channel between brands. The solution guarantees the authenticity and uniqueness of products while bringing brands closer to their customers.
  4. DIAKSE develops and markets a solution for creating virtual showrooms in the metaverse with one objective: to enable brands to better communicate about their products and thus help them increase their sales.
  5. Foodetective is a management platform and infrastructure (API) for the F&B industry. Companies use Foodetective to automate operations, simplify administration, increase online revenues and accelerate new business opportunities.
  6. LIVEBUY GmbH is an online shopping solution for leading retailers that provides both the technology and the right creators to build a successful content platform within online shops.
  7. Priceloop has developed an AI to facilitate and automate the pricing process, offering the best prices taking into account all the essential parameters.
  8. Replika Software is a turnkey social selling solution. It enables brands to activate a network of social sellers with a turnkey business to inspire on social media, sell online and connect with customers.
  9. Shopreme GmbH is developing a technology called “Scan & Go” that brings the benefits of online shopping to real shops including speed, ease of payment, personalized recommendations, shared shopping lists, and more.
  10. SmartPixels provides a 3D product configuration and visualization tool to help fashion and luxury brands create personalized and interactive experiences online and in-store.
  11. SMARTZER LTD’s platform is used by brands to transform their videos and live streams into interactive and actionable experiences, allowing them to get direct ROI from content and measure detailed data from video interactions.
  12. YZR automates and accelerates all of its customers’ text data projects with a powerful solution based on automatic language processing.

If you want to learn more about this program, check out the SAP.iO Foundry Paris website or get in touch with the team.

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/.

SAP.iO Foundries Sustainability Spotlight: Inspectorio Modernizes Manufacturing Inspections

The collapse of the garment factory in Bangladesh that killed more than 1100 people was a wake-up call to the manufacturing and inspection industries. The brothers behind Inspectorio are pioneering software to ensure transparency and worker safety.

It was a moment of truth. In 2013, the Rana Plaza garment factory in Bangladesh collapsed, killing more than 1100 people, injuring thousands of others and making headlines as one of the deadliest industrial disasters in history. Found in the rubble alongside bodies were tags and labels identifying well-known top clothing manufacturers. The companies generally claimed, believably, that they’d had no idea the workers had been made to work under such dangerous conditions. The accident—incongruous, inhumane, inciting disgust—shook the industry to its core.

What wasn’t so obvious: The solution.

Factory inspection and audit software provider Inspectorio, at the time, was just a twinkle in the Moncayo Castillo brothers’ eyes. Carlos, Luis and Fernando, Ecuadorian-born businessmen, had distinguished themselves in other areas, from their prestigious university educations to serial entrepreneurial track records founding companies internationally. They were well aware the supply chain issues they’d faced, however challenging and expensive, were minor compared to Rana Plaza’s human tragedy. But they believed the issues were all connected.

The inspections industry was rife with corruption and incompetence. The Moncayo Castillos had taken a step to address the problem when they’d brought inspections, which are often performed by third-party agencies, in house at Asiam, the responsible sourcing agency they co-founded in 2004. That was in 2011. The solution had been a success to the point that it led to a new Asiam division, one focused on performing inspections for other companies as well. Then one of those companies complained about an order from a manufacturer, in 2015.

The brothers found themselves unable to adequately answer this customer’s questions about why an inspection had led to subpar product quality. “The client said, ‘I need you to prove to me how your employees are performing inspections,” recalls Fernando. “But the fact is we didn’t have a tool where we could see, ‘This is the exact moment where the inspector was in this place. This is how many minutes, how many seconds they spent.’” Transparency and accountability were lacking.

It was an industry wide problem, the brothers knew. Even Asiam had been using nothing more than digital cameras, pens and paper to record information in factories and other facilities. They decided to change things for everyone—or at least give them the option to do better. The Castillo Moncayos created the Inspectorio platform initially as a simple app. Today, it’s a sophisticated software-as-a-service product used by companies including Target and Crocs to help with everything from quality control and production efficiency to meeting environmental rule standards. Instead of having information stored in separate silos by factories, suppliers, retailers, brands and inspectors, it’s all now, via the cloud, in one place. Inspectorio’s Machine Learning and AI capabilities offer analysis of the data that helps customers increase efficiency, reduce costs, and optimize eco-consciousness.

Inspectorio didn’t reach such heights on its own. The Moncayo Castillos took advantage of mentorship from Boulder-based TechStars, their VC-investors, and Apple along the way. But their recent participation in the SAP.iO Foundries cohort focused on consumer and retail sustainability was transformative.

“When we talk about brands and retailers it’s not a quality issue alone anymore that we need to be concerned with,” says Fernando. “We need to talk about responsible sourcing, and that requires companies to be compliant on the social side, the environmental side, and others. So we wanted to improve on sustainability, and SAP was already leading the way.” The brothers liked its commitment to issues like zero waste and decarbonization within its own ranks, but also the way it helps clients achieve such goals via access to tools from startups that take part in its accelerator. Such companies are featured in the SAP store.

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SAP.iO Accelerator Breeds Standout Innovation Startups

A group of startups that are part of the SAP.iO accelerator program featured prominently in the recent Innovation Path startup competition at Cloud Wars Expo:

  • The overall winner (Wisy) is an SAP.iO company
  • 3 of the top 6 were from SAP.iO
  • 11 SAP.iO companies participated

Given the success of these SAP.iO participants, I wanted to get more insights into the workings of the program. So I connected with Max Kahn, the director of SAP.iO Foundries (the startup partnership arm of the expansive program) to discuss the program, the process of identifying startups to include, as well as how SAP.iO and the startups work together to foster growth for these innovators.

SAP.iO launched in 2017 and, since then, has invested in 450 startups, 165 of which have solutions that are currently live and listed in the SAP store. More than 270 of those companies remain SAP partners.

It initially included a venture capital investment arm that would contribute pre-seed and seed rounds of funding. The focus has since shifted to place greater emphasis on supporting companies in the program in other ways besides financial backing. By downplaying investments, the company avoids conflicts of interest as it continues to build out an open ecosystem of software partners.

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Cookie Apocalypse or Golden Opportunity?

How to Win in the Era of Consumer-First Privacy Regulations and Changes

“How to succeed in the ‘New Era of Data Privacy’?” — it’s a pressing concern for brand leaders around the world. In many ways, third-party cookies were the foundation of the web as we know it today. But that bedrock is giving way, thanks to rising global concern and scrutiny over data protection, stricter governance (GDPR, CCPA, PIPL, LGPD), and the ensuing policy reforms (kicked off by internet giants Apple and Google, who are phasing out cookies). Simultaneously, as noted by Forbes, we’re facing new frontiers with the vast amounts of consumer data generated and the technologies to leverage it. So with the entire industry on shaky ground, what should marketers be doing now?

This exact topic was the focus of a panel I moderated last month, at the Viva Technology conference in Paris. For the session, I was joined by experts Taylor Donnell (Vice President of Content & Partner Marketing at Jebbit) and Kris Dimitroff (Global Head of Technology Partnerships at Emarsys, an SAP company). Following are selected questions and answers from that panel discussion.

[A short background before starting: Jebbit is an SAP partner and SAP.iO Foundry graduate. Jebbit’s solution empowers businesses to securely and transparently collect first- and zero-party data from their customers via interactive quizzes, and it’s integrated with SAP Emarsys and SAP Customer Data Cloud. Emarsys is an industry-leading customer engagement platform trusted by innovative brands across the globe and was acquired by SAP in 2020.]

Taylor, before we jump into challenges, can you please explain what is “Zero-party data”?

Taylor Donnell: We often associate first-party data with consumer’s behavioral and transactional data. What they clicked or swiped-up on, opened, viewed, and purchased. First-party data is incredibly valuable for brands but with it, comes inferences and assumptions. It’s hard to know for sure if a consumer was shopping for themselves. Was that golf club they just bought for themselves or for their dad as a Father’s Day gift? Zero-party data differs from first-party data because it’s explicit. It’s data that’s coming directly from the consumer as they raise their hand and self-declare that these are my interests and preferences.

Zero-party data is important because it gives the user control over the data they share, or don’t share with a business about their preferences, needs, motivations, intentions, and more. They opt-in to engage and share more information about themselves versus all of these things running in the background that are tracking them.

Often, businesses try to collect consumer preference data using traditional survey tools which aren’t all that engaging for consumers, often include too many questions, and are one-way, meaning the brand wants to take inventory of how consumers feel about their brand. This results in low engagement and even lower completion rates.

Taylor, how can Jebbit help brands to “win in the era of consumer-first privacy regulations and changes”?

Taylor Donnell: GDPR and CCPA were the first big changes — requiring businesses to be crystal clear about the data they were collecting and how it was being used, and even giving users the ability to enact their right to be forgotten so that the business didn’t share or sell their data.

And more recently, Apple and Google have made significant changes to protect consumer’s privacy but [at the same time] are impacting bottom-line revenue and market share for businesses and brands.

By using Jebbit, our clients can create beautiful, interactive quizzes and experiences that capture zero-party data at scale and that look/feel like the brand running the experience (without touching a line of code). For example, a retail or beauty brand might create a “Find the right product for you” quiz and embed it right on their homepage. Consumers answer 5-7 questions and get matched to only the most relevant products, based on what they told the brand as they engaged.

We’re experts––with the expertise built into the software––at capturing and sustaining user attention. The proof here being [that] our average experience completion rate is 85% or more. So we have businesses capturing hundreds of millions of these attributes, and some far less but focusing only on the attributes that matter most to power more relevant interactions with their consumers.

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