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In Foundries, Tel Aviv, Featured, Sustainability, Announcements

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/.

In Foundries, New York, Featured, HR & People Engagement, Announcements

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/.

In Foundries, Munich, Featured, Announcements

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

October 11, 2022 — SAP 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/.

In Foundries, Paris

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.”

Read Original Article Here…

In Awards, Foundries

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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In Foundries, Awards

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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In Sustainability, Announcements, Latin America, Foundries, Featured

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/.

In Announcements, Foundries, Berlin, HR & People Engagement

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

September 26, 2022 – SAP 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/.

 

 

In Foundries, Paris, Consumer Industries, CRM & Customer Experience, Announcements

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/.

In Supply Chain Management, Foundries, New York

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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In Foundries, Global, Featured

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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In Foundries, Featured

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.

Read Full Article Here…

In Foundries

Case Study: givvable completes SAP’s accelerator program, SAP.iO Foundry

Digital Nation Australia spoke to Frances Atkins, director and co-founder of givvable about how SAP’s accelerator helped the business to accelerate growth across new markets.

Supplier sustainability data platform givvable has integrated into SAP’s Data Warehouse Cloud Marketplace after completing the corporate’s accelerator program, SAP.iO Foundry.

Digital Nation Australia spoke to Frances Atkins, director and co-founder of givvable about how SAP’s accelerator helped the business to accelerate growth across new markets.

According to Atkins, givvable’s mission to help businesses translate their sustainability targets for procurement and sourcing was aligned to SAP’s recognition of the role of data in the shift to sustainable business.

“If a business has set a science based target, we help them to identify the suppliers in their supply chain who have also set science based targets or have credentials around climate action. For example, they may be climate neutral, certified, or climate positive. Or they’re taking actions to reduce their emissions year on year,” said Atkins.

“When you’re talking about thousands of suppliers and you’re talking about the breadth of sustainability targets, we knew that data was going to inform all of this.”

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In Foundries, Interview, Dynamic Content, Inspiring Innovators

Inspiring Innovators: Chris Motley Founder & CEO Mentor Spaces, On remembering “Who do you do this for?”

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 founders, CEOs, and presidents 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 Chris

Chris Motley grew up on the South Side of Chicago and was fortunate to be a part of organizations that helped put him on a path to access educational opportunities. That access led to graduation from Columbia University with a B.A. in History, and the Kellogg School of Management, with an MBA in Entrepreneurship. Chris founded a global textile manufacturing business where he spent six years leading its expansion into Ghana, Africa, and building its apparel division.

When we asked Chris about what he wanted to be when he grew up, he smiled and listed all the things he thought he might be, ranging from a basketball player to a judge. The takeaway was that Chris wanted to be the things he was exposed to as a child. What he saw, the people he met, and his connections contributed to his journey and gave him a unique way of looking at the world. He would come to learn how important all this was, and it would guide his future focus and desire to give back.

Previously, Chris spent four years at Goldman Sachs as a Commodities and Interest Rate product trader. Upon reflection on his journey, he thought about what people do when they are not exposed or have access to the same opportunities he was afforded. How do you reach your potential if you are not exposed to opportunities? How does one find support, mentors, and resources to learn about what could be?

When Chris asked these questions, he realized there was a need to provide these resources on a much larger scale. After learning a lot on Wall Street and building a company in Ghana, now was the time to launch Mentor Spaces to address the need in the marketplace for mentorship of underrepresented populations. Mentor Spaces is a venture-backed, community-driven mentorship platform designed to help companies scale DEI efforts while advancing the careers of underrepresented talent. The platform facilitates career conversations between employees and prospective candidates to streamline diverse talent acquisition and retention. This technology allows you to have conversations with people who can help you get where you want to go.

“What I found as we did a tremendous amount of research, in addition to my personal story, was that part of the issue is a lack of confidence among underrepresented populations, and part of that lack of confidence is driven by simply not knowing people and vetted resources that would help. We concluded that mentorship is a good way to build confidence and expand one’s network, and what’s unique about our approach is that we look at mentorship as a strategy that helps our customers accomplish their goals. Most companies have shifted to focus on a strategy around talent attraction, advancement, and retention.”

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In Foundries, Announcements, Latin America

SAP doubles its commitment to innovation in Latin America

The company concludes the third phase of expansion of SAP Labs in São Leopoldo, Brazil, and announces SAP.iO Foundry, the first initiative in the region to strengthen support for start-ups.

Miami, USA.  June 20, 2022 – To celebrate its 50 years of global innovation and 28 years of commitment to the development of Latin American companies, SAP announced two relevant investments to promote innovation further in the region.

The first initiative has to do with the third expansion of SAP Labs Latin America, its innovation, research and development center that has been in operation for 16 years and is located in São Leopoldo, in the metropolitan region of Porto Alegre, Southern Brazil. With an investment of 35 million euros, the new unit built in this center will add about 850 people to its campus, reaching a total of 2,000 employees with 20 different nationalities. The expansion will also create 200 indirect jobs.

The São Leopoldo site is the first and only SAP Labs center in Latin America, and one of the company’s 14 in the world, designed to support the growing demand of companies for innovative cloud solutions.

The purpose of SAP Labs is to develop solutions with the highest standards to help organizations address major business challenges, including sustainability programs that enable them to measure the impact of their initiatives, management and control of energy consumption, waste management, producer responsibility policies, and high-capacity cloud management technologies.

“In addition to helping companies in the region on their digital transformation journey, another great contribution of SAP Labs is that it supports them in the design of their sustainability strategies, working with experts from around the world to create agile and powerful technologies that have sustainable drivers at the center of everything,” said Dennison John, president of SAP Labs Latin America.

Furthermore, the company announces the launch of the first SAP.iO Foundry in the region to accelerate start-ups across all lines of business and industries. The accelerator will also be based in São Leopoldo, with a virtual presence throughout the region.

SAP.iO Foundries is the company’s global network of external start-up accelerators with no capital demand. It provides technical and marketing support to help new companies become part of a curated ecosystem: its offerings become easily accessible to SAP customers.

“This launch is a turning point in our commitment to innovation in Latin America,” said Cristina Palmaka, president of SAP Latin America and the Caribbean. “All over the world, SAP.iO Foundries enhance the innovative impact of start-ups, offering expertise and insights, multiplying their chances of success. In a region like ours, with so many entrepreneurs, this new support will make a huge difference.”

The first call to take part in the SAP.iO Foundry will be launched in September 2022 and will focus on one of the most thriving industries in the region: sustainability in agriculture. Start-ups that wish to apply for SAP.iO Foundry can do so here until July 22.

Since its launch in 2017, SAP.iO Foundries have contributed to the acceleration of more than 400 startups around the world through its 10 funds in strategic cities such as San Francisco, New York, Berlin, Munich, Paris, Tel Aviv, Singapore, Tokyo, Bangalore, Shanghai, and now São Leopoldo.

About SAP

SAP’s strategy is to help every business run as an intelligent, sustainable enterprise. As a market leader in enterprise application software, we help companies of all sizes and in all industries run at their best: SAP customers generate 87% of total global commerce. Our machine learning, Internet of Things (IoT), and advanced analytics technologies help turn customers’ businesses into intelligent enterprises. SAP helps give people and organizations deep business insight and fosters collaboration that helps them stay ahead of their competition. We simplify technology for companies so they can consume our software the way they want – without disruption. Our end-to-end suite of applications and services enables business and public customers across 25 industries globally to operate profitably, adapt continuously, and make a difference. With a global network of customers, partners, employees, and thought leaders, SAP helps the world run better and improve people’s lives. For more information, visit www.sap.com, our press room, http://news.sap.com/latinamerica, or follow us on Twitter @SAPNoticiasLAC.