Business-software maker SAP SE this month plans to start offering a partner company’s artificial-intelligence software to help customers comply with data-privacy regulations, including the sweeping California law that takes effect in January.
The SAP.iO Foundry Berlin kicked off a dedicated financial technology (fintech) program with participants consisting of business-to-business startups focused on finance and governance, risk and compliance (GRC), SAP SE (NYSE: SAP) said today.
With the growing complexity of regulatory laws impacting enterprises, startup solutions and innovations will help optimize enterprise resource planning processes and address customer needs. In a recent report by Deloitte, cost reduction and increased regulatory scrutiny were the main drivers of a significant increase in spending on enterprise risk management. With more than 56 percent of organizations using, or planning to use, cloud-based platforms, enterprises are looking for intelligent, real-time, actionable solutions to meet their improved efficiency goals.
These startups are joining the SAP.iO Foundry Berlin program for Fall 2019:
- Hanko provides Fast Identity Online (FIDO)-based identity and authentication as a service. The startup is founded in Germany.
- troy is a German-based startup that uses machine learning and artificial intelligence to combine successful debt collection with customer relationship management.
- Iristrace is transforming the management of business risk into business value by providing risk strategy validation. The startup is headquartered in the Netherlands.
- PXL Vision is a Swiss startup for creating and managing trusted, verified digital identities.
- Aividens is a Belgian startup that provides predictive cash and risk management to improve cash accuracy, reduce overdue debts and improve operational efficiency and customer satisfaction.
- Spherity, a German startup, combines unique identifiers with verifiable data to offer out-of-the-box cloud wallet capabilities.
At SAP, collaboration is not only an invaluable tool for progress, but a key advantage that continuously benefits our customers, employees, partners, and communities at large. The latest example of our commitment to co-innovation is the SAP.iO Foundry Munich, which has just launched its first accelerator program. As the second SAP.iO Foundry to open in Germany, it seeks to leverage a rich ecosystem devoted to inclusive entrepreneurship, technological expertise, and enablement.
Out of over 150 applicants, seven impressive startups were chosen to take part in our Fall 2019 Commerce and Marketing program. We are excited to introduce the SAP.iO Foundry Munich’s first cohort:
8select
E-Commerce has to be a human experience
8select is a plug-and-play software solution offering a curated shopping engine (CSE) to online retailers enabling them to personalize product recommendations for end consumers. It allows retailers to cross-sell by publishing automatically curated product sets (such as outfits) along the customer journey.
Dotaki
Boosting conversion with AI-enhanced user experience
Dotaki takes conversion rates to the next level for online merchants by using artificial intelligence to personalize digital content and experience according to each individual visitor’s method of making purchasing decisions.
presize.ai
Mobile Body Scanning Software for Fashion E-Commerce
presize.ai provides mobile body scanning software for fashion e-commerce, creating a more enjoyable experience by matching the best-fitting clothes with shoppers’ unique body reality apps for web.
parcelLab
Make customers happy again.
parcellab is a cloud-based service that helps brands provide a personalized and branded customer experience during checkout, shipping and return processes.
rapitag
IoT solutions for unique customer experiences
rapitag is a leading provider of secure mobile checkout and unique customer experiences in retail. rapitag offers the world’s first patented antitheft IoT security tags for one-click buying, helping retailers to connect and digitalize their physical stores.
Expivi
Configure your products in 3D and AR
Expivi is an interactive and visual e-commerce platform that generates an immersive shopping experience with instant 3D configurations and artificial reality. Businesses are able to upgrade their online stores by using Expivi on their own existing marketplace.
ViewAR
One system — unlimited possibilities
ViewAR offers a platform-independent system for easy and robust creation of augmented reality apps for web and mobile use.
Depuis quelques années, le retail subit une transformation spectaculaire, accompagné par une poignée de startups entièrement dédiées à l’amélioration de l’expérience shopping. Maddyness vous présente trois d’entre-elles, tout droit sorties de la deuxième promotion de SAP.iO Foundry Paris.
Silicon Valley-headquartered fintech Flowcast has raised USD 3 million in its Series A round co-led by ING Ventures and Bitrock Capital, the company said in an official statement. The company has an Asia and Pacific (APAC) office in Singapore and is currently participating in SAP.iO Foundry Singapore, the accelerator established by the German software giant SAP.
John Estafanous always wanted to be a lawyer, until he realized his overwhelming passions were for team building and technology. So he ended up back in the startup world, launching RallyBright.
As CEO of this cloud-based performance management startup, Estafanous believes that RallyBright could not come at a more opportune time.
“With far more diverse and often distributed workforces, companies need new tools to understand the collective work experience and its impact on team performance,” said Estafanous. “We are democratizing management consulting and coaching, giving managers transparency in how they manage and lead.”
Offering team building for workplaces roiled by change, the name of the platform is appropriately named: Resilient Teams.
”We measure resiliency by how well a team engages with diversity, sustains performance, rebounds from setbacks quickly, and learns and grows from the experience,” said Estafanous. “That’s how the highest-level teams perform. You see a problem, engage with it, and persist together through thick and thin.”
Blog Written by Inbar Yacoby
With the immense potential in the entrepreneurial spirit of Europe and as part of SAP’s strategy, I’m very excited to share the news that SAP.iO recently announced the launch of its first accelerator program in Tel Aviv. SAP.iO Foundry Tel Aviv further expands SAP’s operations in Israel and reflects SAP’s commitment to the dynamic Israeli high-tech ecosystem where we have been active for more than two decades, currently employing approximately 800 developers in our R&D centers in Ra’anana and Tel Aviv.
We are excited to collaborate with amazing entrepreneurs and welcome the following startups to our SAP.iO Foundry Tel Aviv Fall program:
Predictive Analytics using Augmented Reality
ARpalus helps CPG and retailers understand and predict their shoppers’ preferences using an AR-simulation platform, measuring real behavioral patterns and delivering AI-optimized in-store execution.
A no-code smart form builder that empowers enterprises to quickly convert paper forms and clunky PDFs into compliant eForms with deep-analytics in less than two weeks.
EasySend serves over forty enterprise customers, including leading financial institutions and insurance companies in the US, Germany, Japan and Israel. EasySend’s has been adopted by over 90% of the Israeli financial and insurance market and tier-1 US and German financial
Online coaching platform for enterprise employees.
GrowthSpace replaces traditional employee training, like workshops or seminars, with personalized 1X1 training. Using technology, GrowthSpace offers personalized training at the cost of traditional training. Users hold one-on-one video coaching sessions targeted at a specific professional challenge.
A direct mail platform that bridges the gap between offline and online campaigns.
Outgage is a software-as-a-service (SaaS) marketing direct-mail platform that makes a connection between offline and online campaigns to create personalized brand experiences, for effective conversations between enterprises and their customers.
Sales decisions hub for online retailers
Silverback is an AI-driven sales decision hub for online retailers, empowering them to offer the top-performing products at the most competitive price and optimize promotions to massively boost sales.
Building the world’s leading fast and easy self-checkout system using AI loss prevention technology.
Supersmart provides the world’s first scan-and-go solution with advanced loss prevention capabilities, enabling consumers to instantly check out their fully-loaded cart or basket and have a positive customer experience.
We Change the Way Vendors and Consumers Connect.
YOUTILIGENT uses machine learning and the Internet of Things to enable vendors and service providers to change the way they communicate with their appliances, through a new connected consumer solution.
Plum, the Waterloo-based startup that uses AI to help organizations hire and retain talent, has raised a $4.2 million ($5.57 million CAD) seed round.
This raise comes as Plum has shifted focus within the last year from talent acquisition to now offering tools to help companies understand and make predictions about their entire workforce. Plum is also focused on offering those services exclusively for large enterprise customers, rather small-and-medium-businesses (SMBs).
The round was led by Real Ventures with participation from BDC Capital’s Women in Technology Fund, and SAP’s venture fund SAP.iO. The seed funding brings Plum’s total funding to date to $6.1 million USD ($8 million CAD), with the previous financing coming from Plum’s angel investor round.
Plum works closely with SAP and integrates with SAP SuccessFactors, the company’s cloud-based human resource management system. MacGregor explained that the shift in focus was directly related to that partnership, and becoming a SAP.io portfolio company. She noted that SAP encouraged Plum to use its predictive AI to help address the needs of current, as well as incoming, employees.
Plum, a SaaS (software-as-a-service) firm specializing in providing enterprises with the data they need to quantify the potential of their employees, recently revealed that it had raised $4.2 Million in seed funding. Real Ventures, a Venture Capitalist company committed to future-focused startups led the funding for Plum. Adding in the funding it received in the Angel round, the total now moves up to $6.1Million.
The company made the announcement at SuccessConnect Las Vegas, the annual user conference from SAP SuccessFactors. The conference is aimed at helping HR professionals and Senior Business Leaders solve challenges relating to the workforce and predict future trends in order to take anticipatory actions. The other investors for Plum include SAP.iO and BDC Capital’s Women in Technology Venture Fund. Plum’s app integrates with SAP SuccessFactors Recruiting, which is a part of the HCM suite.
The startup journey is hard. Data shows that 70% of upstart tech companies fail, while only 1% of these startups will go on to gain unicorn status. Success in enterprise software often requires deep industry experience, strong networks, brutally-efficient execution, and a bit of luck. This panel brings together three successful SAP.iO Fund-backed enterprise startups for an open discussion on lessons learned, challenges of scaling, and why the right strategic investors or partners can be beneficial even at early-stages
Plum, a software-as-a-service company that provides enterprise organizations with the data they need to quantify the potential of their workforce, announced today that it has raised $4.2M in seed funding. In combination with their previous Angel round, Plum has raised a total of $6.1M to date.
The $4.2M round was led by Real Ventures, a Venture Capitalist firm dedicated to future-focused startups that create new categories. “Over the next decade, people will need to be assigned and trained for new jobs on a scale that has never been seen,” said Janet Bannister, Partner at Real Ventures. “McKinsey claims that 400 to 800 million jobs will disappear due to automation in the next 15 years. At the same time, 85% of jobs that will exist in 2030 do not exist today.”
Bannister went on to say, “Plum is the only provider of scientifically-validated, predictive data that can scale to get every person in the right job for the future of work – which is why we believe that Plum is posed to not only be a huge company, but also make a significant, positive impact on millions of lives.”
Other investors include SAP.iO and BDC Capital’s Women in Technology Venture Fund. Plum’s app integrates with SAP® SuccessFactors® Recruiting, which is a part of the human capital management suite.
“An employee’s success in a role depends not only on an employee’s hard skills but also their intangible characteristics,” said Dr. Ram Jambunathan, SVP & Managing Director of SAP.iO. “But today, businesses still rely on traditional measures and assessments that are often prone to subjective biases. The SAP.iO Fund invested in Plum so our customers could build the full picture of their employee’s capabilities. Through Plum’s integration with SAP® SuccessFactors®, businesses can now drive the complete talent management experience that employees want and need for long-term success.”
BigID, the leader in data-centric personal data privacy and protection, today announced the BigID Momentum Value Added Reseller (VAR) Program. The program enables resellers to easily add BigID’s data discovery, intelligence and privacy automation products to their portfolio to capture new revenue streams as companies comply with global privacy regulations like California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) and the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). The BigID VAR program will enhance the company’s market presence globally, accelerating sales growth in critical territories like Europe, Latin America and Asia-Pacific.
Inaugural VAR partners include Optiv, SHI, Navilogic, NextID, GDM Sweden, Optimitri Mexico and Dunlap, Bennett & Ludwig.
BigID will support VARs with a full enablement kit, facilitated by a dedicated portal. VARs will gain immediate access to deal registration program, training, sales management tools, and joint marketing program support for webinars, events, and related activities and collateral.
SAP announced the first SAP.iO Foundry program in Munich with seven business-to-business technology startups creating innovative software that integrates with SAP’s marketing and commerce cloud solutions.
SAP.iO Foundry Munich is part of SAP’s innovation strategy and is designed to provide the startups with access to curated mentorship, exposure to SAP technology and application programmable interfaces (APIs), and opportunities to collaborate with SAP customers.
The startups in the Munich cohort were selected based on their ability to:
- Enhance customer experiences in commerce and marketing
- Apply emerging technologies, such as machine learning, artificial intelligence, the Internet of Things (IoT) and augmented reality, that unlock enterprise data and drive outsized outcomes
- Acquire customers and show readiness to scale
“The SAP.iO expansion to Munich is a signature commitment to the German startup ecosystem,” said Deepak Krishnamurthy, SAP chief strategy and transformation officer. “We will empower the startups to deliver value to our customers and, at the same time, build a compelling ecosystem around SAP C/4HANA and customer experience solutions.”
The SAP.iO Foundry Munich cohort includes the following startups:
- ViewAR offers a platform-independent system for easy and robust creation of augmented reality apps for web and mobile use.
- presize.ai provides mobile body scanning software for fashion e-commerce, creating a more enjoyable experience by matching the best-fitting clothes with shoppers’ unique body reality apps for web.
- parcelLab is a cloud-based service that helps brands provide a personalized and branded customer experience during checkout, shipping and return processes.
- 8select is a plug-and-play software solution offering a curated shopping engine (CSE) to online retailers enabling them to personalize product recommendations for end consumers. It allows retailers to cross-sell by publishing automatically curated product sets (such as outfits) along the customer journey.
- Dotaki takes conversion rates to the next level for online merchants by using artificial intelligence to personalize digital content and experience according to each individual visitor’s method of making purchasing decisions.
- rapitag is a leading provider of secure mobile checkout and unique customer experiences in retail. rapitag offers the world’s first patented antitheft IoT security tags for one-click buying, helping retailers to connect and digitalize their physical stores.
- Expivi is an interactive and visual e-commerce platform that generates an immersive shopping experience with instant 3D configurations and artificial reality. Businesses are able to upgrade their online stores by using Expivi on their own existing marketplace.
SAP announced the names of the seven Israeli startups that will take part in the first accelerator program at SAP.iO Foundry Tel Aviv.
The SAP.iO program is part of SAP’s innovation strategy and designed to accelerate early-stage business-to-business (B2B) startups that build innovative software and deliver high value for SAP’s customers.
“This foundry is part of a wider and exclusive network of similar programs we have created throughout the United States,” said Alexa Gorman, head of SAP.iO Foundries EMEA. “SAP.iO Foundry Tel Aviv reflects SAP’s commitment to the dynamic Israeli high-tech ecosystem.”
Startups will have access to curated mentorship, exposure to SAP technology and application programming interfaces (APIs), and opportunities to collaborate with SAP customers.
“The selected startups will have our support and access to our technology expertise,” said Orna Kleinmann, managing director at SAP Labs Israel and SVP, Technology & Innovation Cloud Experience. “We believe in their ability to offer a variety of advanced solutions for SAP’s customers.”
The SAP.iO Foundry Tel Aviv cohort includes the following startups:
- ARpalus is an augmented reality (AR) and predictive analytics retail technology startup that builds an AI@XR platform for automatic collection and deep analysis of large-scale data on shopper behavior.
- EasySend helps financial enterprises improve customer experience and increase operational efficiency using EasySend’s cloud-based, drag-and-drop, no-code platform to quickly and easily build 100% digital, omnichannel-accessible customer-facing processes.
- GrowthSpace replaces traditional one-to-many learning and development using tailored online coaching platform for enterprise employees. Users hold one-on-one video coaching sessions targeted at specific career objectives.
- Outgage is a software-as-a-service (SaaS) marketing direct-mail platform bridging the gap between offline and online campaigns to create personalized brand experiences, for effective conversations between enterprises and their customers.
- Silverback is an online sales intelligence platform that relies on cross-marketplace analytics to enable online marketplaces, stores, sellers and brands to monitor product sales across different e-commerce sites.
- Supersmart provides the world’s first scan-and-go solution with advanced loss prevention capabilities, enabling consumers to instantly check out their fully loaded cart or basket and have a positive customer experience.
- YOUTILIGENT uses machine learning and the Internet of Things to enable vendors and service providers to change the way they communicate with their appliances, through a new connected consumer solution.
Everywhere I turn, I hear concerns about technology and workforce automation causing job losses. For employers, however, it seems that the real worry lies not in eliminating but retaining their workforce.
How can they prepare their existing talent pool – and their organizations – to thrive in the new economy? How can they deal with the impending mass migration of jobs toward those requiring new skills?
Those are the fundamental questions that emerged from my discussion with Emily Lambert, Content Marketing specialist at Plum, Inc. Plum offers a solution, also called Plum, that is now available on SAP App Center. It uses the precepts of industrial and organizational psychology combined with – you guessed it – artificial intelligence (AI) to help organizations hire, grow, and retain top talent.
