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In Press, Article, Supply Chain Management

Verusen named a Top 10 Innovative Technology Companies in Georgia

The Technology Association of Georgia (TAG) has announced the Top 10 Innovative Technology Companies in Georgia. 

The Top 10 companies were selected from the Top 40 Innovative Technology Companies competition, sponsored by Comcast Businessand Cherry Bekaert, and will present at the 2021 Georgia Technology Summit on April 28 – 29.

“These companies demonstrate the amazing talent and innovation in Georgia’s technology industry today,” said Dennis Zakas, Georgia’s Top 40 Innovative Company Awards Chair. “We are eager to watch them continue to grow and contribute to Georgia’s economy.”

The 2021 Top 10 Innovative Companies are:

  • Codoxo, Chamblee – Codoxo builds AI solutions that help healthcare companies and agencies identify problems and act quickly to control costs with artificial intelligence.
  • Florence Healthcare, Midtown – Florence Healthcare is the leading platform for remote connectivity and electronic document workflow management in clinical research, with more than 8,500 research sites, sponsors and CROs in 30 countries.
  • MileAuto, Midtown – Mile Auto is a pay-per-mile auto insurance company using patented computer vision technologies to help low mileage drivers save money.
  • PadSplit, Downtown – PadSplit is an affordable housing tech startup that provides a house-sharing service for the workforce.
  • Roadie, Buckhead – Roadie is a same-day delivery platform that connects people with stuff to send to drivers already heading in the right direction.
  • Stord, Midtown – Stord operates the leading North American omnichannel logistics network using end-to-end logistics services designed to move product rapidly to your end customer—B2B or B2C—with pay-as-you-go pricing and infinite scalability.
  • Ternio, Alpharetta – Ternio is a global fintech platform built on blockchain that connects traditional enterprise, fintech, banking, systems with blockchain infrastructure giving real world utility to digital assets.
  • Verusen, Midtown – Verusen is a Supply Chain Intelligence company focused on materials management that uses AI to provide complex global supply chains material truth for data, inventory optimization and procurement intelligence.
  • Voxie, Alpharetta – Voxie is the conversational text marketing leader that helps retail, service, and restaurant passion brands connect with and learn from their customers in order to drive repeat purchase.
  • Ware2Go, Buckhead – Ware2Go, a UPS Company, is changing the traditional 3PL model to make 1-2-day delivery easy and affordable for all merchants.

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In Article, Berlin, Consumer Industries

Fashion Tech India: Real-Time AI Data Drives Competitive Retail Advantage

Consumer fashion may be among the most unpredictable markets on the planet, but one startup in India has created an AI-based demand sensing platform that combines the brilliance of data scientists with seasoned industry experts to ferret out trends with uncanny accuracy. The idea is to close the gap between supply and demand.

“We help companies create demand-driven fashion forecasts from consumer data across a holistic value chain,” Ganesh Subramanian, founder and CEO at Stylumia. “Our demand sensing engine collects and analyzes publicly available global data to rank product trends, providing fashion designers, retail buyers, and merchandisers with a much deeper understanding of real-time consumer demand signals.”

More profitable and sustainable business

Forecasting fickle consumer appetites for unseen products has long stymied the most experienced minds in the fashion world. Stylumia can reveal breaking trends, allowing people to make design and merchandising decisions perfectly in synch. This can reduce underbuying and overbuying.

According to Subramanian, the typical Stylumia customer has improved the prediction accuracy of style and color levels by up to 30 percent, and increased sales and revenue between 25 to 50 percent, compared to the performance of products not designed and merchandized using the platform. Customers have also reduced excess inventory and carbon footprint levels by an aggregated average of up to 40 percent.

“When products are selling well, companies have less stock and are able to lower their carbon footprint because they’re using fewer resources, while generating the same amount of revenue,” he said. “Since our founding, we have reduced the number of garments that our customers have produced by over 60 million, while their sales and profits have grown.”

Consumer intelligence research on steroids

From its headquarters in India, to hubs in Australia, the United States, and the UK, Stylumia’s teams work with fashion, sports, and lifestyle brands that represent companies of all sizes worldwide.

Instead of brainstorming solely by intuition, designers and buyers log into their personalized portal to storyboard ideas using Stylumia’s AI-fueled algorithm or their own images for design inspiration. As they select colors, materials, patterns, and other product features, Stylumia instantly surfaces trending demands against the designer’s ideas. They can view similar products, see where selling levels are highest, and save and share their ideas with colleagues.

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In Press, Supply Chain Management

Predicting ETAS Accurately

Through a global partnership with French transportation visibility specialist Shippeo, Krone Telematics can now accurately predict the estimated time of arrival (ETA) for every shipment. The collaboration is expected to yield further innovations.

Up to twelve hours in advance, the Krone Telematics technical monitoring system can accurately predict the arrival time of a truck. A cooperation with the European leader in real-time transportation visibility Shippeo makes this precise information possible. The estimated time of arrival (ETA) for a truck is much more difficult to calculate than for private parcel shipments, for example. This is because, in addition to traffic and weather conditions, it is influenced by many other parameters such as the duration of loading and unloading. Shippeo achieves the most accurate prediction of ETA on the market with machine learning and an algorithm that takes over 200 parameters into account. For Krone’s customers, this means they get reliable information about their shipments that they can use for planning and increasing efficiency.

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In Berlin, Press Release, Munich, Consumer Industries, Energy & Natural Resources, CRM & Customer Experience

SAP.iO Launches Sustainable Future Accelerator Program with Accenture to Drive Startup and Partner Innovation

SAP.iO kicked off a global sustainability-focused accelerator program alongside Accenture at SAP.iO Foundries Berlin and Munich. The Sustainable Future program aims to help early-stage B2B startups get up and running quickly to enable companies across multiple industries to address sustainability challenges and create a positive impact on both industry and society.

Sustainable Future is the largest SAP.iO cohort to date. Thirteen startups have been selected to work with SAP.iO Foundries Berlin and Munich, in tandem with Accenture experts and leading companies in various industries.

“To address global challenges such as climate change, businesses must partner on all levels and across organizations, industries and regions,” said Daniel Schmid, SAP chief sustainability officer. “Teaming up with Accenture to accelerate early-stage startups is part of our holistic innovation approach to integrate new solutions in our portfolio that help our customers understand and improve their environmental and societal impact.”

Sustainable Future is an equity-free program that seeks to propel digital transformation and corporate-startup innovation in four target areas including carbon tracking and trading, resource efficiency, climate risk tracking and mitigation, and circular economy. The program builds upon SAP and Accenture’s long-standing partnership and shared commitment to using technology to help the world build a more sustainable future.

“Our clients are increasingly turning to technology to enable sustainability agendas across their business and deliver on their purpose-based missions to drive value for their stakeholders,” said Caspar Borggreve, global lead for the Accenture SAP Business Group. “Together with SAP, we are helping startups bring innovation to life with solutions and services that allow companies to raise the bar by integrating sustainability into their core processes, strategies and operating models.”

The startups in this cohort will receive curated mentorship, access to SAP technology and application programming interfaces (APIs), and exposure to SAP and Accenture customers to develop high-impact proofs of concept. The accelerator program will run for three months and conclude with a demo day on July 8, 2021.

The Sustainable Future cohort includes the following startups:

  • Astraea provides an integrated platform to access, analyze and deliver earth-observing data and geospatial information using artificial intelligence (AI).
  • Blacksquared GmbH / Changers.com motivates and rewards employees in a playful manner to participate in healthy and environmentally friendly activities.
  • Breeze Technologies measures and analyzes common pollutants like nitrogen oxides, ozone or particulate matter in real time using machine learning and Big Data technologies.
  • Carbon Minds GmbH has built the largest and most regionalized lifecycle database for the chemical industry to help companies reduce their environmental impact with evidence-based guidance.
  • Circular IQ is a digital platform that monitors the circular performance of different suppliers, products, components and materials throughout supply chains to improve their impact on people and the planet.
  • CodeCheck is a mobile application that promotes source transparency and enables consumers to check the ingredients in food and cosmetics by scanning the barcode.
  • Emitwise helps businesses measure, report and reduce their carbon footprint across their operations and supply chains by automating data collection and processing.
  • Footprint Technologies GmbH enables consumers to accurately measure their feet at home and find the right shoe size, thus avoiding returns, costs and CO2 emissions for online retailers.
  • GreenPlat provides traceability from the extraction of raw materials until the final disposal of generated waste using blockchain technology to create transparency across the supply chain.
  • Journey Foods uses machine learning, AI, data scraping and cohort analysis to recommend the most nutritious and more sustainable ingredients for food companies.
  • Lixo is an AI-powered waste detection system to improve the performance of recycling companies, from waste collection to sorting and recycling.
  • Lizee helps retail brands enact their rental business model and successfully enter the circular economy.
  • Too Good To Go connects consumers to restaurants and stores that have unsold, surplus food to fight food waste.
In Article, Paris, CRM & Customer Experience

Stockly lets e-commerce websites sell out-of-stock items from a shared inventory

Meet Stockly, a French startup that keeps the inventory of various e-commerce websites in sync. When you see an out-of-stock item on an e-commerce website, chances are you leave that website and try to find the same item on another site.

If you operate an e-commerce website, Stockly lets you sell items even when they’re currently out of stock. The startup automatically finds a third-party Stockly supplier with that specific item.

The order will go through and be sent by that supplier directly. Stockly tells its partners to use neutral packaging so that the end consumer isn’t confused.

This could be particularly useful for small-scale e-commerce companies that don’t have a healthy marketplace of third-party retailers. For instance, Amazon can already sell you an out-of-stock item if a supplier has listed that specific item on Amazon’s own marketplace. But that’s not the case for most e-commerce websites.

The main challenge for Stockly is that it has to sort through various catalog formats and match the different inventories of different retailers. It is focusing on clothing items at first. When an order is routed through Stockly, it selects a specific supplier based on different criteria, such as logistics, delivery time and historical data.

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In ERP & Finance, Supply Chain Management

SAP Transportation Management System Merges with Sedna’s Software

The integration of SAP Transportation Management System (TMS) with Sedna Systems’ team collaboration and email management solution will allow shippers using both products to gain a whole new level of control over transportation management-related data.

Logistics operations have evolved significantly in recent years and the industry is now seeing more companies embracing digitalisation to ensure efficiency in their businesses. The newly announced partnership between SAP and Sedna Systems solidifies the software giant’s position as a leading provider of the latest technologies for the logistics industry. 

In October 2020, SAP has released an enhanced SAP Logistics Business Network that enables companies to jointly manage logistics transactions and obtain valuable insights across the complete value chain. The addition of new capabilities within the cloud-based global logistics network aims to increase value chain visibility, traceability, collaboration, and reach.

Stefan Sauer, Global Solution Lead for Ports, Terminals, and Shipping Lines at SAP, said in an interview that the company developed a proof of concept to test and evaluate the idea of merging SAP TMS with Sedna’s capabilities.

The integration will allow data that is normally locked away in an isolated email or within a TMS to be more accessible based on Sedna’s smart tagging system that provides cross-company transparency.

Sedna Systems Founder and CEO Bill Dobie mentioned that the company has had several integrations with SAP across its customer base, allowing clients using SAP solutions to organise email and prioritise emerging relevant information. Additionally, Sedna’s integration with SAP TMS is designed to unify all logistics-related conversations and documentation in one place.

“Like bulk logistics, these transactions and customer communications are managed through emails and siloed inboxes. The ‘cc effect’ and unstructured chat creates endless threads, repetitive and redundant conversations, and context catch-up that needlessly bloats email volume,” Dobie further explained.

Incorporating SAP Transportation Management System into Sedna’s Solution

SAP’s TMS is designed for both shippers and logistics service providers. It manages all areas of transportation processes within a company such as transportation planning and optimisation, freight tendering, and change management.

On the other hand, Sedna connects to SAP systems to create tags and import customers’ transactional information. The solution, which also integrates with SAP S/4HANA Cloud, allows messages that come into the email platform to be automatically tagged to the appropriate transactions so clients can maintain a full audit trail of their projects.

Lakshmi Baskaran, Vice President of Engineering at Sedna Systems, said:

“A customer order that is created in SAP Transportation Management is automatically integrated with Sedna.”

She explained that users can refer to the SAP customer order and the relevant data from their platform with a single click, real-time information about the order. Using the same connections, inbound documents received via email can be linked to other directions including SAP’s TMS.

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In Foundries, Article, Berlin, Supply Chain Management

Sustainable Farming: Agranimo Integrates with SAP BTP

Despite the ongoing debate of whether it’s a fruit or a vegetable, the avocado has been an export hit around the globe. Avocados are grown in the southern hemisphere but are immensely popular in countries where they cannot be harvested. There is also growing consumer awareness that intensive avocado farming leads to environmental issues in the countries of origin.

‘Driving through the rural areas of Chile, you will notice how severely the country has been going through a major drought during the last five to seven years,’ Nikita Gulin says. ‘Part of it is due to climate change, but it cannot be denied that intensive farming is adding to the problem.’ Chile’s GDP relies heavily on agriculture. Apart from avocados, food crops include blueberries, cherries, and walnuts. ‘Water efficiency is a huge topic for Chilean farmers and the country as a whole.’

For Gulin, Aganimo’s Russian-born founder and CEO, and his Chilean co-founder, CTO Sergio Esteban, this was an obvious problem to tackle.

‘In Chile, everybody knows someone working in the agricultural sector, whether it’s an uncle or the friend of a friend,’ Esteban says. ‘When we looked at the problem and solutions already available, it became clear that there was much room for improvement by means of technology – and we had the skills to do that.’

To combine their technical knowledge with research on agriculture, they made contact with academia. ‘The University of Chile immediately wanted to collaborate,’ Gulin says. Agranimo has 10 employees located in Chile, Russia, and Germany with backgrounds in technology, research, and practical experience in agriculture.

‘Chile is not the only country with this problem,’ Gulin explains, ‘It’s really all over the world – water is rare. From our first application for water efficiency, our vision grew as we expanded to more climate-related issues. Water is still one of the key components, but we are now working with any information that can be derived from climate and soil data.’

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In Article, Inclusiveness

Corporate investors hold the key to fostering inclusive entrepreneurship

Alarming headlines about women leaving the workforce during the pandemic abound. A quick Google on the topic will yield results including “How COVID-19 Sent Women’s Workforce Progress Backward”, “Women’s COVID-Fueled Exodus from the Workplace Hurts Us All”, “Why COVID-19 Could Force Millions of Women to Quit Work – and How to Support Them” from American Progress, Time and the Forum, respectively.

A side story which is not being so widely reported is how the pandemic reverse the meager gains women entrepreneurs have made in recent years.

In the US, it’s already happening. Pitchbook reports that in Q3 2020, quarterly venture capital funding for women founders dropped to a three-year low, even though overall venture capital activity was on a par with previous years. Between Q2 and Q3 last year, investment in women founders dropped 48%.

These losses make already dismal numbers worse. Women founder teams received only 4.3% of all venture capital deals in Q1 2020 – a drop from 7.1% in Q1 2019.

So far, investment levels in Europe are holding low but steady at 1.8% of venture capital going to all-women founder teams and 12.8% going to mixed-gender teams up until the end of October. But the threat of slippage in Europe – and globally – looms.

While COVID-specific dynamics have exacerbated the venture capital investment picture, women’s low representation on investment teams was already fueling the chronic opportunity gap. In 2019, just 3.4%of assets under management were held by women-founded VC firms, and only 3.8%were held by diverse-owned firms.

Rethinking and resetting the status quo on underrepresented entrepreneurs

The Forum’s Great Reset challenges us to rethink our economic, social and technological systems for a better world – to steer the market toward fairer outcomes, ensure that investments advance shared equality and sustainability, and harness the innovations of the Fourth Industrial Revolution to support the public good.

In such a context, corporations can activate their venturing funds, as well as accelerator, incubation and procurement programs to drive the changes required for the Great Reset, fostering inclusive entrepreneurship by:

  • Increasing the percentage of women and underrepresented groups on their investment teams
  • Increasing the percentage of investment (financial and non-financial) that goes to women and underrepresented entrepreneurs
  • Activating additional business levers to fuel scaling of businesses led by diverse teams

Focussing on women has multiple benefits

Investing in women pays huge dividends for everyone. In COVID-19 and Gender Equality: Countering the Regressive Effects, McKinsey estimated that acting now to advance gender equality could add $13 trillion to global GDP in 2030.

It also returns greater yields than less targeted investments. Over a five-year period, for every dollar venture capital invested, women-led or women co-founded startups generated 78 cents of revenue while male-led startups only generated 31 cents (Why Women-Owned Startups Are a Better Bet). What’s more, on average, companies with more diverse leadership teams report almost 20% higher revenue from innovation. (How Diverse Leadership Teams Boost Innovation).

We should therefore view investment in women entrepreneurs as a powerful catalyst for economic recovery.

Addressing the gap for women is only one step toward generating more equitable outcomes for all. We expect that most levers that help women can also contribute to wider diversity efforts. Further studies investigating variations in impact between underrepresented groups would be welcomed.

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In Fund, Press, Business Technology Platform

Adverity continues to dominate as momentum leader in G2 Spring 2021 Report

Adverity, a leading marketing data intelligence platform, has once again been named as a top-five category leader in ETL Tools and Data Visualization Software in the G2 Spring 2021 Report.

It has also received recognition as a leader in two new categories; Small-Business for Business Intelligence Software – where it scored a superior Satisfaction Rating than the Grid category leader – and in Mid-Market ETL Tools; in both instances being ranked in the top five Grid Scores.

Continuing its success in the Grid Report for Business Intelligence, Adverity has progressed from a high performer in the G2 Summer 2020 report to a leader, and again, boasting a higher Satisfaction Rating than the category leader.

It maintains its top five rankings as a high performer in both the Grid Reports for E-Commerce Data Integration Software and Big Data Integration Platform – and in the latter is rated above the category leader for product satisfaction.

The latest report also sees Adverity move into the top ten Grid Report for Mid-Market for Data Visualization Software and acknowledged as a high performer in the Grid Score for Mid-Market for Business Intelligence Software.

Alexander Igelsböck, CEO and Co-Founder of Adverity, comments: “It’s a privilege to continue to be recognized as a leader in the G2 reports as it is a direct reflection of our platform helping enterprises of all sizes become more insight-driven – which is crucial in today’s business environment. The rankings represent the voice of real users and further validates our commitment to customer satisfaction with our platforms. Many enterprises are prioritizing their data capabilities and we want to continue to help them on their data maturity journey.”

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In Foundries, Tel Aviv

SAP Startup Spotlight: Getting To Know SAP.iO

In every interview in our SAP Startup Spotlight series, we ask startups how the involvement of SAP.iO has impacted their journey. But what is SAP.iO, exactly?

Stephanie Horwitz is the Value Creation Manager at SAP.iO Foundry Tel Aviv, where she supports global B2B startups in communications, marketing, and business development opportunities. In this interview, she explains what SAP.iO is and what it has done and continues to do for startups.

E-3 Magazine: What is SAP.iO?

Stephanie Horwitz: SAP.iO is SAP’s strategic business unit to incubate, accelerate and scale startup innovation and explore new business models for the company. Since 2017, SAP.iO has helped over 300 external startups and internal ventures both start and scale their businesses while enabling SAP customers to access new products. SAP.iO Foundries are SAP’s global network of zero-cost startup accelerators that are the fastest way for founders to launch a relationship with SAP. SAP.iO Foundries provide companies with access, curated mentorship, and technical guidance to integrate with SAP solutions and accelerate their entry into an inclusive ecosystem whose offerings can be easily accessed and deployed by SAP customers. SAP.iO Foundries were formally launched in 2017 and have helped accelerate more than 270 startups across all lines of business and industries so far. SAP.iO currently has nine foundries located in San Francisco, New York, Berlin, Munich, Paris, Tel Aviv, Singapore, Tokyo, and Bangalore.

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In Energy & Natural Resources, Business Technology Platform, Foundries, Tel Aviv

Innovative Solutions in the Utilities Industry for a Sustainable Future

SAP’s Commitment to Sustainability Through Utilities Industry Support

Over 10 years ago, SAP made sustainability a long-term strategic goal in line with its vision of improving people’s lives and helping the world run better. SAP enables organizations to minimize the greenhouse gas footprint of their products and leads by example with a goal of being a carbon neutral company by 2023. With forty five of the fifty top utilities companies in the world running SAP solutions, SAP is a leading force in helping utilities light the way by efficiently incorporating more clean energy into the grid. As the world transitions to a more sustainable, renewable, and digital energy reality, SAP is providing the tools and empowering utilities, which are front and center in the global shift toward renewable energy resources, to successfully reinvent power generation, transmission, distribution, and retail.

Connecting Utilities with Innovative Solutions for a Successful Energy Transition

Through SAP.iO, SAP works with startups and new technologies to cultivate innovation and fuel future growth for our customers across all industries. SAP.iO Foundries is a network of nine top-tier startup programs in strategic startup ecosystems, focusing on enabling early-stage companies to form a partnership with SAP and integrate their innovative solutions with key SAP applications and platforms. During SAP.iO Foundry Tel Aviv’s latest accelerator program focused on solutions for the utilities industry, SAP.iO along with SAP’s Utilities business unit has been working closely with seven global startups to create joint offerings for our utilities clients to enable a smooth energy transition in an intelligent way. The startups’ solutions cover next-generation intelligent energy production, energy trading, multi-directional intelligent transmission and distribution, smart metering, and prosumers with e-homes and e-cars.

Meet the 7 Startups Empowering SAP’s Utilities Customers to Thrive in a Renewable Energy Reality

These startups are leading the energy transition and bringing value to SAP customers while doing so!

FSIGHT offers state-of-the-art artificial intelligence software solutions that allow the end user to predict, optimize and trade energy.

Future Grid enables the renewable grid of the future to deliver safe and reliable electricity.

NET2GRID delivers a platform for utilities to gain powerful energy insights and run value-added services using machine learning algorithms on smart meter data.

Lemonbeat offers a scalable end-to-end Internet of Things–enabling solution, building a seamless experience journey from device to cloud.

OXYGEN TECHNOLOGIES provides digital value-added services to private and commercial “prosumers” with an operating system to monitor and control distributed energy devices.

Pexapark provides the operating system for post-subsidy renewable energy sales.

Raycatch’s AI-driven digital asset management system automates and optimizes solar photovoltaic plants.

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In Inclusiveness, Interview, ERP & Finance

Getting Energized to Level the Playing Field

A conversation with Amanda Niklaus, PPA Transaction Manager in the renewable industry.

The Road Less Traveled

What initially drew you to the energy industry?

During my Master’s studies, there was a mining boom in Australia. A lot of money was put into energy research, particularly for oil and gas. The Head of my university department suggested that I pursue mathematical economics in energy and work with some prestigious supervisors from the industry which I did. After graduation, I worked as an economist for the government and then in investment banking where we were looking at M&A opportunities. At the time, I found working within this very male-dominated industry a bit unsettling, and left for the Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO) where I worked on providing training for investors and traders and we looked at battery viability for participating in different markets. A lot happened and changed over the time I worked there and that is one of the elements I like about the power market sector: it’s very dynamic, constantly evolving.

When I came back to Switzerland, I read about Pexapark. They were very new at that time and had a lot of potential. I thought it would be exciting to work with a focus in renewables and to help developing a business. I was right — it’s so far been an incredible experience to be part of and contribute to Pexapark’s development and growth.

What’s the most satisfying part of your role at Pexapark?

I really enjoy working across markets and looking at different issues, that clients are encountering or questions they are trying to answer. While our business is very specialised, I feel like a request is never ever the same. It’s always new, there is so much to learn constantly!

What’s your secret sauce that you bring to work with you each day?

A ‘can do’ attitude and resilience.

Making Strides in Renewables

What thoughts are going through your head (if any) and what are you experiencing when you find yourself to be the only woman in the room?

That’s often the case to be honest. With clients, I do not let that disturb me, I cannot. Otherwise I am going nowhere. It is of course harder to ignore for someone who works in this environment every day. There are many studies about the ‘Onlys’ — referring to the only woman in a team. A notable one is from McKinsey, showing that women in this situation often receive judgement or doubt about their own area of expertise. They feel under a constant pressure to provide a proof of competence compared to their male colleagues. The sad part is that you don’t know if it was intentional, or it is just a dynamic of the competitive environment. That is not always clear. What is clear to me — there is a way to improve the situation. A more gender- balanced team is very important and I’d like to think I try my best to influence in that direction.

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In Blog, Consumer Industries

SAP.iO: Why 3 is Key to SAP’s Startup Wins

Written by Alexa Gorman SVP, SAP.iO Foundries & Intrapreneurship at SAP

Recently I had the opportunity to speak at the NVT Houseparty with Mark Osborn, Global VP of Business Development and Strategy for SAP Consumer Industries, about how SAP.iO delivers on our 3-fold value proposition.  SAP’s startup driven innovation activities strive to deliver value to SAP customers, benefits to startups and strategic impact for SAP. Our conversation focused on how SAP.iO helps innovators start-up with SAP as we bring together leaders from every region, industry and line of business to transform how businesses run. If you are interested in listening to our discussion, you can watch it here. 

Since 2017, we’ve helped 300+ startups and ventures accelerate their growth while enabling thousands of SAP customers to access the startup solutions on the SAP Store. At SAP.iO, we work closely with startups and help them extend their networks, integrate their startup solutions, and support their go-to-market efforts with SAP. This allows us to get valuable feedback on our technology and APIs while expanding SAP’s offering to include the latest innovations in the market and building the next generation of partners for SAP. We collaborate with SAP’s customers and connect them with relevant startup innovation that helps to transform their business and extends the value of their investments in SAP solutions.  

Over the past 4 years SAP.iO has become the matchmaker of the enterprise software world. We look into customers pain points and match their needs to the startups that will best support their business transformation. Many SAP customers collaborate with us to select the startups we bring into the SAP ecosystem. One of the ways we excel at matchmaking is evaluating customer and market needs and providing programs specifically focused on addressing those current needs.  

An industry that is going through major transformations, is the consumer products industry, which is an area of focus for us. In our discussion, Mark spoke about the importance and value for customers and SAP of working with consumer industry startups. Not only does the collaboration shape the perception of SAP as an innovator in the industry but also opens new doors and strengthens relationships within our customers. “It has exposed our teams more broadly to cutting-edge innovations that are all complementary to our investments in the core SAP portfolio to take a bigger and better story to our customers about the value we provide.” Mark said.  

As far as latest trends, Mark noted that trends that were transforming the consumer products industry before the pandemic have only been accelerated as a result of it. For example, consumer values are shifting fast, quoting a Nielsen report “consumers are buying the change they are seeing in the world.”  

There are creative people around the world seeing this as an area of untapped opportunity which is leading to the next shift, moving us from the age of resources to the age of ideas. Today, what is most important is the idea that you have, making it ever so imperative that companies attract the right talent to bring these ideas to life. All of this is happening, and we are seeing areas of declining cost, like in sales and marketing where is it considerably cheaper to reach your audience through social media channels. It’s not only cheaper, it can be an almost instant, meaningful connection with the consumer.  

We’ve seen this with global companies, like Unilever, that recently partnered with an SAP.iO startup Scantrust, who developed technology for QR codes that they applied to packaging. Unilever applied codes to soup packets so that the consumer can easily scan the packages and learn more about the source of all ingredients. What that has done is create an additional channel for the company to interact with its consumers that had never existed before. Here they can foster trust, share more content, push marketing offers, and interact through sharing recipes. Read more on Moments of Opportunity Tel Aviv Demo Day  

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