סאפ השיקה היום (ג’) בתל אביב את האקסלרטור שלה, SAP.io Foundry, שמיועד לסטארט-אפים שמפתחים פתרונות לארגונים על בסיס של תוכנה כשירות (SaaS), ושהטכנולוגיה שלהם יכולה להתממשק עם הפתרונות של החברה הגרמנית. התכנית הראשונה של המיזם החלה בחודש זה ותסתיים בדצמבר, ובכוונת החברה לקיים שני מחזורים בכל שנה. בסאפ כבר עובדים על המחזורים שיתקיימו בשנה הבאה, ומחפשים חברות. כל מחזור מיועד לחברות מתחום אחר, כשהפעם משתתפים בו סטארט-אפים בתחום הדיפ טק.
SAP.iO, the early-stage venture arm of multinational enterprise software company SAP SE, unveiled on Tuesday the seven startups chosen to participate in the first cohort of its new Tel Aviv-based accelerator program, SAP.iO Foundry. As part of the 12-week program, the startups will receive mentorship and access to SAP’s data, technology, and customer base. SAP already operates its foundry program in Paris, Berlin, Munich, New York City, San Francisco, and Tokyo.
The companies are retail analytics startup ARpalus Ltd.; EasySend Ltd., a startup providing customer service technology for financial institutions; online coaching company Growth Space Ltd.; marketing startup Outgage Inc.; online marketplace analytics startup Silverback Associates Ltd.; instant checkout company Supersmart Ltd.; and smart appliances startup YOUTILIGENT smart solutions Ltd.
German multinational software firm SAP SE is setting up an accelerator program in Israel, seeking new technologies in order to expand the portfolio of technologies and services it can provide to customers.
The Foundry program will be run by SAP.iO, a strategic business unit of SAP set up in 2017 to work closely with startups and tap into their innovations. The unit either invests in early stage startups or runs accelerator programs that provide selected startups with mentorships, a co-working space, and access to its 400,000 customers globally who can work closely with entrepreneurs to make sure their specific needs are met. The program will also make available data and SAP platforms startups may need to develop their technologies.
Seven startups have been selected for the first accelerator cohort:
German software giant SAP further expanded its significant Israeli operations on Tuesday as the company launched the newest branch of its SAP.iO “Foundry” start-up accelerator in Tel Aviv. The SAP.iO Foundry program is part of SAP’s multi-million dollar global innovation strategy to accelerate early-stage business-to-business (B2B) start-ups and provide hi-tech solutions to more than 400,000 customers.
The past few years have seen incredible innovation and execution take place and taken many companies to horizons never imagined before. Yet these SaaS businesses require a specific structure and well oiled parts to function well. Any large organization like SAP, which has sustained the years and grown its revenue base, recognizes that a few right mechanisms can be key to achieve fast growth and long term sustainability.
(SAP SE (NYSE: SAP הכריזה היום, על נבחרת בת שבע חברות סטארטאפ ישראליות הנכללות בסבב הראשון של SAP.iO Foundry TLV. התוכנית המהווה חלק מאסטרטגית החדשנות של SAP, נועדה לספק סיוע ותמיכה לחברות סטארטאפ צעירות (early stage) מתחום ה-B2B בבניית תוכנות אשר יספקו ערך משמעותי עבור לקוחותיה של SAP. לחברות הסטארטאפ תהיה גישה לייעוץ ייעודי, חשיפה לממשקי התכנות של SAP בתחומי התוכנה והטכנולוגיה והזדמנות לשיתופי פעולה עם הלקוחות של חברת SAP.
BigID, an Israeli-American startup helping enterprises with data protection and privacy, announced the closure of a Series C funding round of $50 million led by Bessemer Venture Partners, with participation from existing investors SAP.io Fund, Comcast Ventures, Boldstart Ventures, Scale Venture Partners and ClearSky, as well as new investor, Salesforce Ventures. BigID is based in New York with offices in Tel Aviv. The company said it will use the funds to meet the growing demand for its technology, expand global sales and introduce new products for data privacy, data governance and protection.
SAP unveiled this week its healthcare-focused accelerator program at SAP.iO Foundry New York with the selection of seven health IT startups.
SAP.iO will provide the startups access to SAP technology and application programming interfaces (APIs), mentorships, and opportunities to collaborate with SAP customers.
By Ram Jambunathan
The startup journey is hard. An estimated 75% of venture-backed companies never return cash to investors; only 1% go on to become unicorns. Startup success requires brutally efficient execution and a bit of luck. My own experience as a startup founder attests to this. When we started T-Networks (now a part of Broadcom), we had to build our own semiconductor fab and packaging facility, while at the same time competing with deep-pocketed, well-established multinationals. A “pivot” in those days, should we decide we needed to change in tack (e.g., different product in different segment), was going to be a fairly difficult (if not impossible) road to travel. So, I have to say I’m excited (and perhaps even a little envious) when I see the opportunities entrepreneurs have today — to build, test, refine, and even pivot — now that the need to construct the infrastructure required to develop the actual product is removed.
Of course, there are still challenges. In enterprise software, it also requires industry expertise, access to strong networks, and an ability to reach customers — all of which pose significant barriers to many entrepreneurs who aspire to transform industries. This is where a strategic partner like SAP can help early-stage startups scale the barriers to success.
The SAP.iO Fund and SAP.iO Foundries invest in and accelerate early-stage startups at the leading edge of B2B software innovation, who leverage a combination of emerging technologies like AI or IoT, business process expertise, and new business models. We realize that agile, early-stage startups complementary to SAP can expand and enhance the SAP ecosystem and solutions, giving our customers access to relevant, cutting-edge solutions. While SAP can help startups target customer needs, connect to SAP systems, and access SAPs broad customer base.
A key challenge many startups have after finding product-market fit is scaling. This can require significant investment, especially on the customer acquisition side — from marketing to sales to customer success. But what if the right partner could help to identify and prioritize high-value prospects, make those introductions, and then even help to drive the sales process? This is the type of startup partner SAP and SAP.iO strives to be — even for early-stage startups.
Startups that SAP.iO supports receive strong and unprecedented exposure to our field and customers. We have dedicated resources on the SAP.iO team that ensure SAP.iO startups get visibility and interest from internal account teams, customers, and partners. For example, during the first half of 2019 alone, at least 150 major customers visited SAP.iO Foundries in NA and Europe to meet with the startups SAP.iO is supporting.
In particular, on the go-to-market side, startups ask about the tactical ways that SAP typically partners with startups, where the field is provided incentives to position and / or sell a startup partner’s solution. In my session today at Techcrunch Enterprise 2019, I shared the stage with 3 SAP.iO Fund startups — BigID, Medal, and Plum — who discussed the various ways they work with SAP to scale sales and deliver value to customers:
By leveraging these types of partnerships, startups can dramatically expand their reach, pipeline, and ability to deliver value to SAP customers. It’s important to note that startups dramatically increase success working with a channel partner if they already have a successful, scalable, repeatable sales formula (or process) that they can teach to the partner. Contrary to popular startup mythology, early-stage startups can have success cracking the code with large enterprise partners — SAP.iO is proof of this.
By Ram Jambunathan
The startup journey is hard. An estimated 75% of venture-backed companies never return cash to investors; only 1% go on to become unicorns. Startup success requires brutally efficient execution and a bit of luck. My own experience as a startup founder attests to this. When we started T-Networks (now a part of Broadcom), we had to build our own semiconductor fab and packaging facility, while at the same time competing with deep-pocketed, well-established multinationals. A “pivot” in those days, should we decide we needed to change in tack (e.g., different product in different segment), was going to be a fairly difficult (if not impossible) road to travel. So, I have to say I’m excited (and perhaps even a little envious) when I see the opportunities entrepreneurs have today — to build, test, refine, and even pivot — now that the need to construct the infrastructure required to develop the actual product is removed.
BigID, a NYC- and Tel Aviv, Israel-based data-centric personal data privacy and protection platform, raised $50m in Series C funding.
The round was led by Bessemer Venture Partners, with participation from existing investors SAP.io Fund. In conjunction with the funding, Alex Ferrara, partner at Bessemer Venture Partners, will join the BigID Board of Directors.
It turns out GDPR was just the tip of the privacy iceberg. With California’s privacy law coming on line January 1st and dozens more in various stages of development, it’s clear that governments are taking privacy seriously, which means companies have to as well. New York startup BigID, which has been developing a privacy platform for the last several years, finds itself in a good position to help. Today, the company announced a $50 million Series C. The round was led by Bessemer Venture Partners with help from SAP.iO Fund. Today’s investment brings the total raised to more than $96 million, according to Crunchbase.
SAP kicked off its healthcare-focused accelerator program at SAP.iO Foundry New York.
The SAP.iO program is designed to accelerate startups working within healthcare: hospital system providers, employee health and wellness solutions, medical devices and health IT. SAP.iO will provide access to curated mentorship, exposure to SAP technology and application programming interfaces (APIs), and opportunities to collaborate with SAP customers to each of the seven early-stage startups chosen for the program.
The SAP.iO Foundry New York cohort includes the following startups:
Diana Rees and Amine Ünal are the founders of the startup ZkSystems. Their mission is to enable a new level of automation for the industrial Internet of Things; their technology is already being used by industry leaders.
The SAP.iO program is designed to accelerate startups working within healthcare: hospital system providers, employee health and wellness solutions, medical devices and health IT. SAP.iO will provide access to curated mentorship, exposure to SAP technology and application programming interfaces (APIs), and opportunities to collaborate with SAP customers to each of the seven early-stage startups chosen for the program.
