Skip to main content

SAP.iO NO BOUNDARIES

Ensuring all innovators are empowered to start-up and scale with SAP

SAP.iO No Boundaries is the first comprehensive inclusive entrepreneurship initiative in the business software industry.

As a steward of purpose-driven innovation, SAP recognizes our duty to be intentional about how we invest in and scale our ecosystem of software startup partners. We know that driving inclusive entrepreneurship in the enterprise software and VC industries can accelerate innovation, reduce bias, and drive better outcomes.

In 2019, we launched SAP.iO No Boundaries, the first comprehensive inclusive entrepreneurship initiative for underrepresented and underestimated entrepreneurs in the business software industry. We pledged to scale SAP.iO Foundries with a focus on inclusive entrepreneurship and set an ambitious target of supporting at least 200 startups founded or led by underrepresented entrepreneurs by 2023.

In July 2022, we achieved this goal six months ahead of schedule. The 200 startups comprise 44% of our portfolio and represent 51% of the exits in our portfolio, 50% of the unicorns in our portfolio, 42% in cumulative VC raised by startups in our portfolio, and have a greater likelihood to progress in their partnership with SAP.

2028 Commitment

By 2028, 45% of our portfolio companies will be founded or led by underrepresented entrepreneurs. We will continue being intentional about how we scale our ecosystem by prioritizing startups founded or led by people whose share of VC funding in the technology industry is proportionally less than their share of the population (women, people of color, LGBTQIA+, etc.) as well as adding geographical representation as a sourcing focus.

Recent News

Follow our journey as we further embed inclusion in SAP’s culture, in the cultures of customers and in the startups with which we engage.

FoundriesInclusivenessHR & People EngagementInspiring Innovators
May 11, 2023

Inspiring Innovators: Alex Lamb Chief Executive Officer and Founder of BOLDLY-Get A Couch, On Being BOLD

At SAP.iO, we work with innovators 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,…
Kelli Kohout
Love0
InclusivenessPress
April 1, 2023

Check out our progress: 2022 Diversity & Inclusion Report

SAP’s Global Diversity & Inclusion Office has launched the 2022 Diversity and Inclusion Report. The report provides a transparent view of the progress made and highlights some of the key…
Kelli Kohout
Love0
InclusivenessPortfolio News
March 27, 2023

The Inspiring Women Behind Digital Innovations on SAP Store

In the bestselling novel Lessons in Chemistry, set in California circa 1961, the protagonist is a female scientist who faces down disrespect, denigration, and downright discrimination to pursue her passion…
Kelli Kohout
Love0
InclusivenessInterview
March 25, 2023

SVB gave ‘underestimated’ founders ‘a soft place to land.’ Where do they go now?

After the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank, there’s been a lot of talk about the importance of diversification in finance. In the startup world, though, Kange Kaneene says being able…
Kelli Kohout
Love0

Innovators Transforming Industries

We work with innovative people   and new technologies that positively impact our world every day. Learn how founders  , CEOs  , and presidents   of cutting-edge startups overcame, thrived, and pursued their goals.

Explore Their Stories

Featured Initiatives

SAP.iO Hosts 2023 Women & Worth Summit

Women & Worth is on a mission to accelerate progress toward a more equitable economy for women, closing the gender gap when it comes to finances and funding. It envisions a future where more women are investing in themselves and each other, where founders get the funding they need and where more women are leading from the C-suite and the board room.

Learn More

SAP.iO Featured at the SXSW Equality Lounge

SAP.iO was featured in Female Quotient’s Equality Lounge at South by South West 2022 as a panelist to discuss “Rebuilding Together: How Female Founders are Taking the Lead.”

Learn More

Showcasing Innovation for the SAP China Business Women’s Network

Li Qiao from SAP.iO Foundry Shanghai hosted a panel for the SAP China Business Women's Network featuring women founder from our portfolio.

SAP.iO No Boundaries Partners with Les Déterminés to Support Entrepreneurship in Working-Class Neighborhoods and Rural Areas

SAP France announces that its SAP.iO Foundry Paris accelerator is supporting the 12th promotion of the association Les Déterminés, whose mission is to develop entrepreneurship in working-class neighborhoods and rural areas.

Learn More

Technovation 2020

SAP.iO Foundry San Francisco hosted Technovation for their Bay Area Technovation Challenge 2020 Launch. Every year, Technovation invites teams of young people from all over the world to learn and apply the skills needed to solve real-world problems through technology. SAP.iO's alumni Charu Sharma, Min Chen, and Jo Riley shared their stories and how they overcame some of the challenges women entrepreneurs face.

The Equity Gap: How Women are Left Out of the Power Club

Most people know that in the U.S. women are making 80 cents to every dollar a man makes in pay. But most people are unaware of an even larger and insidious gap—the equity gap. This figure far surpasses pay disparity.

Read More

Enpact Female Tech

Businesses in Africa

SAP.iO Foundry Berlin and GIZ- funded program Female Tech Businesses in Africa (FEBA) met to exchange views with 9 leaders of women networks, multipliers and stakeholders from Ghana, Kenya and South Africa. Providing engineering skills to women, setting up women focused accelerators, helping women to get in tech boards were only some of the topic we could address.

Enpact Female Tech Businesses in Africa

Supporting

Women’s Healthcare

In partnership with HITLAB, Merck Global Health Innovation Fund and BayerG4A, SAP.iO Foundry New York is proud to support the HITLAB World Cup Challenge 2019 which focuses on emerging technology applications and systems that improve medical care and the provision of healthcare among women worldwide.

Read More

Women in Tech

Festival

As Silver Sponsor of the Women in Tech Festival, 5th Anniversary at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, SAP.iO is supporting and honoring women in business & leadership 2019.

Read More

Unity + Inclusion

Summit

SAP.iO partnered with 500 Startups to run the 2019 Unity + Inclusion Summit in Miami for over 200 founders, investors and companies.

Read More

Inclusion at

SXSW

SAP.iO led the conversation about inclusive entrepreneurship at SAP's SDG Media Zone at SXSW.

Read More

Culture Shifting

Weekends

SAP.iO hosts 300+ black business leaders who set sights on increasing racial diversity in tech.

Read More

Becoming

Sheroes

SAP.iO Foundry San Francisco hosted Sairee Chahal, the Founder and CEO of Sheroes who shared her wisdom about lessons learned as an entrepreneur.

Read More