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Oracle’s Out to Boost Cloud Innovation with Expansion of Startup Accelerator Program

Oracle is expanding its Startup Cloud Accelerator program to seven new regions as part of its ongoing efforts to “fuel cloud-enabled innovation” globally, the company said Jan. 24.

The new centers are in Bristol, U.K.; Delhi–National Capital Region and Mumbai, India; Paris, France; São Paulo, Brazil; Singapore; and Tel Aviv, Israel, Oracle said. The expanded locations follow Oracle’s launch of the program in Bangalore, India, in April last year.

The Startup Cloud Accelerator program is run by members of the Oracle research and development team, and provides six months of mentoring from technical and business experts, “state-of-the-art” technology, a co-working space, access to Oracle customers, partners and investors, and free Oracle Cloud credits, the company said. The program also offers an ever-increasing global network of startup peers, it said.

The program has, so far, “attracted a diverse mix of applicants from hundreds of companies, and many participants have already seen success,” Oracle said, pointing as an example to healthcare Internet of Things (IoT) startup Riot Solutions, a participant in the pilot program. As a result of the program, Riot Solutions has become a “fast-growing startup with seed investment,” according to Aardra Kannan Ambili, its co-founder and CTO.

Following the “successful” Bangalore launch, Oracle is “committed to building a supportive ecosystem for startups across the globe,” Thomas Kurian, Oracle president of product development, said in a news release. He added: “Cloud is enabling incredible innovations across every aspect of business and across every industry. We want to support this next technology revolution powered by cloud.”

Oracle SVP of product development Reggie Bradford is heading the program’s expansion with Oracle Group VP of development Sanket Atal, who launched the pilot program in India.
“The next five to ten years promise innovations and growth that will drive new business ideas enabled by the cloud,” Bradford said in the news release. “Oracle understands that startups are at the heart of innovation, and through this program we aim to give startups access to extensive resources and support when they need it most.”

The Startup Cloud Accelerator is open to early-stage technology and technology-enabled startups. A call for applications will open later this year in each of the seven new hubs, Oracle said.

Oracle now delivers more than 50 integrated cloud services to support companies of all sizes, it said. The company said Jan. 17 at its CloudWorld conference in New York that it made several enhancements to the Oracle Cloud Platform and will be expanding its cloud services to three new regions — Reston, Va., London and Turkey — over the next six months.