Business

SAP.iO Kicks Off First Accelerator Focused on Women and Diverse-Led Startups in Enterprise Tech in Europe (MESA)

SAP kicked off the first women and diverse-led cohort as part of the SAP.iO Foundry Berlin acceleration program. The 2019 summer cohort includes six startups from across the globe, all comprising diverse founder teams. The program is part of the SAP.iO No Boundaries initiative, which aims to further embed inclusion in SAP’s culture, in the cultures of its customers and in the startups with which SAP engages.

The flagship SAP.iO Foundry Berlin provides select startups with access to curated mentorship and exposure to SAP technology and application programmable interfaces (APIs), as well as opportunities to collaborate with SAP enterprise customers.

“Put simply, diversity is not only good for business, it is good business,” said Judith Williams, chief diversity and inclusion officer, SAP. “A commitment to a diverse future will pay economic and social dividends. With SAP.iO Foundry Berlin, we’re taking a real and measurable action to increase inclusion. While intelligence is equally distributed in the population regardless of background or experience, opportunity is not. We need to move from discussion to action and start building a diverse and inclusive technology ecosystem.”

These six Intelligent Enterprise startups are founded by diverse teams and offer software-as-a-service solutions that span across areas such as marketing and human resources, while utilizing machine learning, augmented reality and blockchain technologies. The accelerator program will run for 13 weeks and conclude with a “Demo Day” on August 7, 2019.

“We look forward to working with these six startups over the next three months to help them deliver winning outcomes and delightful experiences to customers,” said Ram Jambunathan, senior vice president and managing director, SAP.iO.

This 2019 SAP.iO Foundry Berlin summer cohort consists of the following startups:

MoBerries
Founders: Terence Hielscher, Mo Moubarak
Hardskills
Founders: Shoba Purushothaman, Krish Menon
Jobful
Founder and CEO: Mihai Cepoi
ZkSystems
Founders: Diana Rees, Amine Üenal
ScanTrust
Founders: Nathan J. Anderson, Dr. Justin Picard
Augmania
Founder and CEO: Rania Reda