Bangalore — June 1, 2016 — SAP SE (NYSE: SAP) announced today that the second edition of its Startup Accelerator Program in collaboration with the Center for Innovation Incubation and Entrepreneurship (SAP-CIIE) at IIM-Ahmedabad, to mentor and build capacities of 30 startups by 2017.
The accelerator program aims at identifying investable regional start-ups, catalyzing participation of regional stakeholders including domain experts, angels and academics, to foster regional entrepreneurship ecosystem. Additionally, two other initiatives were also announced – propelling over 200 up-and-coming youth entrepreneurs, and prospecting for three entrepreneurial individuals to become ‘Innovation Fellows’ at CIIE.
Launched in 2015, the SAP-CIIE Startup Accelerator Program is creating a pipeline of investable startups from the Gujarat region and providing them with mentorship opportunities. Besides Gujarat, the program aims to expand to Rajasthan and Pune.
“SAP believes in fostering sustainable economic environment through strengthening entrepreneurship ecosystem and in this context through our partnership with CIIE, we are creating and mentoring a pipeline of investable startups” said Dilipkumar Khandelwal, Managing Director, SAP Labs India.
“As CIIE increases its footprint in multiple regions, we are also developing depth in sectors like IoT, healthcare, agriculture, cleantech, water and enterprise tech. Our partnership with SAP allows us to tap into the enormous domain expertise that resides within the company – a support that is invaluable to startups”, said Kunal Upadhyay, CEI, CIIE.
About SAP
As market leader in enterprise application software, SAP (NYSE: SAP) helps companies of all sizes and industries run better. From back office to boardroom, warehouse to storefront, desktop to mobile device – SAP empowers people and organizations to work together more efficiently and use business insight more effectively to stay ahead of the competition. SAP applications and services enable approximately 310,000 business and public sector customers to operate profitably, adapt continuously, and grow sustainably. For more information, visit www.sap.com
About CIIE
Centre for Innovation, Incubation and Entrepreneurship (CIIE) is housed out of IIM- Ahmedabad. It is one of the oldest and most prominent startup incubators and early-stage investors in the country with 100+ investments across the verticals ICT, CleanTech and Social Impact. CIIE helps entrepreneurs solve India’s most difficult problems in areas like energy, agriculture, healthcare and affordable technology. Set-up in collaboration with Government of India and Gujarat Government, CIIE is one of India’s leading entrepreneurship center and operates different initiatives including incubators, accelerators and venture funds to support entrepreneurs. For more information, visit www.ciie.co