SAP India, CIIE announce second edition of Startup Accelerator

The Accelerator seeks to mentor and build capacities of 30 start-ups by 2017

Global technology products firm SAP SE announced today that the second edition of its Startup Accelerator Program in collaboration with the Centre for Innovation Incubation and Entrepreneurship (SAP-CIIE) at IIM-Ahmedabad, will mentor and build capacities of 30 start-ups by 2017.

The accelerator aims at identifying investable regional start-ups, catalysing 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.

"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.

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.

"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.