24 July 2019, India:
NetApp, today announced the graduation of NetApp Excellerator’s fourth cohort at a demo day event. As part of the demo day, six technology startups – QuNu Labs, SecurelyShare, Zappy.AI, Ecolibrium Energy, Eder AI and UniQreate, showcased their business models, market opportunity and projections.
This batch comprised early stage as well as mature startups, including an international startup.
So far NetApp Excellerator, has mentored 24 such startups through four cohorts.
The NetApp team, as well as external mentors, coach these startups on data-driven technologies, platforms, tools, business acumen, and offers access to customer and investor connects. NetApp also provided an equity-free grant of $15,000 to each of the participating startups.
Ajeya Motaganahalli, Senior Director and Leader of NetApp Excellerator said, “Our vision with the NetApp Excellerator program has been to unleash greater possibilities and each edition reflects our commitment to speed up the delivery of advanced technologies. This demo day further validates our program’s strengths and is the start of a deeper engagement for enhanced business alignment in future cohorts. We envision aligning the next cohort with stronger go-to-market opportunities by funding proof-of-concepts.”
Prakash Baskaran, Founder and CEO of SecurelyShare says, “Our flagship product Vault.Direct is now available on NetApp’s reference architecture. This strategic alliance will further improve our product and help us explore new ways to leverage NetApp technology.”
With this, the NetApp Excellerator has formed eight strategic alliances through its cohorts. These include FirstHive, CardioTrack, BlobCity, SigTuple, Nanobi, Scalend and ZScore from the previous three cohort.
Deepak Visweswaraiah, Senior Vice President and Managing Director, NetApp India, said, “We have understood some of the trends that are defining the B2B startup eco-system. Using this understanding, and our 25 years of data legacy, we are able to potentially redefine the direction of our startups. ArchSaber, a graduate from the second cohort is being acquired and this is the second company from our alumni to be acquired. The success of the NetApp Excellerator program lies in our ability towards establishing the business and technology viability of the startups within a strong B2B ecosystem.”
NetApp Excellerator has now opened registrations for its fifth cohort. Startups with interests in the areas of hybrid cloud, AI, IOT, data management and adjacent technology domains are invited to apply.
(Image – NetApp Excellerator)
