NetApp Excellerator Program Graduates Ready to Change the World with Data

NetApp, the data authority for the hybrid cloud, today celebrated the second group of NetApp® Excellerator Program graduates at NetApp Excellerator Demo Day.  Upon graduating from the program, startups SigTuple, Nanobi, ArchSaber, Anlyz, Dataken and BlobCity presented how they will change the world with data to an audience of venture capitalists and prominent industry leaders.

The NetApp Excellerator Program, launched earlier this year, empowers startups to create innovative market-ready products and solutions by providing access to NetApp expertise and its ecosystem of partners and customers. The startups also benefit from NetApp platforms and technologies, tools, co-working space, HR, marketing, legal and tech support. NetApp offers an equity-free grant of US$15,000 to startups upon completion of the 4-month program and the startups own their intellectual property (IP).

“These six startups were carefully selected from over 450 applications,” said Ajeya Motaganahalli, senior director and leader of the NetApp Excellerator Program.  “Our globally acclaimed mentors and in-house technology experts took great care in creating custom programs for each of them.  Through their time with the NetApp Excellerator Program, SigTuple, one of the participating startups received funding; Anlyz and BlobCity initiated multiple proof-of-concept projects, and some big customer wins for a couple of other startups. By the end of the program, each of them had fine-tuned their approach, products, target market and cloud strategy, based on our recommendations. We have taken our relationship with BlobCity, SigTuple, and Nanobi to another level by making them our strategic alliance partners, which means we will co-create solutions and go to market with them. As a testimony to the program’s success, we received the Best Corporate Startup Accelerator Program Award at the Zinnov Confluence 2018 event just this month!”

After a startup graduates from the NetApp Excellerator Program, NetApp tracks their progress through alumni programs, events and alliance partnerships. As alumni, they continue to have access to mentorship and go-to-market opportunities with NetApp, as well as access to other organizations and influential individuals in the ecosystem.

A recent graduate, Rohit Kumar Pandey, cofounder and CEO of SigTuple, said, “We started with a simple aim to make healthcare in India more affordable, accurate and accessible. Thanks to the NetApp Excellerator Program, we now have confidence in our product and technology, as well as operational efficiency and cloud storage strategy – and we are elated to be chosen as a NetApp Alliance Partner!”

The application period for the third batch of the program is open until August 5, 2018.  Startups working in areas related to IOT, cloud, big data and analytics, machine learning, virtualization, data security, storage, data management and other adjacent areas are encouraged to apply.

According to Deepak Visweswaraiah, senior vice president & managing director, NetApp India, “Mentoring and interacting with startups has proven to be a great learning experience for us. This year, we saw a diverse mix of startups with respect to gender, stage of evolution, and geography – a proof-point that increasing numbers of startups recognize the importance of our data-driven business model.”