First batch of 6 startups graduate from NetApp’s acceleration programme
Startups Lightmetrics, Adya, VaultEdge, VitaCloud, EnCloudEn, and Scalend presented their achievements to venture capitalists, NetApp executives, and industry leaders.
From Gundappa Vishwanath, to Venkatesh Prasad, to Rahul Dravid and Anil Kumble, the city of Bengaluru has given the Indian cricket team some of its finest players. Not just that, the city also boasts of being home to some of the most successful companies and startups - Infosys, Wipro, Biocon, and Flipkart and Ola.
“The reason we have been able to produce a lot of talent (in Indian cricket) is the interactions we have with senior players. It is the culture we can boast of in Karnataka. Whether, it is the IT sector, sports or startups,” Anil Kumble said in a candid conversation as Guest of Honour at the NetApp Excellerator Demo Day.
NetApp, the data authority for the hybrid cloud, announced the graduation of its first batch of six startups with the NetApp Excellerator Demo Working day.
“It is a great initiative by NetApp that as a senior leader you are encouraging and interacting with all these startups and young entrepreneurs,” Anil added.
The day commemorated the completion of the first cohort, and the six participating startups - Lightmetrics, Adya, VaultEdge, VitaCloud, EnClouden, and Scalend - demonstrated their achievements and progress to venture capitalists, NetApp executives, and prominent industry leaders present.
"With our rich history of innovation and expertise in data management, we have been able to provide the right mentorship, both technical and sales-related, to the startups in our first cohort. We leveraged expertise from across NetApp to help the six best startups selected from the 250 applications received," said Director and leader of the NetApp Excellerator programme, Ajeya Motaganahalli.
“In addition, we got in the best-in-class global industry experts to help them qualify the target markets better, and supplement their technical capabilities," he added.
NetApp Excellerator boosted our conviction, say startups from the first cohort
The startups went through a four-month immersive programme where NetApp was instrumental in providing knowledge and experience on various aspects of setting up and scaling up a business, giving access to NetApp technologies, partners, and mentors.
In addition, the programme also provided the selected startups access to potential customers and venture capitalists and helped them explore how best they can take their innovative ideas to a global market.
Deepak Visweswaraiah, senior vice president and managing director NetApp India, said,
“Mentoring the start-ups in our very first cohort was a valuable learning experience for us. It allowed us to reconnect with the startup that we remain at heart. We will continue to support the startups through the NetApp Excellerator programme and provide them with the best ecosystem to achieve success.”
A panel discussion on ‘India Startup Story – Enterprise version’ was organized, where the panelists included Sandeep Singhal, Co-founder at Nexus Venture Partner, Pari Natarajan, CEO at Zinnov, Veena Avadhanam of NetApp, and Bala Girisaballa, CEO-in-residence, Microsoft Accelerator. The session was moderated by Shraddha Sharma, CEO and Founder of YourStory.
“India has been building business software for global enterprises through its services, which means there is talent availability. When combined with the appetite for large companies wanting to buy from startups, which was not there earlier but today, we can see that, it is creating a unique opportunity,” said Bala.
An eminent jury comprising Kalaari’s Rajesh Raju, Epsilon’s Mahesh Vaidya , Nexus Venture Partner’s Sandeep Singhal, Seedfund’s Bharati Jacob, Sanjay Ananadram and Rebright Partners’ Brij Bhasin decided on awards for the graduating startups across various categories. The day closed with the startups receiving the following awards: Mentors Choice Awards - VaultEdge; Best Growth Strategy award – Adya; Best Customer Experience Award - VitaCloud; Most Innovative Product Award - LightMetrics; Investors choice Award - EnCloudEn; Best Global Potential Award – Scalend.
Applications are now open for the second cohort of the NetApp Excellerator. Apply now.
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