Announcing the SAP.iO Foundry NY Winter 2019 Cohort of Enterprise Social Impact Tech Startups

SAP.iO Foundry NY Winter Cohort 2019

Today, we are thrilled to welcome eight companies comprising our second class at SAP.iO Foundry NY. For this cohort, we wanted to take our vision of inclusive entrepreneurship a step farther beyond the work we did with our inaugural cohort of women-led enterprise tech startups. Stemming from a desire to use technology as a catalyst for action and change, we not only wanted to work with a class of women and diverse founders, but those that everyday are making a social impact in sustainability or helping companies do business without bias.

Empowering women and diverse entrepreneurs to build successful businesses with SAP is one of the guiding principles of SAP.iO Fund & Foundries. Inclusive entrepreneurship is good for everyone: diverse teams have better outcomes in terms of startup exits, with 10–15% higher returns. What happens then, if you leverage the power of inclusive entrepreneurship with a lens to save the world? That’s what this cohort is about.

From a field of over 150 applicants, we chose eight exciting companies that are late seed / close to Series A and that are solving pressing problems that will make a lasting impact on us and on the world. They are enabling autism workers to enter the remote workforce for the first time; buttressing non-profits with talent for their associate boards; managing food surplus and combating hunger; supporting companies to be more diverse; managing energy more efficiently; facilitating the circular economy; optimizing sustainable farming; and finding quality workers at scale. And, the companies all have at least one incredibly talented female or diverse founder.

Over the next three months, the startups will be based in our offices in Hudson Yards and will further scale their businesses and deliver greater value to customers, through curated mentorship with SAP experts, external industry and VC mentors, and startup veterans. They will get access to SAP APIs and technologies, and plentiful opportunities for exposure to SAP’s network of customers (many of which are Fortune 500s). The program will culminate in a Demo Day on April 16th in New York.

The startups joining the program are:

1. Atipica (Founder & CEO Laura I. Gómez): Atipica is an inclusive predictive analytics platform that sits on top of talent databases. Their software reveals the type of person most likely to apply for a job, analyzes hiring patterns and quantifies the likelihood that certain kinds of candidates will accept or reject job offers — through a diversity lens.
2. CariClub (Founder & CEO Rhoden Monrose): CariClub is the world’s only premium network connecting young professionals to leadership roles on nonprofit boards. Their unique platform offers opportunities to improve employee engagement and retention through associate board service.
3. COI Energy Services (Founder & CEO SaLisa Berrien): COI Energy Services helps electric utilities and businesses of all sizes identify and manage existing energy resources in order to improve energy performance of buildings and monetize flexible energy resources that can support the electric grid.
4. Daivergent (Founders Byran Dai & Rahul Mahida): Daivergent allows companies to fulfill their data requests at scale by matching them to the best-suited workforce: adults with autism. Their software enables autism talent to enter the remote workforce for the first time.
5. EON (Founder & CEO Natasha Franck): EON is pioneering the future of Digital Identity & end-to-end connectivity through the Internet of Things (IoT) across the fashion, apparel and retail industry. EON is digitizing the physical world, introducing enabling hardware (RFID thread) and software (IoT Digital Identity Platform) essential for item-level identification and end-to-end visibility, connectivity and business intelligence. EON is facilitating industry-wide collaboration to enable interoperability at every stage in the value chain, launching the Global Connect Fashion Initiative in March 2019.
6. Goodr (Founder & CEO Jasmine Crowe): Goodr’s sustainable food waste management platform leverages technology to reduce food waste and combat hunger, providing an end-to-end solution for businesses seeking to save money from their edible food surplus by donating it to local nonprofit organizations.
7. Rex Animal Health (Founder & CEO Amado Guloy): Rex is creating the world’s largest database on animals that maps genetics to health, disease, feed, production, and medical interactions. Livestock producers can use their genetic testing kits and data dashboard to optimize yield and manage disease in their herds for sustainable practices.
8. StellarEmploy (Founders Irene Chung, Sara Nadel, Carlos Montoya): StellarEmploy makes hiring quality workers at scale easy. Built for companies with large workforces, their platform embeds performance data and customized algorithms to attract the right candidates. StellarEmploy has doubled the number of successful hires and increased retention by 20% for customer support centers and distribution warehouses.

Over the course of the next few months, we will be hosting events, office hours and workshops so that we can amplify our work and that of these inspirational companies. If you are interested in learning more or getting involved with our efforts, please reach out or visit us at www.sap.io.

We are so honored to work alongside these exceptional founders and companies. Please join us in welcoming them!