NetApp announces Second Cohort of Startups under its flagship accelerator program

NetApp has announced the second batch of startups chosen for its flagship accelerator program, the NetApp Excellerator. Six startups from across India have been selected from 450 companies that applied for the accelerator program. Given the data legacy of the company, the NetApp Excellerator program aims at mentoring growth stage startups.

The second cohort includes start-ups: ArchSaber, SigTuple Technologies, Nanobi Data & Analytics, Data Ken Technologies, BlobCityInc and Anlyz.

The startups were chosen from the 450 companies that registered, up from around 250 that registered for the first cohort, attesting to the value that this program offers. Of these, 11 were shortlisted to participate in a rigorous boot camp that concluded with the six being selected for the second cohort. The selections were based on several factors like product capability and technical depth, fitment, i.e. NetApp’s ability to add value to the startup, performance in the boot camp, learnability, coachability and credibility of the founding team.

Commenting on this, Ajeya Motaganahalli, Director, Engineering Programs and Leader of NetApp Excellerator, said, “I would like to congratulate and welcome all the startups selected for the second cohort. All the six companies have an extraordinary team and a unique solution that has the potential to become a significant player on a global scale. I am impressed with their zeal and vision to transform, thrive in the data space and we are happy to be a part of their incredible journey.”

“We launched the accelerator program last year and it is overwhelming to receive almost double the number of applications for our second cohort. We are looking forward to the experience of mentoring this batch. The set of startups we have here seems to further along their journey in the maturity curve as compared to the earlier cohort,” he added.

Sharing the vision behind the program, Deepak Visweswarariah, NetApp India Managing Director and Senior Vice-President, said, “We want the best of the data-driven startups to take advantage of our data legacy. We have a great partnership with Scalend Technologies, a startup from our last cohort, that we are taking to market. We are keen to share knowledge, form partnerships, and create a data ecosystem. The fantastic response from the startups is a substantiation of our commitment and the quality of mentorship being offered as part of the program. As an encouraging trend, we are also seeing more startups founded and led by women entrepreneurs – we have two such examples in our Cohort 2.”

According to the company, the selected startups will now receive access to collaboration and productivity tools, co-working space out of the NetApp's global centre of excellence in Bangalore as well as networking opportunities with potential investors, partners, and customers. These companies will also have access to NetApp platforms and technologies, tools, HR, marketing, legal and tech support. NetApp will provide an equity free grant of US$15,000 to these startups upon completion of the program.

Located in the heart of Bengaluru’s technology neighbourhood at its 15-acre campus, the four-month-long Excellerator program is NetApp’s first-ever startup accelerator, designed to help enterprise startups to achieve their full potential through mentorship with one of NetApp’s largest R&D teams.