SAP Labs to launch flagship startup event in Bengaluru

SAP Labs India will host the inaugural SAP Startup Social event on June 23rd at the SAP Labs campus, Bengaluru. The event will bring together early and mid-stage startups, unicorn startup founders, startup evangelists and the investor community to share experiences, connect startups with experts and drive thought leadership within the startup ecosystem.

The event will see over 400 attendees. Among the prominent panelists and speakers are .Ravi Gururaj, Founder & CEO at QikPod; Sanjay Anandram, Advisor at iSpirt, OjasVenture Partners Seed Fund; Rahul Chowdhri, Partner, Stellaris Venture Partners and Jitendar Shrama, Founder and CEO, ZipGo. The keynote address will be by Bernd Leukert, member of the SAP Executive Board and Head of Products and Innovation.

SAP Startup Social is designed to create a unique platform for pre-selected startups to showcase their products and interact with experts from SAP’s product management team, SAP premier customers and venture capitalists. Attendees will gain deep insights into details of running a startup, raising capital, resourcing and understand how to leverage their skill sets as well as access to the ecosystem of leading SAP customers.

SAP Labs, intends to establish a dedicated and periodic initiative through this Startup Social event. This would include startup mentoring, technology enrichment through knowledge augmentation and to establish a steadfast and motivating program that would inspire the current together with the future entrepreneurs and innovators.

“On average three to four new businesses come to life every day in India; many of these have great ideas, products and people but need help to either get started or move to the next level. SAP Startup Social will provide some of these startups with a single event where their biggest questions or challenges are addressed and I’m very excited about bringing our experts together with some of the most promising new businesses in our country,” said Dilipkumar Khandelwal, Managing Director, SAP Labs India.

One of the confirmed attendees, Sapan Kumar, Co-founder of startup Blubirch, said: “For any startup to succeed three things are necessary: resources, guidance and collaborative network. As India goes through its own journey of encouraging startups, SAP is the perfect partner to help accelerate that journey by providing the critical inputs to the startups through the SAP Startup Social event. As an industry leader in the Reverse Logistics industry, Blubirch looks forward to working with SAP to connect with eco-system partners, collaborate with clients and partners and rise to being a good example of how technology led innovation can transform the reverse logistics industry.”

Rajat Mangla, Co-founder and CEO of CloudKare.com added: “Events like SAP Startup Social are really helpful for the startups in better understanding of the industry, by helping us meet leaders, investors and other fellow entrepreneurs, who have seen the environment up close. It's really exciting to see such big names as part of the event and the CloudKare team is really looking forward to it."