New 2018 NetApp Excellerator Program Graduates Startups

• BlobCity, SigTuple, and Nanobi form strategic alliance
• Call for applications open to data-driven start-ups until August 5, 2018

NetApp, Inc. celebrated the second group of NetApp Excellerator Program graduates at NetApp Excellerator demo day.

Upon graduating from the program, startups SigTuple Technologies Private Limited, nanobi data and analytics pvt ltd, ArchSaber (OmniSaber Labs Pvt. Ltd.), Anlyz, Dataken, and BlobCity, Inc. presented how they will change the world with data to an audience of venture capitalists and industry leaders.

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

“These six start-ups were carefully selected from over 450 applications,” said Ajeya Motaganahalli, senior director and leader, 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 start-ups received funding; Anlyz and BlobCity initiated multiple proof-of-concept projects, and some big customer wins for a couple of other start-ups. 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 start-up Accelerator Program Award at the Zinnov Confluence 2018 event just this month!“

After a start-up 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, 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. start-ups 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 VP and MD, NetApp India: “Mentoring and interacting with start-ups has proven to be a great learning experience for us. This year, we saw a diverse mix of start-ups with respect to gender, stage of evolution, and geography – a proof-point that increasing numbers of start-ups recognize the importance of our data-driven business model.“

The 2018 NetApp Excellerator Program Graduates