NetApp Excellerator has enabled participant startups to collectively raise USD 380Mn and has seen 8 successful exits and 16 POCs executed, with over Cohort 13, 85 startups now benefited from this flagship program
NetApp recently held the graduation of eight startups from the 13th cohort of its flagship accelerator program, the NetApp Excellerator. This group of deep-tech innovators included promising names from across the globe like LEGO AI, Calibr, Pipeshift (formerly Xylem AI), CLIKA, BetterData, Syntonym, Enkrypt AI, and Portkey. At the Demo Day event, the startups presented their game-changing solutions across a wide range of fields, including analytics, edtech, AI infrastructure, MLOps, synthetic data, large language models (LLM) safety benchmarking, and more. They pitched to an engaged audience of investors, industry leaders, mentors, and NetApp executives, setting the stage for what’s next in digital transformation.
The startups from Cohort 13 serve as enablers of GenAI for their customers, allowing them to harness the full potential of this technology. For instance, Pipeshift has created a managed platform to help businesses train, deploy, and scale large language models (LLMs) seamlessly. Then comes CLIKA, which is optimising machine learning (ML) models to elevate performance even further. Enkrypt AI is tackling the security side of things by offering better visibility for GenAI applications, which was showcased at the recently concluded NetApp INSIGHT.Syntonym is using GenAI coupled with privacy tech to generate synthetic faces. Combined, these startups are empowering businesses to ramp up AI adoption and drive meaningful innovation across industries, all while maximising the potential of their state-of-the-art GenAI solutions.
“The objective of this program is to accelerate innovation and fuel business growth by empowering startups to harness data, optimise operations, and create a lasting positive impact on communities.”
Vasanthi Ramesh, Managing Director and VP of Engineering, NetApp India
Throughout the course of the cohort, participant startups demonstrated why NetApp’s 2024 Cloud Complexity Report highlighted India’s leading position in AI and cloud innovation. The report revealed that a remarkable 70% of companies in India are actively working on AI projects, well above the global average of 49%. This emphasises the vital importance of unified data infrastructure for achieving success in AI, a key theme that Cohort 13 embraced and worked towards throughout their journey.
Vasanthi Ramesh, Managing Director and VP of Engineering, NetApp India, shared her thoughts, “Over the past seven years, the NetApp Excellerator has become a catalyst for bringing niche industry insights to startups that are pushing the boundaries of technology. The objective of this program is to accelerate innovation and fuel business growth by empowering startups to harness data, optimise operations, and create a lasting positive impact on communities. Over the course of Cohort 13, we worked with startups to help customers embark on a transformative Gen AI journey, fostering innovation and unlocking limitless possibilities. Through our solutions and mentorship, we’re happy to foster collaborative innovation, offering startups a platform to thrive and succeed.”
Adapting to the ever-evolving dynamics of the technology sector, the NetApp Excellerator program has continuously evolved. Driven by a shared vision, the partnership between NetApp’s mentors, leaders, and startups has spurred significant advancements in the realm of deep tech. Their success speaks for itself through alumni who have collectively raised over 380 million USD.
Since its launch in 2017, the NetApp Excellerator Program has earned its place as one of the top five accelerator programs in India for corporate innovation, as awarded by the NexTT Awards. The program features a proof-of-concept (PoC) model, enabling entrepreneurs to demonstrate the real-world impact of their solutions. In collaboration with NetApp, startups refine their minimum viable products (MVPs), uncover new use cases, and gain valuable insights that shape their go-to-market strategies.
