SAP.iO

Invests in startups across various industries, focusing on accelerating innovation and scaling successful companies through strategic partnerships with SAP c...

ActiveVenture Capital

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Updated: Dec 20, 2025 ·

About

SAP.iO is SAP’s strategic business unit to incubate, accelerate and scale startup innovation and explore new business models for SAP. Since 2017, SAP.iO has helped 300+ external startups and internal ventures both start and scale their businesses while enabling thousands of SAP customers to access innovation.

Financial History

Total Raised

N/A

Valuation

N/A

Investments Made

Date	Company	Round	Lead Investor(s)	Co-Investor(s)
Mar 1, 2024	Eye Security	$39.0M Series B	—	Apax Partners, Bessemer Venture Partners, Credo Ventures, Norwest Venture Partners, TIIN Capital, TIN Capital, Ilya Meshkov
Nov 1, 2023	Banxware	$16.0M Series A	—	Albion VC, Jean de Fougerolles, Electric Capital, Element Ventures, Notion Capital, Partech Ventures, Pioneer Fund, Scribble Ventures, South Park Commons, Stride VC, Susa Ventures, VR Ventures, Y Combinator, Charlie Songhurst, James Hind, Raphael Vullierme
Jul 1, 2023	SearchEye	$760K Seed	—	Albion VC, Andreessen Horowitz, Jean de Fougerolles, Aya, Construct Capital, Costanoa Ventures, Electric Capital, Element Ventures, Jenny Fielding, Scott Hartley, Everywhere Ventures (The Fund), Forerunner Ventures, Gaingels, Insight Partners, King River Capital, LGF, Meron Capital, NFX, Pioneer Fund, Precursor Ventures, Ravelin Capital, S Capital VC, Scribble Ventures, Sequoia Capital Israel, South Park Commons, Stride VC, Susa Ventures, TenOneTen Ventures, Tet Ventures, Y Combinator, Charlie Songhurst, Evan Moore, Immad Akhund, James Hind, Louis Beryl, Nick Hunley, Ofir Ehrlich, Omer Kaplan, Rayn Ong, Roger Dickey, Tim Griffin
Nov 1, 2022	Eye Security	$18.0M Series A	—	Apax Partners, Bessemer Venture Partners, Credo Ventures, Norwest Venture Partners, Ilya Meshkov
May 1, 2022	American Cricket Enterprises	$44.0M Series A	—	Kevin Hartz, Afore Capital, Alsop Louie Partners, Alt Capital, Amplify Partners, C2 Investment, Cervin Ventures, Coelius Capital, Electric Capital, Felicis Ventures, Founder Collective, Goat Capital, Inventus Capital Partners, Madrona Ventures, Maven Ventures, NKM Capital, Glenn Solomon, Quiet Capital, Rocketship.vc, Signia Venture Partners, SmartStart Fund, Spark Capital, Trucks Venture Capital, Venture Highway, Y Combinator, Colin Carrier, Emmett Shear, John Collison, Preetha Parthasarathy, Sam Altman, Satya Nadella, Sravish Sridhar, Subrah Iyar, Tikhon Bernstam, Travis Vanderzanden
May 1, 2022	Manta	$35.0M Series B	—	Albion VC, Apax Partners, Jean de Fougerolles, Bessemer Venture Partners, Credo Ventures, Electric Capital, Element Ventures, Norwest Venture Partners, Pioneer Fund, Scribble Ventures, South Park Commons, Stride VC, Susa Ventures, Y Combinator, Charlie Songhurst, Ilya Meshkov, James Hind
Oct 1, 2021	Orca Security	$340.0M Series C	—	01 Advisors, Kevin Hartz, AIX Ventures, Alt Capital, AngelPad, Brighter Capital, CapitalG, CRV, DTX Ventures, Flex Capital, Heavybit, Index Ventures, Insight Partners, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Mango Capital, Mayfield, Merus Capital, Glenn Solomon, Notable Capital, Quiet Capital, Redpoint Ventures, rocketship.vc, Trinity Ventures, TSVC Capital, Anthony Soohoo, Assaf Wand, Augusto Marietti, Dmitry Dakhnovsky, Peter Sonsini, Preetha Parthasarathy
Aug 1, 2021	Zippin	$30.0M Series B	—	Kevin Hartz, Alt Capital, Corazon Capital, Kamay Ventures, Maven Ventures, MizMaa Ventures, Montage Ventures, Glenn Solomon, OurCrowd, rocketship.vc, Preetha Parthasarathy, Sharon Azulai
Jun 1, 2021	Purchasely	$2.0M Seed	—	20VC, Albion VC, Alumni Ventures, Alven, Arrive, Ascend Vietnam Ventures, Jean de Fougerolles, Breega, Broadhaven Capital Partners, CFV Ventures, Chalfen Ventures, Coatue, Cubit Investments Ltd, Electric Capital, Element Ventures, Greenoaks Capital, Jonathan Becker, HV Capital, Kima Ventures, Lionheart Ventures, Mercato Partners, Pareto Holdings, Partech Ventures, Pioneer Fund, Point Nine Capital, Redpoint Ventures, RTP Global, Scribble Ventures, SeaX Ventures, #SecretFund, sequel, Sequoia Capital, South Park Commons, Spark Capital, Stellar Capital, Stride VC, Susa Ventures, Uncork Capital, Union Square Ventures, Venga!Labs, Y Combinator, Adrien Miniatti, Amirhossein Malekzadeh, Andre Haddad, Antoine Martin, Calvin Chu, Charlie Songhurst, Christian Reber, Frederic Montagnon, Guillaume Luccisano, Guy Podjarny, James Hind, Jean-David Blanc, Jens Begemann, Jérôme Le Feuvre, Martin Li, Nicolas Steegmann, Niklas Jansen, Romain Lapeyre, Sahin Boydas, Simon Dawlat, Thibaud Elziere
Mar 1, 2021	Orca Security	$210.0M Series C	—	Kevin Hartz, AIX Ventures, Alt Capital, CapitalG, DTX Ventures, Flex Capital, Heavybit, Insight Partners, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Mango Capital, Mayfield, Glenn Solomon, Notable Capital, Quiet Capital, Redpoint Ventures, rocketship.vc, Assaf Wand, Augusto Marietti, Peter Sonsini, Preetha Parthasarathy
Mar 1, 2021	Benable	$3.0M Seed	—	Kevin Hartz, Alt Capital, Glenn Solomon, Rocketship.vc, Preetha Parthasarathy
Mar 1, 2021	Crosschq	$30.0M Series A	—	83North, Alt Capital, Bessemer Venture Partners, Dell Technologies Capital, Immeasurable, Interlace Ventures, MS&AD Ventures, Notable Capital, Rocketship.vc, Scale Asia Ventures, Tucker Seed Fund LLC, Verizon Ventures, Walden International, Y Combinator, Giovanni Gardelli
Dec 1, 2020	Orca Security	$55.0M Series B	—	Kevin Hartz, AIX Ventures, Alt Capital, DTX Ventures, Flex Capital, Heavybit, Insight Partners, Glenn Solomon, Notable Capital, rocketship.vc, Assaf Wand, Augusto Marietti, Preetha Parthasarathy
Oct 1, 2020	Manta	$13.0M Series A	—	Albion VC, Apax Partners, Jean de Fougerolles, Bessemer Venture Partners, Credo Ventures, Electric Capital, Element Ventures, Norwest Venture Partners, Pioneer Fund, Scribble Ventures, South Park Commons, Stride VC, Susa Ventures, Y Combinator, Charlie Songhurst, Ilya Meshkov, James Hind
Oct 1, 2020	MindLabs	$2.0M Seed	—	Ada Ventures, Albion VC, Jean de Fougerolles, Electric Capital, Element Ventures, Passion Capital, Pioneer Fund, Scribble Ventures, South Park Commons, Stride VC, Susa Ventures, Y Combinator, Charlie Songhurst, Julien Callede, Martin Henk, Martin Tajur, Triin Hertmann
Jul 1, 2020	Crosschq	$7.0M Seed	—	Bessemer Venture Partners, Immeasurable, Interlace Ventures, Rocketship.vc, Scale Asia Ventures, Y Combinator, Giovanni Gardelli
Dec 1, 2019	Zippin	$12.0M Series A	—	Kevin Hartz, Alt Capital, Corazon Capital, Euclid Ventures, Kamay Ventures, Krillion Ventures, KRM Interests LLC, Maven Ventures, Maveron, Menlo Ventures, MizMaa Ventures, Montage Ventures, Glenn Solomon, OurCrowd, PruVen Capital, rocketship.vc, SoftBank Investment Advisers, Ulu Ventures, Zeev Capital, Dmitry Dakhnovsky, Jason Stomel, Louis Beryl, Omar El-Ayat, Oren Dobronsky, Preetha Parthasarathy
Aug 1, 2019	ResortPass	$9.0M Series A	—	14W, 468 Capital, Kevin Hartz, A* Capital (A Star Capital), Alt Capital, CRV, Humba Ventures, KRM Interests LLC, Momenta Ventures, Glenn Solomon, OODA Ventures, rocketship.vc, Charlie Cheever, Gwyneth Paltrow, Luc Levesque, Michael Stoppelman, Preetha Parthasarathy, Tobias Lutke
May 1, 2019	Printify	$3.0M Seed	—	01 Advisors, Accel, Acequia Capital, Albion VC, Also Capital, Alt Capital, Alumni Ventures, Andreessen Horowitz, Chloe Sladden, Jana Messerschmidt, Jean de Fougerolles, Bling Capital, Boost VC, BoxGroup, Camber Creek, CapitalG, Catapult Capital, Champion Hill Labs, Citi Ventures, Coatue, Concrete Ventures, Craft Ventures, Rachel Slaybaugh, Defy Partners, Dig Ventures, Electric Capital, Element Ventures, First Round Capital, Forerunner Ventures, Founders Fund, Four Rivers Group, Fuel Capital, Harrison Metal, Hustle Fund, Independent, Insight Partners, IVP, Khosla Ventures, Kleiner Perkins, Liquid 2 Ventures, Mayfield, Moving Capital, Moxxie Ventures, N49P Ventures, NFX, Pareto Holdings, Pioneer Fund, Pioneer Square Labs, Preston-Werner Ventures, Quiet Capital, RRE Ventures, Sandbox Industries, SciFi VC, Scribble Ventures, SignalFire, Social Capital, South Park Commons, Spark Capital, Staenberg Venture Partners, Stride VC, Susa Ventures, SV Angel, Techstars, The General Partnership, Tribe Capital, Two Small Fish Ventures, Union Square Ventures, Vouch Insurance, Y Combinator, Adam D'Angelo, Adrian Aoun, Ameet Ranadive, Amit Mital, Charlie Songhurst, Ellen Salisbury, Emil Michael, Haroon Mokhtarzada, Immad Akhund, James Hind, Jeff Seibert, Jeremy Stoppelman, Josh Mohrer, Juha Paananen, Justin Mateen, Keith Larson, Leah Busque, Louis Beryl, Mark Hager, Max Mullen, Othman Laraki, Peter Kazanjy, Sam Lambert, Shishir Mehrotra, Steph Korey, Tom McInerney, Varsha Rao, Wayne Chang, Yann LeCun
Apr 1, 2019	Runa	$5.0M Seed	—	Accomplice, Accomplice VC, FirstMark Capital, Practical Venture Capital, Stride VC, Andrei Dunca, Anne Wojcicki, Ben Barokas, Esther Dyson
Dec 1, 2018	Spring Discovery	$18.0M Series A	—	Albion VC, Alumni Ventures, Andreessen Horowitz, Angel investor, Jana Messerschmidt, #ANGELS (Hashtag ANGELS), Archetype, Jean de Fougerolles, Ben Franklin Technology Partners of Southeastern Pennsylvania, Blisce, Bond, Bow Capital, BoxGroup, Caffeinated Capital, Chapter One Ventures, Coatue, CoinFund, Compound, Craft Ventures, Daffy, Dispersion Capital, Dreamers VC, Electric Capital, Element Ventures, First Round Capital, FPV Fund, Fuel Capital, General Catalyst, Graph Ventures, Griffin Gaming Partners, Helium-3 Ventures, IVP, Kapor Capital, Moving Capital, Moxxie Ventures, North Island Ventures, Paradigm, Pioneer Fund, Reform Ventures, Rembrandt Venture Partners, Roosh Ventures, Scribble Ventures, Sequoia Capital, Sound Ventures, South Park Commons, Stride VC, Susa Ventures, The General Partnership, The Hit Forge, Thirty Five Ventures, Thomvest Ventures, Union Square Ventures, Y Combinator, Yes VC, Adrian Aoun, Andre Iguodala, Balaji Srinivasan, Bill Tai, Charlie Songhurst, Emil Michael, James Hind, Jeff Morris, Josh Mohrer, Leah Busque, Mark Pincus, Matt Bellamy, Rashaun Williams, Varsha Rao, William Mougayar
Jul 1, 2018	DIRT Protocol	$3.0M Seed	—	305 Ventures, Albion VC, Amino Capital, Andreessen Horowitz, Jean de Fougerolles, Broadway Angels, Electric Capital, Element Ventures, Tanguy Chau, Greenfield One, Greylock, Haun Ventures, Infinite Niches, Lakestar, Olima Ventures, Oyster Ventures, Paradigm, Pioneer Fund, Rebel Fund, Scalar Capital, Scribble Ventures, South Park Commons, Stellar Capital, Stride VC, Susa Ventures, The Hit Forge, The House Fund, Wing Venture Capital, Y Combinator, Charlie Songhurst, Elad Gil, James Hind, Sue Xu
Jun 1, 2018	AMA - A Million Ads	$3.0M Seed	—	Albion VC, Ascension Ventures (UK), BDMI - Bertelsmann Digital Media Investments, BEENEXT, Betaworks Ventures, Edge VC, Electric Capital, Element Ventures, Mercuri, Pioneer Fund, Scribble Ventures, South Park Commons, Stride VC, Susa Ventures, Y Combinator, Charlie Songhurst, James Hind

Financial History

Total Raised

N/A

Valuation

N/A

Leadership Team

Key people at SAP.iO.

Maxwell Wessel

SVP & General Manager

Entrepreneur in Residence

Ryan Van Dyk

Head of Entrepreneurs-in-Residence (EiR)

Leadership Team

Key people at SAP.iO.

Maxwell Wessel

SVP & General Manager

Entrepreneur in Residence

Ryan Van Dyk

Head of Entrepreneurs-in-Residence (EiR)

Deep Dive

SAP.iO is a strategic venture capital fund and startup accelerator launched by SAP in 2017 to invest in early-stage enterprise software startups across various industries. Its mission is to accelerate innovation and scale successful companies by integrating them into the SAP ecosystem through strategic partnerships, leveraging SAP’s data, APIs, and platform technologies. SAP.iO focuses on startups that complement SAP’s enterprise software offerings, particularly in sectors like artificial intelligence, machine learning, blockchain, and IoT, aiming to unlock new value for SAP customers and drive digital transformation[1][4][5].

Founded as part of SAP’s broader open innovation model, SAP.iO operates global startup accelerators called Foundries in key innovation hubs such as San Francisco, Berlin, New York, and Tel Aviv. These Foundries incubate startups by providing non-dilutive support, including business development, technical resources, and direct access to SAP’s extensive customer base. SAP.iO also emphasizes inclusive entrepreneurship, actively supporting startups led by underrepresented founders, which has resulted in a diverse portfolio with strong growth and impact metrics[1][2][3].

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Origin Story

SAP.iO was founded in 2017 as SAP’s dedicated fund and accelerator program to foster innovation outside the company while expanding SAP’s ecosystem. It was seeded with an initial $35 million investment to back early-stage startups building software that integrates with SAP’s platforms. The program evolved to include multiple global Foundries managed in partnership with organizations like Techstars, focusing on frontier technologies and industry-specific solutions. Over time, SAP.iO has expanded its portfolio to over 450 startups, with a strong commitment to diversity and inclusion, supporting startups led by women and underrepresented entrepreneurs[1][2][4].

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Core Differentiators

Unique Investment Model: SAP.iO provides *non-dilutive* support, meaning startups do not have to give up equity or pay fees to join the program. Instead, SAP.iO helps startups grow through revenue-sharing partnerships and direct customer engagement[3].

Strong Network Access: Startups gain privileged access to SAP’s global customer base, enabling real-world validation and scaling opportunities that few other accelerators can offer[1][3].

Diversity and Inclusion Focus: SAP.iO has a pioneering initiative called SAP.iO No Boundaries, which prioritizes startups founded or led by underrepresented entrepreneurs, achieving 44% representation in its portfolio ahead of schedule[2].

Comprehensive Operating Support: Beyond capital, SAP.iO offers technical, marketing, and sales support, helping startups integrate with SAP’s platforms and accelerate market adoption[4][5].

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Role in the Broader Tech Landscape

SAP.iO rides the wave of enterprise digital transformation, where large corporations seek innovative software solutions to enhance their operations through AI, machine learning, blockchain, and IoT. The timing is critical as businesses increasingly demand integrated, scalable, and intelligent applications. SAP.iO’s model of embedding startups within a global enterprise ecosystem addresses market forces favoring open innovation and ecosystem-driven growth. By fostering startups that complement SAP’s offerings, SAP.iO influences the broader tech ecosystem by accelerating the adoption of cutting-edge technologies in enterprise environments and promoting inclusive entrepreneurship[1][2][5].

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Quick Take & Future Outlook

Looking ahead, SAP.iO is poised to deepen its impact by expanding its global Foundry network and increasing its portfolio’s diversity. Trends such as AI-driven automation, industry-specific SaaS solutions, and blockchain adoption will shape its investment focus. SAP.iO’s influence is likely to grow as it continues to bridge the gap between innovative startups and large enterprise customers, driving mutual growth. Its commitment to inclusive entrepreneurship also positions it as a leader in reshaping venture capital norms within the enterprise software space[2][3][5].

SAP.iO exemplifies how strategic corporate venture capital can accelerate innovation, scale startups, and transform enterprise technology landscapes by leveraging the power of ecosystem partnerships.

Sources

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Origin Story

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Core Differentiators

Unique Investment Model: SAP.iO provides *non-dilutive* support, meaning startups do not have to give up equity or pay fees to join the program. Instead, SAP.iO helps startups grow through revenue-sharing partnerships and direct customer engagement[3].

Strong Network Access: Startups gain privileged access to SAP’s global customer base, enabling real-world validation and scaling opportunities that few other accelerators can offer[1][3].

Diversity and Inclusion Focus: SAP.iO has a pioneering initiative called SAP.iO No Boundaries, which prioritizes startups founded or led by underrepresented entrepreneurs, achieving 44% representation in its portfolio ahead of schedule[2].

Comprehensive Operating Support: Beyond capital, SAP.iO offers technical, marketing, and sales support, helping startups integrate with SAP’s platforms and accelerate market adoption[4][5].

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Role in the Broader Tech Landscape

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Quick Take & Future Outlook

SAP.iO exemplifies how strategic corporate venture capital can accelerate innovation, scale startups, and transform enterprise technology landscapes by leveraging the power of ecosystem partnerships.