HYDERABAD, India — SAP SE (NYSE: SAP) and the Indian School of Business (ISB) today announced a collaboration to nurture the social entrepreneurship ecosystem with relevance to national priorities.
The ISB-SAP Social Enterprise Jumpstart will identify five social enterprise startups and provide training, mentorship and access to networks to accelerate their growth.
SAP’s collaboration with ISB is in tune with its strategy to drive social entrepreneurship through alliance with leading Indian academic institutions. With this initiative, SAP will expand its thought leadership to much wider segment in the entrepreneurship ecosystem. SAP will bring in expertise on go to market, technology trends, customer acquisitions, design thinking methodology among others for social enterprises under this programme.
The four month fixed term mentor-driven program will provide identified startups access to business, academic mentors and subject experts through the Centre for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (CIE) at ISB and SAP. Startups will be identified through a nation-wide selection process with the involvement of the SAP, ISB and other relevant experts from the startup ecosystem.
“Our objective is to create investible and growth oriented social enterprises that would address unmet social needs and create significant employment opportunities,” said Dilipkumar Khandelwal, Managing Director, SAP Labs India and EVP, Enterprise Cloud Services, SAP SE. “We will provide mentorship and connects to technology experts to speed up the growth of the social enterprises.”
Commenting on the new initiative Rajendra Srivastava, ISB Dean and Novartis Professor of Marketing Strategy and Innovation said, “Entrepreneurship is core to ISB’s DNA and our focus on engendering a spirit of entrepreneurship among our students is showing success. We are now extending this spirit of enterprise beyond our students to help startups in the social enterprise space by leveraging our partnerships and the startup ecosystem at ISB.”
The five early stage social entrepreneurs identified under the ISB-SAP Social Enterprise Jumpstart will be admitted to and supported as one cohort and will be part of the entrepreneur and innovation ecosystem to receive mentorship, training and networking opportunities with academia and industry.
To qualify for the programme early stage social entrepreneurs will be invited to apply and put through a selection process that will include experts from ISB, SAP and the startup eco-system. Two persons from each social enterprise will be selected to undergo the programme which will have two residency modules at ISB and one boot camp at SAP. These social enterprises will have an opportunity to present their business plans to venture capitalists and angel investors to raise funds.
About SAP
As market leader in enterprise application software, SAP (NYSE: SAP) helps companies of all sizes and industries run better. From back office to boardroom, warehouse to storefront, desktop to mobile device – SAP empowers people and organizations to work together more efficiently and use business insight more effectively to stay ahead of the competition. SAP applications and services enable approximately 310,000 business and public sector customers to operate profitably, adapt continuously, and grow sustainably. For more information, visit www.sap.com.
About ISB
The Indian School of Business (ISB) is a global Business school offering world-class management education across its two campuses – Hyderabad and Mohali. The School has grown at a rapid pace over the fifteen years since its inception and already has several notable accomplishments to its credit – it is the youngest school ever to consistently rank among the top Global MBA programmes, the first institution in South Asia to receive the prestigious AACSB accreditation, one of the largest providers of Executive Education in Asia, and the most research productive Indian management institution. A vibrant pool of research-oriented resident faculty, strong academic associations with leading global B-schools and the backing of an influential Board, have helped the ISB fast emerge as a premier global Business school in the emerging markets. For more details visit www.isb.edu
Media Contacts:
C Chitti Pantulu, chitti_pantulu@isb.edu; +91 9885022743
Rathnam Subramanyam, rathnam.subramanyam@sap.com; +91 7829411779
Somali Dasgupta, somali.dasgupta@fleishman.com; +91 9008363400
