“With the ease of doing business improving, the number of start-ups will go up”

Ajeya Motaganahalli works as the Senior Director for Engineering Programs, Strategy and Business Operations at NetApp India and heads NetApp’s first ever start-up accelerator program called the NetApp Excellerator (startup.netapp.in). In this era of digital transformation, Ajeya aspires to provide pioneering leadership in transforming product strategy and execution by developing high quality engineering inputs into top quality outcomes. 
 

Ajeya Motaganahalli, Senior Director, Engineering & Leader – NetApp Excellerator while highlighting the present start-up eco-system in India gives an account of the NetApp Excellerator program -  

There are several ways in which one can assess and rank various start-up ecosystems. Some may do it in terms of sheer number of start-ups, while a few others may do it based on amount of funding received. Each approach leads to slightly different answers. 

“We have seen about 7000+ start-ups come up in India in the last 5 years itself. With the ease of doing business improving in India, we will only see this number go up. As per a 2018 Nasscom report, India is home to 18 Unicorns which is a phenomenal feat in itself. On that yardstick, India ranks third worldwide only behind US and China. We are really proud of that fact. I would like to use that as a parameter for success of an ecosystem rather than only looking at sheer number of start-ups or number of funding offers,” says Ajeya Motaganahalli, Senior Director, Engineering & Leader – NetApp Excellerator. 

The key growth drivers, according to Ajeya are start-ups in the enterprise software, fintech, health-tech and ed-tech sectors. Additionally, data analytics, AI and IoT start-ups are also witnessing fast adoption across various industry verticals. 

However there are several challenges which the start-ups face. Lack of mentorship and guidance, capital investment, fund-raising, lack of direct contact with the end-customers or access to large enterprises who are potentially great customers for their solutions are some of the challenges that they face. 

“These challenges can be overcome by proper knowledge of the industry and applying that knowledge in the functioning of the start-ups,” says Ajeya. “Also, go-to market was previously learnt through trial and error because of lack of suitable mentoring. But with so many upcoming accelerator programs and Government of India’s start-up initiative, I believe it is becoming easier for start-ups to create a long-term value.”

The NetApp Excellerator program
NetApp is one of the leading data management companies and a cloud solutions provider and NetApp Excellerator is the company’s flagship accelerator program designed with an aim to help start-ups create world-class products and innovative solutions for the market. NetApp Excellerator program is designed in such a way that start-ups in the data-driven space directly benefit from NetApp’s expertise in data, cloud and hybrid cloud fields. They undergo a four-month long program where they have access to NetApp’s technologies, platforms, tools, HR, marketing and legal support.

Through the NetApp Excellerator program, NetApp provides technical and business mentorship to emerging B2B ventures operating in the deep-tech space. 

The start-ups get access to an array of unique offerings such as collaboration and productivity tools, a co-working space out of NetApp’s global centre of excellence in Bengaluru as well as networking opportunities with potential investors, partners, and customers. Each graduating start-up is also provided an equity free funding of $15,000 and a faster IP filing process.

“Sometimes, start-ups fail to focus on value creation. Valuation and subsequent funding is a follow-on effect which is the most desired outcome for any start-up,” observes Ajeya. “NetApp Excellerator helps them fine-tune their products using the expert knowledge provided by the team and in turn create value. As a tangible example of value creation, FirstHive and Cardiotrack from the recent cohort have joined NetApp as strategic alliance partners, which means that we will co-create solutions and go to market with us. They have joined the strategic alliance partners BlobCity, SigTuple, Nanobi and Scalend from the last two cohorts,” he sums up.

NetApp Excellerator Program’s alumni include SigTuple - a medical technology start-up which has raised USD 19 from Accel partners and IDG Ventures, and Vaultedge – a company that uses AI to help banks and BPOs perform loan underwriting and secured an investment of USD 1 Million recently.

NetApp has recently announced the graduation of its third cohort during the NetApp Excellerator Demo Day. The third batch of six start-ups focused on technologies like Artificial Intelligence, Cloud, Cyber Security, Analytics, applied in wide-impact areas like operations, marketing and healthcare.