Bangalore, January 18, 2019: Data management and hybrid cloud leader, NetApp,  has announced the graduation of its third cohort  of the NetApp Excellerator programme,  the company’s flagship  initiative to nurture data driven technology startups.
The third batch of six startups focused on technologies like Artificial Intelligence, Cloud, Cyber Security, Analytics, applied in wide-impact areas like operations, marketing and healthcare.
All six startups – CloudOptimo, InstaSafe, FirstHive, Praktice.ai, Cardiotrack and Zscore Technologies underwent a four-month long programme to engage and benefit from NetApp’s technologies, platforms, tools, HR, marketing and legal support, and fine-tune their products using the expert knowledge provided by the team. At the third Demo Day, the startups presented their products to a panel of venture capitalists, prominent industry leaders and top NetApp executives. NetApp provides an equity-free grant of $15,000 to each of the participating startups.
This year, NetApp took its accelerator program a notch higher as it welcomed international participants under its mentorship, Praktice.ai and Cardiotrack. Both of these startups are headquartered in Singapore and have a global customer base. In the backdrop of the event, Cardiotrack also launched a new app for patients. This app will help heart patients digitize their health records, get connected to specialists and control illnesses through real time monitoring and expert advice.
Says Ajeya Motaganahalli, Senior Director and leader of the NetApp Excellerator Programne:  “The programme has been successful mainly because we have consistently helped startups focus on value creation. Valuation and subsequent funding is a follow-on effect which is the most desired outcome for any startup. When we look at all our startups, not just from this cohort but also from the previous ones, it’s heartening to see how spectacularly well they are doing for themselves. After evaluating over a thousand startups and closely working and mentoring eighteen of them, we are able to look back with some degree of satisfaction that we have been able to make a difference in the deep-tech and B2B startup ecosystem.”
FirstHive and Cardiotrack from this cohort have joined NetApp as strategic alliance partners, which means that NetApp will co-create solutions and go to market with them. They join BlobCity, SigTuple, Nanobi and Scalend from the last two cohorts. With this, six startups from across the program alumni have cemented their association with NetApp.
The expert mentorship has already started bearing results, such as with Zscore, a participating startup that on-boarded three new clients during the programme.
Says Deepak Visweswaraiah, Senior Vice President & Managing Director, NetApp India: “In this data driven world, it’s exciting to see such startups that are shaping the economy through wide-impact initiatives such as healthcare. Our aim is to bring together technology know-how and innovation, and our alumni have reaffirmed our success through theirs.”
NetApp Excellerator also received the Best Corporate Startup Accelerator Programme Award at the Zinnov Confluence 2018 event in June 2018.
 More here:  http://startup.netapp.in/.

NetApp Excellerator Cohort 3 Startups at a glance:
Cardiotrack An IoT and AI based heart health diagnostics technology that is changing the way heart health care is delivered. This handheld 12-lead digital ECG device captures patients’ heart health information anywhere, anytime.|
Zscore Technologies An AI analytics company with their own platform that could be deployed on top of existing business intelligence systems. Zscore’s mission is to ensure that organizations have trustworthy data that they can use to make decisions confidently.
Praktice.ai Praktice.ai automates patient interactions at hospitals through speech and chat mediums, enabling hospital staff to handle almost 10x the number of patients.
FirstHive A customer data platform that builds Unique Customer Identities by aggregating data from across all sources of customer interactions and customer transactions, and drives marketing ROI for consumer marketing focused large enterprises.
CloudOptimo An intelligent cloud costs optimization platform which reduces the total cost of ownership of cloud infrastructure up to 80% while ensuring high availability and consistent performance.
InstaSafe A software-defined perimeter-based cybersecurity provider that helps secure organizations, users and applications through an innovative Zero Trust Model.