SAP.iO Launches Corporate T&E Accelerator Program

SAP‘s new SAP.iO program will attempt to act as an idea farm for businesses involved in the travel industry, according to a press release.

The SAP.iO accelerator program will consist of mentorship, education about new technologies and access to APIs, and opportunities to collaborate with SAP customers.

Eight startups are participating in the program this spring.

Bacarai is working on an airline marketplace in which customers can buy trips and manage them through an online interface.

Software-as-a-service (SaaS) platform Hotailers allows businesses transparency when it comes to contingent worker travel and making sure bookings meet regulations, expense limits and safety guidelines.

Jet-Set Offset develops technology to help businesses lessen their carbon footprints related to flying, touting an automatic one-cent-per-mile donation to an environmental nonprofit of the business’s choice.

Mobile expense management system Jojonomic, based in Southeast Asia, works with numerous entities in that region.

Lumo, which uses API and SaaS to forecast flight delays. The company’s products have been used by airlines and airline-adjacent companies like travel agencies.

RoadGoat uses location technology to map out around 4.3 million travel destinations, which leads to higher user engagement and more travel bookings.

Tripgrid helps make travel workflows easier by working with costs, data and travel documents to help businesses add more automation to their services.

30SecondsToFly produces software for the travel management industry using artificial intelligence (AI) to aid call centers and provide better service for less money.

Jim Lucier, president of SAP, said he wants the event to be an “open innovation ecosystem” where people of many different businesses could exchange ideas and learn as the “rising stars” of the industry. The event will conclude with SAP.iO Demo Day at the beginning of June.

SAP has also been busy on projects with Goldman Sachs and Wipro as of late.