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Europe's most valuable tech company has announced a $35 million startup fund (ADR)
Reuters/Thomas Peter
Enterprise software firm SAP announced a $35 million (£28 million) fund on Thursday that will be used to back promising early stage software companies.
SAP said the "SAP.iO fund" has been set up to support the existing SAP.iO programme, which is designed to get SAP employees and startups using SAP's data and application programming interfaces (APIs).
In addition to the new fund, SAP.iO has also launched its startup incubator programme in Berlin and San Francisco. The incubator programme, known as the SAP.iO Foundry, is already in operation in New York and Tel Aviv.
Deepak Krishnamurthy, chief strategy officer at SAP, said in a statement: "In addition to empowering our employee innovators, SAP.iO will use its fund and foundries to invest in entrepreneurs that develop industry-changing software."
SAP, headquartered in Walldorf, Germany, is the largest software company in Europe, with a market cap of $121 billion (£97 million).
Bill McDermott, CEO of SAP, said in a statement: "We have a message for entrepreneurs: if you have a bold dream to solve one of the world's most significant challenges, join us and let's chase your dream together."
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