A San Francisco-based equity-free accelerator has selected six startups to participate in its latest cohort, and a company from Cincinnati made the list.
Cloverleaf, a firm that uses data to help companies put together stronger teams, is taking part in SAP.iO Foundry’s virtual accelerator focused on the “future of work.” The 13-week program aims to accelerate six B2B SaaS startups focused on recruiting, talent and team management, well-being and collaborative learning for human resources.
Cloverleaf, which uses behavioral tools to provide insights into team effectiveness and provides customized coaching to improve performance, is the only Midwest-based company in the cohort. Its co-founders Darrin Murriner, Kirsten Moorefield and Levi Bethune met while working at Epipheo, a Cincinnati-based video production company. They jumped into Cloverleaf full-time in 2017, after graduating from OCEAN, the Crossroads Church-backed accelerator program.
The company closed a $1 million seed fund led by Queen City Angels in 2018, and by the end of 2019, reported 165,000 users on its platform.
Per a release, the startups selected for SAP.iO will have access to curated mentorship from SAP executives, exposure to SAP technology and application programming interfaces and opportunities to collaborate with SAP customers. The program will focus on the “unique challenges” of B2B companies, including enterprise sales, marketing, funding, technology scaling, pricing and product management essentials.
The program will culminate at the SAP.iO Cohort Demo Day in December.
“With digital transformation and a greater number of employees performing their jobs remotely, we see a trend with our customers to embrace new technologies to ensure employees have the necessary tools,” SAP SuccessFactors President Jill Popelka said. She added that SAP was looking forward to working with the companies to provide its “customers with their innovations.”
Five of the six startups are founded or led by underrepresented entrepreneurs, SAP said:
- Crosschq (Danville, Calif.) has pioneered human intelligence hiring, which includes reference checking and talent analytics to help build diverse teams
- Cuéntame (Mexico City) is the first online mental health platform for Spanish-speaking employees
- ·Knockri (Toronto) is an AI skills–based assessment tool that reduces bias and shortlists top-performing candidates to interview
- Landit (New York) is a personalized career pathing technology that increases the success and engagement of women and diverse groups in the workplace
- Mathison (Los Angeles) is a diversity talent marketplace that uses AI to help employers find candidates for their most important roles. It centralizes the talent network of hundreds of organizations serving underrepresented communities.
