SAP CEO Bill McDermott has announced the company will spend more than €2 billion on boosting its French operations over the next five years, helping to support France’s aspirations as an innovation hub.
This investment will include spending of €150 million annually on research development, focusing on machine learning, blockchain, the Internet of Things (IoT) and software as a service. It also includes a focus on nurturing technology startups, through the opening of the second SAP.iO Foundry location in Europe to provide more than 50 start-ups with mentorship, technology and access to the SAP ecosystem, and investment by the SAP.iO Fund in French companies seeking seed or Series A round funding.
For the first time, these incubation activities will include investment in startups with a special focus on global impact, such as sustainability and climate change.
“There is a real sense of economic momentum in France,” Bill McDermott, CEO, SAP, said following a meeting with French president Emmanuel Macron. “President Macron’s bold embrace of the digital world will help France rise to an enviable position as a global innovation leader. We see immense potential in the entrepreneurial spirit of France to disrupt business models, create modern jobs and unleash exciting new opportunities that help the world run better.”
SAP will also acquire Paris-based startup Recast.AI, which provides a development environment using natural language processing, such as conversational chatbots, supporting more than 20 languages.
Founded in 2015 out of French coding school 42, Recast.AI is currently located within the Station F incubator, serving international customers including large banks and insurance and tech companies.
SAP hopes to leverage the company’s platform to enhance the natural language processing capabilities in its solutions, with the aim of having applications speak to SAP software users in a conversational user experience. Recast.AI’s team of data scientists and engineers will join the machine learning development efforts at SAP.
In line with its global strategy around SAP Leonardo, SAP opened a flagship SAP Leonardo Center location in Paris last year, which has hosted more than 30,000 visitors since its opening.
