NetApp has selected five deep-tech startups — LightSprint AI, Wald.ai, Lasso Security, Cogover and QUIPU AI — for the 15th cohort of its Excellerator accelerator, with the group spanning AI-powered software engineering, generative AI security, workflow automation and enterprise data intelligence. The cohort, announced on October 16, 2026, draws founders from India, the United States and Israel, and reflects growing enterprise demand for technologies that help organisations deploy AI securely and at scale.
NetApp Unveils 15th Excellerator Cohort: A Focus on Enterprise Deep-Tech
The Excellerator programme, launched in 2017, has supported 90 startups across its previous 14 cohorts. Those companies have collectively raised more than $600 million in funding, and the programme has produced 30 proof-of-concept engagements with NetApp and its ecosystem. The 15th cohort continues that model: selected startups enter a six-month accelerator that offers technical mentorship, a $15,000 grant tied to a potential proof-of-concept, and the chance to validate their technologies inside enterprise environments.
For the five newcomers, the immediate practical consequence is access to a large enterprise buyer's engineering and go-to-market machinery rather than just capital. For NetApp, the cohort functions as a scouting mechanism: the company gets early visibility into technologies that could complement its own intelligent data infrastructure business, while the startups get a reference customer and validation path that early-stage deep-tech firms typically struggle to secure on their own.
The geographic spread is worth noting. Startups from three countries made the cut, which the announcement framed as a response to businesses worldwide looking to deploy AI at scale — a signal that NetApp is casting a wide net for enterprise-ready deep tech rather than concentrating on a single regional ecosystem.
NetApp's 15th Excellerator Cohort: Deep-Tech Startups at a Glance
The table below maps each selected startup to its stated technology area and the enterprise application theme it represents, making the cohort's composition easy to scan. The themes are drawn from the officially stated technology descriptions in the announcement.
| Startup | Stated Technology Area | Enterprise Application Theme |
|---|---|---|
| LightSprint AI | AI-powered software engineering platform | AI-assisted software development |
| Wald.ai | Semantic data loss prevention (DLP) for AI communications, using contextual analysis to identify sensitive information rather than relying solely on pattern matching | AI security and data governance |
| Lasso Security | Securing generative AI applications, agents and large language models | AI security and data governance |
| Cogover | No-code and low-code platform for AI-powered workflow automation | Intelligent workflow automation |
| QUIPU AI | Knowledge intelligence platform that converts enterprise data into contextual intelligence for AI applications | Enterprise data intelligence |
Read together, the five rows show a cohort weighted heavily toward making AI safe and useful inside large organisations: two of the five startups address security for generative AI systems, while the remaining three cover how AI gets built, automated against and fed with trustworthy enterprise data.
