At HPE Discover 2025, held this June in Las Vegas, startups from Pathfinder—HPE’s venture capital program—joined visionary innovators in AI and data to spotlight real-world solutions. From compelling sessions to headline-making announcements, the event showed how startups in HPE’s ecosystem are helping customers turn AI potential into practical outcomes.
Startups Power the Path to AI-Ready Enterprises
In his keynote, HPE CEO Antonio Neri emphasized the essential role of startups in accelerating innovation: “Startups are essential in helping us bring new innovation to our customers quickly and at scale.¹”
This vision came to life at Discover on the show floor, where startups demonstrated how they’re enabling the shift to AI-ready infrastructure and services.
Innovation on the Show Floor: The Startup Innovators Pavilion
The Startup Innovators Pavilion—powered by Hewlett Packard Pathfinder, the Unleash AI Partner Program, and HPE’s Technology Partner Program—was a hub of energy and engagement. Attendees connected with cutting-edge AI and data startups tackling complex enterprise challenges.
BigID showcased how its AI-powered data intelligence platform supports trusted, compliant AI adoption.
“BigID is excited to deepen our partnership with HPE to help customers discover, manage, and protect their enterprise data for safe and scalable AI adoption. HPE Discover was a powerful forum to connect with data-driven leaders,” said Brad Tips, Senior Director of Partner Management at BigID.
• Read BigID's announcement on joining the Unleash program.
• Watch the video from HPE Discover where Robin Braun speaks with Brad Tips and Wissam Ali-Ahmad from BigID about how customers adopting AI can secure their data.
WEKA emphasized the critical need for high-performance data platforms to support training and inference workloads.
“At HPE Discover, we engaged in powerful discussions with enterprise clients and our HPE partner account teams about how HPE Solutions with WEKA’s NeuralMesh™ are helping customers achieve their AI goals faster with unparalleled performance and efficiency at scale,” said Mat Gruen, Senior Director, Strategic Partner Sales and Engineering at WEKA.
Special thanks to our sponsors for powering the Pavilion and fueling rich conversations about the future of enterprise technology.
Pathfinder Startups in Action
Beyond the Pavilion, Pathfinder-backed companies Cohesity and Scality hosted dedicated booths and demos that drew strong interest. These startups shared how their technologies are transforming data security and infrastructure in real-world use cases.
Cohesity emphasized its latest AI-data protection capabilities.
“At HPE Discover 2025, we showcased how AI brings immense opportunity—but also new security risks,” said Lisa Ethier, Global Alliance Director at Cohesity. “Together with HPE, we’re helping enterprises protect critical data and ensure cyber resilience across hybrid cloud and AI-native workloads.”
Scality highlighted its role powering intelligent data lakes with HPE.
“At HPE Discover 2025, we saw incredible momentum around data-driven AI and its ever-expanding storage demands. Together, HPE and Scality are enabling customers to harness scalable, cost-efficient object storage for massive datasets, while transforming backup architectures to address the challenges of tomorrow,” said Wally MacDermid, Vice President of Strategic Alliances and Business Development at Scality.
Program Spotlight: Unleash and the Future of AI Collaboration
The event also gave attendees a closer look at the Unleash AI Partner Program, HPE’s new go-to-market program for early-stage AI startups. Designed to fast-track real-world adoption, Unleash helps startups scale their enterprise go-to-market in partnership with HPE—while retaining full ownership of their innovation.
Looking Ahead
As AI adoption accelerates, Pathfinder remains committed to identifying, investing in, and scaling startups that are shaping the future of enterprise technology. We’re proud to support founders delivering tangible results—and excited to continue partnering across HPE, our customer base, and the broader innovation ecosystem.
Explore More from HPE Discover 2025
• Watch the best of HPE Discover 2025
¹CRN: “HPE CEO Antonio Neri: Five Boldest Statements From His HPE Discover Keynote”
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