Tech giants Microsoft and Accenture team up to foster B2B startups in India, aiding entrepreneurial growth in the business sector.
The third edition of the Accenture Ventures Challenge, a programme launched in 2018 to identify the best B2B tech startups, is set to take place virtually on August 11. This year's challenge, jointly hosted by Microsoft 365 and Accenture, aims to find 12 innovative startups that are addressing the business and human impact of COVID-19.
The challenge will focus on four categories: supply chain resilience, channel shift to digital commerce, systems resilience, and responsible technology. Avnish Sabharwal, managing director for Accenture Ventures and Open Innovation in India, stated that the challenge is designed to find innovative new solutions to help solve pressing business and human challenges.
Lathika Pai, country head of Microsoft 365 for Startups, MENA & SAARC, previously stated that this initiative will help startups evolve from being market-ready to enterprise-ready with the best resources and support from both Microsoft 365 and Accenture. Winners will gain access to benefits from the Microsoft 365 ScaleUp programme, which supports Seed or Series A B2B startups to scale and co-sell with Microsoft 365 sales teams.
In addition, winners in each category will have an opportunity to join the Accenture Ventures Open Innovation partner programme and co-create solutions for Accenture clients globally. The Accenture Ventures Challenge is a part of the ongoing collaboration between Microsoft 365 and Accenture to support B2B startups in India.
Microsoft 365 has also launched the "100X100X100" programme in February, aiming to bring 100 companies to commit $100,000 each for enterprise-ready solutions from 100 B2B startups in the Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) space in India over 18 months. However, this programme is not directly related to the Accenture Ventures Challenge 2020.
The Accenture Ventures Challenge 2020 will recognize startups in the same four categories as the previous edition. Winners will not only gain access to resources and support from Microsoft 365 and Accenture but also have the opportunity to co-create solutions for Accenture clients globally. The search results do not provide information about the winners of each category of the Accenture Ventures Challenge 2021.
