BrazilAccenture and Microsoft expand their joint ‘Project Amplify’ initiative
Global tech companies Accenture and Microsoft have furthered their collaboration in Asia Pacific.
The global professional services firm Accenture teamed up with the software and cloud giant to expand their joint ‘Project Amplify’ initiative across the Asia Pacific, with almost three dozen regional start-ups working in the areas of social impact and sustainability to receive support in scaling their business models and emerging solutions.
Participants in the program will include those from Singapore, Sri Lanka, and Australia among others. The 33 selected start-ups in total will be given access to the latest in technology along with benefiting from the expertise and mentoring support of both Accenture and Microsoft, as part of each firm’s commitment to the UN Sustainable Development Goals.
The two companies will help the start-ups to validate their proof-of-concepts, such that they can ‘re-envision’ and expand the impact and social benefit of their solutions.
“Social enterprises face many challenges, including access to technology and innovation expertise to scale their solutions,” said Accenture’s Mumbai-based managing director and almost two-decade veteran Sanjay Podder, who leads the firm’s global Technology Sustainability Innovation practice. Podder continued: “By leveraging the technology experience and networks of both Accenture and Microsoft, we can help bridge this gap.”
The APAC iteration of the Project Amplify initiative has spun out of a successful launch in South Asia last year, which included India’s Docturnal, a provider of affordable healthcare through non-invasive point-of-care screening to proactively detect disease. Podder says that as its latest crop of social enterprises expand their reach, the firm hopes to see significant improvement in the status of vulnerable groups in their communities.
For Project Amplify, this means a particular focus on advances in the healthcare, education and the agricultural sectors, with the program’s long-term goal being the acceleration of Asia’s potential and improving millions of lives by addressing diverse societal challenges. Those selected, say the firms, have already demonstrated how their products and services address a significant social or environmental problem, with early signs of impact.
Other start-up participants among the latest cohort include TapEffect, a social enterprise which is making clean tap-water accessible and affordable for households in under-served towns and the rural communities of Cambodia, as well as in Singapore DIBIZ, a blockchain-powered connected supply-chain platform which seeks to empower manufacturers, traders, plantations, and farmers to adhere to sustainable practices through collaboration.
“At Microsoft, we empower organisations and individuals to achieve more, through co-innovations and trusted partnerships,” said Microsoft Asia president Ahmed Mazhari. “We’re committed to addressing some of Asia’s most pressing challenges, including expanding access to healthcare, education and finance. Many of the social enterprises in Project Amplify are focused on solving these issues, and we’re honoured to support them.”
