Microsoft, Accenture Partner To Scale B2B Startups

Microsoft Accelerator and Accenture Ventures have allied in an ‘ecosystem partnership’ to help boost B2B startups in the national and international market. They will support growth-stage B2B tech startups specializing in artificial intelligence, augmented reality, blockchain, big data, security, fintech, customer experience solutions and more.

These startups will also have access to Microsoft an Accenture’s global networks. They also stand to gain from their ecosystem of venture capitalists, corporate R & D labs, and universities, besides improvising their business model and marketing strategy.

Bala Girisaballa, Managing Director of Microsoft Accelerator said, “Start-ups are the centers of innovation, and over the past decade they have played a crucial role in disrupting many industries worldwide. Today, the need is to create a collaborative environment and bring start-ups and corporates together to co-create and co-innovate. Our partnership with Accenture showcases our commitment to connect start-ups with large corporates and help them scale up to become successful businesses”. He added, “Accenture’s outlook is similar to ours. We look at the same set of startups. We have been working with them for some time now. Unlike other partnerships, we have seen this grow”.

“At Accenture Ventures, we believe that an open innovation approach can help enterprises accelerate adoption of ‘The New’, underpinned by innovation and digital. This ecosystem partnership is an example of how we orchestrate the innovation ecosystem and create opportunities for start-ups to grow and scale-up. We are excited about the unique value that Accenture Ventures and Microsoft Accelerator can together create for start-ups and enterprises,” said Avnish Sabharwal, Managing Director of Accenture Ventures, India.

In a report by The Hindu, a company Knolskape which provides talent transformation technologies is ‘co-developing products along with Accenture’. The firm also went through a structured program under Microsoft where it received insights from various experts to scale the company. “As a start-up person you go through the grind and you don’t get the time to reflect,” said Rajiv Jayaraman, founder and CEO of Knolskape.