Accenture has launched a new immersive engagement and investment program targeting emerging technology software startups to help fill strategic innovation gaps for the Global 2000. Called Project Spotlight, the exclusive Accenture Ventures program represents a new approach to engaging with the global software startup community.
“Project Spotlight has had a profoundly positive impact in enabling SkyHive to achieve its mission of advancing economic prosperity and inclusion through the use of exponential technology”
Beyond making capital investments, Project Spotlight will offer unprecedented access to Accenture’s technology domain expertise and its enterprise clients. Startups will co-innovate with Accenture at its Innovation Hubs, Labs and Liquid Studios, working with subject matter experts to adapt their solutions to the enterprise market and scale faster and more effectively. Created by six-time Silicon Valley entrepreneur and CEO, Tom Lounibos, Project Spotlight seeks to transform the transactional nature of venture capital into an immersive engagement model.
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“For many startups, the most challenging part of bringing a solution to market isn’t having a powerful idea or securing funding – it’s the nuanced understanding of the enterprise business problem,” said Lounibos, managing director, Accenture Ventures and Project Spotlight lead. “This initiative is a completely new way of approaching venture capital. We’re helping to put the spotlight on promising startups by bringing them into our innovation network, giving them exposure to the real business problems that we’re solving for our clients and helping them tailor, refine and scale their solutions for maximum impact.”
Accenture recently invested in and formed a strategic alliance with SkyHive, a Vancouver, British Columbia-based startup that uses artificial intelligence technology and its proprietary quantum labor analysis methodology to facilitate labor market transformation, reskilling and learning. SkyHive has been part of Project Spotlight since March, working with Accenture technologists at The Dock, Accenture’s flagship R&D and global innovation center in Dublin, and at Accenture’s FinTech Innovation Lab New York. In addition to collaborative R&D activities, the Accenture Talent & Organization/Human Potential practice and SkyHive have supported dozens of client use cases related to pandemic response and are helping Global 2000 clients define and navigate rapid workforce changes.
