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Microsoft, Accenture Extend Ties to Help Indian Entrepreneurs Amplify Social Impact

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Last year, Microsoft and Accenture teamed up to provide hands-on support and technologies to social enterprises across the globe, helping them build scalable solutions and business models that can lead to more tangible and lasting benefits for people around the world.

Now, the initiative takes a bigger leap with the tech majors Accenture and Microsoft in India are supporting 10 startups, which focus on social impact and sustainability, by helping them to scale their emerging solutions and business models.

The joint initiative, called Project Amplify, focused on the areas of agriculture, education and healthcare and initially engaged with startups in Africa, the Middle East and South Asia, leveraging the MSR India Center for Societal impact through Cloud and Artificial Intelligence.

The initiative extends activities launched in South Asia in 2020 welcoming business ventures from Singapore, Australia, Japan, Sri Lanka, and more. The initiative has a long-term goal of accelerating Asia’s potential and improving millions of lives in the region and globally, by addressing diverse societal challenges.

Purpose-driven startups from India participating in Project Amplify include Jaljeevika, eKutir, Everwell, Fluxgen, Docturnal, BrainSight AI, Fresh On Table, FreshR, Rocket Learning and Blink Foundation. These startups selected for the program have demonstrated how their product, service, and operations address a significant social or environmental problem and have shown early signs of impact.

Through Project Amplify in India, all 10 startups will have the opportunity to access the latest technologies, as well as know-how, expertise and mentoring from both Accenture and Microsoft. The companies will help startups test and validate proof-of-concepts to 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 Sanjay Podder, managing director and Technology Sustainability Innovation lead at Accenture.

“By leveraging the technology expertise and networks of both Accenture and Microsoft, we can help bridge this gap. As these social enterprises expand their reach, we hope to see significant improvement in the status of vulnerable groups in our communities that need support in sustainability, healthcare, education and agriculture,” he said.

“At Microsoft, we empower organizations and individuals to achieve more, through co-innovations and trusted partnerships. We’re committed to addressing some of India’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 honored to support them with the technology, expertise and ecosystem they need to scale and make meaningful change,” said Lathika Pai, Country Head, Venture Capital and Private Equity Partnerships, Microsoft India.

Pai added that with the right tools and support from Microsoft, these startups can grow and accelerate India’s future as an engine for global innovation, while driving societal progress. “Collaborating with Accenture will help turn lifelong passions of mission-driven enterprises into reality and deliver greater positive change for millions of people in India.”

Accenture will focus on helping startups apply technologies to address critical challenges facing environment and society and to advance organisations’ sustainability agendas. Microsoft’s involvement in Project Amplify is part of its Global Social Entrepreneurship program designed to help social enterprises build and scale their companies to do good globally. The Global Social Entrepreneurship program offers qualified startups access to technology, education, customers and grants.

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