Six Deep Tech Startups Win Accenture Ventures ‘Applied Intelligence’ Challenge 2019

Accenture has announced the winners of the second annual Accenture Ventures Challenge in India, which this year recognizes deep tech growth-stage Indian startups with the most innovative business-to-business (B2B) use cases in five categories related to Applied Intelligence: artificial intelligence (AI), data, analytics, automation, and industrial AI.

“The Accenture Ventures Challenge helps us recognize the most disruptive technology startups in India and provides them with access to our Global 2000 clients,” said Avnish Sabharwal, managing director for Accenture Ventures and Open Innovation in India and the Middle-East. “This year’s competition scaled new heights with record participation from mature startups focused on Applied Intelligence. We’re excited about the possibilities that this creates for the winners, and for our clients globally.”

This year’s challenge drew over 370 entries from across India. Of these, 15 finalists were evaluated by a jury of Accenture executives and industry leaders from Indian businesses, multinational corporations and the venture capital community. The judges selected the following winners based on innovative edge, business value and scalability:

• MMS.IND – for its GeoMarketeer platform, which delivers geo-location-based intelligence using micro market focused data and analytics functionalities, delivered as a service.
• Numberz – for its secure, cloud-based insights driven enterprise platform, which helps streamline the accounts receivable process and accelerate collections by using AI, machine learning and robotic process automation.
• Locobuzz – for its portfolio of software as a service-based offerings including social listening, AI, command centers and customer relationship management, to address core challenges related to customer experience management in the digital world.
• Strayos – for its 3D visual AI platform for the mining and infrastructure industry. The platform utilizes imagery data to extract hidden insights about geology in mining for optimized drilling and pre-excavation object detection below the ground surface to enable the accurate inspection of job sites.
• Niramai – for its AI-based advanced thermal imaging solution, Thermalytix, which provides a non-contact, radiation free, affordable and accessible way to detect early stage breast cancer in women of different age groups.

Additionally, this year a sixth winner was chosen by the audience at the grand finale event on July 25 in Mumbai. This award was won by CropIn for its platform which uses big data analytics, AI and remote sensing, to enable clients in the agriculture ecosystem to analyze and interpret actionable insights on crops, such as stress levels, yields and cycles based on both historical and real time data.

Anindya Basu, senior managing director, Accenture India, added, “Competitive edge in the age of disruption demands rapid, shorter innovation lifecycles. At the same time, emerging technologies are more important than ever, often requiring ecosystem partnerships in order to fully harness their capabilities. Our Open Innovation program connects the startup community with clients from around the world, enabling them to collaborate, create new ideas more quickly and implement them at scale.”

The winners will join Accenture Ventures’ Open Innovation partner program, through which they will be able to collaborate with Accenture and co-create solutions for enterprises across the globe. The winners will also be mentored by Accenture leaders, introduced to top industry forums, and have access to the Accenture Innovation Hub in Bengaluru where they can further scale their solutions.

The Accenture Ventures Challenge was open to B2B startups in the deep tech space with operations in India, and an annual revenue of at least USD 100,000 in the last reported financial year. This year, nearly 50 startups with more than USD one million revenue participated.

A key component of the Accenture Innovation Architecture, Accenture Ventures is a bridge to the global innovation ecosystem that unlocks growth opportunities for our clients by bringing them together with best in class emerging enterprise startups. In India, Accenture Ventures tracks more than 1,300 startups and has engaged with nearly 200 that have technologies relevant to Accenture’s enterprise clients.

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