Accenture ‘Applied Intelligence’ Challenge 2019 For Indian Deep Tech Startups Winners To Be Out Soon

The second edition of Accenture Ventures ‘Applied Intelligence’ Challenge 2019 for Indian deep tech start-ups winners be announced on July 25, 2019 following two rounds of evaluation by Accenture and industry leaders. This year, the challenge aims to identify and recognize deep-tech growth stage start-ups with the most innovative business to business (B2B) use cases in artificial intelligence, data, analytics, automation and industrial artificial intelligence.
According to industry body, National Association of Software and Services Companies (NASSCOM), the number of deep tech start-ups in India grew at the rate of 50 per cent in 2018, even as the overall start-up birth rate was 12 per cent during the same period. A total number of 1200 start-ups were found in the deep tech sector in the past five years. IoT, data analytics and AI accounted for one-fourth of the total start-ups founded in 2018.
The applicants need to be for B2B start-up with operations in India, with an annual revenue of at least $100,000 in the last reported financial year. Each applicant can make multiple submissions. The criteria for evaluation will be innovation edge, business benefits and scalability of the solution.
The three winners will get the opportunity to collaborate and co-create with Accenture and its clients across the globe. Additionally, the winners will be mentored by Accenture leaders and introduced to industry forums, where Accenture has a presence. They will also be given access to the Accenture Innovation Hub where they can further scale their solutions.
Commenting on 2019 challenge, Avnish Sabharwal, Managing Director – Accenture Ventures & Open Innovation, India & Middle-East said, “As part of our commitment to creating a cohesive open innovation ecosystem in India, we aim to partner and accelerate the growth of deep tech start-ups in India. We’re excited to announce the second edition of the Accenture Ventures Challenge in India to recognize the top B2B deep-tech start-ups with the most innovative use cases in Applied Intelligence. The three winners will get the opportunity to collaborate and co-create with us and our clients across the globe while scaling the next level of growth”.
“Applied Intelligence is our unique approach of combining Artificial Intelligence, automation and advanced analytics with human ingenuity and deploying it responsibly. With Applied Intelligence, we empower our clients to reimagine their business and drive unprecedented new growth and efficiencies. According to industry estimates, in the past five years, B2B tech start-ups grew at the rate of 30 percent compared to 20 percent growth rate of total tech start-ups. We believe the next level of growth in the start-up ecosystem will be led by B2B deep tech start-ups and we hope to see many Indian start-ups make it big at the global level”, he added.
Last year’s challenge focused on Industry X.0 with categories such as supply chain and logistics, R&D and engineering solutions, manufacturing and production, support and services.
More than 150 entries were received last year with 65 start-ups eventually presenting to a preliminary jury comprising subject matter experts, CXOs of leading Indian enterprises and Accenture leadership. The top three winners from the 2018 Challenge were DeTect Technologies, Ecolibrium Energy and SatSure Analytics.