FOCUSING on social impact and sustainability across Asia and the Pacific (APAC) region, Accenture and Microsoft Asia are helping 33 startups scale emerging solutions and business models. The joint initiative, called Project Amplify, has a long-term goal of accelerating Asia’s potential and improving millions of lives by addressing diverse societal challenges. The collaboration also advances both companies’ commitment to UN Sustainable Development Goals, providing startups with access to emerging technology, expertise and innovation capabilities.

Purpose-driven startups participating in Project Amplify include India’s Docturnal, a provider of affordable health care through proactive non-invasive point of care screening of disease. Another example is TapEffect, a social enterprise that is making clean tap water accessible and affordable for households in under-served towns and rural areas of Cambodia. In Singapore, DIBIZ is empowering manufacturers, traders, plantations and farmers to adhere to sustainable practices through collaboration.

Packetworx from the Philippines is among the 33 startups participating in the Amplify project’s APAC initiative. The Filipino company provides hardware and software solutions that system integrators and developers could use to develop various Internet of Things (IoT) solutions. As a social enterprise, it works with local government units and schools in building an IoT community by providing the next generation of innovators with the tools and IoT kits to accelerate the adoption of IoT solutions to help the country transition toward an Internet-powered future. Packetworx recently advanced as one of the grand finalists in Ignite Cyber 2020’s Wildfire Pitch Competition.

The 33 APAC-based 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, all 33 startups would have access to the latest technologies, as well as know-how, expertise and mentoring from both Accenture and Microsoft. The two collaborating companies would help startups test and validate proof-of-concepts to re-envision and expand the impact and social benefit of their solutions.

Accenture would focus on helping startups apply technologies to address critical challenges facing the environment and society and to advance organizations’ 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.

For its part, Microsoft is committed to addressing some of Asia’s most pressing challenges, including increased access to health care, education and finance. Many of the social enterprises in Project Amplify seek to solve these very same issues, and support from Microsoft would come in the form of technology, expertise and ecosystem needed to scale and make meaningful change. With the right tools and support from the software giant, these startups could grow and accelerate Asia’s future as an engine for global innovation, while driving societal progress.