NEW YORK — Feb. 3, 2021 — Accenture (NYSE: ACN) has made a strategic investment, through Accenture Ventures, in Touchcast, a leading virtual experience company.
The COVID-19 pandemic has dramatically accelerated the need to reimagine the way we meet, connect and collaborate with each other. Touchcast harnesses the power of artificial intelligence and mixed reality to provide a virtual event platform that goes beyond a static online video experience, creating an immersive and interactive experience.
“Organizations need to engage with stakeholders virtually — essentially bridging the gap between physical and digital experiences,” said Jason Warnke, senior managing director and global digital experiences lead at Accenture. “Touchcast has emerged as a key player in the $77 billion virtual events market, and we look forward to collaborating with them to bring its experience to our clients.”
Having already teamed on several projects together, the companies’ relationship is deepening as Touchcast joins Project Spotlight, Accenture Ventures’ immersive engagement and investment program that connects emerging technology software startups with the Global 2000 to fill strategic innovation gaps. Project Spotlight offers extensive access to Accenture’s deep domain expertise and its enterprise clients, helping startups harness human creativity and deliver on the promise of their technology. Through the program, Touchcast will co-innovate with Accenture at its Innovation Hubs, Labs and Liquid Studios to bring its solutions to market more quickly and effectively.
Tom Lounibos, global managing director, Accenture Ventures, said, “Our investment in Touchcast underscores Accenture Ventures’ commitment to supporting companies that are poised to transform their markets and meet the needs of our clients, helping them to embrace change. Touchcast has reimagined the virtual event experience and we’re excited to be part of its journey and to tackle this massive opportunity together.”
Edo Segal, founder and CEO of Touchcast, added, “Accenture Ventures’ investment and our participation in its Project Spotlight program will add rocket fuel to our ability to support our enterprise clients, helping to meet their current — and future needs — at Accenture scale. Touchcast is leading a once-in-a-generation explosion of innovation in the communication and collaborations space. Together with Accenture, we offer a powerful combination of services and a cutting-edge technology platform.”
Touchcast is the latest addition to the investment portfolio of Accenture Ventures, which is focused on investing in companies that create or apply disruptive enterprise technologies.
Terms of the investment were not disclosed.
About Touchcast
Touchcast is the world’s leading Virtual Experience company. A pioneer in the use of Mixed Reality and AI, Touchcast offers an integrated solution that gives anyone the ability to communicate and collaborate effectively and move their colleagues, partners and customers to take action. Visit us at www.touchcast.com
About Accenture
Accenture is a global professional services company with leading capabilities in digital, cloud and security. Combining unmatched experience and specialized skills across more than 40 industries, we offer Strategy and Consulting, Interactive, Technology and Operations services — all powered by the world’s largest network of Advanced Technology and Intelligent Operations centers. Our 514,000 people deliver on the promise of technology and human ingenuity every day, serving clients in more than 120 countries. We embrace the power of change to create value and shared success for our clients, people, shareholders, partners and communities. Visit us at www.accenture.com.
