Accenture invests in Emtech to boost central bank digital solutions

Accenture has announced its investment in fintech startup Emtech, which specialises in providing software solutions for central banks and fintech companies.

This partnership aims to integrate Emtech's Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) services, regulatory sandboxes, and compliance tools into Accenture's core banking services, enhancing its offerings in the digital asset and fintech sectors.

Founded in 2019 by Carmelle Cadet, a former IBM Blockchain executive, Emtech has established itself by developing innovative solutions for central banks.

Its clients include the central banks of Ghana, Nigeria, Guinea, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Gambia, and the Bahamas.

Emtech has also created a CBDC proof-of-concept for the Bank of the Republic of Haiti.

The company offers a range of services, including a regulatory sandbox and a compliance feature for financial service providers, with over 200 fintech clients currently using its solutions.

Cadet emphasised the collaboration's significance, stating, "This investment and collaboration are the result of a shared vision to guide banks in modernising their infrastructure and processes for the era of tokenisation. Successful digital transformation at this scale is a major undertaking that requires cutting-edge technology and industry expertise."

While the terms of the investment were not disclosed, Emtech will join the Accenture Venture Project Spotlight accelerator, a program designed to support innovative startups.

This partnership follows Emtech's recent funding milestones, including a $4 million seed investment in August 2023 and a $6 million pre-seed round in 2022.

Emtech's CBDC services utilise a unified ledger model.

In 2021, it partnered with Hedera Hashgraph to offer the Hedera Token Service and the Hedera Consensus Service.

More recently, in July 2023, it launched its CBDC Innovation Kit simulator, featuring prebuilt application programming interfaces (APIs) to facilitate digital currency innovation.

Accenture has a history of involvement in CBDC initiatives, collaborating with institutions like the Bank of Canada, the Monetary Authority of Singapore, the European Central Bank, and the Swedish Riksbank.

The company is also a founding member of the Digital Dollar Project, an initiative led by former Commodity Futures Trading Commission chair J. Christopher Giancarlo, with Emtech joining the project's Technical Sandbox Program in 2022.