Today Accenture announced its venture arm has invested an undisclosed sum in EMTECH, the startup best known for partnering with central banks, especially for web3 and central bank digital currency (CBDC). EMTECH boasts seven central bank clients, six of them in West Africa and the other is the Bahamas.
One of its highest profile projects was a CBDC hackathon in Ghana last year, exploring how a CBDC could be used on the Hedera public DLT. With financial inclusion a common CBDC driver for emerging markets, integration with public DLTs is one way to achieve that.
While EMTECH has its own central bank solution for operating a sandbox, it came into contact with Accenture through another sandbox. It joined the Digital Dollar Project sandbox in 2022 as a participant.
Accenture is the co-founder of the Digital Dollar Project and has funded several projects under the umbrella. Over the years several central banks have engaged the consultant for CBDC projects. These include the central banks of Canada, Singapore, South Africa, Sweden and Switzerland. Plus, it took part in early Banque de France wholesale CBDC trials.
“Our investment in EMTECH will enable Accenture to help central banks modernize their payments systems, enhance their supervisory capabilities and develop the critical infrastructure needed for tokenization and central bank digital currency,” said Oliver Reppel, a managing director in Accenture’s Banking practice.
The consultant said it plans to integrate EMTECH’s solutions for digital cash, regulatory sandboxes, and compliance into its own offerings.
Accenture invests in Parfin
EMTECH is not the first CBDC-related startup which Accenture has backed. Last year it invested in the British/Brazilian web3 startup Parfin. The startup’s clients include Santander and B3 Digitas, the digital asset arm of the Brazilian stock exchange. Brazil’s wholesale CBDC project DREX has encountered some issues with privacy. One of the potential solutions to address this is Rayls, developed by Parfin.
