Accenture invests in Emtech to strengthen CBDC and fintech solutions
Date: 2024-09-11 Author: Henry Casey Categories: BUSINESS
Financial technology company Accenture has invested in fintech startup Emtech, which provides software as a service (SaaS) for central banks and fintech companies. Accenture plans to integrate Emtech’s products into its core banking services.
Emtech was founded in 2019 by former IBM Blockchain executive Carmella Cadet. Its clients include seven central banks: Ghana, Nigeria, the Republic of Guinea, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Gambia, and the Bahamas. Emtech also developed a central bank digital currency (CBDC) concept for the Bank of the Republic of Haiti.
Services for central banks and fintechs
In addition to CBDC infrastructure, Emtech offers a regulatory sandbox feature and is developing a compliance feature for financial services providers. Emtech claims to have over 200 fintech clients.
Terms of Accenture’s investment were not disclosed. Emtech will also join Accenture Venture’s Project Spotlight accelerator. Emtech raised $4 million in seed funding in August 2023, following a $6 million pre-seed round in 2022.
Emtech uses a unified ledger model for its CBDC services. In 2021, it partnered with Hedera Hashgraph to offer its Hedera Token Service and Hedera Consensus Services. In July 2023, Emtech unveiled a CBDC Innovation Kit simulator that includes pre-built application programming interfaces.
Encountering Familiar Territory
Accenture is no stranger to CBDCs. It has collaborated with the Bank of Canada, the Monetary Authority of Singapore, the European Central Bank, and the Swedish Riksbank.
Accenture and Emtech are collaborating as part of the Digital Dollar Project, a fund led by former Commodity Futures Trading Commission Commissioner J. Christopher Giancarlo. Accenture is a founding member of the organization, and Emtech joined its Technical Sandbox Program in 2022.
