Accenture (NYSE: ACN) has made a strategic investment, through Accenture Ventures, in Pipeline, a Denver-based startup that uses artificial intelligence (AI) technology to increase financial performance by closing the gender equity gap.
Pipeline’s cloud-based AI platform helps companies assess, address and action against gender biases. By analyzing hiring, pay, performance, potential and promotion data, Pipeline helps organizations quickly identify internal areas of unconscious bias to make gender equity actionable and attainable, providing recommendations that support improved financial performance for the organization, as well as growth for the individual. It’s a significant opportunity: Pipeline research found that for every 10% increase in intersectional gender equity, organizations realize a 1-2% percent increase in revenue.
“History has demonstrated that financial incentives and good intentions alone will not close gender equity gaps, which have become even more pronounced in the wake of the pandemic,” said Katica Roy, founder and CEO of Pipeline. “By putting a laser focus on these issues at the corporate level, and with the close collaboration and investment from Accenture, Pipeline looks forward to accelerating its impact in the market.”
Pipeline is part of Project Spotlight, the exclusive Accenture Ventures program that offers unprecedented access to Accenture’s technology domain expertise and its enterprise clients. Through the program, Pipeline will co-innovate with Accenture at its Innovation Hubs, Labs and Liquid Studios, working with subject matter experts to adapt its solutions to the enterprise market and scale faster and more effectively.
“Today’s C-suite leaders are driving responsible business practices, which include ensuring a workforce that’s inclusive and diverse in every way,” said Christie Smith, global lead for Talent & Organization / Human Potential at Accenture. “Pipeline’s data-driven analytical platform provides a solution for organizations to close the gender equity gap, create strong cultures, and unlock new sources of value that increase financial performance.”
As the latest Accenture Ventures investment to align with Accenture Talent & Organization / Human Potential, Pipeline joins Beamery, a London-based startup that uses AI technology to help companies attract, engage and retain talent at a global scale and SkyHive, a Vancouver, British Columbia-based startup that uses AI and quantum analysis to facilitate labor market transformation, reskilling and learning.
Tom Lounibos, managing director, Accenture Ventures, added, “Our investment in Pipeline aligns with Accenture Ventures’ commitment to cultivate the latest technologies, enhanced by human ingenuity, that solve for our clients’ most important challenges. Pipeline can help our clients stop unconscious bias in the workplace and increase financial performance, allowing them to do well while doing good.”
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