Tom Lounibos has been global managing director of Accenture Ventures, the corporate venturing arm of US-based management consultancy Accenture, since January 2020.
He first joined the unit as an entrepreneur in residence in April 2019, following a long career as a prolific technology entrepreneur and founder of six different software startups, two of which – KnowledgeWare and Sagent Technologies – went public. The other four were sold to larger software companies.
Formed in 2015 under the Accenture Innovation Architecture umbrella, Accenture Ventures serves as a link between the global innovation ecosystem and Accenture, bridging the latter’s clients with entrepreneurs and startups to accelerate their potential and carry out digital transformation.
The unit’s recent investments have included involvement in the seed round for material design specialist Good Chemistry and participation in the venture round for Inrupt, a web technology developer. Accenture Ventures also played a role in the $20m series C raise for Talespin, a developer of augmented and mixed reality technology, in February 2022.
Lounibos said when he took up his current role: “Having been an entrepreneur for 40 years, I am excited to bring my relationships with startups and the venture community to Accenture Ventures. Accenture Ventures has historically been focused on growth-stage companies and, while we will continue to play there, I am looking forward to shifting more to the left to engage entrepreneurs earlier in their innovation lifecycle, in seed and A rounds.”
Prior to joining Accenture Ventures, Lounibos was CEO and co-founder of web testing service Soasta – itself an early investee of the unit – which was acquired in 2017 by cloud service company Akamai.
