Multinational beverage and snack maker PepsiCo has announced the launch of a corporate accelerator for local and international startups in Russia.
While PepsiCo LAB targets essentially food and beverages projects, its three-month program is also open to startups offering innovative solutions in the fields of CRM, human resource management, sales performance, data mining and analysis, and operation automation.
Startups with a prototype and preferably first sales, or otherwise ready for acceleration, may apply until May 31, 2017. Kicking off in July, the program is also supported by Microsoft, IBM and SAP.
During the program, 15 selected teams will benefit from mentoring from over 50 industry experts and financial support to launch a pilot. Two parallel tracks — Food LAB and Tech LAB — will be supervised by
The best startups will have an opportunity to engage a long-term relationship with PepsiCo and scale up using PepsiCo’s distribution channels both in Russia and abroad.
“Innovations are essential for PepsiCo to grow steadily. We invest heavily in our in-house R&D to study customer preferences and develop new food products, flavors and handy packages. However, we want to go beyond our company and cooperate with those people who are ready to share their ideas, technologies and solutions. Thus, we could jointly help food industry grow, and offer delicious and healthy food and beverages to customers. This is why we have launched the accelerator,” said President at PepsiCo Russia, Ukraine and CIS Silviu Popovici.
PepsiCo Lab is operated by Mabius, a Moscow-based food startup center, and Global Venture Alliance (GVA), a company that aims to connect the local ecosystem to the global market.
Last year PepsiCo’s revenues amounted to $2.6 billion in Russia.
In 2011, the company launched an angel investment program for Russian technological startups.
Source: PepsiCo Russia, PepsiCo LAB.
