AFRICA – AB InBev, world’s renowned beer company, AB InBev has partnered with Hindsight Ventures to launch the Beer Garage Africa Innovation Challenge, which will offer startups access to venture development and grant funding.
With over 500 brands and over six million B2B customers in over 100 countries, AB InBev launched Beer Garage a few years ago with the objective of driving innovation by building a strong community of ecosystem stakeholders.
As part of this initiative, the beer major is now launching the Beer Garage Africa Innovation Challenge, a pan-African challenge to identify hi-tech, high potential startups and founders building innovative solutions across Africa.
To do so, it has partnered Startup Réseau, an India-headquartered global startup accelerator, which will operate the programme through its Africa-focused vertical Hindsight Ventures.
Pritam Dutta, global director for fintech ventures and innovation at AB InBev, says the Beer Garage Africa Challenge is an opportunity to leverage the emerging tech startup ecosystem and funnel novel ideas into AB InBev.
The multinational brewer, constantly pursues an innovative approach that helps in bringing communities and consumers across the globe intently to drive growth.
“We set out to build out a stronger connect into the Africa ecosystem, find disruptive startups which could be a great pipeline for our future disruptive innovations and further accelerate our innovation agenda, delivering strong business impact,” he said.
The multi-sector challenge is open to startups operating under the theme of digital sales, digital supply, sustainability, 3P lending, and alternative payments.
“We are really excited by this partnership, which allows us to drive a pan-African program. With a billion people in the continent, over 300 million new internet users expected to come online over the next three years, a fast-growing mobile internet penetration – and now, with global venture capital money making its way to African entrepreneurs, this is a great opportunity for startups to engage with AB InBev as a partner of choice,” said Ajay Ramasubramaniam, founder and chief executive officer (CEO) of Startup Réseau.
As part of the challenge, ten startups will be offered a Global Venture Bootcamp, a three-week venture mentorship and leadership development program led by successful founders, industry leaders, domain experts, and investors.
The Beer Garage Africa Innovation Challenge will culminate with a demo day, which will be attended by AB InBev executives as well as Hindsight Ventures’ global investor pool.
One African startup will be selected at the demo day to win US$5,000 in grant Capital. All selected startups get access to US$150,000 in technology credits from partners.
Beer Garage stands out as one of the global innovation hubs at AB InBev with an objective to drive up innovation by creating a strong community of ecosystem stakeholders.
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