Lion has announced the cohort for Lion ‘Unleashed’, a 12-week accelerator program that will see close collaboration between participants and the leading food and beverage company. In the first year of launching the program, 300 applications from across the globe were received for Unleashed, with emerging businesses looking to gain an edge in their quest to carve out a chunk of the global food and beverage industry.
The chosen cohort includes a range of emerging and established businesses from across Australia and New Zealand, including startup Perkii Probiotics which has released the world’s first water and juice drink with 1 billion microencapsulated probiotics and only 26 calories, and KegIt, software that allows vendors to track kegs in the growing craft brewing market.
The ten businesses participating in the program are BoozeBud, Earlypay Exchange, KegIt, Perkii Probiotics, SHOUTback!, SmartSpotter, SnackProud, Tayble, and Tailor Brews.
CEO of Lion, Stuart Irvine, said the diverse cohort addresses some key opportunities and challenges in the food and beverage industry including greater connectivity with consumers, streamlining logistics and handling, making healthy choices easier and taking advantage of new marketing channels.
“We are incredibly excited by the breadth of businesses taking part in our first Unleashed program and by the cohort’s depth of talent. Great ideas can come from the edge and we want to work with people and businesses that can bring these to life and get results. We are looking forward to using our size, scale and resources as well as Lion’s extensive network to help them to be successful.”
Designed in partnership with leading corporate accelerator Slingshot, the program will see entrepreneurs work with Unleashed mentors like Kate Parker, CEO of Your Tea, Alistair Venn, Managing Director of Menulog and Mark Moran, Head of Global Partnerships at TripAdvisor/Dimmi/LaFourchette. Startup participants will exchange equity for up to $50,000 from the Slingshot Investment Fund and receive additional benefits such as access to software and coworking space, valued at over $500,000 from the likes of AWS, IBM, Xero and WeWork.
Lion, itself has proven to be at the forefront of innovation in the food and beverage industry. In June, Lion Dairy & Drinks’ Salisbury milk plant in Salisbury, South Australia was named factory of the year at at the 2017 Food and Grocery Australia Event. The facility, which is led by Gabrielle Liston, produces over 70 milk products and employs automation in its manufacturing and distribution operations.