Each pilot in AB InBev’s 100+ Accelerator belongs to one partner, which defines the challenge, pays the startup and judges the result. Then all six partners can use what it proves.
In Colombia, most of AB InBev’s beer goes into reusable bottles. Cleaning the equipment on its production lines normally takes large amounts of hot water and harsh chemicals. EW Tech, a Bogotá startup, developed a process that cleans and disinfects them with salt, water and electricity. Its pilot at a smaller regional brewery cut water use in the cleaning process by 80% and washing time by 50%. AB InBev then scaled the technology to its largest brewery in the country, which produces nearly 40% of Colombia’s beer.
That pilot ran through the 100+ Accelerator, which AB InBev launched in 2018. Coca-Cola, Colgate-Palmolive, Danone, Mondelēz International and Unilever have since joined as partners, and the program has supported about 190 startups in more than 40 countries. Each year, the program picks 30 to 40 startups from thousands of applicants. In the first two cohorts, more than half of the startups signed long-term contracts with AB InBev.
Sharing only works if each company trusts results it didn’t produce. The program builds that trust before a startup applies: one partner defines the problem, pays for the pilot, staffs it and judges the result. Only then does the result go to the other five.
Define each challenge with the partner that has the problem
Each year starts with the partners narrowing down their priority challenges, working with industry experts and with local teams inside each company. Broad areas such as water stewardship or circular packaging become specific problems at specific sites. According to Ben Yoskovitz of Highline Beta, which has helped run the program since 2018, each challenge brief is refined with a business unit until it reads like a mini request for proposal: a clear pain point, success KPIs, a pilot location and budget sign-off.
Each startup is assigned to one of the corporate partners and matched with a local team inside the partner that selected it, which supports the startup through the pilot. In a program with six companies, that match tells the startup which company owns the problem, where the pilot runs and who judges the result.
Fund the pilot from the partner that runs it
The partner running a pilot pays the startup up to $100,000, equity-free, to carry out the pilot inside that partner’s supply chain. The startup keeps full ownership, and the partner pays for a result it can use in its own operations.
Across the first three cohorts, those payments added up to more than $10 million for over 70 startups. Each challenge brief carries budget sign-off, so the unit that owns the problem has committed money before a startup applies. Coca-Cola’s Molun Zhang describes the program’s goal as getting sustainability technology to scale faster in physical deployment, rather than in money raised.
Staff each pilot on both sides
Each pilot has an executive sponsor, who unblocks procurement and brand approvals, and a day-to-day operator, who schedules site access, data feeds and success measurement. One or two experts from the piloting partner also guide each startup’s implementation throughout the program.
The 100+ team runs the program around those pilots, with a lead and co-lead, a finance director, project managers who guide selection and pilots, and marketing managers. It also draws on AB InBev’s sustainability teams and the wider business during pilots. The sponsor clears the corporate approvals, the operator moves the daily work, and the program team keeps every pilot on schedule.
Exercise: the pilot brief.
Fill this in with the business unit before a startup starts work. It shows at a glance whether a pilot has an owner, a budget and a path to scale.
Unit that owns the problem: ____
Pain point, in one sentence: ____
Success KPIs: ____
Pilot location: ____
Budget, and who funds it: ____
Executive sponsor (procurement and brand approvals): ____
Operator (site access, data feeds, measurement): ____
Implementation guide(s): ____
Result that moves the pilot to a larger contract: ____
Other units or partners that could use the result: ____
When a pilot succeeds, it moves into a “set up to scale” stage: a larger commercial engagement with one or more partners. The 100+ team writes white papers documenting how each solution performed in its pilot. The partners are expected to share every pilot’s results with one another, and a startup that finishes a successful pilot can work with whichever partner it chooses. Carolina Garcia, AB InBev’s co-founder of the program, explains why competitors agree to this: “Sustainability cannot be competitive because we all are in the same boat.”
AB InBev ran EW Tech’s pilot, and the startup now also works with Coca-Cola’s bottling system, Pepsi, and the dairy and poultry industries. Chanzi, a Tanzanian startup that turns organic waste into animal feed using black soldier flies, piloted with AB InBev and Unilever. It opened a facility in Dar es Salaam that processes about four tons of the two companies’ waste each week, and it now plans five more facilities across Tanzania, Kenya and South Africa, with a long-term target of 47 sites.
Few innovation teams might ever run a six-company consortium. Yet, the same rule works inside one company: a pilot result travels to other business units when one unit owned the problem, paid to test it and judged the outcome.
