Coca Cola has announced a program partnering with entrepreneurs worldwide to assist in the creation of startups. The company hopes the program, Coca Cola Founders, will increase the immediate and lasting impact of the startups it partners with by giving them access to its resources and knowledge.
The chosen entrepreneurs have access to the resources and relationships of Coca Cola before creating a startup. Once the business model is proven, Coca Cola remains a minority shareholder and the newly formed company has access to fast-moving markets and incredibly far-reaching resources that Coca Cola has available.
The Coca Cola Co-founders are from Berlin, Buenos Aires, Mexico City, Singapore, Rio de Janeiro, San Francisco, Sydney and Tel Aviv as of October 2015 and the program is expanding. The startups range from iHydrate, a wrist band that measures a person’s hydration and helps them to live and train more efficiently, to Wonolo, an app that helps fill hourly/daily jobs on short notice by vetting potential employees and connecting them to local employers.
Home Eat Home is a Co-founder startup created by Sebastian Esser and Friedrich Grosse-Dunker in Berlin. It’s a food service app that allows busy individuals to cook and enjoy easy-to-make, locally sourced meals without having to do the shopping or hunting for a recipe.The shopper peruses the app’s recipe options and selects the one they would like to make. The hungry shopper then picks up the pre-packaged ingredients in a box at a local food station. The box includes all the ingredients, a recipe and links to helpful video tips to make the process easier. The app is aimed at active individuals looking to save time and make healthier meals that fit their busy lives.
The startups created in partnership with Coca Cola have access to the myriad of expertise found at the company from marketing and branding to customer development and sustainability, as well as access to the companies relationships with celebrities, universities, global decision-makers and other entrepreneurs.
Coca Cola chooses the entrepreneurs who are working on problems that are globally or locally important and uses its network and resources to incubate the startup to the point where it can reach a global scale and consider Coca Cola as one of its customers.
