Unilever sponsors first tech start-up sustainability ‘hackathon’
Green innovation news – by Thomas McMullan
18th September 2014
Over £30,000 ($50,000) is on the table for tech start-ups striving to address sustainability in the first such venture to be sponsored by Unilever.
The consumer goods giant is getting behind the ad:tech ‘Future Media and Technology Summit’ this October with a pot of funding being made available to winners of a ‘sustainability hackathon’ in the form of paid pilot programmes.
The brief for the hackathon asks what can be done to make the idea of sustainability “interesting and relevant to everyday living” and what roles data can play to “influence daily habits.”
“Start-ups are pioneering the future and offer new, innovative ways to connect with consumers,”said Marc Mathieu, senior vice president of Global Marketing at Unilever. “In a data-driven world, we need a network of partners who can help to source, distil and share this data with people in a way that enables them to make small behaviour changes that results in a more sustainable future.”
Marketing and media tech start-ups that attend the event will have the opportunity to pitch their ideas to a panel of leading brand, agency and venture capital decision makers.
In addition to the finances to help development and testing, one winning start-up will walk away with £5,000 ($8,000) in prize money.
The pilot programmes will include three months of support from marketing mentors and the opportunity for future funding through Unilever Ventures, the venture capital arm of Unilever. Tying into the event, the ‘digital marketing’ area of Unilever Ventures has already made several successful investments, including recipe search engine, Yummly, and mobile brand marketers, Brandtone.
“Although we have been working with start-ups for years, we now want to scale up our efforts and, ultimately, embed The Unilever Foundry this as a way of working throughout our organisation,” said a spokesperson from Unilever. “The Unilever Foundry is our single platform to harness, nurture and evolve thousands of innovative ideas from the entrepreneurial community. It will simplify the way in which small start-ups and entrepreneurs engage with a company of our size, offering an exciting opportunity for the best and brightest to pilot their technology with us.
Unilever are not the only high-profile goods company to back tech innovation in sustainability. Coca-Cola Enterprises recently sponsored the OpenIDEO Recycling Challenge, where eight winners tackled ways to increase domestic recycling rates through social media platforms and gamification.
The ad:tech summit takes place in London from 21-22nd October.
The brief for the hackathon asks what can be done to make the idea of sustainability “interesting and relevant to everyday living” and what roles data can play to “influence daily habits.”
“Start-ups are pioneering the future and offer new, innovative ways to connect with consumers,”said Marc Mathieu, senior vice president of Global Marketing at Unilever. “In a data-driven world, we need a network of partners who can help to source, distil and share this data with people in a way that enables them to make small behaviour changes that results in a more sustainable future.”
Marketing and media tech start-ups that attend the event will have the opportunity to pitch their ideas to a panel of leading brand, agency and venture capital decision makers.
In addition to the finances to help development and testing, one winning start-up will walk away with £5,000 ($8,000) in prize money.
The pilot programmes will include three months of support from marketing mentors and the opportunity for future funding through Unilever Ventures, the venture capital arm of Unilever. Tying into the event, the ‘digital marketing’ area of Unilever Ventures has already made several successful investments, including recipe search engine, Yummly, and mobile brand marketers, Brandtone.
“Although we have been working with start-ups for years, we now want to scale up our efforts and, ultimately, embed The Unilever Foundry this as a way of working throughout our organisation,” said a spokesperson from Unilever. “The Unilever Foundry is our single platform to harness, nurture and evolve thousands of innovative ideas from the entrepreneurial community. It will simplify the way in which small start-ups and entrepreneurs engage with a company of our size, offering an exciting opportunity for the best and brightest to pilot their technology with us.
Unilever are not the only high-profile goods company to back tech innovation in sustainability. Coca-Cola Enterprises recently sponsored the OpenIDEO Recycling Challenge, where eight winners tackled ways to increase domestic recycling rates through social media platforms and gamification.
The ad:tech summit takes place in London from 21-22nd October.
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