Eight other bottling partners from the world and the Coca-Cola Company have gone on to announce the closing of a new $137.7 million venture capital fund that focuses on sustainable investments.
A seed-to-growth venture capital firm called Greysoft is going to manage the Greysoft Coca-Cola System Sustainability Fund. The said fund happens to be the first of its kind for Greysoft, that funds enterprise, consumer solutions across industries as well as life cycles.
The Coca-Cola system’s carbon footprint happens to be a major priority for the fund; hence, it is going to emphasise five key areas having the most potential impact to begin: supply chain, heating and cooling, packaging, distribution, and facility decarbonization.
According to the president and chief financial officer of the Coca-Cola Company, John Murphy, the fund is going to be offering an option to pioneer novel solutions, thereby helping to scale them in the Coca-Cola system and also throughout the country. They anticipate gaining benefits from getting access to emerging technology and science when it comes to carbon reduction as well as sustainability.
The fund is going to seek to fund in companies at the commercialization point. For Greysoft, collaborating with the Coca-Cola system provides it with an attractive option to aid in scaling innovations alongside some top bottling operations from across the world.
The co-founder and managing partner for Greysoft, Dana Settle, the market when it comes to sustainable supply chains as well as manufacturing technology has continued to elevate as consumer brands rise so as to meet the demands of customers that happen to be environmentally conscious. Greysoft happens to be having an invest anywhere approach that they believe enables them to pinpoint promising startups with the help of climate technology solutions that are ready to scale.
The $137.7 million in capital primarily comes from $15 million of capital that’s committed from Coca-Cola HBC, Coca-Cola Consolidated, Reyes Coca-Cola Bottling, Coca-Cola Europacific Partners, Arca Continental, The Coca-Cola Company, Coca-Cola Bottling Co.UNITED and Swire Coca-Cola.
Together, these bottlers go on to represent almost half of the cola giant’s volume across the world.
The system happens to have a long history of funding when it comes to sustainability-centred projects that go on to make a significant difference in issues pertaining to global significance. For instance-
In Latin America, The Coca-Cola Company as well as Arca Continental have funded a recycled PET processing company called PetStar, and Coca-Cola FEMSA has funded IMER as well as PLANETA, a high-tech PET recycling plant.
In the Philippines, Coca-Cola Beverages Philippines as well as Indorama Ventures funded PETValue, which happens to be the largest PET recycling plant across the country.
Dynapack, in case of Indonesia and Coca-Cola Europacific Partners are funding the Amandina PET recycled content facility. In Australia, as part of a partnership that’s cross-industry with Cleanaway, Asahi Beverages, and Pact Group, the CCEP has fundedPET plastic recycling as well as production facilities.
In the case of Europe, the Coca-Cola Company offered Ioniga a loan so as to help in developing tech so as to transform mixed-colour as well as partly contaminated PET waste into food-grade PET that is clear.
CCEP, due to CCEP Ventures, has funded recycling start-up CuRe Tech, which uses polyster rejuvenation to target plastics that cannot get recycled by way of mechanical recycling methodologies and safeguards them from being downcycled or else sent to landfills.
An in-house rPET production across Italy, Romania, and Poland has been funded by The Coca-Cola HBC while also executing a shift to 100% rPET portfolios across Austria, Italy, and Switzerland. Similar shifts in Romania as well as Ireland have been planned for later in 2023.
Numerous system bottlers have gone on to issue green bonds, such as Arca Continental, Coca-Cola HBC, and Coca-Cola FEMSA.
Swire Coca-Cola has gone on to invest in establishing the first food-grade, ready-to-recycle plastic recycling facility in Hong Kong.
