Coca-Cola Amatil invests in Indonesian start-ups

Australia’s Coca-Cola Amatil has partnered with Indonesian start-ups to foster growth and build its Indonesian workforce capability.

Based in Sydney, Coca-Cola Amatil (Amatil) is one of the largest bottlers and distributors of non-alcoholic and alcoholic ready-to-drink beverages in the Asia–Pacific region.

As an active participant in Indonesia’s innovation ecosystem, the bottling giant set up its corporate venture capital platform Amatil X to identify, work with and invest in start-ups in the country.

Assisted by Australian Government scheme Austrade, the venture has already invested in two start-ups focusing on developing solutions for freight and logistics.

The first was Kargo Technologies — a freight logistics start-up offering a platform that allows shippers, transporters and truckers to connect, transact and track shipments in real time. The technology is designed to match freight loads with available trucking capacity, which helps to transport products in a more productive, cost-efficient way.

The second was Wahyoo, a start-up that works with ‘warung makan’ — traditional small-scale eateries and restaurants — to digitise their operations.

Amatil X Co-founder Alix Rimington said Amatil X’s involvement goes beyond funding. “We want to help start-ups to scale their business. We give Kargo access to our facilities to collect data so they can build out their technology. We pilot equipment with Wahyoo and provide offers for their customers.

“Knowing the scale of our business and our future ambitions, we believe that working with the right partners will help us face market challenges and capture future growth opportunities.”

Amatil X also runs the Amatil X Academy, a structured program that builds entrepreneurial capability in its workforce and connects them to the start-up ecosystem.

“We believe our people know our business and our customers best — and they also know where the challenges and opportunities are,” Rimington said.

“When we combine this customer focus with a start-up mindset and an environment which encourages experimentation, we can drive innovation across the business.”

In 2019, the Amatil X Academy trained more than 1600 employees in 14 locations across Indonesia. The program culminated in a ‘shark tank’ event where two teams were selected to turn their ideas into a working prototype.

“In a joint venture with one of our partners, we are starting to build a PET recycling facility in Indonesia, and one team looked at ways to ensure the raw material (used plastic) is sourced sustainably and ethically,” Rimington said. “They came up with an app-based platform that improves the traceability and transparency of that process.”

The other team came up with a solution to address a common issue in the food and beverage industry. “They developed a prototype for an integrated product distribution and stock visibility platform with QR code technology which tracks Amatil products from the point of manufacture to the point of distribution,” Rimington explained. “It was designed to help us manage stock that is reaching its expiry date while identifying locations where stock levels are low.”

Amatil has operated in Indonesia since 1992. With eight manufacturing facilities and more than 9500 employees, it distributes 1 million cases of drinks to over 500,000 outlets across the nation every week.