Approach

PepsiCo’s External Innovation (XI) team, part of the company’s Research and Development (R&D) organization, actively scouts, identifies and develops strategic partnerships with external collaborators. Our aim is to locate key external insights, business models, technical unlocks and new capabilities that, when partnered with our robust R&D expertise, will yield innovation in our core products and our value chain.

We are currently exploring novel technologies that have the potential to dramatically impact our convenient foods and drinks portfolio. We are interested in improving all facets of our value chain—from raw material inputs all the way to the consumer experience—and identifying global efficiencies in areas including crop science, protein and functional ingredients, processing, packaging, sustainability, agriculture, digitization, equipment, distribution, retail and e-commerce. Some examples of partnerships forged from XI include:

• Our partnership with Aquacycl, a technology startup, is supporting our efforts to reduce and better manage wastewater emissions at our beverage plants. Together with Aquacycl, we are using natural bacteria to treat wastewater. Aquacycl’s microbial fuel cell technology uses natural bacteria to mitigate undesirable compounds in wastewater and naturally clean it.
• The External Innovation team in partnership with Plug and Play co-hosted “Tackling Scope 3 Emissions - Sustainability Innovation Forum” in August 2023. This was a first-of-its kind PepsiCo event bringing together key PepsiCo leaders working on Scope 3 emissions with counterparts from peer companies and other industries. The purpose was learning best practices from each other and kick-starting conversations and collaborations with potential partners who share similar visions. The immediate outcome was five new or renewed peer engagements around Scope 3 collaboration and several more since.

PepsiCo’s Open Innovation portal allows potential partners, from small-scale to large, to submit proposals for novel technology solutions against current needs presented by our R&D teams. To view PepsiCo's current needs, please click here.