July 13, 2023

By Lynda Kiernan-Stone, Global AgInvesting Media

The Coca-Cola Company, together with eight other worldwide bottling partners, announced the launch of a new venture capital fund focused on investments centered on sustainability with a first close at $137.5 million. 

The new fund called Greycroft Coca-Cola System Sustainability Fund will be managed by Greycroft, a seed-to-growth venture capital firm that typically invests in enterprise and consumer solutions across life cycles and industries, making this fund a first-of-its-kind for the firm.

The initial capital commitment to the fund was primarily from a $15 million investment made by each of the nine bottling partners who together represent nearly half of the Coca-Cola system global volume. 

~ The Coca-Cola Company

~ Arca Continental

~ Coca-Cola Bottling Co. UNITED

~ Coca-Cola Consolidated

~ Coca-Cola Europacific Partners

~ Coca-Cola FEMSA

~ Coca-Cola HBC

~ Reyes Coca-Cola Bottling

~ Swire Coca-Cola

For Greycroft, partnering with the Coca-Cola system is an attractive opportunity to foster the scaling of innovation alongside some of the world’s top bottling operations. 

With more than 500 brands, Coca-Cola sells more than 100 billion plastic bottles every year, or 200,000 every minute. The volumes are almost unimaginable. 

Last year the company announced its aim to have at least 25 percent of its entire global beverage portfolio of brands sold in refillable/returnable glass or plastic bottles; to make all primary consumer packing recyclable by 2025; and to use 50 percent recyclable material in its packaging by 2030. 

However, as of last year, only 14 percent of its products were being sold in reusable containers, according to its latest sustainability report – a decline of 2 percent from the time of its pledge. This is just one example of how the company is having difficulty meeting its goals, and how this new venture fund can help. 

The Coca-Cola system’s carbon footprint will be a key priority for the fund as it looks to invest in companies at the point of commercialization across five key areas with the most potential for impact: packaging, heating and cooling, facility decarbonization, distribution, and supply chains. 

“This fund offers an opportunity to pioneer innovative solutions and help scale them quickly within the Coca-Cola system and across the industry,” said John Murphy, president and CFO, The Coca-Cola Company. “We expect to benefit from getting access to emerging technology and science for sustainability and carbon reduction.”

~ Lynda Kiernan-Stone is editor in chief with GAI Media, and is managing editor and daily contributor for Global AgInvesting’s AgInvesting Weekly News and  Agtech Intel News, as well as HighQuest Group’s Unconventional Ag. She can be reached at lkiernan-stone@globalaginvesting.com.

*The content put forth by Global AgInvesting News and its parent company HighQuest Partners is intended to be used and must be used for informational purposes only. All information or other material herein is not to be construed as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice. Global AgInvesting and HighQuest Partners are not a fiduciary in any manner, and the reader assumes the sole responsibility of evaluating the merits and risks associated with the use of any information or other content on this site.