Lion is excited to announce the cohort for Lion ‘Unleashed’, a 12-week accelerator program that will see close collaboration between participants and the leading food and beverage company.

In the first year of launching the program, 300 applications from across the globe were received for Unleashed, with emerging businesses looking to gain an edge in their quest to carve out a chunk of the global food and beverage industry.

The chosen cohort includes a range of emerging and established businesses from across Australia and New Zealand, including startup Perkii Probiotics which has released the world’s first water and juice drink with 1 billion microencapsulated probiotics and only 26 calories, and KegIt, software that allows vendors to track kegs in the growing craft brewing market.

The ten businesses participating in the program are:

BoozeBud - An alcohol discovery and delivery platform that offers your favourite brands and local producers you won't find anywhere else.

Earlypay Exchange – A platform that facilitates and automates mass early payment negotiation between corporate customers and their thousands of vendors.

Freight Exchange - An online logistics company offering interstate freight transport across Australia.

KegIt - Software and technology to track kegs, primarily in the growing craft brewing market.

Perkii Probiotics- Have released the world’s first water and juice drink with 1 billion microencapsulated probiotics and only 26 calories.

SHOUTback! – A fresh take on social coupons in the hospitality space.

SmartSpotter - Crowd sources shoppers to provide real-time feedback and data on store promotions.

SnackProud - Helps businesses bring healthier snacks and catering to the office to fuel good work.

Tayble – An app for people who love to order, but hate to wait. Order, pay & eat without leaving your seat. Servicing bars, pubs, clubs and restaurants across Sydney.

Tailor Brews - An online solution allowing customers to go online and create their own customised beer.

CEO of Lion, Stuart Irvine, said the diverse cohort addresses some key opportunities and challenges in the food and beverage industry including greater connectivity with consumers, streamlining logistics and handling, making healthy choices easier and taking advantage of new marketing channels.

“We are incredibly excited by the breadth of businesses taking part in our first Unleashed program and by the cohort’s depth of talent. Great ideas can come from the edge and we want to work with people and businesses that can bring these to life and get results. We are looking forward to using our size, scale and resources as well as Lion’s extensive network to help them to be successful.”

CEO of Slingshot, Karen Lawson said the program will give these businesses the boost they need to make it in a complex and ever-changing industry.

“Food and beverage is a major industry sector for the ANZ economy and the market opportunity is huge. Unleashed will facilitate true collaboration between Lion, who operates on a large scale, and emerging players, who have the flexibility to meet niche demands and innovate on pre-existing systems. By combining these two powerful and complementary forces we are set to supercharge an already strong market and cement Lion’s place as a leader in F&B.”

Designed in partnership with leading corporate accelerator Slingshot, the program will see entrepreneurs work with Unleashed mentors like Kate Parker, CEO of Your Tea, Alistair Venn, Managing Director of Menulog and Mark Moran, Head of Global Partnerships at TripAdvisor/Dimmi/LaFourchette.

Startup participants will exchange equity for up to $50,000 from the Slingshot Investment Fund and receive additional benefits such as access to software and coworking space, valued at over $500,000 from the likes of AWS, IBM, Xero and WeWork.

Lion Unleashed participants will show the culmination of their work by pitching to Lion executives, stakeholders and potential investors at Demo Day on the 6 December 2017.