PepsiCo has announced 10 companies selected for the first MENA edition of the Greenhouse Accelerator program and 2 Lebanese companies were among the finalists.
The program was launched in partnership with the UAE Ministry of Climate Change and Environment.
A committee ranked the start-ups based on five criteria:
- sustainability alignment to PepsiCo Positive;
- strategic synergy with PepsiCo;
- scalability;
- relevance to MENA;
- breakthrough potential.
Judges sought the start-ups that are accelerating environmental sustainability in the food and beverage industry by using sustainable and reducing packaging.
The 10 selected companies will each receive a grant of $20,000 to support their business. At the end of the program, the final winner will receive a $100,000 grant from PepsiCo and access to a growing network of influential experts and investors.
The companies selected were from UAE, Egypt, Lebanon, Morocco, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Bahrain, Iraq, Qatar, and Sudan.
The two chosen Lebanese companies are:
Diwama
Diwama is a Lebanese waste management company that applies digital transformation across the industry. It provides an AI-based image recognition software that automates waste analysis to drive recycling revenues for waste management companies.
Diwama was co-founded by Aya Hariri and Christopher Arida, who was selected back in September 2021 among the Ten Outstanding Young Persons Of The World.
It has been supported and funded by several organizations, including Plug and Play, AstoLabs, MakeSense, and many others.
Live Love Recycle (LLR)
LLR is an NGO that launched in 2017 to digitize the waste management sector as a response to Lebanon’s waste crisis in 2015. In 2020, LLR won the Green Award of Greentech for the best environmental startup.
The Greenhouse Accelerator Program aims to push for sustainable solutions for more environmentally friendly packaging in the food sector. It aims to support emerging companies providing technologies for eco-friendly and waste-free packaging materials.
