Introducing 76 startups running pilot projects from The SUP Challenge

The SUP Challenge aims to accelerate startups in South and Southeast Asia and pilot their solutions with the F&B industry as a way to reduce single-use plastic waste. Following a kickoff session, each ESO has received a funding amount of at least US$50,000 and technical assistance to support the pilot projects under their startups until September 2022.

Of the 50+ F&B partners engaged to implement the entrepreneur’s pilot projects, notable brands include: South Asia’s largest hospitality brand – Taj Hotels by IHCL (India), theCOMMONS (Thailand), chain restaurants Pizza 4P’s (Vietnam), Sofitel Saigon Plaza, Hyatt Regency Danang Resort and Spa(Vietnam), and more companies across the region.

Some pilots that are being implemented include:

• Taj Resorts & Convention Centre (India) with Srishti, a refillable and reusable bottled water technology;
• Coffee chain Coffee Bike (Vietnam) with Aya Cup, a reusable cup solution;
• Health chain and online subscription business The Green Table (Philippines) piloting with Bambuhay’s bamboo containers;
• Burgreens, Indonesia’s plant-based eatery chain of 15 outlets with Plepah’s containers;
• theCOMMONS, Thailand’s food mall, piloting with DropRefill’s refillable cleaning products.

An overview of the selected ESOs and start-ups can be found in this Cohort Booklet.

At the close of the program, The Incubation Network will be collecting and measuring the volume of plastics reduced and other related metrics to assess the project outcomes. This will culminate in a Market Insights Report, as well as a Playbook to guide other accelerators in designing similar programs.

This challenge is implemented by The Incubation Network and funded by the PREVENT Waste Alliance, an initiative of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), and ECCA Family Foundation. The SUP Challenge is part of PREVENT’s Innovate & PREVENT programme.