Iceland Innovation Lab seeks innovative startups

by Startacus Admin

Iceland Innovation Lab launches in collaboration with L Marks, seeking to self-disrupt and embrace digital methods to future-proof business operations and enhance customer experiences.

Iceland Plc has launched the Iceland Innovation Lab accelerator programme to help startups grow through partnership and investment.

The Iceland Innovation Lab is a step Iceland is taking to ensure that they remain a leader in the food retail industry, and further enhance their offering to consumers.

The programme is seeking innovative startups so that they can work together with Iceland to develop solutions that will help shape the future of both businesses, with Iceland Innovation Lab interested in startups within categories that can help with the following areas: -

Seamless Customer Experience: With a current database of over 12 million customers, Iceland is looking for solutions that can help personalise and automate communications to them.

Supply Chain Optimisation: Solutions that can help Iceland improve the ordering and logistics process, with a particular focus on short-life products and product promotions.

Instore Processes: With over 23,000 employees spread across 900 UK locations, Iceland needs solutions in communicating the right message to the right team members at the right time.

Sustainability: Iceland is an environmentally conscious organisation; the first UK supermarket to pledge to do away with own-label plastic packaging by 2023, to support a deposit return scheme to reduce plastic pollution, and to trial reverse vending machines for plastic bottles. They particularly want to hear from clean-tech startups that are creating innovative solutions which will help them to maintain industry leadership in building an eco-friendly supply chain.

Wildcard: The wildcard category allows startups to suggest how they might help Iceland innovate in an area they might not have thought of yet. This is your chance to show them something they didn’t know they needed!

Run in collaboration with corporate innovation specialists L Marks, the 9-week programme, will aim to bring further benefits to attending startups. Some of which include:

• Mentorship from internal and external experts with diverse market expertise

• Product validation from Iceland’s stakeholders and customers

• Testing in a live customer environment

• Opportunity to gain investment with the chance to pitch to L Marks and Iceland

• Access to Iceland’s scale and network, covering over 900 stores across the UK

• Pilot opportunities.
  

Startups offered a place in the programme will have dedicated workspace available at Iceland’s Deeside office, near Chester, but there is no restriction on where in the world the startups are originally based (visa's permitting of course etc).

Each team will enter into an option Agreement with L Marks which will allow investment in exchange for equity. These will be made on a case-by-case basis and all Option Agreements will have a six month expiry period.

Applications are open until 18 July, with a pitch day on 14 August before the programme starts on 10 September 2018.

Interested? Applications can be made via https://www.f6s.com/iceland-innovationlab/apply and for all the details and FAQs head to www.icelandinnovationlab.com to find out more. Good luck to all whom apply!

Content written in partnershop with L Marks. 

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• #retail
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• #corporate innovation
• #collaboration
• #l marks

Published on: 26th June 2018