Nestlé crown Good-Loop winner of The Next Big Thing

by Startacus Admin

Good-Loop have been crowned the 2017 winner of The Next Big Thing start-up pitch competition after successfully winning over Nestlé and scooping the top prize at ad:tech London.

Fourteen finalists pitched for the opportunity to collaborate with Nestlé via the [email protected]é open innovation platform. Good-Loop was crowned the winner for their tech-for-good solution to the challenge, which will use the power of advertising to make a charitable donation to the Nestlé Cocoa Plan. Good-Loop’s Founder and CEO, Amy Williams, has seen her company grow enormously in the last year - the platform having already piqued the interest of some of the biggest brands and advertisers around.

The Next Big Thing 2017, which took place at ad:tech London on 29-30 November at The Old Truman Brewery, focused on the KITKAT Sustainability Project, an effort to give consumers the opportunity to experience and participate in KITKAT’s global sustainability efforts and their positive impact on society and the environment as part of the Nestlé Cocoa Plan.

Through the HENRi open innovation platform, Good-Loop (here's our previous feature on tech-for-good startups that highlighted Good-Loop) will aim to work with Nestlé on a partner-pilot-proof-of-concept model to test their technology in field. Each successful pilot through HENRi is funded with $50,000 and given senior support and access to market. 

Launched 4 years ago, previous winners of The Next Big Thing include Fluid Ads, Relative Insight, Seenit and native ads platform Avocarrot, who exited for $20m last year. This year’s competition was a partnership between Nestlé, global ad agency McCann, and ad:tech London. 

Amy Williams, CEO and Founder of Good-Loop, winners of The Next Big Thing said: “We’re all about empowering consumers and giving them the choice to engage with advertisers in support of the causes they care about. With KitKat and the Good-Loop platform, we’re able to donate 50% of ad spend to the Nestlé Cocoa Plan and support suppliers, communities and consumers around the world. We’re really looking forward to seeing this come to life.”

Gerardo Mazzeo, Global Innovation Director, Nestlé: “Bringing together a global brand like Nestlé and some of the world’s most creative entrepreneurs is a fantastic way to drive innovation and encourage collaborative solutions to real problems. Good-Loop had a clear vision for helping us to bring home the work we are doing with KITKAT and sustainability and we’re excited to see where the partnership leads.”

Florence Audoyer, Global Strategic Marketing and Communications - KITKAT went on to say: “Through the Nestlé Cocoa Plan programme, we work hard to improve the lives of cocoa farmers and the quality of their products. We were looking for the right startup to bring our sustainability initiatives to life in a creative, exciting, and engaging way that truly connects with people. We’re excited to work with Good-Loop to help shine a light on the Nestle Cocoa Plan in a new way.”

[email protected]é is an open innovation platform where early-stage companies can partner with us to pilot high-potential solutions to some of the most challenging issues across our FMCG portfolio. Selected companies receive $50,000 and senior business support to fund pilots to bring their products and ideas to customers. Having previously featured the KITKAT Sustainability Project on Startacus, it is great to see the fab Good-Loop crowned as the winner. 

The fourteen finalists that pitched for the opportunity to collaborate with Nestlé via the [email protected]é open innovation platform were Greengame (here's our recent feature on Greengame), StoryStream, Buzzoole Holdings LTD, Kyra TV, Jaunt VR, Good-Loop, Panache, PlayMob, SOCIAL-INTERNET, Opinary, baagloo, KameraOne, Whalar and Hold AS.

The Finalists were Kyra, Jaunt, Good-Loop, Opinary and Opinary. A huge congrats to Amy Williams and the Good-Loop team for this fabulous accolade.

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Published on: 1st December 2017