Progressing on our goals through partnership and investment in innovation

Every day, Amcor’s Corporate Venturing team works together to innovate and push the boundaries of developing responsible packaging solutions. We believe that investing in partnerships and technologies across the industry is the key to delivering more sustainable solutions for our customers across product ranges, materials and regions. As I look back on the last several months, I am energized by the partnerships we’ve formed and the significant steps we’ve taken.

Since its launch last year, Amcor’s Lift-Off program has enabled us to establish relationships with early-stage start-ups that share our commitment to improving the future of packaging. It has been very exciting to support a range of innovative companies with state-of-the-art technologies that complement our existing products and share our goal of circularity. In addition to $250,000 in seed funding, winners of Amcor’s Lift-Off competition collaborate with our research and development team to provide the means to scale-up and the support to realize their ambitions.

Whether it’s helping Lift-Off winner Bloom convert plant waste into chemicals that can be used in packaging, or our recently announced joint research project with Nfinite to leverage smart nanocoatings to make existing packaging recyclable or compostable, or working with the latest winner, circolution, to deliver smart reusable packaging and reduce carbon footprints, these partnerships are helping us progress across several pillars of sustainability and paving a path forward for the industry. We are continuously looking for innovative start-ups to apply to our program, as establishing partnerships with today’s idea-makers is key to our strategy.

Our internal research and development team is constantly exploring new ways to deliver for our customers and the environment. Amcor’s $100 million annual investment into research and development, as well as our Lift-Off partnerships, isn’t the only way we are investing in new technologies. Amcor remains active in corporate venturing investments that complement our customers’ needs and our vision for the future.

Our investment in PulPac in late 2022 will support the global commercialization of their fiber technology and allows us to redefine the capabilities of traditional paper packaging. This specific partnership builds upon our extensive experience in paper and carton packaging to create more sustainable solutions that result in expedited manufacturing processes and keep products safe and secure.

Also in 2022, we announced an increase in our strategic investments in ePac Flexible Packaging for short-run digitally based flexible packaging, and in PragmatIC Semiconductor for the first time in 2022, whose flexible integrated circuits can enable the development of smart packaging applications across the entire product lifecycle. Wherever we see the potential for collaboration, we intend to build bridges and collectively bring the industry closer to circularity.

I’m looking forward to seeing how these achievements will accelerate our progress and what new opportunities lie ahead. By collaborating with key partners, continually investing in research and development, and embracing innovation, we are driving progress towards a more sustainable future. I can't wait to see what we will achieve next.