Beer Garage Second Annual Tech Incubator Showcases 11 Promising Projects at Demo Day

AB InBev’s Beer Garage Tech Incubator, a one-of-a-kind internship, talent exchange, and product development program, heads into its final week of the summer program by kicking off with Demo Day, a celebration of the eleven projects in this year’s cohort. Cross-functional teams composed of interns, internal tech talent and business experts completed a 10-week program of development trainings and worked in partnership with external Silicon Valley start-ups to productize their ideas. The final eleven projects in this year’s class seek to tackle challenges like risk assessment, automated content development, and customer behavior insights with a combination of innovative data analysis, internet of things (IoT), and software solutions.

Here’s the full list of projects presented this year:

• AB-Credit: Algorithms to correctly predict personalized credit limits, terms and risk assessment.
• Savvy: Allowing AB InBev to understand customer behavior and tailor buying experiences.
• Gatsby: One stop shop party planning platform that reduces consumer pain points.
• Key 3 Data: Recapturing market power through transformative data advantage.
• VIO: Bringing capabilities for brands to connect in a new way with consumers.
• CanDo!: Solution to continuously scan the packaging line for surface level defects.
• mylocalesportsbar: Driving on-premise foot traffic through engaging experiences.
• Alehouse Creative: Automating digital content creation and optimizing Draftline’s social media budget.
• SensAI: Machine learning tool to enable brewers to better gauge the Sensory Grade.
• Beer.Me: Breaking down existing communication barriers between customers and the company.
• CAPS: Using AI to automate social media content creation and publishing.

The participating exchange talent represented a variety of teams across AB InBev and received valuable learnings through global exposure and an innovation crash course, all in one. Technical experts acted as CTOs on each team, ensuring the new project could be well integrated and scalable within AB InBev infrastructure while business experts played SME to guide the team on internal principles, processes and ways of working. Daily pitch trainings and mentorship organized with program partner AngelHack ensured an intense, but exciting learning experience for every participant with real, tangible minimum viable products.

“The Beer Garage Tech Incubator is key to transforming our business through emerging technology,” said Andrew Green, Global Director of Innovation at Beer Garage. “Co-creating with start-ups allows us to solve big business challenges with speed and creativity, while leveraging the scale of the largest brewer in the world to foster the innovation community and support the growth of their companies.”

Following Demo Day, AB InBev senior leadership and sponsors will decide which projects to invest in beyond the Tech Incubator. Championed projects will then move into the Integration Catalyst program as the first step in bringing selected projects back to core functions and zones. The goal for the catalyst stage is to accelerate the growth of chosen projects, formalize inclusion into respective team plans, and align resources for 2020.

Stay tuned for updates!