Ocean Spray Partners with Plug and Play, the World's Largest Global Innovation Platform
The farmer-owned cooperative joins the Silicon Valley based accelerator to strategically leverage a global open innovation ecosystem of entrepreneurial partners and startups
Oct 24, 2019, 09:00 ET
SILICON VALLEY, Calif., Oct. 24, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Ocean Spray Cranberries Inc., a cooperative of more than 700 farmer families, has officially partnered with Plug and Play, the largest global innovation platform for industry accelerators. The partnership will focus on driving strategic and innovative growth for the cooperative by leveraging a global startup ecosystem to solve key business challenges with a creative, disruptive, and agile approach.
By partnering with Plug and Play, Ocean Spray will harness the ingenuity of the accelerator's seventeen verticals, including their Food & Beverage and Health categories, in order to advance solutions to cross-sector barriers and position the cooperative to have greater command over the health and wellness marketplace. Additionally, Plug and Play will work with Ocean Spray on designing iterative bespoke strategies to continue driving optimization, working with acclaimed startup innovators including a dedicated innovation team.
"As a nearly 90-year old brand, it is paramount for our cooperative to relentlessly drive cutting-edge innovation and to quickly and effectively tackle business challenges so that we accelerate Ocean Spray's evolution toward health and wellness," said Bobby Chacko, President and CEO of Ocean Spray. "Our partnership with Plug and Play gives Ocean Spray a necessary voice and presence in the Silicon Valley network, tapping into an open innovation community that will create more depth of knowledge and diversity of experience for our team."
"We need dedicated partners who are open to new startup innovation. This willingness to transform will help not only their businesses, but entire industries," said Michael Olmstead, CRO of Plug and Play. "Partnering with Ocean Spray provides opportunities to connect our startups to a distinguished company so they can revolutionize the market. We are proud to welcome them into our ecosystem."
The partnership serves as a catalyst for future strategic initiatives and innovation to be launched by Ocean Spray. With an entrepreneurial, future-focused spirit, the two partners will amplify the incredible power of the cranberry superfruit into exciting future growth opportunities.
About Ocean Spray:
Founded in 1930, Ocean Spray is a vibrant agricultural cooperative owned by more than 700 cranberry farmers in the United States, Canada and Chile who have helped preserve the family farming way of life for generations. The Cooperative's cranberries are currently featured in more than a thousand great-tasting, good-for-you products in over 100 countries worldwide. Leading by purpose, Ocean Spray is committed to the health of people and planet. For more information visit: www.oceanspray.com
About Plug and Play:
Plug and Play is a global innovation platform. Headquartered in Silicon Valley, we have built accelerator programs, corporate innovation services and an in-house VC to make technological advancement progress faster than ever before. Since inception in 2006, our programs have expanded worldwide to include a presence in over 25 locations globally giving startups the necessary resources to succeed in Silicon Valley and beyond. With over 10,000 startups and 300 official corporate partners, we have created the ultimate startup ecosystem in many industries. Companies in our community have raised over $7 billion in funding, with successful portfolio exits including Danger, Rappi, Dropbox, Lending Club and PayPal. For more information, visit https://www.plugandplaytechcenter.com/
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SOURCE Ocean Spray Cranberries, Inc.
