Procter & Gamble : P&G Ventures Announces its Next Virtual Innovation Challenge - Inviting Entrepreneurs and Startups to Pitch Their Idea for the Next Great CPG Brand

CINCINNATI, April 26, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- P&G Ventures, the early-stage startup studio within Procter & Gamble (NYSE: PG), is now accepting submissions from entrepreneurs, inventors, and startups for its next Virtual Innovation Challenge.

Building on the success of its previous Innovation Challenges, P&G Ventures is once again holding the competition virtually to make the Challenge open to the widest pool of entrepreneurs. Three finalists will be selected to virtually pitch to a panel of expert judges on July 14, and the winner will receive $10,000 and a chance to partner with P&G Ventures to continue developing their product.

The panel will include Leigh Radford, Senior Vice President and Founder, P&G Ventures; Mike Jensen, Senior Vice President of Research & Development, P&G Ventures; Anu Duggal, Founding Partner, Female Founders Fund; Michael Olmstead, Chief Revenue Officer, Plug and Play; and Clarence Wooten, Co-founder and General Partner, Revitalize Venture Studio. The finalist pitch event will be streamed, and free registration for the event can be found here.

"We are excited to present this latest edition of the Innovation Challenge and welcome submissions from entrepreneurs and startups with great new fast-moving consumer goods brands," said P&G Ventures' Radford. "P&G Ventures is committed to supporting entrepreneurs. The Innovation Challenge has become a wonderful way to showcase the ingenuity of those who are creating new solutions to some of the most pressing consumer problems."

With the Innovation Challenge, P&G Ventures is specifically looking for fast-moving, consumable technologies that create meaningful differences in consumers' lives. P&G Ventures is uniquely interested in categories that are outside those where P&G currently provides solutions today. Areas of interest include balanced protection from harmful bacteria, enhanced sleep, non-toxic insect solutions, women's wellness, personal performance, active aging, and other new frontiers in consumer goods that aren't in one of P&G's current categories. Ideal submissions contain a product that is used daily or almost daily, provides noticeable superiority, and has an ownable efficacy benefit that solves a massive consumer problem in a way no other product has been able to before.

Winner of the most recent Virtual Innovation Challenge, Bill Birgen, CTO of SAVRpak, shared, "I was so grateful to be selected as an Innovation Challenge finalist because it meant I was building close connections with P&G Ventures, an expert in the consumer space. Winning was simply icing on the cake. The last year was full of obstacles, but P&G Ventures found a way to continue creating opportunities for entrepreneurs by making this challenge even more accessible."

P&G Ventures will be leveraging the KITE SRM platform and operating system to accept submissions at ventureschallenge.com until May 13 from legal residents of the 50 United States and the District of Columbia. For more information about how to enter, including contest rules and regulations, please visit: ventureschallenge.com. To stay up-to-date on the Virtual Innovation Challenge timing and news, follow P&G Ventures on LinkedIn and Twitter.

Established in 2015, P&G Ventures partners with entrepreneurs, inventors, and startups to discover and create consumer products, brands, and businesses that solve consumer needs in areas new to P&G. Each P&G Ventures partnership is unique, providing funding and access to P&G's experts, resources, and capabilities to help partners prove their technology and create their brand.

About Procter and Gamble
P&G serves consumers around the world with one of the strongest portfolios of trusted, quality, leadership brands, including Always®, Ambi Pur®, Ariel®, Bounty®, Charmin®, Crest®, Dawn®, Downy®, Fairy®, Febreze®, Gain®, Gillette®, Head & Shoulders®, Lenor®, Olay®, Oral-B®, Pampers®, Pantene®, SK-II®, Tide®, Vicks®, and Whisper®. The P&G community includes operations in approximately 70 countries worldwide. Please visit http://www.pg.com for the latest news and information about P&G and its brands.

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SOURCE Procter & Gamble