How Amcor Lift-Off is forging a new path for innovation

by Frank Lehmann, Vice President of Corporate Venturing and Open Innovation.

There is a truism in R&D that I’m reminded of often: As a researcher or innovator, there’s nothing worse than having the right idea at the wrong moment.

When a bright idea gets stuck because the technology, materials or market aren’t ready to support it, you might hit ‘pause,’ hoping the right moment comes eventually. And, then you miss the opportunity.

Some of the greatest solutions for more sustainable packaging can fall into this trap. You can’t wait for the perfect conditions, you must be constantly seeking or creating new ways to move forward.

This is exactly why we designed and launched Amcor Lift-Off in 2022 — to collaborate with and learn from companies finding new ways forward. By staying close to the latest thinking and emerging technologies, we're able to challenge assumptions, explore new possibilities and accelerate innovation for our customers.

Since then, we’ve interacted with more than 1,000 such companies and strengthened our pipeline of emerging technologies and strategic partnerships across areas including advanced materials, artificial intelligence and recycling technologies, through collaborations with companies including Greyparrot, Nfinite Nanotechnology and Bloom Biorenewables. We understand how the market works, including the value of Amcor Lift-Off as a partner and co-creator willing to engage, share insight and shape direction together.

To meet the right partners, we’ve adopted an approach that lets both parties quickly assess whether the partnership would be a good fit. We call it “innovation speed dating.”

Testing strategic fit at startup speed

It’s always exciting to learn from others looking to drive meaningful change in the industry.

For Amcor Lift-Off, we identify the most promising companies tackling real-world challenges and invite them to pitch directly to Amcor experts, helping both sides quickly assess strategic fit.

It’s a chance to shake up the format for how large corporate venturing normally works. Here, we can sit with senior thinkers from an innovative young company and very quickly understand whether we’re a match for one another.

The benefit for Amcor and our customers is to access promising new technologies and solutions very early in their development. Meanwhile, who better for such innovators to work with than Amcor, given our scale, capabilities and reach in the market?

Innovation speed dating is a thrill — it’s something I look forward to with each new round of competition. And Amcor Lift-Off’s success to date validates the approach.

Today’s answers for tomorrow’s possibilities

As Amcor Lift-Off has evolved over the past four years, we see how it’s changing the thinking within our company — and benefiting our customers.

We see Amcor Lift‑Off as a strategic extension of our R&D engine, feeding innovation pipelines and intentionally rebalancing our portfolio from incremental improvements toward a greater mix of moonshots.

This is helping to turbo-charge the $170 million Amcor spends on R&D annually. It’s enabling us to think more broadly and powerfully about the solutions that will make the difference for our customers in the circular economy of tomorrow – revealing that the answers might be ready for deployment sooner than they think. In other words, it’s the right ideas at the right moment.

There is so much further we can go together, and Amcor Lift-Off will help us get there.