MEXICO CITY — Grupo Bimbo SAB de CV announced the launch of Bimbo Open Door, a business accelerator to invest in Latin American bakery and snacks projects that align with at least one of the three pillars of the company’s sustainability strategy.

“Bimbo Open Door focuses on seeking, developing, and investing in startups and scale-ups in the bakery and snacks sector, whose projects stand out for their innovative value propositions, sustainable practices, and business model, among others,” the company said.

“We are a global company born in Mexico more than 76 years ago as a small company,” said Raúl Obregón, global director of information and transformation at Grupo Bimbo. “This time has allowed us to learn and capitalize on many lessons we are excited to share with the youngest. With Bimbo Open Door, we want to become an engine for the entrepreneurial ecosystem, where we put into practice models of shared success that promote new talents and their great ideas. We are sure they will revolutionize the food industry.” 

Bimbo said it designed Bimbo Open Door to reach more than 20 countries in the Latin America region, including Mexico, Colombia, Chile and Argentina. The initiative operates through Bimbo Ventures, the company’s business segment that, since 2017, managed four acceleration cycles through its Bimbo Eleva and Bimbo Bakelab platforms. Within these acceleration cycles, the company said it received more than 1,000 project proposals, of which Grupo Bimbo collaborated with more than 20 — through alliances of various types — and invested in seven.  

Participation in Bimbo Open Door will require companies to have a product validated by Bimbo, annual sales over $300,000 and availability to participate in the program. In addition, the company said applicants must be aligned with at least one of the three pillars in its sustainability strategy.

The first sustainability pillar is nutritional diversity, identified by Bimbo as, “Baking or snack projects, either sweet or savory, made with clean label recipes or with inputs of vegetable origin, such as plants and whole grains.”

The second pillar of the company’s sustainability strategy is environmental care. Bimbo said applicants should be baking or snack projects that consider a sustainable supply of raw materials, such as regenerative agriculture or those that stand out for having waste control programs, reduction of carbon emissions and post-consumption actions, such as recycling or circular economy.

Bimbo’s third sustainability pillar is impact on the community. The company said it is looking for portfolios that have a brand with a purpose or a social benefit program for foundations and communities.  

Those startups and scale-ups the company selects as finalists will enter a 16-week hybrid program where they will receive mentoring from Bimbo executives and managers, as well as the opportunity to get to know the bakeries and innovation centers in the company while working on their projects. In the final stage of the program, finalists will present the results of their work to a forum of company executives, Bimbo said.