PepsiCo APAC accelerator picks two Australian startups

PepsiCo has selected Adiona Tech and X-Centric Sciences for its 2026 Asia Pacific Greenhouse Program, putting two Australian startups into a seven-month accelerator at a point when founders are looking for customers as hard as they are looking for capital. In a statement announcing the cohort, PepsiCo said the programme will work with five startups and focus on turning practical innovation into commercial rollout across its supply chain.

For digitalblog’s local audience, the significance is less the accelerator label than the kind of work PepsiCo is testing. Startup Daily reported that Adiona builds logistics optimisation software and X-Centric focuses on soil analytics, two areas that sit close to freight costs, crop planning and farm output. The choice also lands at a time when local founders have been dealing with slower fundraising and longer enterprise sales cycles. In that market, a multinational buyer willing to trial operational tools can matter as much as another venture round.

PepsiCo has pitched the programme as a commercial exercise rather than a showcase. On its Greenhouse Program site and in the latest announcement, the company said the APAC initiative has run more than 22 pilots with over 30 startups. This year’s edition will put five companies through seven months of work, a smaller cohort that gives PepsiCo time to see whether each tool can stand up inside day-to-day operations. It also gives each selection more weight than a broader demo-day format.

“In Asia Pacific, the next wave of competitive advantage will come from how quickly we can turn practical innovation into scaled commercial outcomes.”

— Anne Tse, PepsiCo

That buyer-side framing helps explain the choice of Adiona and X-Centric. Startup Daily said Adiona previously secured a $1.8 million Cooperative Research Centres Projects grant, giving it public backing as it tries to expand its logistics software. X-Centric took part in an earlier Greenhouse cohort in 2024 and later raised $600,000. Neither arrives as a raw idea-stage company looking only for exposure.

The pair also point to where corporate demand is landing. PepsiCo did not choose a general productivity app or a broad AI pitch. It chose one startup tied to freight movement and another focused on measuring soil conditions, both of which can be tested against operating data inside a food and beverage group.

Richard Savoie, Adiona’s chief executive, told Startup Daily the latest cohort gave PepsiCo a way to revisit a programme that had already produced results for earlier participants. X-Centric founder Roozbeh Ravansari said the selection validated market demand for the company’s product.

Selection is still short of procurement, and corporate accelerators often finish with pilots that do not widen into contracts. Even so, for Australian founders dealing with tighter venture markets, a multinational customer willing to test a specific tool is a more concrete step than another ecosystem headline. It is also a read on whether global consumer groups are prepared to buy from smaller Australian operators, not just mentor them. This cohort is worth watching for that reason: it is a test of whether corporate access can translate into repeat work.