The Starbucks Global Cold Cup Innovation Challenge is seeking next-generation material solutions that move beyond today’s reliance on traditional plastics and bioplastics. It is open until 14 September 2026, with a total prize award pool of $100,000 with which to award successful Solvers, teams, researchers, start-ups, or enterprises.
Starbucks is looking for a single material that is transparent, plastic-free and compostable: not as separate goals, but as parts of one solution. Today, that combination of characteristics can involve trade-offs: materials that deliver clarity and durability tend to rely on plastics, while alternatives that reduce plastic often fall short on performance, or turn opaque. As cold beverage demand continues to grow globally, the need for new, breakthrough material innovations is increasing.
Alongside the three core properties, proposed materials must be suitable for food contact, rigid enough for a barista to apply a lid without crushing the cup, heat-tolerant enough to handle an espresso shot without deforming, and completely tasteless and odourless. They must also be producible at a volume of at least hundreds of tonnes per year, while using forming technologies that are already prevalent in industry (such as injection moulding, thermoforming or cup formers).
“Cold cups are key to everything the packaging industry is wrestling with right now – plastic reduction, real-world durability, and cost at scale,” said Simon Hill, CEO, Wazoku. “That’s exactly the kind of problem open innovation is built for. Innocentive lets Starbucks tap into expertise far beyond its own labs, from materials scientists to start-ups nobody’s heard of yet. We’re excited to seeing what our global Solver community comes up with.”
Innocentive is the open innovation element of Wazoku’s innovation eco-system. It connects organizations with a global network of 1M+ problem solvers spanning AI, engineering, science, manufacturing, technology and more. It has an 80%+ success rate in addressing client challenges.
The Challenge is open to individuals and organizations alike, and solutions at Technology Readiness Levels 1-6 are invited: a finished product is not required. To receive an award, Solvers will be required to assign exclusive ownership rights to the IP in their solution, although where a Solver is an organization that already owns the IP in its proposal, Starbucks is willing to explore a collaboration agreement.
Winning solutions will be taken through concept validation and then prototyping in the subsequent months, with winning Solvers involved directly at each stage.
Submissions close at 11:59 PM US Eastern Time on 14 September 2026. Full details and the submission form are available at innocentive.com.