Coca-Cola Amatil’s corporate venturing platform Amatil X has invested in digital asset and payment provider Centrepay, as part of the startup’s seed funding round.
Coca-Cola Amatil, one of the largest bottlers of the Coca-Cola range in the world with over 270 million customers, already had a corporate partnership with Centrepay by allowing users to pay for items with cryptocurrencies on any of the company’s 2,000+ vending machines across Australia and New Zealand.
Centrepay is now expanding its payment forms to include contactless fiat, Epay gift cards and vouchers, with Centrepay CEO Jerome Faury stating that both companies are aligned strategically around “preserving consumer privacy and data ownership rights” adding:
The fact that Coca-Cola Amatil has invested in Centrapay through Amatil X, shows that there is a real appetite to provide customers with new ways to engage or to exchange value.
The investment will be used to progress Centrepay’s new payment service which allows consumers “to send fiat or other supported payments as easily as a text message through the Centrepay Wallet.”
“The advent of smart, programmable money is rapidly evolving new economic models,” Faury explained, “The way we exchange value is set to change dramatically.”
This isn’t the first blockchain-focused investment Coca-Cola has committed to as Coke One North America — the firm that manages IT operations for Coca-Cola in that region — began using SAP’s blockchain solution to manage the company’s supply chain.