CINCINNATI, Dec. 16, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- P&G Ventures, the early-stage startup studio within Procter & Gamble (NYSE:PG), announced today the top four finalists of this year's Innovation Challenge. Finalists will present their groundbreaking product ideas to a panel of expert judges at CES in January 2022 for the chance to win $10,000 and the opportunity to work with P&G Ventures to continue developing their product.

The finalists are:

• Cybele Microbiome, headquartered in San Diego, CA, provides high efficacy natural solutions for human health through patented technologies. Nicole Scott, Co-Founder and CEO, will pitch.
• Kushae Naturals, based in Lake Work, FL, is an all-natural, pH balanced, doctor-formulated feminine hygiene product line made by women for women. Co-Founder and CEO, Kimba Williams, will pitch.
• Lady Patch, operating out of El Segundo, CA, is the only drug-free feminine patch that prevents bladder leaks and the frequent urge to urinate. CEO and Founder, Cindy Santa Cruz, will pitch.
• Ryp Labs, located in Kirkland, WA, is an award-winning food and crop protection company developing and commercializing biomimicry solutions to combat global food waste, naturally and safely. Moody Soliman, Co-Founder and CEO, will pitch.

The finalist pitch event will be held at 9:30am (PT) on Thursday, January 6 at CES in Eureka Park, the space for startup exhibitors. The event will be open to all CES attendees and will also be live-streamed. Free registration to view the finals online can be found here.

Entrepreneurs, inventors, and startups in the fast-moving consumer goods space were invited to submit to the Innovation Challenge. Of particular interest were innovations in non-toxic home and garden, active aging, healthy skin, helping parents, go-anywhere clean, daily wellness, and food waste reduction. Submissions for this year's Innovation Challenge reached record numbers, as did the percentage of submissions with a female founder (60%), and the number of submissions from Black and Latinx founders (30%).

The panel of expert judges include Victor Aguilar, Chief R&D and Innovation Officer for P&G; Guy Persaud, President of New Business, P&G; Saeed Amidi, Founder and CEO, Plug and Play Tech Center; Sarah Anderson, Founding Partner, Vault Fund; and Lee Henderson, Americas EY Private Leader and Executive Sponsor, EY Entrepreneurs Access Network.

"The P&G Ventures Innovation Challenge provides a fantastic opportunity for us to connect with entrepreneurs and startups who could partner with us to build new brands and businesses that improve consumers' lives," said Guy Persaud, President of New Business for Procter & Gamble. "We are inspired by the enthusiastic response to this year's Challenge. We congratulate our finalists and can't wait to see them pitch live at CES, the most influential tech event of the year."

Past Innovation Challenge winners include Sana Health, a wearable device using audio and visual stimulation to relieve chronic pain and reduce anxiety levels;  SAVRpack, a patented packaging technology to keep food from going soggy; Healium, a mental fitness channel that uses augmented and virtual reality Apps for the self-management of stress and anxiety; Morari Medical, a wearable device to prevent premature ejaculation; and Nanospun Technologies, which produces disruptive, live-active biological tissues for skincare, medical, and industrial applications.

For more information about the Innovation Challenge, please visit: ventureschallenge.com. To stay up-to-date on the Innovation Challenge timing and news, follow P&G Ventures on LinkedIn and Twitter.

You can learn more about P&G innovations by visiting the P&G LifeLab booth on the showroom floor of CES (Booth #53504) or from the comfort of your home through our virtual experience on PGLifelab.com.

About P&G Ventures
Founded in 2015, P&G Ventures is an early-stage startup studio within P&G that creates new fast-moving-consumer goods brands and businesses in new target categories by partnering internally or externally with entrepreneurs, inventors, visionaries, founders and start-ups.  Over the past two years P&G Ventures has delivered a strategy to attract partners through an active scouting program, earned media placements, speaking and participating at relevant events, presences within P&G's booth a CES and owned social accounts (Twitter and LinkedIn).  P&G Ventures has embraced Lean principles and metered funding as it moves projects through the Discovery, Create, Build, and Scale phases of development.  To date we have four brands (Zevo, Kindra, Bodewell and OPTE) that have entered Build phase, either internally within P&G or externally with our partner M13's Launchpad.

About Procter & Gamble
P&G serves consumers around the world with one of the strongest portfolios of trusted, quality, leadership brands, including Always®, Ambi Pur®, Ariel®, Bounty®, Charmin®, Crest®, Dawn®, Downy®, Fairy®, Febreze®, Gain®, Gillette®, Head & Shoulders®, Lenor®, Olay®, Oral-B®, Pampers®, Pantene®, SK-II®, Tide®, Vicks®, and Whisper®. The P&G community includes operations in approximately 70 countries worldwide. Please visit http://www.pg.com for the latest news and information about P&G and its brands.

About CES
CES® is the most influential tech event in the world – the proving ground for breakthrough technologies and global innovators. This is where the world's biggest brands do business and meet new partners, and the sharpest innovators hit the stage. Owned and produced by the Consumer Technology Association (CTA)®, CES features every aspect of the tech sector. CES 2022 will take place in person in Las Vegas, and digitally, Jan. 5-8, 2022. Learn more at CES.tech and follow CES on social.

SOURCE P&G Ventures