Packaging is a multi-billion dollar industry that generally has some sustainability challenges. Packed is a B2B company that puts green technology at the forefront of everything from jars, tubes and sachets to bottles.
The company raised a $2.5 million seed funding round led by TenOneTen Ventures, bringing the total funding raised to $3.3 million. The new funding will be used to recruit more primary packaging suppliers to Impacked’s marketplace in North America and Europe, as well as to improve the existing sustainability scoring system. The company declined to share its valuation or other details about the funding round.
“As a former global brand manager at Unilever, a leader in product innovation, sourcing primary packaging was one of the biggest bottlenecks in my product launch process. The buying and selling process is long and inefficient, with the industry still relying on face-to-face exchanges, word of mouth, and analogous intermediaries to generate new customers. This often forces brands to overpay, delay product launches or prioritize sustainability,” Impacked CEO Lisa-Marie Assenza said in an interview with londonbusinessblog.com. “My goal with Impacked is to bring the show online 365 days a year, provide suppliers with tools to digitize their sales and marketing, while allowing brands to instantly search, filter, taste, quote and purchase packaging – all in one place.”
The founders of Impacked, Natasha Trueman (COO) and Lisa-Marie Assenza (CEO). Image credits: Packed.
“TenOneTen is the lead investor in this round. We wanted to attract a strong stable of former operators who have successfully built and scaled up businesses themselves. David [Waxman] and the entire TenOneTen team has been great to work with, they understand our mission and our vision, and as former operators have been incredibly helpful in helping us navigate the early stage of the journey,” said Assenza. “As sustainability regulations continue to change and become more complex for brands to navigate, our goal is to help more brands navigate these challenges by ensuring that every product listed in our marketplace is scored against a standard set of environmental sustainability criteria, empowering brand owners to make better purchasing decisions and ensuring accuracy in the claims they make on their packaging.”
The company is broadening its appeal and supplier reach, both in terms of product lines and geographically.
Impacked joins a host of companies currently streaming into this space and biting off different parts of the market. Some companies, such as Olive, are focusing on reusable packaging, while others are exploring mycelium-based or plant pulp-based solutions.
Impacked’s ultimate goal is to “buy every primary package on the planet, for the planet,” creating a packaging ecosystem that, the company claims, will foster greater connectivity and collaboration between brands and suppliers in the packaging industry.
“The health of our planet is one of the most important issues of our time, and packaging clearly makes an important contribution to this. Over the next 10 years, Impacked will play a key role in uncovering the data and insights brands need to transition to more sustainable packaging, while driving supplier innovation in packaging materials, design and manufacturing practices that are better for our planet,” says Assenza. . “I personally have a love-hate relationship with the word ‘sustainable’ — it’s buzzy and the reality is there’s no way to be ‘sustainable’. It’s really about taking steps to reduce the impact of a brand’s packaging on its early life and end of life. I believe shifting our industry to more sustainable solutions starts with education. Brands need a better way to objectively assess the environmental impact of every packaging option they look at early in the buying journey. For example, if a brand knew in advance that adding a matte coating could make an otherwise recyclable 8 oz glass bottle no longer generally recyclable, they might consider another decoration option to maintain recyclability and accurately “recyclable” on to claim the packaging.