Traditional packaging solutions often fall short in terms of real-time tracking and product integrity. Counterfeit products, inefficient supply chain management and environmental issues drive us to search for better solutions.
Smart packaging addresses these challenges by integrating technologies such as IoT, blockchain and AI to enhance the functionality of packaging. It provides real-time data, improves product safety, enhances consumer interaction and promotes sustainability.
The five growth-stage startups introduced in this article provide key solutions in the packaging field, have the potential for rapid growth, are in a good market position, or can bring game-changing innovative technologies to the packaging market in the next 2-3 years. This makes them excellent choices for cooperation, collaboration or acquisition.
1. ImpacX: Smart water bottle, one cap at a time
- Founded: 2015
- Headquarters: Israel
- Base funding: $1 million
- Most recent funding round: $1 million
- Website: impacX.io
ImpacX develops, manufactures and sells smart bottle cap solutions for water bottles, vitamin pill bottles, cleaning packaging and other products. Their bottle caps can send reminders and notifications to users, such as reminders to take medicine and notifications to refill (medication or water bottles). These water bottles can also share usage data and insights with consumers.
In the past two years, they have significantly developed their IoT platform. Today, it is the only company that offers a commercial IoT intelligence platform for pharmaceutical, beauty, cleaning and other industries. Leading companies such as Danone and Bayer use its products.
Kobi Bentkovski, CEO of ImpacX, holds a Master’s degree in Electrical Engineering from Tel Aviv University and an Executive MBA from Ben-Gurion University of the Negev. On July 1, 2018, impacX received $1 million in seed funding.
2. Vesta Smart Packaging: Track refills, automate orders, save energy
- Founded: 2017
- Headquarters: London, UK
- Base financing: Undisclosed
- Most recent funding round: Accelerator/Incubator
- Website: vestapack.com
Vesta Smart Packaging aims to reduce the amount of plastic consumed every day. Their smart packaging products record their contents, identify empty packaging, and automatically reorder the contents for refilling, providing a solution to eliminate single-use plastics.
For businesses, Vesta Smart Packaging provides their customers with timely supplies and data on their consumption habits, preferences, frequency, etc. In addition, their technology can help secure internal supply chains and track business assets across multiple locations.
Co-founder and COO Dave Carr graduated from Durham University in the UK.
3. Chroma Signet: QR code connected to blockchain
- Founded: 2013
- Headquarters: Oregon, USA
- Base funding: $1.6 million
- Latest round of funding: Venture capital/US$1 million
- Website: chromasignet.com
Chroma Signet uses blockchain-based solutions to provide supply chain transparency and provenance to the entire consumer packaged goods (CPG) industry. It helps brands share seed-to-sale supply chain data, in-depth ingredient details or brand stories with customers.
Chroma Signet creates smart contracts using unique QR codes to make supply chain transparency as easy as putting a label on a product. QR codes help brands verify that the product in the hands of consumers is authentic and cannot be counterfeited or hacked. Consumers can understand the origin of the product and make informed choices about the brands they want to support. Using their services, brands can offer loyalty rewards to customers through NFTs and tokens, exclusive discounts, and more.
CEO Marcus Estes has been running the company for a decade. Chroma Signet has raised $1.6M in funding, with its most recent funding raised on January 24, 2020.
4. Cellr - QR and RFID technologies provide consumers with a personalized experience
- Founded: 2016
- Headquarters: Perth, Australia
- Base financing: Undisclosed
- Latest round of financing: Seed round
- Website: cellr.co
Cellr uses QR code and NFC/RFID technology to connect physical or digital products with a cloud platform. Their technology allows brands to introduce personalized experiences to their customers through unique QR codes and can create customized solutions for brands that are seamlessly integrated into the manufacturing and packaging process. Their solutions can also provide additional geo-location and data collection capabilities to consumers to help companies improve marketing based on customer demographics in specific regions. To protect the authenticity of the brand, the company works with product authentication services such as BWGA.
Founder and CEO Chris Braine has over a decade of entrepreneurial experience. Their latest round of financing was a Seed round on January 1, 2024.
5. LivingPackets: Returnable, traceable and multi-use packaging for logistics companies
- Founded: 2016
- Headquarters: Loire Valley, France
- Base financing: Undisclosed
- Latest funding round: Undisclosed
- Website: www.livingpackets.com
LivingPackets is addressing a major challenge in the logistics industry, the well-known problem of pollution. The startup is trying to solve this problem with its product LivingPackets - a full range of smart packaging Boxes. The "Box" is made of recyclable plastic and other materials, eliminating the disposable packaging boxes often used in transportation and logistics. It also includes various sensors to make the packaging smarter, trackable and secure, and on top of that, LivingPackets has added an e-ink display to easily update shipping and recipient details. This can help logistics companies reduce waste and move towards a circular economy.
