Hamburg-based one.five has successfully secured $16 million in a Series A funding round to advance its AI-driven platform for packaging development. The investment, led by Dr Hans Riegel Holding, will fuel the company's mission to reduce waste and accelerate the industry's shift toward sustainability. This new capital injection brings one.five's total funding to $28 million, positioning it to scale its innovative solutions globally.
Addressing a Wasteful Innovation Cycle
The global packaging industry faces a significant innovation paradox, with nearly 60% of research and development spending allocated to products that never achieve commercial success. This inefficiency is compounded by the fact that only 15-20% of all packaging is considered sustainable, hindering progress toward corporate climate goals. The result is a slow and wasteful cycle that struggles to meet evolving regulatory demands and consumer preferences.
Founded in 2020 by former Infarm executives Martin Weber and Claire Hae-Min Gusko, one.five was established to tackle this challenge head-on. The founders leveraged their experience in the fast-moving consumer goods space to apply a data-centric approach to the complex world of packaging. Their vision is to align innovation with the 1.5°C climate goal by making the development process more efficient and impactful.
An AI-Powered Compass for Market Success
At the heart of one.five's strategy is its proprietary AI platform, which embeds product-market fit directly into the material development process. The system translates all critical success factors, from technical performance and regulatory compliance to cost targets, into data-driven design requirements. This enables R&D teams to engineer solutions that are market-ready from their inception, eliminating guesswork and costly missteps.
The company's flagship product, the "Product Market Fit Compass," is specifically designed for technology providers like paper and coating manufacturers. This tool allows them to benchmark their product portfolios against real-world brand and consumer needs, identifying materials with the highest probability of market success. By defining precise development targets, the platform ensures that innovation efforts are directly aligned with customer demand.
Early pilot projects have already demonstrated significant returns, with customers achieving a return on investment of around five times their initial capital within the first year. Co-founder Claire Hae-Min Gusko noted that clients engage with brands faster and reduce failed developments, substantially shortening their time-to-market. This data-backed approach helps companies focus resources on solutions that have a clear path to commercialization and revenue.
Strategic Expansion and Future Outlook
The new funding will be instrumental in scaling one.five's platform and expanding its proprietary data foundation through further experiments and commercial deployments. The company plans to use the capital to enhance its AI capabilities and broaden its reach to new customer groups across the value chain. This strategic expansion is designed to solidify its position as a key enabler of sustainable packaging innovation.
As a testament to its platform's capabilities, one.five has already developed and launched its own alternative packaging solutions, Bluemorph and Glassleaf. These recyclable, bio-based materials have been adopted by early customers such as BioSun, Tactic Games, and UPM Raflatac for real market applications. This successful deployment serves as a powerful proof of concept for the company's AI-driven development model.
Looking ahead, one.five aims to become the universal operating system for product development within the packaging industry. The company plans to launch new platform products tailored for packaging converters and brand owners in the second half of 2026. This long-term vision underscores its ambition to transform how the industry innovates in response to a rapidly changing global supply chain.
This $16 million investment marks a pivotal moment for one.five, empowering it to tackle deep-seated inefficiencies in the packaging sector. By leveraging artificial intelligence, the company is not just optimizing R&D but is also paving the way for a more sustainable and responsive industry. As one.five expands its platform, it is poised to redefine the standards for material innovation and accelerate the global transition to eco-conscious packaging.