Grounded
Grounded makes sustainable packaging simple, accessible, and transparent. As a supplier, they replace traditional oil-based films with a range of lower-impact materials, including recyclable and compostable plant-based films, high-recycled-content alternatives, and high-barrier papers and fibre, backed by software that models and reports the sustainability outcomes.
Fund: Awhi
Transaction Summary
Fund: Awhi
Date Invested: December 2019
Instrument: Equity
IRIS+ Category: Climate | Sustainable Materials & Circular Economy
Why We Invested
Flexible packaging is one of the hardest parts of the plastic problem to solve. It's everywhere, largely unrecyclable, and the alternatives have historically been expensive and hard to verify. Grounded Packaging was founded in 2019 with a clear intent: fix it.
Ben Grant and Josh Kempton built a supplier that moves businesses off traditional oil-based films and onto a full range of lower-impact materials: Plantmade (recyclable and compostable plant-based films), Wastemade (high-percentage post-consumer recycled content), and high-barrier papers and fibre. Rather than offering a single substitute, they match the right material to each application. Their platform gives businesses a transparent, navigable route to sustainable packaging, removing the complexity that has kept many locked into conventional plastics.
Flexible packaging represents a significant and largely unaddressed share of single-use plastic waste. Grounded pairs a credible range of alternative materials with software that models sustainability outcomes and manages extended producer responsibility (EPR) and related compliance reporting, so customers can switch materials and prove the impact. The market has been missing both. Now it’s there.
Measuring What Matters
Problem:
Traditional flexible packaging relies on oil-based films that are largely unrecyclable. Businesses seeking sustainable alternatives face complex, opaque supply chains, a narrow set of options, and growing EPR and compliance obligations that are hard to measure and report, keeping most defaulting to conventional plastics
What:
A supplier of sustainable flexible packaging across a range of materials, including recyclable and compostable plant-based films, high-recycled-content alternatives, and high-barrier papers and fibre, supported by a software stack for modelling sustainability outcomes and managing EPR and compliance reporting.
Who:
Businesses across food, e-commerce, and consumer goods seeking sustainable packaging alternatives, and the broader supply chain shifting away from single-use plastics.
How Much:
Scale: number of businesses supplied with sustainable packaging. Depth: volume of conventional plastic packaging displaced across the materials range. Duration: long-term shift in packaging norms as lower-impact alternatives become the accessible default.
Contribution:
As a supplier with a broad materials range and supporting software, Grounded removes the complexity that has historically made sustainable packaging inaccessible, matching the right material to each use case and giving customers the tools to model outcomes and meet their EPR and compliance obligations.
Impact Risk:
Adoption depends on businesses being willing to change procurement habits and, in some cases, absorb transitional costs. Impact also depends on appropriate recycling and end-of-life infrastructure for each material type existing in the markets Grounded serves.
Impact Measures:
Volume of conventional plastic packaging displaced. Number of businesses sourcing through the platform. Growth in compostable packaging adoption across food and e-commerce sectors.
