Bio-degradable food container startup Alterpacks raises US$1M funding

Alterpacks, a Singapore-based provider of biodegradable food containers, has closed its US$1 million pre-seed funding round.

Plug and Play APAC led the round with participation from SEEDS Capital and Earth Venture Capital. Angel investor Alice Foo also joined.

The money will ramp up AlterPacks’s food container production and supply across key markets in Asia, Australia, and Europe.

Alterpacks was founded in 2019 to combat the problem of single-use plastics.

The company provides new economic value to spent grains, a by-product of the food manufacturing process, after producing malted drinks, such as milo or beer. The grains are currently used as animal feed, turned into fertilizer, or disposed of in landfills.

Alterpacks converts food grains into containers that can be moulded into any shape. This way, it upcycles food loss in manufacturing to create a biodegradable and home-compostable material to replace plastic food containers.

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The firm is working with different F&B businesses, converters, and manufacturers to create tailor-made, sustainable packaging solutions at scale.

Alterpacks containers are 100 per cent organic and go from freezer to microwave. The startup is also creating bio-pellets to replace petroleum-based resins used in standard manufacturing machines today and changing the raw material with other forms of agricultural waste.

In 2022, the company piloted its food containers at the Motor GP Event in Mandalika, Indonesia. It has collaborated with the United Nations Development Programme to combat plastic pollution in Indonesia.

In Vietnam, the firm piloted the product with Pizza 4P’s, a famous F&B brand with over 26 restaurants.

The startup is supported by the Temasek Foundation and was incubated under Singapore Management University’s Institute of Innovation and Entrepreneurship’s Business Innovation Generator.

CEO Karen Cheah said: “The genesis of AlterPacks lies in the garbage. As countries look at producing more food, we turn our attention to what is being left behind and thrown out with the food waste and loss, and use that as a raw material to replace plastic packaging.”

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