TemperPack Raises $22.5M for Expansion, Packaging Solutions

TemperPack, a provider of sustainable thermal packaging solutions, has raised $22.5 million in Series B financing led by Revolution Growth, with other new investors Harbert Growth Partners, Arborview Capital and Tao Capital Partners and with existing investor SJF Ventures also participating in the round. With the new financing, Todd Klein, partner at Revolution Growth, and Brian Carney, general partner at Harbert Growth Partners, will join the board.

TemperPack engineers, manufactures and distributes sustainable packaging products that replace single-use plastics, such as Styrofoam, with proprietary bio-based materials. Founded in 2015 by James McGoff, Brian Powers and Charles Vincent, TemperPack has grown rapidly in pursuit of its mission to reduce the amount of unsustainable packaging driven by the rise of e-commerce food and life science cold chain logistics. In addition to being harmful to the environment, packaging waste represents one-third of all municipal trash and costs local governments billions of dollars to dispose of each year.

"Packaging is a bit like electricity; the average person doesn't always think about it, but it's moving and working all around us nonstop. At any given moment, there are millions of products in transit packaged in single-use plastic. With the rise of e-commerce, we're focused on making packaging that is designed as thoughtfully as the products it protects," said James McGoff, cofounder and co-CEO of TemperPack, in a statement.

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TemperPack designs and tests products in its proving ground laboratory to meet client specifications in fields ranging from fresh food delivery to the shipment of biologic drugs. TemperPack's patent-pending ClimaCell technology is a sustainable alternative to plastic foams such as Styrofoam, according to the company. ClimaCell is How2Recycle certified and curbside recyclable.

"Plastic foam can take more than 500 years to degrade,” said Powers, cofounder and co-CEO of TemperPack, in a statement. “It's an antiquated technology that damages brands as much as it damages the environment. Consumers, governments and logistics companies are all desperate for a truly functional, authentically sustainable alternative. ClimaCell finally fills that void.”

Today, TemperPack operates two factories in Virginia and Nevada and is rapidly expanding its reach in the food and life science cold chain logistics markets, all with the goal of reducing the amount of packaging that ends up in landfills. It estimates that it has avoided 15 million pounds of carbon emissions and diverted 10 million pounds of plastic foam from landfills. Manufacturing ClimaCell is estimated to reduce carbon emissions by 97 percent compared to manufacturing comparable plastic foam, according to the company.

"The era of toxic packaging is over, and we believe TemperPack will lead in the elimination of Styrofoam, which is increasingly under regulatory and consumer scrutiny due to its negative impact on the environment," said Klein in a statement. "As corporations respond to escalating consumer pressure for more environmentally friendly packaging, we expect the demand for TemperPack's products to accelerate quickly."