Guelph, Ont.-based cleantech startup Friendlier has raised $4.5 million CAD as it looks to replace more kinds of single-use waste for food service operators.
The all-equity round was co-led by Toronto-based investment firms Good & Well and Relay Ventures, with participation from returning investor Garage Capital and several angel investors, including Axonify co-founders Carol Leaman and Christine Tutssel. Friendlier has raised a total of nearly $13 million CAD to date.
Founded in 2019 by CEO Kayli Smith and chief revenue officer Jacquie Hanton, Friendlier offers food service operators reusable plastic containers to replace single-use counterparts. Customers pay a deposit for their signature ocean blue-coloured containers and receive refunds when the containers are dropped off at deposit stations. Friendlier sanitizes used containers from vendors before redistributing them. The reuse program is available across Ontario, Quebec, and British Columbia.
The companyâs second seed extension funding round will be used to âdeepenâ Friendlierâs infrastructure, Smith said in a statement. The company is evolving its system to work across more food service environments than just traditional dining halls, including accommodations for hot beverages, catering, and retail grab-and-go stations.
Friendlier is also deploying additional âmicro-sanitation hubs,â or proprietary facilities that process the reusable packaging at scale. Hanton told BetaKit that these hubs act as low-capital operations that allow Friendlier to scale into smaller geographies faster. They will help Friendlier deploy its first hubs in Winnipeg and Halifax.
RELATED: Friendlier closes $5-million seed extension for reusable packaging solution
âFriendlierâs end-to-end solution has the potential to reach significant scale and help catalyze the system-wide change needed to protect our planet for generations to come,â Good & Well director of investments Jonathan Shui said in a statement.
Friendlier raised a $5-million seed extension round in December 2023, co-led by Relay and Garage Capital, shortly after it had reached a milestone of one million reused containers. The company now says it has reused more than 3.3 million containers and has secured partnerships with the Toronto Zoo, Coca-Cola Canada, and grocery chain Farm Boy. It has also expanded to the University of British Columbia. Hanton said that, since its 2023 seed round, Friendlier has grown its revenue by a factor of four and added more than 20 post-secondary institutions as customers.
Friendlier isnât the only Canadian company tackling single-use food waste with a turn-key solution. This past April, Vancouver-based Reusables raised a $3.6-million seed round to expand its similar offering across North America.
UPDATE (08/19/2025): This story has been updated with additional details on Friendlier’s round and growth from co-founder Jacquie Hanton.
Feature image courtesy Friendlier.