Packaging specialist easy2cool grows with mezzanine capital

Frank­furt am Main / Munich — The Fran­k­­furt-based invest­ment company VR Equi­typ­art­ner (VREP) is provi­ding easy2cool GmbH with growth capi­tal as part of mezza­nine finan­cing. The funds will be used to streng­then the company’s capi­tal base and support its dyna­mic growth in a rapidly expan­ding market for sustainable, tempe­ra­­ture-control­­led pack­a­ging and logi­stics solutions. 

easy2cool GmbH, foun­ded in 2014, is based in Munich and is one of the leading provi­ders of ecolo­gi­cal insu­la­ted pack­a­ging and inte­gra­ted fulfill­ment services for the fresh and frozen food sector. The company offers its custo­mers holi­stic solu­ti­ons along the tempe­ra­­ture-control­­led supply chain — from sustainable pack­a­ging and cooling media to storage, order picking, pack­a­ging and ship­ping logistics. 

Inno­va­tive, paper-based insu­la­tion solu­ti­ons form the core of the product range. At the heart of the product range is the paten­ted paper­floc tech­no­logy, in which loose cellu­lose fibers are used as a highly effi­ci­ent, fully recy­clable insu­la­tion mate­rial. This tech­no­logy repres­ents a sustainable alter­na­tive to conven­tio­nal poly­sty­rene pack­a­ging and is used in both mats and bag solu­ti­ons. The range is comple­men­ted by indi­vi­du­ally desi­gned fulfill­ment services cove­ring all aspects of storage, order picking, pack­a­ging and ship­ping logistics. 

easy2cool is bene­fiting from a sharp rise in demand for sustainable, tempe­ra­­ture-control­­led ship­ping solu­ti­ons, which is being driven in parti­cu­lar by the growth in online retail­ing of fresh food, pet food, phar­maceu­ti­cal and health­care products. At the same time, regu­la­tory requi­re­ments and consu­mers’ heigh­tened envi­ron­men­tal aware­ness are incre­asing the pres­sure on compa­nies to switch to resource-saving pack­a­ging solu­ti­ons. Against this back­drop, easy2cool recor­ded extra­or­di­nary sales growth of around 60% last year. 

Chris­tian Futter­lieb, Mana­ging Direc­tor of VREP, comm­ents on the tran­sac­tion: “easy2cool has posi­tio­ned itself excel­lently in the market. We were very impres­sed by the inte­gra­ted approach of inno­va­tive pack­a­ging tech­no­logy and fulfill­ment services. We like to finance compa­nies that manage to find viable answers to prevai­ling market trends with their busi­ness model and at the same time focus on envi­ron­men­tally friendly solu­ti­ons. We find both at easy2cool.”

Sebas­tian Leicht, Mana­ging Direc­tor of easy2cool, adds: “The part­ner­ship with VR Equi­typ­art­ner gives us addi­tio­nal finan­cial leeway to further scale our strong growth and expand our first-mover posi­tion. Our paten­ted paper­floc tech­no­logy and inte­gra­ted fulfill­ment offe­ring enable our custo­mers to obtain sustainable tempe­ra­­ture-control­­led ship­ping solu­ti­ons effi­ci­ently and relia­bly from a single source.”

The parties have agreed not to disc­lose the details of the financing.

The tran­sac­tion team of VR Equitypartner
Michael Vogt, Klaus-Jörg Schnei­der, Luis Sche­rer, Lukas Rink, Jens Schöf­fel, Simone Weck, Dr. Clau­dia Willershausen

Brater VR equity part­ner: Grant Thornton 

FDD: Team Martin Fester­ling, TDD: Team Dr. Stefan Hahn, LDD: Team Dr. Matthias Reif, CDD: Team Dr. Stephane Müller