Illinois, US-headquartered sustainable packaging company Cirkla has secured an investment of approximately $3m in a pre-seed funding round.

This round was led by private equity investment firm Matrix Partners India.

It also involved participation of Stellaris Venture Partners along with of various other key angel investors.

Cirkla will leverage the latest investment to scale its operations and invest in new technologies, while strengthening its salesforce.

Matrix Partners India principal Sudipto Sannigrahi said: “At Matrix, we are excited about investing in technologies that help reduce carbon emissions and create a more sustainable world.

“We believe Cirkla’s sustainable packaging solutions that incorporate advancements in material science to reduce brands’ plastic emissions will be a crucial piece in the fight against climate change globally.”

Cirkla was co-founded by Vaibhav Goel, Ankur Gupta and Kapil Bhardwaj in 2003.

It aims to help different brands in achieving their sustainable packaging ambitions by implementing a three-step procedure – portfolio assessment, design and prototyping and global fulfilment.

In the initial step, Cirkla uses proprietary life cycle assessment models to assess environmental effect of the brand’s packaging by prioritising stock-keeping units (SKUs).

An in-house packaging team, according to Cirkla, then starts working on the development of cost efficient and alternative packaging solutions to address the functional parameters.

Later, the company leverages its teams in China, India and the US to produce and provide packaging across multiple categories, such as pulp and paper, recycled polymers, moulded fibre, among others.

Cirkla co-founder and CEO Vaibhav Goel said: “It is not often that we find instances where all participants within value chain (consumers, manufacturers, and government) unite towards a common goal.

“According to various reports, exceptional potential lies ahead for Cirkla, as worldwide sustainable packaging sector is anticipated to double in size and exceed $500bn by 2030. We are excited to partner with Matrix and Stellaris on this journey and lead charge towards revolutionising packaging industry to drive a positive environmental impact.”