Friendlier, the Guelph-based startup on a mission to make single-use packaging a thing of the past, just closed a $4.5 million CAD funding round, bringing its total raised to over $10 million since launching in 2019.

If you’ve ever returned a blue takeout container at a local café, university, or Farm Boy, chances are you’ve used Friendlier. Co-founders Kayli Smith and Jacqueline Hutchings say they started the company after studying in Sweden, where circular systems and sustainability were just part of daily life. They returned home determined to bring that mindset to Canada, starting with a handful of containers.

“This isn’t just about takeout containers—we’re proving that reuse can scale across formats, sectors, and brands, with Friendlier as the foundational solution provider,” said Smith, Friendlier’s CEO, in a release. “This funding allows us to deepen our infrastructure and make reuse a seamless, scalable alternative to single-use.”

The round was led by impact-focused investors Good & Well and Relay Ventures, both aligned with Friendlier’s goal of eliminating packaging waste. In the past year alone, Friendlier more than tripled its footprint, with over 3.3 million containers reused across Canada.

High-profile partnerships with Coca-Cola Canada, Farm Boy, and institutions like the University of British Columbia are helping push reuse into the mainstream. The company is now expanding beyond dining halls and restaurants into catering, grab-and-go retail, and hot beverages.

Friendlier is also scaling its proprietary micro-sanitation hubs, which are capital-light, automated facilities that handle cleaning and logistics for reusable packaging at volume. These hubs form a system that works across brands and locations, making it easy for companies to go green without slowing down.

“The magnitude of plastic pollution from single-use packaging underscores the urgent need for investment in innovative reusable solutions like Friendlier,” said Jonathan Shui, Director of Investments at Good & Well, in a release. “Friendlier’s 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.”


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Rosie Del Campo

Senior Manager Corporate Communications, Communitech

Rosie Del Campo is the Senior Manager of Corporate Communications at Communitech, where she helps tell the stories of tech innovators and community builders. Before stepping into the world of communications, Rosie spent nearly 15 years as a broadcast journalist, working as a reporter, videographer and anchor at CTV News in Kitchener, Ontario. She’s a graduate of the journalism program at Toronto Metropolitan University (formerly Ryerson University). Rosie has also worked as a freelance writer, contributing to The Toronto Star, CTV National News and various blogs.