Sykell Makes Reusable Cups and Containers for Grocery Retailers

01 /The Concept

An earlier review covered Boox, which raised $12.8 million for reusable, recyclable shipping boxes for e-commerce deliveries, and The Rounds ([related review](/review/sladkij-moment-dlja-sozdanija-bolshogo-igroka)), a subscription grocery and household product service delivered in reusable containers. One of the opportunity directions flagged in that review was manufacturing reusable packaging for retailers looking to position eco-conscious delivery as a brand differentiator.

Sykell is exactly that.

Sykell manufactures reusable and recyclable cups and food containers for grocery retailers and online delivery services in Germany.

Companies can access the packaging under one of two service tiers.

The basic tier targets cafes and restaurants selling food and drinks for takeout and delivery. Monthly access costs €5.90, plus a deposit per unit of packaging taken into rotation – €1 per cup, €1.50 or €2.50 for containers depending on size. Customers return used packaging through one of three channels: directly to the original cafe or restaurant, at a drop-off point in a REWE grocery store, or at a dedicated reverse-vending machine.

For larger food delivery operations, Sykell offers a full-service tier it calls "Reusables-as-a-Service." Under this plan, Sykell handles all logistics: pickup and return coordination, cleaning of returned units, reinsertion into active circulation, and recycling of packaging that has reached end of life. Clients access a tracking platform that monitors packaging utilization, manages deposit balances, and handles the financial reporting side of the operation. The value proposition is framed explicitly as zero additional hassle – a company adopting reusable packaging shouldn't need to build a reverse-logistics infrastructure from scratch to do it.

Importantly, Sykell didn't build that infrastructure from scratch either. It developed its own reusable food and beverage container technology, but deployed it on top of existing logistics infrastructure built by Interzero, a specialist in reusable packaging logistics.

Sykell was founded in 2021. In summer 2022 it received an initial €1 million from REWE. It has now raised a new round of €4.5 million from German venture fund Collateral Good Ventures, Interzero, and REWE.

02 /Why It Matters

Packaging is one of those markets that's easy to overlook precisely because it's everywhere. The e-commerce boom has made it larger and faster-growing than ever: global parcel volumes grew from 43 billion in 2014 to 159 billion in 2021. Food and product packaging has tracked a similar trajectory, reaching $338 billion globally in 2021 and projected to grow to $478 billion by 2028.

What makes Sykell particularly well-timed is that the market shift it's riding isn't just behavioral – it's regulatory. Germany implemented a packaging registry in 2021 requiring businesses to track their packaging usage, as a precursor to mandatory recyclability standards. This isn't a unilateral German initiative; it implements an EU directive requiring all member states to progressively adopt more sustainable packaging requirements – both recyclable and reusable.

Regulatory change is one of the most reliable startup catalysts precisely because it's non-optional. Companies facing a mandate to adopt reusable packaging don't need to be convinced of the concept's merits; they need a supplier and a logistics partner who can make compliance operationally painless. Sykell positions itself as exactly that solution, available before the mandate becomes universal.

The ESG angle matters commercially, not just reputationally. McKinsey research cited in the previous review found that companies using messaging related to environmental and social responsibility are already growing revenues faster than those that don't. Reusable packaging is currently a voluntary differentiator; within a few years, in Europe and likely beyond, it will be a regulatory floor.

03 /Opportunities

The EU regulatory trajectory makes the strategic logic clear: enter this market now, build the infrastructure, and be positioned for mandatory adoption when requirements land across additional sectors and geographies.

The entry barrier is lower than it might appear. Sykell's model demonstrates that a new entrant doesn't need to build full logistics infrastructure from scratch – it needs to find the right infrastructure partner and develop the packaging layer on top. That partner may become an investor, as Interzero did here, which aligns incentives and reduces capital requirements simultaneously.

The packaging-as-a-service framing is the key insight. Companies switching from single-use to reusable packaging will not build reverse-logistics operations themselves; the operational complexity is a deterrent. A service that absorbs that complexity – for a predictable monthly fee and a per-unit deposit – removes the main adoption barrier and creates a recurring revenue stream in the process.

Early market entry has a compounding advantage: every retailer or delivery service that adopts your packaging system becomes a distribution point for your return infrastructure. The more pickup and drop-off locations exist, the easier consumer return becomes, which drives adoption by the next merchant. The network builds itself, but only if someone gets there first.