Packaging is Broken - Claire Gusko Raised €10.5 Million to Fix it with AI
From Lab Bottlenecks to Scalable Breakthroughs: How Claire Hae-Min Gusko Is Reimagining Packaging with AI
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Claire Hae-Min Gusko, Co-Founder and CEO of one.five, is reimagining the future of sustainable packaging — and she’s using AI to do it. Her journey into climate innovation started not in a lab, but in the heart of a vertical farming startup, where she was helping scale Infarm across international markets. While building out that business, Claire repeatedly ran into the same bottleneck: food packaging that didn’t align with sustainability goals. It was a constant tension — growing food more sustainably, only to wrap it in materials that couldn’t keep up.
That disconnect sparked the idea for one.five.
Claire began to imagine a future where packaging wasn't just sustainable in theory, but scientifically optimized from the start — tailor-made using data, and designed to fit the complex needs of supply chains, carbon targets, and consumer expectations. She co-founded one.five to bring that vision to life.
Poor product design is a central contributor to the plastic packaging problem. By prioritizing convenience, cost, and aesthetics over sustainability, designs often create packaging that is wasteful, hard to recycle, and environmentally damaging. Addressing these design flaws is essential for reducing plastic pollution and moving toward a more sustainable, circular economy.
Based in Germany, one.five is a deeptech startup combining artificial intelligence with biomaterials to develop hyper-custom, fully recyclable or compostable packaging for the food and hospitality sectors. Its AI-powered platform uses lab data to rapidly prototype and validate packaging solutions, drastically reducing time to market and helping businesses meet climate commitments faster.
Earlier this year, one.five launched its first commercial AI-designed packaging at the World Travel Catering Expo in Hamburg — a major milestone that demonstrates what’s possible when climate science meets computation.
The company has already raised over €10.5 million in seed funding from a leading group of European climate and impact investors, including Planet A Ventures, Speedinvest, Green Generation Fund, Climentum Capital, Revent, and WEPA Ventures.
With the global packaging industry under increasing pressure to clean up its act — and regulators tightening the rules on plastic and waste — Claire is building a solution that’s both timely and transformational.
“We never set out to build an AI company. We set out to solve a massive, overlooked problem in packaging. We kept seeing incredible innovation around plastic waste, but nothing was reaching the real world. That gap became impossible to ignore.”
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Let’s rewind to the beginning. When did the idea for one.five turn into a real mission?
It was autumn 2020, and my co-founder Martin and I were co-living and working from my parents’ house post-lockdown. News headlines were full of amazing innovations to fight plastic pollution — but we realized hardly any of them ever made it to market. We couldn’t stop thinking about that gap. The problem was real, urgent, and solvable. So we decided to jump in.
You use AI to accelerate sustainable packaging development. How exactly is AI helping to reduce the bottlenecks?
Packaging development is complex. You’re dealing with supply chains, regulatory pressures, manufacturing limitations, and deeply entrenched expertise. Most AI in this space focuses on narrow steps like material discovery. But our platform tackles a broader question: can we predict market fit before we even prototype? That means asking: what’s the price point, the performance need, the manufacturing route, the scale potential? If AI can unify those answers, we can eliminate the trial-and-error loops that slow the industry down.
Tackling the trial-and-error of packaging development
Our goal is to replace trial-and-error with targeted precision. AI can help us get there.
Designing for today and tomorrow:
You have to prove your value now, even if your product’s full potential is a decade away.
Your first commercial product just launched. What did it really take to get there?
It took capital, persistence, and an extremely sharp understanding of the market. We're a four-year-old startup competing with global incumbents that have decades of market dominance. That’s intimidating, but it pushed us to be bold and laser-focused.
Before this, you helped scale Infarm globally. How did that shape your approach to one.five?
The founders at Infarm weren’t conventional tech founders, but they built something deeply technical. That gave me confidence. Watching them build while learning on the go showed me that you don’t have to be an expert to start — you just need to care deeply and stay curious.
Lessons from scaling Infarm
You don’t need to be a scientist to build a deeptech company. You just need the courage to learn fast and build relentlessly.
AI and biomaterials aren’t common in packaging. How did you deal with early pushback?
People were skeptical. The industry is slow-moving and resistant to change. But instead of debating, we built. We focused on proving our AI-powered platform could actually deliver a product — and now we’ve done that.
We’re not here to make prototypes. We’re here to replace legacy systems with better ones.
The only way to convince a skeptical industry is to build something so real they can’t ignore it.
What’s been one of your toughest moments as a founder?
Fundraising, hands down. It’s an emotional and logistical challenge. I’m really grateful to have Martin as a co-founder. Having someone to share that load with makes all the difference.
The hard part no one sees
Fundraising is never just about the pitch — it’s emotional, exhausting, and constant.
Raising €10.5M in a misunderstood market
You think your problem is obvious until you realise most investors have never looked at it closely.
What did you learn from fundraising — especially as a woman in deeptech?
We assumed people would “get” the packaging problem, but many didn’t. Some investors weren’t willing to dive deep. And while our mixed-gender team helped open doors, we’re very aware that female-only teams still face significant headwinds in this space.
There’s a lot of AI hype out there. How do you stay focused on real-world impact?
We didn’t start with AI as the goal. We started with a problem: packaging solutions that don’t work for climate goals or supply chains. AI just helps us get there faster, smarter, and more accessibly — especially for people used to working in Excel or lab notebooks.
Keeping AI grounded in reality
We didn’t want to build an AI product. We wanted to solve packaging — AI just became the best tool for the job.
How do you balance the pressure to move fast with the slower timeline of deep science?
You stay as close to the market as humanly possible. You have to know when needs shift — because building based on 12-month-old assumptions can sink your solution. Adaptability is everything.
Balancing science with startup urgency
The market shifts under your feet. If you’re not listening constantly, you’re building for yesterday.
Your work at one.five shows how AI and biomaterials can rethink packaging from the ground up. Where do you see chemical recycling fitting into the bigger picture?
Chemical recycling is a step forward in recycling tech. It could deliver higher-quality second-generation materials, but it's still in its infancy. For it to scale meaningfully in the next 5–10 years, the waste industry will need a huge injection of investment, infrastructure, and public awareness. Until then, we’re focused on working with the infrastructure and materials available now.
Chemical recycling will play a role — but only if we’re willing to invest heavily and think long term.
You’ve seen how hard it is to align packaging innovation with the real-world market. What’s one thing people consistently overlook?
Price. Packaging is a high-volume, low-margin industry. Corporate buyers can't afford dips in performance or profit. Sustainability is great — but only if it doesn't threaten quarterly numbers. That’s the tough reality of bringing sustainable materials into fast-moving consumer goods.
If sustainable options can’t compete on price, they don’t stand a chance.
What needs to shift to make recycled content truly viable at scale?
We’re already seeing momentum outside of food packaging. The real friction points are supply availability, aesthetic consistency, and safety regulations. For food applications, it’s a maze of contradictory rules: one hand wants more recyclates, the other limits their use. We need regulatory systems that are aligned and forward-looking if we want recycled content to scale.
Recycled content isn’t the issue. Regulatory contradictions are.
Are we near a true packaging revolution — especially moving away from single-use plastic?
Europe will be the testing ground. By 2028, we’ll know if policies like the PPWR have created real market shifts. If they have, expect a domino effect globally — especially in Asia, where regulation is following a similar path. We’re close to a turning point, but the next few years are critical.
If regulations deliver on their promise, we’ll see the landscape shift dramatically by 2028.
You’ve been at the cutting edge of vertical farming and now packaging. What’s one insight more founders need to hear?
You have to hold two timelines at once. One is long-term: where you know the market is headed. The other is now: where your customers are stuck in the present. The key is proving value today, even if it solves only part of the problem. That’s what keeps you alive long enough to see the system shift.
If you could offer one honest piece of advice to fellow founders tackling big systems change…
Be brutally honest about whether the VC model fits your timeline. Some deep systems-change solutions don’t align with fund return cycles — and that’s okay. There are other paths. Find investors who share your pace and purpose.
If the system doesn’t fit your timeline, don’t contort your mission to make it fit.
What inner shift are you proudest of since starting one.five?
I used to think someone out there — an investor, an advisor — would have the answer. But I’ve learned no one has a cheat sheet. You have to trust yourself to navigate the unknown. That quiet confidence is what I value most now.
The personal growth that matters most
No one has the magic answer. Learning to trust yourself is the only real superpower.
Claire, unplugged…
Your go-to mantra during tough days?
Eat a snack and take a nap. The world looks better after.
Your perfect day off?
Sleep in, walk the dog, cook something slow, and binge Lord of the Rings.
How do you start your mornings?
Quietly. I feed the dog, feed myself, and enjoy a hot drink. No rush, just grounding.
“June is the pearl of summer, shining with warmth and joy." - L.M. Montgomery
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Further reading on the GT magazine:
How Homaio is Cracking Open Lucrative EU ETS Investing
Smokestack Industries: How GlassPoint is Disrupting the World’s Largest Market for Renewables
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