Ukrainian startup S.Lab receives £250,000 in investment from Morgan Stanley

Ukrainian deep-tech startup S.Lab has attracted £250,000 in investments as part of Morgan Stanley’s Inclusive & Sustainable Ventures acceleration program.

This was reported to AIN by the company’s press service.

• It was the only Ukrainian company to be included in this year’s batch of the program, which brought together 34 startups from the US and the EMEA region.

• S.Lab creates eco-friendly packaging that can completely replace foam in terms of its characteristics, but decomposes in the soil within 30 days.

• The company will use the investment to scale up its automated line and develop mobile factories — modular production lines in containers that customers can deploy directly at their own production facilities. One container can produce up to 15,000 packaging units per month, reducing logistics costs and carbon footprint.

The startup works with L’Oréal, JTI, and Nespresso, and its solutions have already helped avoid over 15 tons of CO₂ emissions last year alone. S.Lab has received a bunch of international awards, including the Green Alley Award and the Women Leadership Award from the European Innovation Council.

About S.Lab

S.Lab was founded in Ukraine in 2021. After the start of the full-scale invasion, production was moved to Spain, where the company plans to scale up and establish itself in the European market.

According to the startup’s estimates, the global polystyrene market exceeds $30 billion per year, and demand for sustainable alternatives will only grow due to EU environmental regulations that require businesses to switch to recyclable or compostable packaging by 2030.

Expansion plans

S.Lab said that the biggest challenges they faced when moving to Spain were finding reliable local suppliers, resolving legal and bureaucratic issues, and finding suitable premises. In the beginning, all the equipment was located in the kitchen, and the team worked in conditions that were far from ideal for production. Now the company has a stable production base in Spain.

 

“Our main focus right now is the EU, because there are strict regulations on packaging there: from 2026, the use of disposable plastic packaging in catering establishments will be banned, from 2028 — microplastic fillers, and by 2030, all packaging must be recyclable,” Julia Bialetska noted in a comment to AIN.

 In the future, S.Lab plans to open mini-factories in Ukraine, where the team also sees a demand from society for environmental friendliness.

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