Helsinki’s Ambio raises €5.1 million to scale its AI-powered recycled plastics procurement platform

Ambio, a Helsinki-based startup building an AI-native end-to-end procurement solution for recycled plastics, has raised a €5.1 million Seed round to make recycled plastics procurement faster and more reliable.

The round was led by b2venture, with participation from Montis and existing investor Lifeline Ventures.

“We are backing Ambio not only because of the talented team led by Tommi and Elmo but also because of the compounding competitive moat the business is built on: a proprietary dataset on recyclate quality, a principal model that builds trust with buyers and sellers, and an agentic engine that turns every transaction and quality data point into improved matchmaking. We are convinced that Ambio will become the central marketplace for recycled plastics in Europe and beyond,” said Mathias Ockenfels, Partner, b2venture.

Founded in 2023 by Tommi Bergström and Elmo Pakkanen, Ambio is building an AI-native, end-to-end procurement solution for recycled plastics that covers the full purchasing cycle, from material discovery to long-term deliveries.

Highlighting the advantages of using recycled plastics for European manufacturers, such as sustainability, price advantages, and meeting tightening regulatory requirements, Ambio states that customers increasingly ask for them. It further notes that every tonne recycled and used in Europe stays in the European supply chain, increasing supply chain resilience and reducing dependence on imported fossil fuels needed in virgin plastics production.

However, recycled plastics procurement remains fragmented, manual and difficult to scale, says the Finnish startup. According to the company, that is because recycled polymers vary significantly in quality, depending on source, batch and processing history.

The most pressing challenge is that data is scattered or missing, and quality is often confirmed only at the production line. “Industrial buyers want recycled materials to behave like any other input: consistent quality, reliable delivery, no surprises – but today that is still the exception,” the company mentioned.

It argues that to reach broad adoption and drive market growth, a verification infrastructure is needed to turn recycled plastics from a gamble into a reliably obtainable material at scale.

“People in the industry like to talk about regulation and the EU. We are a startup, we cannot yet impact what happens in Brussels. What we can impact is the purchasing experience for the buyer. When you’re buying virgin plastics, you know exactly what you’re getting. When you’re buying recycled, you’ll know if it works when it’s running in your production line. Our goal is to predict if the material works or not before sampling even happens,” said Bergström, co-founder and CEO of Ambio. He believes widespread adoption of recycled plastics is held back more by trust than by regulation alone.

Ambio’s solution makes recycled plastics predictable: verified materials, structured quality data and one accountable partner from first sample to long-term deliveries. Materials are qualified through samples, documentation, and defined quality.

It states that materials are qualified through samples, documentation, and defined quality​ protocols. Ambio’s matching engine learns from this growing dataset, with each transaction adding structured data on materials, suppliers, pricing and outcomes. The startup uses this growing dataset to improve matching, quoting and execution over time. The company plans to use this capital to scale internationally and across polymer types. The funding will support its goal to make recycled plastics procurement as predictable as buying virgin polymers, driving adoption across Europe and beyond. Ambio aims to become the central, pan-European trust layer of the growing recyclates market and a reliable supplier of recycled plastics for industrial buyers.