Città di Castello, Italy, 27 October 2021 – CMC Machinery (“CMC”), the global leader in 3D packaging automation, today announced that Amazon has made a minority investment into the business through its Climate Pledge Fund. CMC will continue to be majority- owned by leading global investment firm KKR, which invested in CMC alongside its founding family in November 2020 through its Global Impact fund.

CMC was founded in 1980 by current President Giuseppe Ponti and the Ponti family, who continue to lead the business. It provides packaging on demand, logistics, mailing and graphics services with a primary focus on the e-commerce industry. The business employs over four hundred people with customers in over thirty countries, operations in Italy, the Netherlands, Germany, France, the UK and the US, as well as a network of international distributors.

Lorenzo Ponti, R&D Director of CMC Machinery, commented: “CMC will use Amazon’s Climate Pledge Fund investment to continue advancing its strategy, developed with KKR, to further accelerate R&D in sustainability and automation solutions, to expand capacity, to accelerate growth globally and to strengthen the team with key hires in Italy and across Europe. In 2013, CMC pioneered 3D packaging and has emerged as a global leader in 3D packaging automation.”

Amazon’s Climate Pledge Fund is a corporate venture capital fund that invests in companies developing sustainable and decarbonizing technologies that can accelerate Amazon’s path to meeting The Climate Pledge, which Amazon co-founded in 2019 to underscore its commitment to building a sustainable business for its customers and the planet. As part of the Pledge, Amazon has committed to reach net-zero carbon across its business by 2040, ten years ahead of the Paris Agreement. The dedicated investment programme launched in 2020 with an initial $2 billion in funding.

Pedro Godinho Ramos, Principal in KKR’s EMEA Global Impact team, commented: “The Amazon Climate Pledge Fund’s investment in CMC Machinery is a testament to the vision, engineering and product capabilities of the Ponti family who have developed the best 3D packaging solution in the market over the past forty years. We look forward to working with the world’s most ambitious e-commerce player, alongside CMC Machinery’s founders and management team, during this next phase of global growth as we deliver commercial solutions to seek to mitigate significant societal challenges, aligned with our Global Impact strategy’s objectives.”

 Francesco Ponti, CEO and Strategic Business Development Director of CMC Machinery, said: „We’re delighted to welcome Amazon as an investor, alongside our family, management and KKR. CMC has been a long-standing partner of Amazon as it advances its sustainability agenda, and this investment solidifies our relationship. The additional investment will accelerate our global growth strategy, enabling us to expand our international offering, while remaining firmly rooted in Umbria.“

“We know our customers want right-sized, recyclable packaging that reduces the use of plastic materials. We’re proud to invest in CMC Machinery as their technology will help facilitate the transition to a low-carbon economy and support our long-term effort to eliminate additional packaging in the items that we ship,” said Amazon Vice President and Head of Worldwide Sustainability Kara Hurst.

Over the past decade, KKR, via its Global Impact strategy and other investment platforms, has invested over $7.5 billion in companies with core business models that advance solutions to global, environmental, educational and workforce development, responsible consumption and production, worker safety, and societal challenges. KKR’s Global Impact strategy is focused on identifying and investing behind opportunities across the Americas, Europe and Asia where financial performance and societal impact are intrinsically aligned. Specifically, the Fund is focused on generating risk-adjusted returns by investing in companies that contribute measurable progress toward one or more of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (“SDGs”). CMC Machinery’s business directly contributes toward SDG #12 (Responsible Consumption and Production) as their innovative packaging solution fits boxes to product size, enabling their e-commerce clients to use less material inputs, reducing waste.

About CMC Machinery
Based in Città di Castello, Italy, CMC Spa is a privately held company that designs, manufactures and supports the most innovative and disruptive technology for the mailing, graphic arts, ecommerce and logistics industry. Founded in 1980, the company has focused on strategies to retain customers becoming their sole supplier for technology, service, parts and professional technical training. CMC has always been on track to timely respond to the ever-changing market requirements with creative design engineering and bespoke solutions. With the ecommerce surge reshaping the parcel industry, today CMC is helping retailers and logistics company to optimise their fulfilment process and deliver sustainable, strong, highly personalised and safe boxes through the much acclaimed and multi award winning CMC 3D right sizing packaging technology. For additional information about CMC please visit CMC’s website at www.cmcmachinery.com

About The Amazon Climate Pledge Fund
In June 2020, Amazon announced The Climate Pledge Fund to support the development of sustainable and decarbonizing technologies and services that will enable Amazon and other companies to meet the goals set by The Climate Pledge. This dedicated investment program—with an initial $2 billion in funding— invests in visionary companies whose products and solutions will facilitate the transition to a low-carbon economy. More info at: https://sustainability.aboutamazon.com/about/climate-pledge-fund

About KKR
KKR is a leading global investment firm that offers alternative asset management and capital markets       and insurance solutions. KKR aims to generate attractive investment returns by following a patient and disciplined investment approach, employing world-class people and supporting growth in its portfolio companies and communities. KKR sponsors investment funds that invest in private equity, credit and real assets and has strategic partners that manage hedge funds. KKR’s insurance subsidiaries offer retirement, life and reinsurance products under the management of The Global Atlantic Financial Group. References to KKR’s investments may include the activities of its sponsored funds and insurance subsidiaries. For additional information about KKR & Co. Inc. (NYSE: KKR), please           visit KKR’s website at www.kkr.com and on Twitter @KKR_Co.