Brands including Sol de Janeiro and Smashbox, an Estée Lauder Company, have donated more than $83 million in products through Vessel, reaching more than 5.5 million people

Brands waste an estimated $163 billion in excess inventory every year, often paying to have it destroyed, because historically destruction has been cheaper, simpler, and safer than giving products away. Vessel emerged from stealth today to unlock a new default: secure product donation at scale, guaranteed to cost less than destruction.

Destruction has long been the default because it is simple: one vendor, one invoice, one certificate. Donating at scale took far more work. Someone had to vet recipients, book freight, document every delivery, and ensure products did not resurface for resale. That work required large teams, so donating cost more than destroying. To solve this, Vessel reimagined product donation from the ground up, building an AI-enabled service designed for enterprise giving for category leaders such as Sol de Janeiro and Smashbox, an Estée Lauder Company.

While operating in stealth, Vessel helped brands donate more than $83 million in products to more than 5.5 million people and keep more than 2,000 tons from landfills or incineration. At Smashbox’s pilot Impact Day in Los Angeles, Vessel put 10,440 products into the hands of 5,544 people.

“Smashbox has always had a big heart, and the opportunity to put our products into the hands of people who would genuinely enjoy and benefit from them couldn’t have made me or this brand happier,” said Davis Factor, founder of Smashbox.

“The world’s leading brands have always wanted to do more with their excess inventory, but until now, donating at scale hasn’t been a secure, practical, or economically viable option,” said Teddy Raskin, co-founder and CEO of Vessel. “We built Vessel so that brands no longer have to choose between doing what’s right for their business and what consumers expect. If we redirect even 1% of wasted excess inventory, that’s more than $1.6 billion in products reaching people who need them, at a lower cost than destroying it.”

How Vessel works

• Brands approve every match. Vessel’s GoodOS technology analyzes more than 550,000 nonprofits across more than 160 million data points to find strong fits, and only those that pass expert human review earn Vessel Certified status.
• Vessel does the work. Our team books the freight, tracks every load from pickup through delivery, and files the records that the finance and sustainability teams need.
• Brands save money. Brands redirect the budget they already spend on destruction, and Vessel guarantees donating costs less.

Vessel delivers results beyond beauty

• Medical products. A top-three medical distribution company redirected more than 16 million syringes, over 700 pallets in all, to more than 20 vetted animal-care nonprofits across six states, for substantially less than it had paid for destruction.
• Raw ingredients. A leading global food and agricultural company turned excess raw materials into more than 250,000 bars of soap for community hygiene programs in Tanzania, Nepal, and Madagascar, paid for from a budget already set aside for destruction.

“Through partners like Vessel, we’re able to provide beauty and self-care products that encourage self-expression, celebrate individuality, and remind our girls that they deserve to feel confident and valued,” said Millicen Perez, vice president of strategic partnerships and events at Girls Inc. of New York City. “What makes this partnership even more meaningful is knowing that products that might otherwise go to waste are instead bringing joy to girls in our communities.”

Raskin previously built KOA Supply (now Cato Healthcare Supply), which delivered more than 72 million medical products to health systems during the pandemic before it was acquired in 2024. He then started a donation service to get that inventory to people who need it and partnered with co-founder and CTO Tommy Pennington, a systems engineering and product design expert, to build Vessel.

Vessel has raised $5 million in seed funding led by HG Ventures, with participation from Flex Capital, Ford Street Ventures, and I2BF Global Ventures. Its advisors include leaders in beauty, consumer health, and logistics: Debra Perelman, former president and CEO of Revlon; Pamela Gill Alabaster, former chief sustainability officer of Kenvue; and Jeffrey Wolpov, senior vice president of e-commerce and Ryder System, Inc. at Ryder.

Vessel was one of 45 companies selected globally for Cohort 7 of the 100+ Accelerator, the sustainability program backed by AB InBev, Unilever, Coca-Cola, Colgate-Palmolive, Danone, and Mondelēz.

“Changing behavior at scale is hard, especially when the right option has also been the more expensive one,” said Auren Hoffman, general partner at Flex Capital and founder of SafeGraph and LiveRamp. “Vessel changes that. It uses AI to do the vetting, matching, and logistics work that was the bottleneck, making donating cheaper than destroying.”

To learn more about Vessel and its partners, visit www.usevessel.com.

About Vessel

Vessel is a New York-based services-as-software company that makes donating excess inventory less costly than destroying it. Its GoodOS platform vets nonprofit recipients, runs logistics, and documents every delivery for brands in health and beauty, personal care, medical consumables, and raw ingredients, with every donation order guaranteed not to exceed the cost of destruction. Vessel has helped brands donate more than $83 million in products, reaching more than 5.5 million people. For more information, visit usevessel.com.

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