GS1 invests in info.link
Cologne, March 20, 2025 – butterfly & elephant, the accelerator from GS1 Germany, is investing in info.link. The startup offers a platform for creating digital labels that enable companies to design product packaging in a legally compliant way.
Initially, the info.link team focused on implementing the EU Green Deal directive “Green Claims,” which targets measures to combat greenwashing. Today, the startup goes beyond this, supporting companies in creating digital labels to help drive the adoption of the new generation of barcodes. Through the info.link platform, packaging labels with QR codes can be created and managed quickly and easily. Combined with the GS1 Digital Link standard, the QR code becomes dynamic, acting like a “switch” that delivers location- and time-specific, product-related information when scanned. This allows, for example, proof of green claims to be accessed and EU regulations to be met in a legally compliant manner.
Developed in close collaboration with leading law firms, the software enables integration of over 50 services—such as the digital product passport, recycling instructions, or promotional mechanics.
Pressefoto: info.link Gründer Christoph Goeken (l.) und Max Ackermann (r.) Bildrechte: © info.link
“Thanks to GS1 standards like the GS1 Digital Link, we’ve already been able to provide many of our customers with a future-proof QR code through info.link—one that can meet all upcoming requirements. With butterfly & elephant at our side, we can now build on that even further,”
say info.link founders Christoph Goeken and Max Ackermann.
The two have founded several companies and bring over 30 years of combined experience in consumer goods, software development, and academia. The idea for info.link was sparked during a shopping trip to a drugstore in Hamburg, where they noticed that nearly a third of a skincare product’s packaging was used to explain a single sustainability claim. And even that didn’t meet the strict requirements for transparency and the avoidance of misleading information. Realizing that transparency demands would only increase, the founders saw that companies needed a simple way to share product information digitally, quickly, and in full legal compliance with consumers.
The startup is now backed by butterfly & elephant, an accelerator launched by GS1 Germany to merge the best of the startup and corporate worlds. In addition to capital investment, the collaboration provides access to the GS1 community—a network of over 97,000 business customers—and the use of GS1 standards. The goal of the investment is to embed GS1 standards even more deeply into the info.link platform while making it as easy as possible to generate GS1 Digital Links.
“I’m excited to join existing investors such as Green Generation Fund and APX in supporting info.link on their journey,”
says butterfly & elephant Managing Director Benjamin Birker.
info.link – The global Digital Label: Founded by Christoph Goeken and Max Ackermann, info.link empowers companies to design their products and media with digital labels that are legally compliant, flexible, and consumer-friendly. Developed in collaboration with leading law firms, the platform combines regulatory certainty with technological innovation—especially addressing requirements from EU Green Deal legislation like the Green Claims Directive. Using the GS1 Digital Link standard, info.link turns QR codes into smart access points for product-specific information—dynamic, multilingual, and future-proof. The founders have launched several companies prior to info.link and bring over 30 years of combined experience in consumer goods, software development, and scientific research. Christoph Goeken leads Growth and Operations; previously Managing Director at M-Venture (Jägermeister) and consultant at McKinsey. Max Ackermann heads Product and Technology; formerly Associate Partner at McKinsey, Managing Director at leading digital agencies, and lecturer at the University of the Arts London. info.link
butterfly & elephant – Unlocking Potential for You. butterfly & elephant is the accelerator founded in 2024 by GS1 Germany. It helps startups unlock their full potential by leveraging or advancing GS1 standards. What sets this accelerator apart is the strong GS1 community drawn from the consumer goods, retail, e-commerce, and healthcare sectors—a network of over 95,000 companies in Germany and two million worldwide. The butterfly and elephant symbolize transformation and strength. The accelerator is a space for growth and the building of successful companies, supported by a strong community. The combination of both symbols emphasizes the diversity and collaboration at the heart of the accelerator, enabling growth and success. www.butterphant.de
GS1 Germany – es begann mit einem einfachen Beep. In 1974, a barcode was scanned for the first time in a supermarket—marking the beginning of automated checkout and the start of GS1’s success story. The machine-readable GS1 barcode containing the GTIN has since become the universal standard in global trade, scanned 10 billion times a day on products around the world. GS1 standards are the global language for efficient and secure business processes, valid across company and continental boundaries. As part of a worldwide network, GS1 develops market-driven, future-proof solutions with its customers and partners—solutions that directly contribute to business success. Today, two million companies across more than 20 industries worldwide use this language to uniquely identify products, locations, and assets; to capture relevant data; and to share it with partners in their value networks.
GS1 – The Global Language of Business. www.gs1.de
