Big names are backing Chicago startup Rheaply, which specializes in reusing and sourcing items for companies like Google and Exelon.
The startup announced it raised $20 million led by Revolution’s Rise of the Rest Seed Fund, a fund led by AOL founder Steve Case. Other investors include the John Doerr Family Trust, Coupa Ventures, Energy Impact Partners, PSP Growth, Rankin Family Ventures, High Alpha, Salesforce Ventures Impact Fund, Laurene Powell Jobs' Emerson Collective, Techstars and Hyde Park Angels.
The fresh funding gives Rheaply now more than $30 million in venture capital raised since it launched in 2016.
The startup is led by CEO Garry Cooper, who started the foundation for Rheaply while completing a Ph.D. in neuroscience at Northwestern University by developing a system for university labs to swap and sell unused lab equipment to each other.
Today, Rheaply has developed a resource-sharing network that helps large organizations reuse and source items. Working in the so-called "circular economy," Rheaply works to reduce unnecessary waste, cut carbon emissions and better share resources.
Rheaply works with companies in sectors like higher education, health care, technology, government and retail. It said it plans to use the funding to add additional focus on the energy and utilities sector, working with Nicor Gas.
Other Rheaply customers include Target, Logitech and Abbvie.
The $20 million round is among the largest raised in Chicago for a Black founder. In 2020, Chicago Inno counted just nine active Black-led startups that raised at least $1 million in their lifetimes.
But in the last two years, more funding has made its way to founders of color. Chicago had the highest percentage of angel and seed-stage investment going to Black and Latino founders of any major tech hub in the U.S., according to a report from P33, which also found that Chicago nearly tripled its investment in Black and Latino founders since 2019.
“As a Black founder, I am proud to have achieved this funding milestone," Cooper said in a statement. "However, the takeaway I want to emphasize is the fact that investors have recognized the incredible nature of the solution our team has built."
Cooper is also a co-founder of LongJump, a fund that backs underrepresented founders in Chicago.
