PegEx, a Fitchburg, WI.-based company operating by the slogan "Any Waste, Any Place," is aiming to revolutionize the hazardous waste removal business with the introduction of a new, proprietary software platform that will automate the entire hazardous waste removal process.
Launched in 2012 as Pegasus Sustainability Solutions, PegEx initially found success by approaching the waste removal process with a simple, modern and tech-forward strategy.
“PegEx was a very unique company because we had a very well developed IT system,” said PegEx CEO, Eric Apfelbach. “We were able to rapidly identify companies across the country who were trying to get rid of hazardous waste and contract one of our 2,200 vendors and suppliers to help customers remove their waste, as well as get all of their paperwork done correctly and answer questions.”
Operating its services nationally, PegEx is most frequently used by small and medium-sized manufacturing businesses that don’t have large enough staffs to run safety and environmental groups or don't have the appropriate IT skill sets to develop their own software in house. The majority of these companies use generic tools like Salesforce or basic ERP systems that don’t have the kind of intelligence or industry specificity that PegEx is able to provide.
After being approached by several clients requesting to use their software, PegEx saw a prime opportunity to enter the software space as well as the services space.
In mid-May, PegEx closed an $8 million Series B investment led by Ann Arbor, Michigan-based Plymouth Growth Partners. According to Apfelbach, they had multiple term sheets in and ultimately selected the partners at Plymouth based on their operational experience and SaaS (software as a service) background. Existing Milwaukee-based investor, Capital Midwest Fund, and Madison-based investor, WISC Partners, also participated in the investment round.
Using the $8 million investment, PegEx will launch its new independent SaaS platform that will automate the entire process of documenting, transporting, and disposing of hazardous waste.
Clients will be able to directly install PegEx’s integrated software solution, giving them access to all of the benefits of a modern, cloud-based IT platform including a dashboard with all of their critical documents, compliance information, action items and signature capabilities. The software will also allow for better coordination across sites for companies with multiple locations. In addition to providing software solutions, PegEx will continue to tap into its network of vendors and suppliers to conduct the removal and transport service processes.
Apfelbach said that PegEx plans to use the months of July and August as a beta phase as they roll out the software platform to a few existing customers. By the end of August, the software will be introduced and available to a broader audience.
“Our most important metrics this year [in terms of goals] are around the launch and initial penetration rate of the software platform,” said Apfelbach. “We’ve already sold our first software licenses, which is very exciting."
When asked whether there were other competitors like them in the marketplace, Apfelbach said that there are "people who are doing pieces of what we’re doing, for instance in the environmental health and safety segment … but they don’t have the full CRM, operating capability on mobile apps and customized, fully integrated customer portals that we provide companies.”
With 28 current employees, Apfelbach predicts that PegEx will hire around 15 people this year, with the majority of its new employees being placed in software and service sales roles. Other positions that may be filled include platform development, backend developers, data science, quality assurance and product support and implementation.
