Commercial waste recycling provider RoadRunner Recycling Inc. closed on a $20 million Series D extension round that will enable the rapidly growing Pittsburgh company to better bring its sustainability objectives to real estate organizations.
Fifth Wall Ventures, a Los Angeles-based environmentally-focused investment firm that funds technology for the real estate industry, led the round. The new capital comes after RoadRunner's $70 million Series D raise that it announced last January, which remains the region's second-largest funding round for a local startup in 2022. RoadRuner's total funding since its founding in 2014 by CEO Graham Rihn now sits at about $149.5 million.
"We’re thrilled to work alongside Fifth Wall to drive carbon emissions reduction, at scale, for some of the world’s most prominent owners and operators," Rihn said in a prepared statement. "Our comprehensive, data-driven approach to waste management brings optimization, transparency, and sustainability to a traditionally overlooked and forgotten part of an organization’s supply chain."
RoadRunner specializes in providing businesses with technology-driven and custom-tailored solutions for waste and recycling services. It manages recyclable waste pickup for its customers through a network of fleet-based, licensed vehicle operators.
Its footprint spans nearly two dozen cities and employs about 600 workers. In 2021, RoadRunner employed 200 workers and Rihn hopes to see the company operating in over 35 markets by the summer of 2023.
"We think this is a pre-IPO round. We think that this Series D will potentially take us to our IPO in the next few years, depending on how we do and what the markets look like," Rihn said in January during the company's Series D funding round announcement. "We're definitely starting to elevate the business to a phase of being a significant national player."
RoadRunner estimates it can increase a property's recycling rates by 10 times their current levels, reducing a given property's carbon footprint.
"RoadRunner’s digitally enabled platform is a one-stop-shop for its customers to recycle more while spending less, which is fundamental to bringing the built world one step closer to achieving aggressive and essential decarbonization and net-zero initiatives," Jennifer Place, principal on The Climate Technology Investment Team at Fifth Wall, said in a prepared statement. "Our robust limited partner network represents some of the world’s most notable global owners and operators of real estate who will undoubtedly benefit from their game-changing approach to driving greater landfill diversion."
