R.Cup, a company that offers a reusable cup system for live event venues, has raised over $3.6 million as it looks to expand its reach next year.
Its service having been used at venues like First Avenue and Target Center, the Minneapolis-based company secured the recent seed financing in exchange for equity from 42 investors, according to a securities filing.
The funds will be used to build out its cup wash hubs in various cities, pay for inventory and make hires, said CEO and Founder Michael Martin, who was an adviser for many years to artists like U2 and Dave Matthews on sustainability efforts. Investors included celebrities and Minneapolis-area individuals, he said, though he declined to provide names.
Getting its start in 2017 at a U2 concert at U.S. Bank Stadium, R.Cup aims to displace the amount of single-use plastic that gets thrown away. (The company estimates that the live event industry in North America uses more than 4 billion single-use, disposable cups each year.)
R.Cup has since worked with over 100 venues across 75 cities, 35 states and 12 countries, and has established corporate partners like St. Paul-based Ecolab and Los Angeles venue management company AEG Worldwide, Martin said.
Much of its reach was achieved by touring with artists, like Bon Jovi and the Rolling Stones, the CEO said, though now R.Cup’s focus is on partnering with cities and venues to permanently implement its service. The company has built or is in the process of building permanent wash hubs in Denver, Seattle and Los Angeles.
The company’s end-to-end system works by providing a venue or live event with the reusable cups and signage, collecting the cups after patrons have used them, bringing them to a washing hub and allowing the cups to be reused.
With the help of an additional funding round set for the first quarter of next year, R.Cup plans to place additional fully operational hubs into four to 10 other cities, including the Twin Cities, next year, Martin said.
“We’ve proven the lemonade stand,” Martin said. “We know it works.”
Currently, the company has over 30 employees, a majority of which are based in Minnesota. He declined to provide revenue figures.
The company also operates other lines of business, like R.Ware, which is a reusable to-go food ware system, and R.Turn, a tech platform for ordering and inventory tracking. R.Cup is looking to expand its lines of business to other areas in the future, Martin added.
