United States | RecycleBank, the US Internet based rewards program that motivates households to recycle, saysthat it has secured US$30 million in Series B funding from leading US venture capital firms, Kleiner, Perkins, Caulfield and Byers (KPCB), RRE Ventures, Sigma Partners and The Westly Group. RecycleBank will be using this funding to rapidly scale in the United States and continue expansion into Europe in the next 24 months.
KPCB and The Westly Group join RecycleBank’s current investors, RRE Ventures and Sigma Partners in funding the growth and expansion of RecycleBank. KPCB has been an early investor in more than 300 information technology and biotech firms for more than 30 years, including Sun Microsystems, Google and Amazon.com. Today, KPCB is actively working with GreenTech innovators and entrepreneurs. Al Gore recently joined KPCB as a partner, securing a strategic alliance with Gore’s Generation Investment Management. By combining the network, vision, expertise and global reach of Al Gore and Generation Investment Management, KPCB’s goal is to help entrepreneurs change the world.
'Eighty percent of all garbage is recyclable, yet the average residential recycling rate is less than 20 percent. By simply measuring the amount of recycling and rewarding recyclers with real value, RecycleBank has more than doubled recycling rates in every community that’s deployed the program to-date,' says Trae Vassallo, partner at KPCB. 'We’ve been searching hard for companies that provide real benefits to consumers through being green and we were delighted to find RecycleBank. RecycleBank reduces landfills, reduces energy use and rewards consumers for doing the right thing.'
'I truly believe that while most people are focusing on biofuels and solar, recycling is on the cutting edge of clean technology – and RecycleBank is the future of recycling,' comments Steve Westly, Managing partner of The Westly Group.
In addition to receiving funding from both KPCB and The Westly Group, both RRE Ventures and Sigma Parthers invested in the Series B round. The two companies were part of RecycleBank’s round of Series A funding that was announced in May of 2007. Through the secured Series A funding, RecycleBank was able to expand quickly throughout the Northeast of the United States. With this round of Series B funding, RecycleBank will be expanding its program throughout the US, Europe and beyond.
Acknowledgement
www.recyclebank.com
