US-listed Waste Management invested an undisclosed sum in Recycle Rewards, a green discount company, on Thursday. Recycle Rewards, which runs green discounting company Recyclebank, said it would offer Waste Management’s nearly 20 million North American customers Recyclebank rewards over the next several years.
Recyclebank said it would acquire Greenopolis a social recycling platform.
David Steiner, president and chief executive of Waste Management, said: "This investment helps to enhance our existing public sector relationships and signals our commitment to growing our customer base as we see more and more towns and cities making recycling incentive programming a priority, Our collaboration with Recyclebank gives us a competitive advantage, and, at the same time, incentivises more recycling by motivating people to change how they consume and dispose. It’s a triple win for Waste Management, our customers and the environment."
The investment followed Recycle Rewards bringing Physic Ventures, a venture capital (VC) firm backed by consumer goods companies Unilever and Pepsico, into its consortium for the company’s $47m series C round in February this year.
Physic Ventures joined VC peers Generation Investment Management, Kleiner Perkins Caufield and Byers, Paul Capital Investments, RRE Ventures, Sigma Partners and Westly Group.
The company’s previous announcement in April 2008 showed $30m was raised for its B round and an undisclosed amount for the A round in May 2007.