Millions after pre-seed round for Recyclehero

Following a round of financing, the Hamburg-based start-up wants to take its collection service to other cities.

The start-up Recyclehero has so far mainly been active in Hamburg, but now it wants to expand. Recyclehero is now looking for reinforcements for its 17-strong team and is also planning to expand into other German cities. To achieve this, the company completed its pre-seed round in July and raised almost one million US dollars. In addition to a development bank, Wilfried Gillrath, former CEO of green energy provider Lichtblick, and angel investor and Tesla manager Tilman Finlay-Freundlich are also involved in the recycling service. Gillrath already supports environmentally friendly companies such as Sirplus and Tomorrow, an online bank.

According to Gründerszene, co-founders Alessandro Cocco, Nadine Herbrich and Samir Schulz-Meinen from Recyclehero want to reinvent the circular economy. The ideal solution would be a collection service that collects used glass, empty bottles and other recyclable materials such as paper from doorsteps and disposes of them for private homes and businesses, ideally using environmentally friendly cargo bikes. "At that time, the delivery service segment was only just emerging. Gorillas and Flink didn't even exist yet," says Cocco, "but we still thought: If people are having their food delivered, why not set up a recycling pick-up service?"

The founders want to use the money to expand their pick-up service in major cities such as Munich, Bremen and Hanover by 2023. They also want to sell their logistics software together with an e-cargo bike and a brand to franchisees. These franchisees are to spread Recyclehero in smaller cities. Herbrich and Cocco have already received initial inquiries from potential partners in the NRW cities of Duisburg and Paderborn