Million sum after pre-seed round for Recyclehero

After a financing round, the Hamburg-based start-up wants to bring its collection service to other cities.

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

According to Gründerszene, Recyclehero co-founders Alessandro Cocco, Nadine Herbrich and Samir Schulz-Meinen want to reinvent the circular economy. The ideal would be a collection service that picks up used glass, empty bottles and other recyclables such as paper at the front door and disposes of them for private homes and businesses, ideally using environmentally friendly cargo bikes. "At the time, the delivery service segment was just emerging. Gorillas and Nimble didn't even exist yet," Cocco still says, "Still, we thought: If people are getting their food delivered, why not start a recycling pickup service?"

The founders plan to use the money to expand their pickup service in major cities like Munich, Bremen and Hanover by 2023. They also plan to sell their logistics software, along with an e-load bike and brand, to franchisees. These are to spread Recyclehero to smaller cities. Herbrich and Cocco already have initial inquiries from potential partners in the NRW cities of Duisburg and Paderborn