RoadRunner Recycling speeds ahead with $20M raise

RoadRunner Recycling, a sustainable waste management company, announced this week that it had secured $20 million in a Series D extension round led by Fifth Wall. According to an announcement, the funding will go toward expanding the Downtown Pittsburgh-based company’s business and reinvesting in its technology.

The company has been in Pittsburgh since 2017, when it had relocated from New York City. It did not immediately answer Technical.ly’s questions on if Pittsburgh will remain RoadRunner’s HQ, any potential plans to expand the existing staff or prospective projects to look out for in 2023.

In the meantime, the company’s committed to its longstanding message that technology can be leveraged to create sustainable waste management systems.

“The future of sustainable waste and recycling management requires smart technology and intelligence,” CEO and founder Graham Rihn said in a press release.

The new influx of funding comes after the company kicked off the year with a $70 million Series D. RoadRunner also acquired Compology, a smart metering technology company, this past October.

With the increase in resources, the release said, the company is in a strong position to continue creating comprehensive and sustainable waste management solutions for business and government clients.

“Our comprehensive, data-driven approach to waste management brings optimization, transparency and sustainability to a traditionally overlooked and forgotten part of an organization’s supply chain,” Rihn said.

This extension round also comes about four months after Fifth Wall announced its $500 million Climate Fund. Its goal was to reckon with the amount of global carbon dioxide emissions produced by the real estate industry. From Filth Wall’s perspective, the technology-focused venture capital firm will be one step closer to decarbonizing the property sector by investing in RoadRunner Recycling — especially given the company’s track record of addressing such matters.

“RoadRunner’s digitally enabled platform is a one-stop-shop for its customers to recycle more while spending less, which is fundamental to bringing the built world one step closer to achieving aggressive and essential decarbonization and net-zero initiatives,” said Jennifer Place, principal of Fifth Wall’s climate technology investment team, in a release.

Atiya Irvin-Mitchell is a 2022-2024 corps member for Report for America, an initiative of The Groundtruth Project that pairs young journalists with local newsrooms. This position is supported by the Heinz Endowments.