Rheaply, a climate tech company that combines a resource-sharing network with a user-friendly asset management platform, today announced that it has raised $8M in a Series A round led by High Alpha, with investment from 100 Black Angels & Allies Fund, Concrete Rose Capital, Hyde Park Angels, M25, MCJ Collective, Morgan Stanley Multicultural Innovation Lab, Revolution’s Rise of the Rest Seed Fund, and Salesforce Ventures. Rheaply’s platform eliminates potential waste by instituting the principles of a circular economy, a model that emphasizes “designing out waste and pollution, keeping products and materials in use, and regenerating natural systems.”1
Rheaply’s Series A is one of the largest rounds ever raised by a Chicago startup with a Black founder, and the majority of new investors are impact funds.
In the U.S. economy, over $630B of physical workplace assets sit idle every year.2 Not knowing what assets exist and where they are frequently leads to inefficiencies in procurement practices, the inability to properly track and manage asset depreciation, and the purchase of duplicate assets, significantly impacting every organization’s bottom line. If never put to use, these assets will add over 60M tons of waste to landfill.
If you would like to know more about how Rheaply is helping Fortune 500 companies and the U.S. Federal Government better track and utilize their resources, visit rheaply.com.
“Today stands as a momentous day in Rheaply’s history, as this funding demonstrates a commitment from the venture community to fighting climate change and actively supporting Black-led and -founded companies,” said Dr. Garry Cooper, CEO and Co-founder of Rheaply. “I’m thankful for our investors’ belief in the circular economy and call for others to consider the stakes: either we develop and take to market additional inventive and practical climate tech solutions today, or future generations unnecessarily shoulder an impossible burden.”
Mike Fitzgerald, Partner at High Alpha, offered, “Rheaply stands out to us because of its well-designed end-to-end platform, which helps companies — including those with enormous carbon footprints — achieve remarkable savings through inventory sharing and management. We firmly believe in Rheaply’s mission, which goes far beyond software utility, to create behavior change that directly benefits the planet. High Alpha is proud to support Garry and the Rheaply team as they build a market-leading business with an ambitious vision.”
To date, Rheaply has helped organizations divert over 14.5 metric tons of waste and produce $1.6M in cost savings via over 5,000 transactions. The company also recently partnered with the City of Chicago and World Business Chicago to address critical PPE shortages among the small business community during the COVID-19 pandemic.3
This funding adds momentum to Rheaply’s rapid expansion since last year’s $2.5M seed round. Since the start of 2021, Rheaply has formed partnerships with a number of large organizations, including Museums in the Park (a coalition of prestigious Chicago museums), Rutgers University Medical Campus, and Allina Health, in addition to recently joining the Ellen MacArthur Foundation Member Network.4 In the year ahead, Rheaply will focus on its involvement in the Circular Chicago Coalition, a group of national and local organizations who are working to make Chicago a locally productive, circular-focused city.
These funds will enable Rheaply to further invest in carbon- and sustainability-related reporting features, implement user sharing controls, and improve the UI framework to support a materials marketplace. In turn, this will galvanize the company as it works to help organizations achieve ESG and circularity goals.
About Rheaply
Rheaply is the technology for connecting organizations with resources and catalyzing the circular economy. As the only market solution that combines an asset management system with an online marketplace, Rheaply’s Asset Exchange Manager (AxM)™ enables organizations to manage and transact physical assets more effectively, eliminating unnecessary waste and spend. To learn more about Rheaply, visit rheaply.com or follow @RheaplyInc.
For career inquiries, contact careers@rheaply.com.
1 https://www.ellenmacarthurfoundation.org/circular-economy/concept
2 https://rheaply.com/resources/blog/circularity-gap/
3 http://www.worldbusinesschicago.com/chicago-startup-rheaply-proves-innovation-is-possible-during-a-pandemic/
4 https://rheaply.com/resources/press-releases/ellen-macarthur-foundation/
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