Strategic players converge in Indonesia waste start-up Series A

AC Ventures led the round with support from Barito Mitra, a mining company, Basra Corporation, a conglomerate best known for motorcycle distribution, and Paloma Capital, a private equity firm focused on the real estate sector.

Sinar Mas Digital Ventures (SMDV) also participated, as did Living Lab Ventures and Urban Gateway Fund, both units of Sinar Mas’ property development division. They were joined by Delapan Satu Investa, which appears to be an investment unit of automotive lighting specialist Delapan Satu.

Waste4Change aims to help companies, individuals, and government agencies prevent waste leakage and reduce the amount of waste that ends up in landfills. It is present in 21 Indonesian cities, managing more than 8,000 tons of waste per year.

Operations involve sending teams to collect waste directly from customers. The company has collected waste from some 100 B2B clients and 3,450 household clients since its inception in 2014. It claims to have grown 55.1% a year on average since 2017.

Waste4Change currently has 108 employees and a network of 141 waste management operators. It plans to add an additional 52 people to its team and engage more than 300 informal and waste sector counterparties to continue driving growth.

The fresh capital is expected to lift waste management capacity up to 100 tons per day in the next 18 months and to more than 2,000 tons per day over the next five years. This will include integrating more digital technology into the monitoring and recording of waste management flow and automating material recovery facilities.

The Series A comes on the back of a new government programme targeting a 30% reduction in national waste and a 70% treatment rate for waste produced. Much of this involves initiatives to sort waste items into separate bins so that certain waste can be processed into different recycled products.

The programme has also sparked new waste management regulations from local governments and waste management initiatives from the commercial sector. These changes are said to be responsible for rising demand for responsible waste management, including detailed waste management reports.

“Indonesia's waste management sector is still growing, and we are more than ready to assist in the process. With its low 11-12% recycling rate based on Ministry Environment and Forestry data, we know that there are still a lot of valuable materials ready to be brought back into the loop,” Waste4Change CEO Mohamad Bijaksana Junerosano said in a statement.

“People are educating themselves about waste and the environment, new start-ups and businesses related to waste management are emerging, and the government welcomes all stakeholders to take an active part in improving Indonesia.”

Waste4Change raised a funding round of undisclosed size in early 2020 from SMDV, East Ventures, and Agaeti Ventures. Agaeti agreed to merge with Convergence Ventures the prior year to form AC Ventures.

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• Topics
• Southeast Asia
• Early-stage
• Industrials
• Indonesia
• AC Ventures
• Sinar Mas Digital Ventures
• environmental services