The COVID-19 pandemic was an inflection point in Mike Marmo's career. The fourth-generation waste industry professional had started a hauling company named Curbside in New York City, which predominantly handled C&D waste. But shutdowns halted the construction activity that was the foundation of his business.
Yet Curbside had also invested early in its digital operations platform to differentiate itself from its peers. Inquiries into the company's platform from customers and fellow haulers eventually led Marmo to sell the hauling business to Cogent Waste Services and pivot to growing his virtual platform full time.
"When you’re in a moment of crisis, you kind of hit a survival mode and you say, ‘What can we do to salvage this to come out the other side?’" Marmo said. "The second we sold, the next day we were basically starting CurbWaste."
CurbWaste raised its first seed round in 2022. Three years later, it employs 55 people and is actively hiring more talent amid growing financial backing.
On Wednesday, the company announced a $28 million series B fundraising round, bringing its total funding to $50 million. The round is led by Socium Ventures, a growth investment firm backed by Cox Enterprises. The funding will allow CurbWaste to double down on artificial-intelligence-enhanced features that will give customers greater insight into their own internal data, Marmo said.
"We view ourselves as the tech partner of all these waste companies," he said. "We want to be able to provide them tools that they can grow with and continue to invest with."
The company today serves about 150 haulers across roughly 40 states. CurbWaste's customers range in size from about 5- to 200-vehicle operations. Marmo said the company is always working to grow its customer base. But he's focused on deepening services rather than expanding geographic footprint and wants to partner primarily with family-run haulers.
"We’re not a grow-at-all-costs business, we’re very much a customer-focused business," he said. "We’re asking companies to trust us with their business, and I take that very seriously."
CurbWaste's ultimate goal is to bring as many haulers as possible out of the analogue, pen-and-paper version of operations and into the digital age. To do that, the platform aims to provide seamless support for order management, inventory tracking, automated invoicing, route management, dispatching and more, according to its website.
Customers are charged an initiation fee and then a variable monthly fee depending on size, usually around $250 to $300 per driver for small haulers. The company also provides custom pricing for larger customers. CurbWaste says it can improve cash flow by 10-20% through its automated payment system and save managers time in other ways through its features.
"CurbWaste is transforming an essential industry that impacts every community in America,” David Yang, partner at Socium Ventures, said in a statement. “The team is empowering waste haulers with modern, intuitive solutions that make their lives easier, which keep all of our cities cleaner and more efficient.”
CurbWaste's latest funding round was also backed by Flourish Ventures, TTV Capital and B Capital Group, each of which had supported previous capital raises for the company, as well as SquarePoint Capital. Marmo said he prioritized partners that would invest in CurbWaste over the long term and acknowledge that catalyzing change within the waste industry would take time. He believes Socium Ventures provides those assurances.
"They understand that this is not a problem that you’re going to solve overnight," Marmo said.
As a veteran of the industry, Marmo said he's well equipped to understand the pain points his customers might be experiencing with their business and can help find digital solutions. He said learning how to run a tech business was new to him, but the waste industry background has served him well.
"Anybody that’s in this industry, they go through a lot. I don’t think anybody understands how hard it is," Marmo said. “[But] when you provide good service, you can win. If you do a really good job and actually care, you can win on that alone."
