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Rubicon Technologies

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Rubicon Global
Company typePrivate
IndustryWaste Management
Recycling
Founded2008; 16 years ago (2008)
FoundersNate Morris, Marc Spiegel, Hank Dudgeon, Lane Moore
Area served
Worldwide
Key people
Nate Morris, CEO
Websiterubiconglobal.com

Rubicon Global is a cloud-based, full-service waste and recycling company focused on sustainability. It works with customers to find inefficiencies and cost-savings in their waste stream and to develop new and innovative ways to reduce, re-use and recycle waste.

Rubicon has developed a mobile application to provide on-demand trash pickup.[1] The company has been compared to tech startups like Uber and Airbnb.[2]

History

Rubicon was founded in Kentucky in 2008 by Nate Morris and Marc Spiegel who were friends from Eastern High School in Louisville.[3] Spiegel’s family had been in the waste and recycling hauling trade for more than a century; his knowledge piqued Morris’s interest in starting a company that could disrupt the waste industry. Morris maxed out personal credit cards and sold items on eBay to fund initial expenses, like a website and basic legal work.[4][5] Shortly thereafter, Hank Dudgeon joined as a co-founder.

Rubicon's name comes from the idiom “Crossing the Rubicon,” which means to pass a point of no return and refers to Julius Caesar’s army’s crossing of the Rubicon River in 49 BC.[6] Morris has called Caesar's river crossing “a fantastic story of disruption.”[7]

Funding

In 2010, Rubicon received early seed money from QuarterMoore, an Atlanta-based private investment firm. QuarterMoore principal Lane Moore joined Rubicon as a co-founder.[8]

In the summer of 2012, Rubicon received $5 million in its first financing round. Investors included Rotunda Capital Partners, Richmond Global, C.M. “Bill” Gatton and Joel Moxley.[9]

In January 2015, Rubicon raised $30 million in a second round of financing. Investors included Auren Hoffman, Barry Sternlicht, Brad M. Kelley, Chris T. Sullivan, Bruce Lunsford, Marc Benioff and Fifth Third Bank.[10]

Rubicon investor Leonardo DiCaprio at the London premiere of The Wolf of Wall Street in 2014

In September 2015, Rubicon raised $50 million in a third round of financing. The round was led by Nima Capital. Investors included Leonardo DiCaprio, Henry Kravis, Paul Tudor Jones, Goldman Sachs and Wellington Management.[11]

In April 2016, a source told the Atlanta Business Chronicle that Rubicon was raising additional funding that could value the company at $1 billion.[12]

In October 2016, Rubicon was named a Next Billion-Dollar Startup by Forbes.[13]

TOMS Social Entrepreneurship Fund

Rubicon was one of the initial companies in the TOMS Social Entrepreneurship Fund portfolio.[14]

Corporate information

Rubicon has offices in Atlanta, Lexington, Ky., New York and San Francisco.[15]

Advisory board members include Marie-Josée Kravis and Kevin Warsh.[16]

Business model

Rubicon aims to cut costs for customers by working with suppliers to reduce inefficiencies and maximize the amount of waste being diverted from landfills.[17] Customers include 7-Eleven and Wegmans.[18] Rubicon serves the United States, Canada and Puerto Rico and launched in 18 additional countries in early 2016.[19]

Rubicon is a cloud-based company. It created and maintains its own software platform that analyzes its customers’ waste stream and makes sense of all the data on haulers, clients, and recycling possibilities.[20]

Sharing Economy

In 2015, Rubicon launched an app that provides on-demand trash pickup.[21]

Rubicon has been called the “Uber for trash.”[22][23] Key Rubicon advisors and employees with Uber connections include Oscar Salazar, David Plouffe and Brent Callinicos.

Small Business Empowerment

Rubicon has focused on small business empowerment. The company is partnered with the National Federation of Independent Business to promote and expand their independent vendor network.[24]

Rubicon has more than 5,000 independent vendors in its network. It helps small businesses achieve scale and compete through Rubicon Pro, a suite of app-based tools that it launched in 2016.[25]

Rubicon has partnered with The Credit Junction to provide its network of haulers with flexible financing, including access to term loans or lines of credit from $500,000 to $5 million.[26]

Municipalities

Rubicon launched a partnership with the City of Atlanta in December 2016.[27] The city's waste trucks will be deployed with Rubicon's mobile app and the Department of Public Works will have access to the company's vendor platform.

Impact

Zero Waste and Environmental Data

Rubicon CEO Nate Morris has said that the company's goal is to move all of their "material into something more sustainable than a landfill by 2022."[28] Rubicon is a member of the U.S. Zero Waste Business Council.[29]

Rubicon has teamed with data company Trucost to give its customers accurate data on the greenhouse gas emissions from their waste.[30]

Benefit Corporation

Rubicon is a certified B Corporation.[31]

In 2013, Rubicon worked with companies including Warby Parker and Prudential Financial to pass a law in Delaware recognizing public benefit corporations.[32]

Recognition and Memberships

Fast Company included Rubicon on its list of The World's Most Innovative Companies 2016 - Social Good Sector.[33]

Rubicon is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations[34] and the Wharton School Initiative for Global Environmental Leadership's Corporate Advisory Board.[35]

See also

Harvard Business School Case Study on Rubicon Global, by William A. Sahlman and Hunter Ashmore http://www.hbs.edu/faculty/Pages/item.aspx?num=50206

References

  1. ^ Fehrenbacher, Katie (6 Jul 2015). "Coming soon: An Uber for trash". Fortune. Retrieved 21 Dec 2015.
  2. ^ Lapowsky, Issie (1 Jan 2015). "A Startup Just Got $30 Million to Shakeup the Garbage Industry". Wired. Retrieved 22 Dec 2015.
  3. ^ Zax, David (25 Oct 2014). "Dividing and Conquering the Trash". New York Times. Retrieved 21 Dec 2015.
  4. ^ McCullough, Mike; D'Angelo, Caroline (13 Aug 2012). "Investing in Disruptive Sustainability". Wharton Magazine. Retrieved 21 Dec 2015.
  5. ^ Contributor, Ashoka (30 June 2016). "Kentucky Entrepreneur Nate Morris Is Disrupting The World's Toughest Industry: Garbage". Forbes. Retrieved 12 July 2016. {{cite news}}: |last1= has generic name (help)
  6. ^ Koskoff, Maya (2 June 2016). "Why Did Leo DiCaprio Join a Garbage Start-Up—Literally?". Vanity Fair. Retrieved 21 June 2016.
  7. ^ Zax, David (25 Oct 2014). "Dividing and Conquering the Trash". New York Times. Retrieved 21 Dec 2015.
  8. ^ "QuarterMoore invests in Rubicon Global". QuarterMoore. Retrieved 29 August 2016.
  9. ^ "July 30, 2012 - Funding Round Venture". Crunchbase. Retrieved 21 Dec 2015.
  10. ^ "Lexington-based Rubicon Global raises $30M in latest round of financing". Lexington Herald-Leader. 16 Jan 2015. Retrieved 21 Dec 2015.
  11. ^ Kolodny, Lora (17 Sep 2015). "Rubicon Global Picks Up $50M for On-Demand Trash Removal". Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 21 Dec 2015.
  12. ^ Karkaria, Urvaksh (22 April 2016). "Rubicon finds treasure in trash, plans 300-job Atlanta expansion". Atlanta Business Chronicle. Retrieved 24 April 2016.
  13. ^ Feldman, Amy (19 October 2016). "Next Billion-Dollar Startups 2016". Forbes. Retrieved 19 October 2016.
  14. ^ "TOMS Social Entrepreneurship Fund". Retrieved 20 February 2016.
  15. ^ Connect with Rubicon Global
  16. ^ Koskoff, Maya (2 June 2016). "Why Did Leo DiCaprio Join a Garbage Start-Up—Literally?". Vanity Fair. Retrieved 21 June 2016.
  17. ^ "The Elimination of Garbage". Knowledge@Wharton. 6 March 2014. Retrieved 22 Dec 2015.
  18. ^ Lapowsky, Issie (1 Jan 2015). "A Startup Just Got $30 Million to Shakeup the Garbage Industry". Wired. Retrieved 22 Dec 2015.
  19. ^ Hook, Leslie (9 February 2016). "Rubicon Global: tapping an app to tip". Financial Times. Retrieved 9 February 2016.
  20. ^ Lapowsky, Issie (1 Jan 2015). "A Startup Just Got $30 Million to Shakeup the Garbage Industry". Wired. Retrieved 22 Dec 2015.
  21. ^ Fehrenbacher, Katie (6 Jul 2015). "Coming soon: An Uber for trash". Fortune. Retrieved 21 Dec 2015.
  22. ^ Strauss, Daniel (18 Aug 2015). "David Plouffe joins board of the 'Uber for trash'". Politico. Retrieved 21 Dec 2015.
  23. ^ Fehrenbacher, Katie (6 Jul 2015). "Coming soon: An Uber for trash". Fortune. Retrieved 21 Dec 2015.
  24. ^ "Rubicon Global - Small Business Empowerment".
  25. ^ Henry, Zoë (27 May 2016). "How This $500 Million Company Empowers Trash Startups". Inc. Retrieved 31 May 2016.
  26. ^ Waste360 Staff (8 September 2016). "Rubicon Global Partners with The Credit Junction for New Flexible Financing Program". Waste360. Retrieved 9 September 2016.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  27. ^ Konrad, Alex (1 December 2016). "The City Of Atlanta Will Now Pick Up Its Trash Using An App From Tech Startup Rubicon Global". Forbes. Retrieved 2 December 2016.
  28. ^ "The Elimination of Garbage". Knowledge@Wharton. 6 March 2014. Retrieved 22 Dec 2015.
  29. ^ "Members of the U.S. Zero Waste Business Council". Retrieved 22 Dec 2015.
  30. ^ Rosengren, Cole (5 August 2016). "Rubicon teams with Trucost to provide GHG emissions data". Retrieved 7 August 2016.
  31. ^ "B Corp Community - Rubicon Global". Retrieved 21 Dec 2015.
  32. ^ Menin, Sophie (29 April 2013). "Benefit-Corporations on the Rise". Barron's. Retrieved 21 Dec 2015.
  33. ^ "The World's Most Innovative Companies 2016 - Social Good". Fast Company. Retrieved 19 March 2016.
  34. ^ "Company List - Council on Foreign Relations". Council on Foreign Relations. Retrieved 10 April 2016.
  35. ^ "Our Sponsors - Initiative for Global Environmental Leadership". Initiative for Global Environmental Leadership. Retrieved 10 April 2016.
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