Back in June of last year we dropped a line about a composting company named WISErg out of Washington who had secured a Series B run to the tune of $5 million. The story continued in November with an additional 900k raised and in January with 700k raised. Now, on March 24th, the company announced an $11 million in Series B financing, bringing its total raise thus far to $19.6 million and adding its first round of institutional funding.
WISErg, which creates fertilizer from landfill-bound food waste, had their latest funding led by Second Avenue partners whose Pete Higgins joins former Microsoft and Amazon executive Brian Valentine, WISErg CEO and founder Larry LeSueur, and co-founder Jose Lugo on the WISErg board of directors.
The company also named Chris Creighton, formerly of Spicers Paper, as Vice President of Sales.
“Using WISErg’s fertilizer, growers are seeing a significant increase in crop yields while at the same time completing the full circle between the grocers and the growers. WISErg’s fertilizer is the solution to a community generated resource that is otherwise wasted,” said Creighton.
The company’s interest go beyond the manufacture of what it calls “highly productive” fertilizer. It claims that its focus is also on using new technology to drastically decrease the 40% of food product that is sold in stores that today ends up in landfills.
According to CEO Larry Leseur the company has established partnerships for rapid growth. “Both regulators and communities are gaining awareness of the magnitude of the waste problem,” said LeSueur. “WISErg offers a viable solution today. By taking responsibility to solve our waste problem locally, we deliver a repeatable model that results in a positive global impact.”
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