Humble Sustainability, a circular economy startup from the Philippines, founded by Josef Werker (CEO) and Niña Opida, announced raising $750,000 in its Seed funding round anchored by global seed stage venture investor Seedstars International Ventures.
The oversubscribed funding round was also backed by US-based early-stage venture capital firm iSeed Ventures and angel investors, including Alan Wong, co-founder of Jakarta-based B2B marketplace Ula.
Humble helps businesses, including some of the top companies in the Philippines, bring excess inventory back into circularity.
The startup said its advocacy of “circular living” reduces waste from both ends by preventing items from being disposed of and decreasing demand for the production of new items.
“Our dream is to make living circular as normal as possible, starting with the way we buy things and what we do with them,” Werker said.
A report cited by the startup said e-commerce companies alone lose up to $1 trillion from returns. These returns are often stocked up in warehouses to eventually be disposed of or incinerated.
Humble estimates the value of waste-to-wealth initiatives at $4.9 trillion by 2030.
“We’re not environmental scientists but we’re really passionate about making an impact in this area, and this is the decade where action has to happen,” Werker, Humble’s CEO, added.
To address this problem, Humble uses two main channels to bring items back into circularity – the high-quality items are sold on their e-commerce platform, Thrift by Humble, while everything else is sent to their network of B2B buyers and recyclers.
The lead investor, Seedstars, is the world’s first seed stage VC fund dedicated to global emerging and frontier markets. It invested in over 30 countries across Latin America, Africa, MENA, and Asia.
In July, the VC firm launched its second emerging market seed stage fund, Seedstars International Ventures II, with a first close of $20 million from investors that included the International Finance Corporation, Visa Foundation, The Rockefeller Foundation, and Symbiotics.
“Humble is a great fit to Seedstars’ thesis of supporting early-stage companies that can create meaningful impact with an attractive business model,” said Seedstars partner Patricia Sosrodjojo.