Will the supermarket kiosk craze that helps you cash in coins, rent DVDs and recycle water bottles lead to a boom in gadget and cell phone recycling? A startup called ecoATM hopes so, and its idea to build electronics recycling kiosks nationwide has enabled it to raise a series B round of funding of about $17 million, the company said Tuesday.
The San Diego startup puts kiosks in shopping malls and other retail spaces — particularly in locations near stores selling consumer electronics — that dispense cash, gift cards or coupons for mobile gadgets. The company has lined up buyers who promise to pay for the gadgets it collects, so when a consumer uses the kiosk to sell her phone, ecoATM can search for the best price from among its network of buyers and pass on part of that revenue to the consumer.
The company raised $14.4 million only over a year ago, and investors from that round, including Claremont Creek Ventures and Coinstar, also put money into the new round. New investors include PI Holdings, Moore Venture Partners and Koh Boon Hwee, who ecoATM describes as a “Singapore billionaire” (he was former chairman of Singapore Airlines and Singapore Telecom and worked at Hewlett-Packard).
Source: GIGAOM.com
By Ucilia Wang