ERTH: Playing A Key Role In The Evolving E-Waste Market
In early March, 11 companies were chosen to receive an investment of RM250,000 (US$61,844) each to grow their business regionally from Scale Up Malaysia and Quest Ventures.
ScaleUp Malaysia’s Cohort 2 key partner, Quest Ventures is a regional venture capital firm based out of Singapore that counts Temasek as one of their key investors. With more than 50 investments under their belt, Quest Ventures’ investments boast regional powerhouses like Carousell, 99.co and Carro.
Head’s Up will be interviewing all 11 chosen startups to discuss further on the challenges they face as a startup to grow regionally and how the investment will impact their journey moving forward.
Fourth in the list is ERTH, an e-waste management platform that collects and recycles electronic waste from households and businesses.
Mohamed Tarek El-Fatatry, Founder & Managing Director of ERTH, speaks to the newsletter on what a journey it has been for the team and what’s in store for them in the future.
And if you missed some of the other features in this series, click here, here and here.
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What has the journey been like so far?
It’s been a tough journey with incumbents trying to keep new players out of the market but after a couple of years we became the largest direct collector of e-waste in Klang Valley and are on track to recycle a total of 500 tons of e-waste by end of 2021.
We came to Malaysia in 2018 to research the e-waste market here and felt that we may have a solution for the disconnect between e-waste generators and licensed recycling factories.
We think of it as a foodpanda-style service that provides free pickup of electronics and pays a cash reward.
We believe Malaysia has all the factors needed to play a key-role in the evolution of the e-waste market regionally and globally.
This is a $100 billion per year market and the opportunity to create millions of sustainability jobs in the coming decades as our utilisation of electronic devices continues its exponential growth.
Were you confident of getting selected to be one of the investment recipients?
We were cautiously optimistic, and as we were not Malaysians, we weren’t sure whether there were some unwritten rules around investee company founders.
But at the same time we knew our business fundamentals were strong and investors would appreciate that we found a sustainability track that had a strong business model at the same time.
How will you be utilising the RM250,000 investment coming from the partnership?
We will be expanding our team and coverage of targeted regions. We also plan to open new collection locations across Malaysia and will adopt an end-to-end tech platform to help scale the operation and maximise efficiency.
We plan to also bid for bigger batches of e-waste from B2B tenders.
What challenges does a startup like yours face in growing regionally?
The regulatory framework is different in different countries. Several countries don't even have formal licensed recycling plants for electronic waste.
We will also need to test the unit economics related to cost of goods and logistics versus anticipated revenue from the stock.
Which country do you think holds the biggest potential to market your product?
Thailand, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, United States, Canada.
The pandemic has proven to be some of the most challenging times for a lot of businesses. How did you overcome the challenges?
The pandemic accelerated tech adoption and caused a surge in electronic waste. Fueled by this, we grew our business 400% during the pandemic year.
Only for a brief period during the first Movement Control Order, we could not fulfill the orders for 6 weeks but later on we had a huge growth effect.
What opportunities do you think this investment will give rise to for your startup in the long term?
This investment legitimises the business and we are already getting introductory requests from various regional VCs.
We are confident this will be a bright milestone in our history as we would need more funding to fulfill our dream of reaching 200 countries worldwide.
How important do you think these initiatives are for startups in the country?
Extremely important. We’ve been through many accelerators and this one is by far the best. The hands-on and customised guidance by empathetic gurus was an amazing experience.
I think we have decided to stop entering accelerators as not to ruin this remarkably positive last impression.
Whether its a feedback or a pitch to feature your startup, SME or social enterprise, feel free to reach out to me at headsupnewsletter@gmail.com