CurbWaste, a software platform for independent waste haulers, has closed a $28 million Series B funding round, bringing its total funding to $50 million. The investment, led by Socium Ventures, will support AI-powered tools to digitize the U.S. waste industry, which handles over 290 million tons of municipal solid waste annually. CEO Mike Marmo discussed the platform's role in building the circular economy during a recent podcast interview.
Mike Marmo, a fourth-generation waste industry professional and CEO of CurbWaste, shared insights into modernizing waste management in an interview on the Sustainability In Your Ear podcast. His great-grandfather started in the business, and Marmo began his career as a scale operator at a family transfer station in New York, where operations relied on pen-and-paper processes like traditional scale tickets. Recognizing inefficiencies, especially for LEED compliance and regulatory reporting, he founded Curbside, a hauling company, before pivoting to software amid COVID-19 disruptions. He sold the hauling business in 2021 and expanded CurbWaste, which now serves more than 150 haulers across 40 states, from five-truck family operations to 200-vehicle fleets.
CurbWaste provides an end-to-end operating system with features like order management, real-time dispatch, route optimization, automated invoicing, driver apps, and e-commerce. Its CurbPOS system for transfer stations integrates scales to track inbound and outbound materials, using weighted averages by material type to generate automated LEED diversion reports and documentation certified by the Recycling Certification Institute. This helps haulers qualify for environmental incentives by verifying construction waste diversion from landfills. Marmo noted, "We really hyper-focused on automating tasks and making sure that everything was as digital as possible for aggregation of data."
The platform addresses a market with roughly 10,000 independent haulers operating on outdated systems, despite trucks costing $300,000 each and profitability hinging on route efficiency. It supports emerging extended producer responsibility programs in seven states, enabling per-load, per-material chain-of-custody data for producers to fund and document packaging recycling. The October Series B round, led by Socium Ventures—the venture capital arm of Cox Enterprises—funds AI tools for business intelligence, aiming to level the playing field against larger competitors like Waste Management and Republic Services.
Marmo envisions CurbWaste as the data infrastructure for the circular economy, interconnecting generators, haulers, and disposal sites to track material flows like a "waste meter." He compared it to Amazon's supply chain integration, predicting an AI-enabled circular economy within 10 years. "In 10 years, I think it will be there," he said, emphasizing measurement for better decisions. The industry shift from volume-based to weight-based pricing, coupled with landfill constraints, underscores the need for such tools to extract value from waste streams.