EcoATM Gazelle, an early success story in San Diego’s tech startup scene, has raised an additional $50 million in funding.
The smartphone and mobile device recycler will use the money to make its platform easier to use, improve its technology backbone for automatically grading and pricing used smartphones and expand business partnerships to reach more customers.
“We’ve just begun to scratch the surface of the re-commerce economy,” said Stan Pavlovsky, chief executive of ecoATM, in a statement. “With the confidence of our investment partners behind us, we are excited for the opportunity to position ourselves as the first choice when it comes to trading-in high quality used smartphones and bringing affordable smartphone access to consumers, all while making a meaningful impact in reducing harmful e-waste.”
In January, ecoATM reached 38 million smartphones and other mobile devices recycled through its kiosks and Gazelle online marketplace — up from 28 million as of June 2021. It operates about 5,000 kiosks nationwide at grocery stores, shopping malls and other locations.
The company declined to say who led this latest funding round, which was announced last week, saying only that it involved existing investors. EcoATM employs 374 workers worldwide, including 178 in San Diego, according to a spokesman.
Coming out of the Great Recession, ecoATM was one of the region’s marquee startups. It was among the first graduates of San Diego’s EvoNexus incubator program for young technology firms. In 2013, it was sold to publicly traded Outerwall for $350 million.
Outerwall, which also owned Redbox and Coinstar, later was acquired by investors associated with private equity firm Apollo for $1.6 billion. Apollo took the company private and split it into three separate firms — Redbox, Coinstar and ecoATM – in 2016.
In 2020, Cowen Sustainable Advisors took a minority stake in ecoATM with a $200 million investment. In total, ecoATM has now raised roughly $325 million since the split from Outerwall, according to a spokesman.
