Humble Sustainability, a circular economy startup from the Philippines, announced Wednesday it has closed its seed round led by Seedstars International Ventures.

The round also saw participation from iSeed Ventures, an early stage venture capital in San Francisco, and angel investors like Alan Wong, co-founder of Ula, as well as Sagar Achanta, who has held product leadership roles at Amazon, Booking.com and Disney+, Humble said in a statement.

According to the statement, the fresh funding will enable Humble to continue bringing companies’ excess inventory back into circularity through its technology services.

“Our dream is to make living circular as normal as possible, starting with the way we buy things and what we do with them. 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,” said Humble’s Chief Executive Officer Josef Werker.

“Our new investors bring so much more than capital – they are all actively involved and the value they bring is immense. We’re really grateful for their trust and guidance – we have already learned so much. This journey started because our dream is to make a real impact towards one of the world’s greatest challenges. The crazy ride continues,” he added.

Humble helps some of the largest e-commerce, logistics and retail companies in the Philippines make their returns and excess inventory the hero, while extracting high value from the items for their clients.

Founded by passionate advocates of sustainability, Werker and Humble Chief Operating Officer Niña Opida used their combined years of experience growing and scaling companies in the past to build Humble as a means to create a more sustainable Philippines.

With a vision to create a community where any item can be brought back into circularity by anyone, Humble’s 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.

As Humble continues to grow, it hopes to become a leader in circular economy and sustainability in the Philippines, with initiatives in mind like carbon footprint tracking, innovation grants and raw materials extraction.

“We are delighted to support Humble in the journey to reduce waste and promote circular living. 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.

With the estimated value of waste-to-wealth initiatives at $4.9 trillion by 2030, Humble’s position to establish a circular economy in the Philippines is critical.

To address this problem, the firm 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 business to business (B2B) buyers and recyclers. This allows Humble to ensure all items are sent to new, sustainable homes.

Thrift, an extension of Humble’s initial brand, was launched in October 2021 with the objective of providing consumers with a sustainable alternative to e-commerce. The products offered on the platform are high-quality and the deals are hard to beat anywhere else online.

With the impressive growth that has taken place, Humble is on track to continue scaling as they expand their network to more partners and buyers from a variety of sectors. It is also set to hire more employees for their ever-expanding team.

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