Schrott24 on growth course with Statkraft Ventures as new lead investor

Including the commitments of existing investors such as FJ Labs, Gisbert Rühl, CEO of Klöckner & Co, and others, the latest financing round totals 2.8 million euros. Schrott24 will use this capital to further enhance its platform and sales organisation, particularly in the B2B segment; to drive international expansion and to further accelerate digitalisation in the industry.

Jan Pannenbäcker and Alexander Schlick, founders of Schrott24, see the investment as a confirmation of the company's strategy: “The conclusion of this latest funding initiative supports our growth course and contributes to making the analogue market for metal recycling more digital, more transparent and more international.” Schrott24 has been growing steadily since its foundation in 2016.

Statkraft Ventures is the venture capital fund of the Norwegian Statkraft Group, Europe’s largest producer of renewables. Alexander Küppers, Managing Director at Statkraft Ventures, explained the motives for investing in the Graz-based start-up as follows: “We believe in Schrott24’s business model just as we believe in its team. The digitalisation of the recycling industry in Europe has considerable potential, which Schrott24 taps by means of standardisation, process efficiency and transparency.” The platform for instance directly supplies the demand of plants and foundries for secondary raw materials from dismantled industrial facilities, power plants – including a recent 1,500 tonnes of scrap metal from the decommissioned Mülheim-Kärlich Nuclear Power Plant – or even wind turbines, according to Küppers. “To this end, the platform’s modern technology facilitates rapid qualification of scrap metals in the Schrott24 network and can thus ensure quick and flexible raw material availability. This is a forward-looking approach,” added Küppers.

After this latest round of financing, Schrott24 has a total amount in the mid-seven-digit millions at its disposal to develop the company. This sum includes further financial resources such as EU funding in the context of the Horizon programme, amounting to 1.2 million euros. The Graz-based start-up intends to use the capital to further expand its sales organisation – particularly in the B2B segment – by reinforcing its sales team, for example. Besides, the online platform (www.schrott24.de) will further automated and receive enhanced functionality. Besides internal processes, this will also further automate the fulfilment process for customers from pick-up and delivery all the way to invoicing. The expansion of the network of foundries and smelting plants as well as further development of the matching algorithm used on the platform constitute further improvements. Besides, driving Schrott24’s international expansion is also intended. Currently, Schrott24 predominantly deals with scrap metal from Germany and Austria and markets it throughout Europe.

Beyond that, the international Schrott24 team will receive personnel reinforcement: New near-term staff hires are planned in Sales, Operations and Software Development. Interested parties can find information regarding vacancies at www.schrott24.de/karriere/. Stated Jan Pannenbäcker: “We offer modern workstations, self-determined work and the spirit of a successfully growing start-up and are looking forward to welcoming new team members!”

As many other industries, scrap metal trading was also hit heavily by the consequences of the coronavirus pandemic this year. However, for Jan Pannenbäcker and Alexander Schlick, the crisis also presents an opportunity: “We founded Schrott24 with the aim of bringing the mostly analogue industry into the digital age. In recent months, we already experienced the fact that the crisis has driven digitalisation forward for many traders. Among other things, this has increased efficiency in scrap metal trading.” To support traders and recycling companies in terms of digitalisation, Schrott24 had just opened its platform to partner web shops in April. Scrap metal traders and recycling companies can carry out business using the customisable web shops and thus increase their reach with little effort.