CommanderAI, a technology startup focused on industrial services, has announced the closure of a $5 million seed funding round. The capital will support the expansion of its AI-driven customer relationship management (CRM) and sales prospecting platform specifically designed for the waste management industry and related sectors such as dumpster rentals and industrial recycling.
The funding round was led by 11 Tribes Ventures, with additional participation from Watchfire Ventures, Gaingels, and Rad Fund. David Berg, CEO and founder of CommanderAI, stated that the new capital would be utilized to scale the company's sales team and further develop product features, including mapping, marketing, and routing capabilities.
Launched in early 2024, CommanderAI aims to address a perceived technological gap in the waste management sector. Berg, whose experience driving a garbage truck informed the company's genesis, noted that sales in the industry largely rely on traditional methods, often lacking advanced CRM or sales funnel technologies. "All of them had a unanimous way of going to market, which was old school ways of pen and paper, door-to-door knocking, [and] little-to-no technology on both CRM prospecting or any bit of the sales funnel," Berg told TechCrunch. He added, "We saw an opportunity there to be the first, not only to build within the space, but to disrupt an entire market."
Berg explained that while general CRM platforms like Salesforce or HubSpot can be customized, they often lack the industry-specific nuances and data required for widespread adoption within waste management. CommanderAI's platform, conversely, integrates AI to pull specific data points relevant to the industry, such as identifying small, standalone businesses without significant online presence or new construction projects not widely advertised. "Although that data is inherently available somewhere on the public web, to be able to segment it and actually repurpose it to where it’s useful took a lot of work," Berg said, highlighting the role of the company's AI large language model pipeline.
The U.S. waste management industry generated over $100 billion in revenue in 2024, according to an industry trade organization, encompassing diverse players from small haulers to large enterprises. CommanderAI's platform is designed to serve a broad spectrum of these businesses, with current success reported among medical and hazardous waste management companies. The company's long-term objective is to achieve 30% penetration of the waste management industry for its AI tooling and tech stack solutions, with future plans for expansion into adjacent industrial sectors.
