AI Startup Hauler Hero Raises $16M Series A for Operating System Platform
New York-based software company Hauler Hero, which provides software solutions to the waste management business, has also declared the raising of $16 million in the Series A financing of its ecosystem of artificial intelligence (AI)-powered hauler software, which is presently in beta mode.
The new round of funding following a year of rapid customer acceptance of Hauler Hero is headed by Frontier Growth of Charlotte, North Carolina, with other investors including Disruptive Founders Fund, Dover, Delaware-based Somersault Ventures and several executives of waste business and ServiceTitan.
The Hauler Hero has revolutionised the way we do things. We have reduced billing time by a half, and we have automated our routing, and this way we save half of the time that our team would spend on paperwork, and our team can focus on growth rather than paperwork, says Alex Babbitt, the owner and founder of Carolina Waste, a customer of Hauler Hero based in North Charleston, South Carolina. The platform can grow along with us, and we can do everything through our cell phones and work with more customers without the need to add an administrative staff. We currently have 25,000 customers, and I am sure that when we reach the 100,000 customers and above, Hauler Hero will be there to match the growth.
The all-in-one AI platform of Hauler Hero also automates the key processes of the hauling company, such as invoicing, routing, dispatching and customer interaction. The platform saves over 14 hours per week that office employees spend on administrative duties (Hauler Hero).
The company is presently working on and testing its new collection of AI agents, namely:
Hero Vision: a camera system that is mounted on trucks and uses computer vision to automatically detect the service problems and revenue opportunities.
Hero Chat: a resident-focused communication suite that automates the response to text, email and chat communications via AI; and
Hero Routing: an artificial intelligence engine that uses information to optimize the routes to save fuel, minimise mileage and allow real-time exceptions.
Hauler Hero, according to Dave Pandullo, partner at Frontier Growth, is a team of people who believe in enhancing workflows in a giant, underserved vertical that is vital to the health and safety of all communities nationwide. They are not simply selling software; they are transforming the economics of unit collection of waste.
Hauler Hero claims to have doubled its number of customers in the past year and expanded its operations to accommodate more than 200 waste management companies, including independent haulers to large municipalities and haulers such as the city of Sunnyvale, the city of Redlands, Hawaii-based West Oahu Aggregate and Greenleaf Recycling of Horseheads, New York.
Today, the company claims that organisations utilise Hauler Hero in order to accomplish 4.5 million pickups monthly, finish over 300 million in annualised gross merchandise worth and serve above 750,000 commercial and residential waste generators.
Mark Hoadley, co-founder and CEO of Hauler Hero, says that waste collection is one of the most critical services in the society, but it was decades ago that the work was conducted with the use of old-fashioned tools. We are creating the operating system that will ultimately introduce modern data, automation and AI to the citizens who already operate our villages, cities and industries daily.
