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Orbit’s Octopus secures $5M to turn waste into a recycling (and data collecting) opportunity
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SOSV Team
SOSV Team
Photo credit: Octopus

TechCrunch’s recent article “Octopus keeps stuff out of Indonesia’s crowded landfills” reports that Octopus (MOX 12) has secured an oversubscribed funding round of $5M led by SOSV and Openspace Ventures

Octopus has created a circular economy platform In Indonesia geared to “Uber-ize” trash pickers, recycle waste products into reusable raw materials, generate profit for recyclers, and help brands harvest useful post-consumption data. 

Octopus co-founder and CEO Andi Ichsan told TechCrunch that Octopus offers two kinds of services: selling waste materials to the recycling industry and collecting data for FMCG brands. “Apparently [crowded landfills] are . . . also in other cities in Southeast Asia,” Ichsan told TechCrunch. “So I started to explore more of the business by doing manual waste trading and trying to solve the problem one step at a time, starting with reducing recyclable waste that ends up in landfills by doing manual waste trading.”

By Hannah DeTavis

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