Beringea invests VC in ReCellular

Thursday, October 14, 2010 | Source: Metromode

The local venture capital hero has struck again, investing in another emerging business in southeast Michigan. Translate that to Farmington Hills-based Beringea, Michigan's largest venture capital firm, investing an undisclosed sum into ReCellular, the cell phone recycler based in Dexter.

This is the 17th investment from Beringea's InvestMichigan! Growth Capital portfolio. Beringea has grown that portfolio from $150 million to $180 million, primarily by investing in Michigan-based companies with cash from the State of Michigan Retirement System. Among those are Ferndale-based Livio Radio and Sakti3 of Ann Arbor earlier this year. More investments are on the way soon.

"I believe we will have more out there before the end of the year," says Michael Gross, managing director of Beringea.

ReCellular is the world's largest cell phone recycler. The company started out 19 years renting cell phones when they were a rare, expensive commodity. Once they become ubiquitous a decade ago, ReCellular overhauled its business plan to recycling and refurbishing the electronics.

The Dexter-based business now employs 300 people worldwide, including about 50 in Ann Arbor and 230 in Dexter. That facility handled about 5 million cell phones last year, of which approximately 70 percent were refurbished and resold. The rest were recycled for precious metals, keeping about 1.6 million pounds of toxic material out of landfills. Beringea sees an investment in ReCellular as a clean-tech play with considerable room for growth.

"The company has really evolved over the last few years," Gross says. "They have positioned themselves nicely."

Source: Michael Gross, managing director of Beringea
Writer: Jon Zemke

Read more about Metro Detroit's growing entrepreneurial ecosystem at SEMichiganStartup.com.