It has been an exciting week at First Mile Headquarters, as we announce our first round of investment from private equity firm Growth Capital Partners!

Founded in 2004, First Mile has revolutionised recycling as we know it. We service all matter of UK businesses from national chains to thousands of independent SMEs, working with 17,000 businesses across London to give them flexible, reliable and low cost recycling and waste services.

Kirsty McDonald, Partner at GCP, says:

The First Mile customer offering – which includes low cost and straightforward services, great customer care and the ability to recycle – is clearly differentiated in the market and as a customer ourselves, we’ve always valued First Mile’s clear proposition. The opportunity to partner with such a passionate, energetic and successful team is hugely exciting and we’re delighted to be working with them in continuing to grow the business.”

We are investing alongside GCP, and will continue to lead the business for our existing and new customers. Following funding we want to continue our London dominance, but also expand further into regional towns and cities across the UK, whilst enhancing our technology to get ever closer to our aim of “recycling everything”. The business has grown by 25% each year and with this round of funding, we only expect to continue on this upward trajectory.

This part of our journey has come at an interesting time for the environmental industry, following Brexit; the UK now has the opportunity to become a leader on environmental issues and technology. We believe that GCP is the perfect partner to help us deliver higher recycling rates, attract new customers and ultimately achieve our goal of helping all of our customers to become ‘planet savers’.