Towing Hero has raised new funds as demand for AI-powered waste management software continues to pile up.

The New York-based startup has raised $16 million in a Series A round led by Frontier Growth with participation from K5 Global and Somersault Ventures, among others, TechCrunch has learned. Hauler Hero has raised over $27 million in venture capital, to date.

Hauler Hero has created an all-in-one software platform for waste management companies that covers a variety of functions, including customer relationship management, billing, and routing. And now, like many other software companies, Hauler Hero plans to offer AI agents to its customers as well.

Hauler Hero was co-founded in 2020 by CEO Mark Hoadley and brother-in-law Ben Sikma, who encountered the old software while working on mergers and acquisitions in the sector. Their goal is to bring waste management into the modern era.

“All the existing space software, they’re clunky, old,” Hoadley told TechCrunch in 2024. “Sometimes we talk about how it reminds us of the Oregon Trail, it reminds us of the cell phone that Michael Douglas used on ‘Wall Street.’ They are very clunky and old fashioned. “

The numbers suggest the company is having some success; Hauler Hero said it has helped facilitate 35 million trash pickups since the start of 2020. And it continues to grow, according to Hoadley, who told TechCrunch that the company has doubled its headcount, revenue, and customer base since its announcement. seed round in late 2024.

Hauler Hero has been adding new features to its platform since its seed round, Hoadley said. The most popular is a product that captures images from third-party cameras on garbage trucks and sends them directly to a software command center. This information helps waste management companies confirm pickups, verify billing, and closely monitor their distribution fleet, according to the company.

Hoadley said some sanitation workers, and their respective unions, don’t like this technology upgrade. But he added that most unions prevent the footage from being used against drivers for disciplinary measures, for example, and that the images help reduce drivers’ liability in accidents or if they are accused of missing a pickup.

“Think of it like running a factory without a roof and not seeing what’s going on in that factory,” Hoadley said. “If you don’t see what’s going on there, it’s very difficult to have quality control. And quality control in this case is what’s there, is it removed?”

A trio of AI agents

Hauler Hero is currently working to develop and deploy a set of three AI agents. One, Hero Vision, is focused on automatically identifying service issues and revenue opportunities. Hero Chat is a chatbot for customer inquiries. Hero Route uses route data to automatically adjust routes to make them more efficient.

“There’s a lot of data in our system about pickups, work orders, billing information, and if you give these agents an understanding of your data model, you can tell them, hey, go make me a chart,” Hoadley said.

Hauler Hero plans to use some of its recent funding to commercialize these agents in addition to expanding its offerings for municipal entities, a growing group of the company’s customers.

“It’s not something I should have thought about being a part of this journey,” Hoadley said of working with public entities. “It’s kind of organic as a lot of things do. We just came from a few municipalities and we ended up selling one of them and then we sold another one.”

Hoadley said he thinks some of that demand is driven by the fact that the two main competitors, Routeware and Wastechconsolidated in 2024, leaving government entities with a narrow choice of providers to work with.

Hoadley said the company is now focused on improving and scaling its product — and maybe some new additions as well.

“We will continue to chart the course for the next decade to be on the cutting edge of delivering value for customers, using all the latest tools,” Hoadley said. “There are a lot more fun things and valuable things we can do for our customers, and we’re excited about it.”

This piece has been updated to better reflect which investors participated in the Series A.