Raleigh sustainability startup seeks to double headcount after $13 million raise
Alex Lassiter says he doesn’t believe businesses need to sacrifice earnings to comply with mounting environmental regulations.
As more governments enact stricter sustainability benchmarks to combat climate change, Lassiter’s Raleigh startup, GreenPlaces, strives to help companies save energy and money.
The GreenPlaces platform enables clients to pinpoint their energy inefficiencies in areas like electricity, water, and waste usage. It tracks operational footprints across multiple locations and systems, detecting opportunities to conserve.
“It basically takes each one of these efficiency decisions and says this is what the dollar impact would be,” Lassiter said. “If you ripped away every green compliance or sustainability reporting mandate, it’s still really good for businesses.”
On Tuesday, GreenPlaces announced it raised $13 million in a Series A funding round, led by the California-based venture capital firm Redpoint Ventures along with other firms including Durham’s Bull City Venture Partners.
The money will help GreenPlaces reach its “pretty aggressive” growth targets, Lassiter said, including doubling its current staff, which includes 22 full-time employees, over the next year.
Greenplaces plans “aggressive” growth
Lassiter graduated from UNC-Chapel Hill in 2010 and went on to co-found the software startup Gather Technologies two years later. After he sold Gather in 2020, Lassiter sought his next venture.
“I knew that I wanted to build a company in sustainability,” he said. “I probably looked at 10 business ideas, narrowed it to three, and ultimately landed on GreenPlaces.”
GreenPlaces has its offices at the Raleigh Founded coworking space in the downtown Warehouse District.
Last year, the company was selected by the Triangle Tweener Fund, a venture fund focused on local early-stage startups. Lassiter was also among the fund’s founding investors.
GreenPlaces already counts a handful of large companies as clients, like Graduate Hotels and Salesloft. But Lassiter has broader ambitions.
“I want to get to the point where we become more of a household name,” he said. “As businesses think about ‘How do I meet these expectations?’ I want GreenPlaces to be like the first thing that they mentioned.”
This story was produced with financial support from a coalition of partners led by Innovate Raleigh as part of an independent journalism fellowship program. The N&O maintains full editorial control of the work.
This story was originally published June 20, 2023 at 3:57 PM.
