Electronics, Financial

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Closed Loop Partners invests in ERI

New York-based Closed Loop Partners, an investment firm with circular economy objectives, has invested in ERI through its Leadership Fund. The Fresno, California-based company provides information technology asset disposition (ITAD) services, electronics recycling services and cybersecurity-focused hardware destruction. Additionally, Ron Gonen, founder and CEO of Closed Loop Partners, has been elected to ERI’s board of directors. 

Closed Loop Partners says its Leadership Fund was established in 2019 and is part of the private equity group at Closed Loop Partners. The fund focuses on investing in and scaling businesses fundamental to keeping packaging, organics, electronics and apparel out of landfills and within a circular system.

John Shegerian, ERI chairman and CEO, says Closed Loop Partners is taking an ownership stake in ERI, though he declines to divulge the percentage breakdowns of the company’s ownership stakes.

Its other investors include Redwood Materials, a Nevada-based company that is working to create circular supply chains for lithium-ion batteries; South Korea-based LS-Nikko Copper, one of the world’s largest copper smelters; and aluminum producer Alcoa, based in Pittsburgh, which took a 10 percent stake in ERI in 2011. 

He says the funding from the Leadership Fund will help ERI meet its objectives “in numerous ways.”

Shegerian adds, “Two companies already supported by the Closed Loop Fund, Amp Robotics and Retrievr, are already longtime partners with ERI, and we look forward to partnering and exploring other synergistic opportunities with other great shared brands as well as with the many terrific iconic companies that are Closed Loop Partners investors, who can become potential clients of ERI. Also, having Ron Gonen, one of the premier circular economy thought leaders of our generation, sitting on our board is a tremendous asset in itself. And a dream come true for me personally.”

ERI’s areas of focus in terms of capital spending will include additional artificial intelligence and robotics, expansion in North America and internationally and enhancements to the company’s proprietary online tracking software, Shegerian says.