New fundraise & CEO signalling strong start to 2025 for Empower.eco

Empower is proud to announce to have ended 2024 with securing new investment for our plans in 2025 and beyond. This seed-round was led by S&J LLC , Decelera and Cerulean Ventures and was joined by several of our other investors.

The investment confirms Empower’s mission and vision and we’re grateful for the belief and trust from our team, customers, partners and shareholder community. We wouldn’t be able to keep working to fulfil our mission to rid the world of waste without you.

With the raise, there will also be several changes in the company.

After 7 years of building one of the world’s most recognised blockchain-enabled material traceability systems, Wilhelm Myrer has stepped down as CEO as of December 20th, 2024.

“After the highs and lows of 7 years of building Empower, I have stepped down as CEO at Empower. The company has gone through several phases of development, the last of which will have been my final one with the company. I’m incredibly proud of what we have achieved (1.2 million KG tons of material registered on our platform!) and the people we have been able to support along the way. While our mission is far from complete, the time is right to hand over and enable the next phase in Empower’s development. I would like to thank the team and our investors for their support during these last years. Over the next months, I will be supporting the transition. I'm very pleased to hand over the reigns to Lennard Hulsbos who is a true professional and the right person to ensure the company can build on its position and drive the expected growth over the next years.

Lennard Hulsbos , who joined Empower early 2024 as CPO and has a background in strategic design, product development and B2B SaaS - has been appointed CEO at Empower as of December 20th, 2024.

“When I met Wilhelm and the team in ’23, I fell in love with the team, mission, energy and willingness to push technical boundaries for a cleaner world. Since? 2013 - when I built my first end-to-end traceable value chain in China - I have been working with several projects that underpin circular objectives with real-world data, creating transparency and accountability around material streams, waste or otherwise.”

“The opportunity ahead of us is recognised by our shareholders who rallied together and provided us with the right foundation to capitalise on the great position Empower is in. Moving ahead, our aim is to continue turning waste to value and support the circular ambitions of companies and governments through the building of solid digital solutions and intelligent data-services. We will focus on strengthening our products, relationships with our customers (old and new) and keep pushing the boundary to realise digital infrastructure for a world without waste, building blockchain-based, data-enabled, circular solutions across the globe.”

With Wilhelm stepping back, a new Chairman has also been appointed with Odd Nymark taking the chair.

“It is both an honour and a major responsibility to join Empower at this critical time for the world, with environmental policies, consumer concerns and technical innovations increasing the call and possibility for improved sustainability in our economies. The work Lennard and the team have ahead of them is both exciting and much needed, which has convinced me to help Empower realise its next phase of growth.”

For questions or further information, please contact:

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