ScrapBees

Growth Capital for ScrapBees

TURNING CONSTRUCTION SITES INTO RAW MATERIAL

Societal challenge and market

The energy transition depends on raw materials the world doesn’t have enough of. Global refined copper demand alone is set to roughly double by 2050, from about 26 million metric tons to more than 50 million. At the same time, Germany’s skilled trades are shrinking: in the SHK trade, available specialists could fall from around 500,000 in 2020 to roughly 220,000 by 2040, while unfilled positions climb past 150,000.

Solution

ScrapBees turns scrap metal into a properly sorted, tradeable resource. A booking via app, web, or phone brings a pickup straight to the job site, private household, or workshop; the material is weighed and logged on the spot before heading to a professional buyer. Keeping metal types cleanly separated at the source is what protects its value and makes recycling straightforward downstream. Each collected ton also saves around 230 kilograms of CO₂ compared to conventional recycling.

The team behind ScrapBees

Thilo Hamm and Florian Kriependorf met in 2010 during a part-time MBA. Kriependorf worked as a lawyer at a major NRW recycler; Hamm had already founded a service business in the trades. Sebastian Kopsan, an experienced software leader, completed the founding team. Together, in 2020, they built ScrapBees as a fully digital service for recycling scrap metal straight from the job site.