Growth Story

CleanPlanet Chemical helps industrial companies reduce solvent waste through onsite recycling. Its patented distillation technology recovers used solvent and returns it as reusable product, giving customers a more cost-effective and sustainable alternative to disposal.

Founded in 2012 and headquartered in Austin, CleanPlanet serves customers across industries including flexible packaging, chemicals, and manufacturing. In 2024, the company recycled more than 15 million pounds of solvent waste and avoided more than 36,000 tons of greenhouse gas emissions.

In 2025, CleanPlanet secured a $30 million growth-equity investment from Nuveen to support its next phase of expansion. With annual recurring revenue already up roughly 30% since early 2025 and projected to grow 100% year over year into 2026, the company needed finance infrastructure that could support faster growth, more complex operations, and institutional investor expectations.

Inflection Point

The Nuveen investment changed what CleanPlanet needed from finance.

The company was moving into a more demanding stage of scale, with new board expectations, more rigorous reporting needs, and critical decisions around capital, growth, and operations. Finance needed to help leadership understand what was happening, what was coming next, and how different decisions would affect the business.

To meet that moment, CleanPlanet brought in 512Financial for fractional CFO services in early 2025, beginning a partnership now in its second year.

What the Next Stage Required

CleanPlanet needed a finance function that could support board-level decisions. That meant a reliable forecast model, quarterly board materials investors could work from, and a senior finance partner who could connect growth plans to cash requirements across a multi-entity, multi-currency business. It also meant keeping audit and tax on track through a period of fast growth.

How we helped

Fractional CFO leadership

Provided senior finance leadership to the CEO and COO as the company moved into the next phase of business growth.

Forecasting and board reporting

Built a three-statement forecast model and five-year long-range plan to support budgeting, quarterly board materials, and investor reporting.

Capital planning

Gave leadership a clearer view of cash requirements, funding scenarios, and financing options for the next stage.

Operating partnership beyond finance

Worked as part of the executive team to connect manufacturing output with the sales pipeline, support faster installation planning, and identify opportunities to improve gross margin.

Audit, tax, and cost savings

Helped complete audit and tax filings to an institutional standard and restructured insurance coverage, creating roughly $80,000 in annual savings.

Business Impact

The forecast model gave leadership outputs to make decisions from, including the financial modeling behind a debt facility and the scenarios used with lenders. Audit and tax filings were completed to an institutional standard, and restructured insurance coverage created roughly $80,000 in annual savings.

Finance also worked across the business rather than next to it, connecting manufacturing output to the sales pipeline and supporting faster installation planning.

The next phase is turning the model into a live forecasting tool the team runs on a set cadence.

quotes

When we took on our new funding, our finance function had to move fast. 512Financial built us a three-statement model and a five-year plan, and put a senior finance partner inside the business while we scaled. It’s been a good relationship, and I have a lot of respect for the team we’ve worked with.

Alex Richert, CEO, CleanPlanet Chemical