Queen of Raw, a New York-based climate fintech company specializing in recouping value from excess inventory, has raised funding from Future Planet Capital, the international venture capital and impact investor with ~$400M of committed capital and a portfolio including 23andMe, Vaccitech, and Tokamak.

$288B of excess inventory annually becomes waste in landfills, burned, or laid to rest in warehouses. Queen of Raw turns it into a revenue source through sustainable solutions.

For its customers, including some of the world’s biggest Fortune 500 companies, the amount of wasted materials represents up to 15% or more of their bottom line. "At that volume," says Stephanie Benedetto, the female founder and CEO of Queen of Raw, "waste isn’t just environmentally irresponsible–it’s a financial risk and a CFO issue." An example of the impact: In just weeks leveraging the software, one client realized savings on $14M worth of inventory and holding costs, generating revenue from recycling 10 metric tons of excess materials in Asia and diverting 95% from landfills and incineration.

Stephanie Benedetto’s family has been in the textiles business for over 100 years and has seen firsthand the waste that can result, with one tee shirt taking an average of 700 gallons of water to produce. According to the United Nations, the textile industry is the second biggest polluter in the world of clean water globally. Through its initiatives, Queen of Raw has already saved over 1 billion gallons of water – enough clean water for 1.43 million people to drink around the world for 3 years.