Nuveen and CleanPlanet: Evaluating a Private Equity Impact Investment

For nearly a year, Ted Maa and Chris Steinbaugh, members of the Private Equity Impact Investing team at Nuveen, had been following a potential investment opportunity for a company raising $30 million that had only recently fallen out of exclusivity. The prospect was CleanPlanet Chemical (“CleanPlanet”), a 13-year-old provider of on-site solvent recycling-as-a-service (“RaaS”) solutions for responsible and sustainable chemical waste management. CleanPlanet was founded by Dennis Mount, who had previously created another business in the small-scale solvent recycling space focused on the sale of solvent recycling units. In the early days of CleanPlanet, Mount recruited Alex Richert, an environmental services senior executive, to evolve and scale CleanPlanet into the RaaS model. The RaaS model involved installing and maintaining advanced distillation solvent recycling systems at customer sites with no upfront investment. CleanPlanet owned the systems and customers were billed based on volumetric monthly pricing of recycled solvent. The goal of this RaaS approach was to make solvent recycling easier and more accessible without requiring businesses to invest in expensive equipment.

The results were impressive. In addition to strong unit economics, high recurring revenues, and robust margins, waste reduction was straightforward and quantifiable. In 2023 alone, CleanPlanet reduced solvent waste by 1.6 million gallons, avoided 32,090 tons of greenhouse gas emissions, and saved customers more than $5.8 million in costs by eliminating the need to purchase new solvents and reducing waste disposal costs.

The investment case was strong but Maa and Steinbaugh still needed to produce a competitive valuation for the company—one that reflected not just superior financials but the impact across waste, emissions, and cost reductions as well.