Circular Philadelphia launches interactive tool to find donation and recycling sites, thanks to a $20k grant

Technical.ly

3 days ago

Funders made significant investments in good causes like local sustainability and STEM education initiatives this past month.
Circular Philadelphia announced the launch of its new tool, ResourcePhilly, a search engine to reduce waste in the city, made possible by a $20,000 grant from a local nonprofit. Biopharmaceutical company GSK donated $450,000 to Philadelphia public schools for STEM education programming.
Plus, biotech company Vivodyne raised $40 million to expand its capacity for drug testing on lab-grown human tissue.
Get all the details on the latest money moves below the chart, where we look at the top 10 companies hiring for tech jobs in the Philadelphia market and how that's changed since the previous month.
Circular Philadelphia secures $20k to launch reuse donation map
Circular Philadelphia, a nonprofit that aims to reduce waste by keeping resources from being thrown away, received a $20,000 grant from the charitable organization the Green Family Foundation, according to Samantha Wittchen, interim executive director of Circular Philadelphia.
The money was used to build ResourcePhilly, an online tool where people can find places to dispose of hard-to-recycle items responsibly. The search engine launched earlier this week.
'We have the opportunity to reach a much broader segment of the population in the Philadelphia region, and help them with finding better opportunities to manage their waste,' Wittchen told Technical.ly.
The idea came from a database that the Resource Exchange has been maintaining for the last decade, which included a spreadsheet and a physical map of places around the city where people could bring unwanted items.
The new tool, built by local software company Urality, lets users search for the right place to donate or recycle their unwanted items. The map can also be used to find secondhand goods that people are offering for sale.
The categories in the database include thrift shops, places to take or find building materials, bookshops and orgs that take fabric or clothing. There are also ways to connect with repair shops and refilleries, plus a feature to suggest similar businesses or organizations that aren't on the list.
'[It's a] vetted list of places that they can take stuff to that's prioritized by what they should do with that item for the condition that that item is in,' Wittchen said.
GSK invests $450k in local STEM education programming
Biopharmaceutical company GSK donated $450,000 to the School District of Philadelphia to support STEM education programming.
'Staying on the cutting edge of STEM education ensures that Philadelphia's young people are not only prepared to compete — but to lead — in tomorrow's workforce and innovation economy,' said Kathryn Epps, president and CEO of the Fund for the School District of Philadelphia. 'We are so grateful to GSK for its partnership over the years and its dedication to the advancement of STEM in our classrooms.'
This funding will help provide hands-on STEM programming for students to meet the commonwealth's K–12 STEELS (Science, Technology and Engineering, Environmental Literacy and Sustainability) standards, which will go into effect next school year. The standards prioritize discussion and investigation of scientific topics, rather than memorizing facts, according to Pennsylvania's Department of Education.
GSK is a global company, but it has multiple local offices. The company plans to build its largest manufacturing site in the US in nearby Lancaster County.
Vivodyne raises $40M Series A
Biotech company Vivodyne raised $40 million in a Series A round last month. The University of Pennsylvania spinout uses robotics and AI to test drugs on lab-grown human tissue.
The funding will go toward a 23,000-square-foot laboratory in San Francisco, which will increase Vivodyne's capacity for preclinical testing. Khosla Ventures led the round and Lingotto Investment Management, Helena Capital and Fortius Ventures were new investors.
The company's platform was originally developed at the University of Pennsylvania's BIOLines Lab. Vivodyne raised $4 million in 2021 and $38 million in 2023.
More money moves:
The City of Philadelphia announced $2 million in partnerships to expand the City College for Municipal Employment, which offers free skills and technical training for a variety of fields.
STEM education org Black Girls Love Math received $125,000 from the Pennsylvania state government to continue its extracurricular math programming.
Brokerage company Newfound acquired home-selling platform HomeLister. The company declined to share how much the deal was worth.
Data services company TruSight announced that it raised a round of funding. The company did not disclose the raise amount, investor names or its valuation.