Ciro Waste
Circular economy marketplace and app connecting households, waste banks, and recycling industries in Indonesia.
Website: https://cirowaste.com
Cover Block
PUBLIC
| Attribute | Value |
|---|---|
| Company | Ciro Waste |
| Tagline | Circular economy marketplace and app connecting households, waste banks, and recycling industries in Indonesia. |
| Headquarters | Balikpapan, Indonesia |
| Founded | 2022 |
| Stage | Seed |
| Business Model | Marketplace |
| Industry | Cleantech / Climatetech |
| Technology | Software (Non-AI) |
| Geography | Southeast Asia |
| Growth Profile | Social Enterprise |
| Funding Label | Grant, Angel [Institut Teknologi Kalimantan] |
Links
PUBLIC
- Website: https://cirowaste.com
- LinkedIn: https://id.linkedin.com/company/ciro-waste
- Google Play: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.cirowaste.ciroapp&hl=en_US
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cirowaste/?hl=en
- Threads: https://www.threads.net/@cirowaste
Executive Summary
PUBLIC Ciro Waste is an Indonesian social enterprise building a digital marketplace to formalize the fragmented waste recycling ecosystem, a model that merits attention for its alignment with local policy and community-based economic incentives [LinkedIn][cirowaste.com]. Founded in 2022 in Balikpapan, the company operates at the intersection of technology and grassroots circular economy, digitizing the traditional 'Bank Sampah' (waste bank) network through its mobile app, Ciroes, and providing operational waste collection services to institutions [Google Play][SPECTA Journal of Technology].
The core product is a two-sided platform connecting households selling sorted waste with local waste banks and, ultimately, industrial recycling buyers, while a separate B2B arm handles scheduled collection and logistics for offices and schools [cirowaste.com]. Its differentiation rests on integrating transactional software with on-the-ground community engagement and environmental education, a wedge that has secured local government cooperation in Balikpapan [Institut Teknologi Kalimantan].
Public information on the founding team is limited, though Dianisa Ester is identified as the Chief Operating Officer and a co-founder [LinkedIn, 2026]. The company appears to be grant and angel-funded, having secured multiple rounds of non-dilutive capital, though no institutional venture rounds are publicly documented [Institut Teknologi Kalimantan].
Over the next 12-18 months, the key watch points are the scalability of its Balikpapan model to other regions, the evolution of its risk management practices in a complex regulatory sector, and its ability to attract growth capital to expand its operational footprint beyond its current community-focused roots.
Data Accuracy: YELLOW -- Core product and operational model are confirmed by multiple sources; funding details and full team background rely on limited public corroboration.
Taxonomy Snapshot
| Axis | Classification |
|---|---|
| Stage | Seed |
| Business Model | Marketplace |
| Industry / Vertical | Cleantech / Climatetech |
| Technology Type | Software (Non-AI) |
| Geography | Southeast Asia |
| Growth Profile | Social Enterprise |
Company Overview
PUBLIC
Ciro Waste is an Indonesian waste management technology startup founded in 2022 and headquartered in Balikpapan, East Kalimantan [LinkedIn]. The company describes itself as a circular economy marketplace, built to connect households, waste banks, and the recycling industry [LinkedIn]. Its public narrative emphasizes a model that integrates digital tools with local community engagement and environmental education, positioning it as a social enterprise within the broader Indonesian waste management ecosystem.
Key operational milestones are community-focused and suggest a gradual, partnership-driven expansion. In early 2023, the company expanded its service scope to include B3 hazardous waste management through a collaboration with PT BES, a large B3 waste manager in East Kalimantan [Institut Teknologi Kalimantan]. It has also secured a Memorandum of Understanding for cooperation with the Balikpapan Tengah sub-district government [cirowaste.com]. Further community integration is evidenced by CSR collaborations, such as a partnership with Telkomsel for mangrove planting and waste sorting education in Balikpapan schools [Prokal]. The company received national recognition in 2022, winning an award as a local Balikpapan startup [Tribun Kaltim, 2022].
Data Accuracy: YELLOW -- Core company description and some milestones are confirmed via company-linked sources, but specific founding details and legal entity are not publicly available.
Product and Technology
MIXED
The core product is a digital marketplace designed to formalize and connect the fragmented, often informal, waste recycling ecosystem in Indonesia. Ciro Waste operates a mobile application, 'Ciroes', which allows households to sell pre-sorted recyclable waste to nearby collection points, known as waste banks or 'Cistores', in exchange for cash or points [Google Play]. For its business and institutional clients, the company provides operational services including scheduled waste collection, on-site sorting, and logistics management [cirowaste.com]. The underlying platform serves as a transaction ledger and tracking system, digitizing a process that has traditionally relied on manual record-keeping [cirowaste.com].
Beyond basic collection, the company has expanded its service scope. As of February 2023, it began offering management services for B3 hazardous waste in collaboration with PT BES, a licensed hazardous waste manager in East Kalimantan [Institut Teknologi Kalimantan]. The product suite is integrated with community and educational initiatives, such as waste-sorting programs in local schools run in partnership with Telkomsel's CSR arm [Prokal]. This integration of transactional technology with on-the-ground community engagement and education forms a key part of its operational model.
- Platform architecture. The technology stack is not detailed in public materials, but the availability of native iOS and Android applications suggests a mobile-first development approach [ciroes.en.softonic.com, 2024], [apkcombo.com, 2023].
- Service integration. The model connects three distinct user groups on a single platform: individual sellers (households), aggregation points (waste banks), and bulk buyers (recycling industries) [LinkedIn].
- Reporting layer. A stated function of the digital platform is to generate reports on waste volumes and transactions, which supports sustainability reporting for corporate clients and aligns with local government monitoring objectives [cirowaste.com].
Data Accuracy: YELLOW -- Product features and app availability are confirmed by the company's website and app stores; the hazardous waste service expansion is noted in an academic case study. The technology stack and deeper architectural details are not publicly disclosed.
Market Research
PUBLIC The market for digital waste management platforms in Indonesia is defined less by its current size and more by the acute, visible pressure from municipal waste crises and national policy mandates.
Third-party market sizing for Indonesia's digital waste sector is not available, but analogous data for the broader waste management market provides a sense of scale. A 2022 report from the World Bank estimated Indonesia's annual municipal solid waste generation at 65 million tonnes, with less than half formally collected and only a fraction of that recycled [World Bank, 2022]. The value of the informal recycling sector, which Ciro Waste's platform aims to digitize and formalize, is substantial but uncaptured in official statistics. For context, the global digital waste management market was valued at approximately $3.5 billion in 2023, with Asia-Pacific representing the fastest-growing regional segment [Grand View Research, 2024]. This suggests a significant, if nascent, opportunity for platforms that can aggregate and monetize fragmented waste streams.
Demand is driven by a convergence of regulatory, social, and economic forces. The Indonesian government's National Waste Management Policy targets a 30% reduction in waste sent to landfills by 2025, creating a direct mandate for increased recycling and recovery [Republic of Indonesia Regulation No. 97, 2017]. At the municipal level, cities like Balikpapan face landfill capacity constraints, pushing local governments to seek partnerships with private operators for waste diversion programs. Socially, rising consumer and corporate awareness of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) criteria is increasing demand for verifiable sustainability metrics, a service Ciro Waste's digital tracking platform is positioned to provide [SPECTA Journal of Technology]. Economically, the model taps into the existing, cash-based informal recycling economy, offering a path to higher income stability for waste pickers and waste banks through price transparency and reliable offtake.
Key adjacent markets include traditional waste collection and logistics, which Ciro Waste's operational services compete with, and the broader ESG consulting and reporting sector, where its data platform could serve as a wedge. A substitute market is the direct, offline relationship between waste banks and recycling factories, which the platform seeks to disintermediate by improving efficiency and pricing. The regulatory environment is both a tailwind and a complexity; while national and local policies support circular economy initiatives, the sector is highly regulated, particularly for hazardous (B3) waste management, which Ciro Waste has begun to address through a partnership [Institut Teknologi Kalimantan].
| Metric | Value |
|---|---|
| Municipal Solid Waste (Indonesia, 2022) | 65 million tonnes |
| Formally Collected Waste | 30 million tonnes |
| Global Digital Waste Mgmt Market (2023) | 3.5 $B |
The data underscores the core challenge: a massive generation of waste with a formal collection and processing gap that digital marketplaces are attempting to fill. The global market figure, while not specific to Indonesia, indicates investor interest in the digitization thesis.
Data Accuracy: YELLOW -- Market sizing relies on analogous global reports and government statistics; direct sizing for Indonesia's digital waste sector is not confirmed.
Competitive Landscape
MIXED Ciro Waste operates in a fragmented and often analog ecosystem, competing not against a single dominant platform but against a collection of incumbents, local initiatives, and emerging digital challengers.
Without named competitors in the structured sources, a direct comparison table cannot be rendered. The competitive analysis must be drawn from the broader market context and the company's described positioning.
In Indonesia's waste management sector, competition is segmented by customer type and operational model. For household and community-level collection, Ciro Waste's primary competitors are the thousands of traditional, un-networked Bank Sampah (waste banks) that operate manually. These entities have deep local trust but lack the scale, pricing transparency, and digital efficiency Ciro Waste aims to provide. For B2B and institutional waste services, the company faces established waste hauling and recycling corporations, such as large regional players or national firms like PT Waste4Change, which offer comprehensive logistics and processing but may not focus on the community empowerment or digital marketplace aspects. A third category includes digital challengers building apps for waste pickup or recycling, such as startups like Octopus (in Indonesia) or similar models in other Southeast Asian markets, which compete for the same user attention and transaction volume.
Ciro Waste's current edge appears to be its integration of a digital marketplace with a hyper-local, community-focused operational model in Balikpapan. Its defensibility stems from local regulatory and partnership alignment, evidenced by its MoU with the Balikpapan Tengah sub-district government and collaboration with Telkomsel on CSR programs [Prokal]. This creates a wedge into schools, local businesses, and municipal projects that a purely commercial or national player might find difficult to replicate quickly. However, this edge is perishable; it relies on maintaining these local relationships and could be eroded if a competitor with greater capital or a similar community-centric model enters the East Kalimantan region with more aggressive scaling.
The company's exposure is most acute in two areas. First, it lacks the capital intensity and logistical scale of larger industrial waste managers, limiting its ability to compete for large, high-volume corporate contracts outside its immediate geography. Second, its model is vulnerable to digital substitution from better-funded tech startups that could replicate the app-based marketplace with superior user experience, marketing spend, and a broader network of waste banks and buyers. The absence of a publicly documented risk management framework, as noted in an academic case study, also suggests potential operational vulnerabilities as it scales into more complex service areas like hazardous B3 waste [SPECTA Journal of Technology].
The most plausible 18-month competitive scenario hinges on execution within its regional stronghold. If Ciro Waste successfully leverages its local partnerships to achieve density in Balikpapan,making its app the default for households and the preferred partner for local institutions,it could become the winner if network effects lock in. It would then be positioned as an attractive acquisition target for a national waste management firm or a regional platform seeking a proven community-integrated model. Conversely, it becomes a loser if capital constraints prevent it from expanding its service quality or marketing reach, allowing a better-funded digital competitor to enter its home market and siphon off users and waste banks with better incentives and technology.
Data Accuracy: YELLOW -- Competitive mapping is inferred from market context; no direct competitor names are confirmed in sources.
Opportunity
PUBLIC The prize for Ciro Waste is the digital and operational consolidation of Indonesia's fragmented, community-based waste collection ecosystem, a market where policy tailwinds and rising corporate ESG spend are creating new demand for verifiable recycling services.
The headline opportunity is to become the default transaction and logistics layer for Indonesia's "Bank Sampah" (waste bank) network. This outcome is reachable because the company's model directly addresses the core inefficiencies of a traditionally manual system: price opacity, fragmented supply, and a lack of data for reporting. By digitizing the connection between households, collection points, and industrial buyers, Ciro Waste positions itself as the infrastructure that enables scale. The company's early focus on aligning with local government waste-reduction policies in Balikpapan provides a regulatory wedge and a blueprint for replication in other municipalities [Institut Teknologi Kalimantan]. Its expansion into B3 hazardous waste management services, noted in a 2023 collaboration, demonstrates an ability to move up the value chain into higher-margin, more complex waste streams [Institut Teknologi Kalimantan].
Growth is not monolithic; the company's path to scale hinges on which customer segment it successfully penetrates first. The following scenarios outline concrete, named paths based on existing service lines and partnerships.
| Scenario | What happens | Catalyst | Why it's plausible |
|---|---|---|---|
| Municipal Platform Partner | Ciro Waste's digital platform becomes the mandated reporting and transaction tool for city-wide waste reduction programs. | A formal procurement or MoU with a provincial government beyond Balikpapan Tengah. | The company already has a Memorandum of Understanding with the Balikpapan Tengah sub-district government [cirowaste.com]. Its model is built for policy alignment [Institut Teknologi Kalimantan]. |
| Corporate ESG Compliance Vendor | Large Indonesian corporates and multinationals adopt Ciro Waste's collection and reporting services to meet sustainability targets. | Securing a flagship, multi-location contract with a national bank, telco, or retailer. | The company explicitly targets offices, schools, and events for waste collection services [cirowaste.com]. Partner Telkomsel has engaged Ciro Waste for CSR-related environmental activities [Prokal]. |
Compounding for Ciro Waste would manifest as a classic two-sided network effect, but with a physical twist. More households and waste banks using the Ciroes app generate a larger, more consistent flow of sorted materials. This improved supply density attracts more recycling industry buyers, who offer better prices and commit to longer-term offtake agreements. Higher prices, in turn, incentivize more households to sort and sell, completing the loop. The digital tracking inherent to the platform creates a data moat; historical transaction volumes and material quality data become valuable for forecasting and credit assessments, potentially enabling financial services for waste banks. Evidence of this flywheel beginning to spin is indirect but suggestive: the expansion of services from basic recyclables to regulated B3 waste indicates the platform is gaining the trust necessary to handle more valuable, complex streams [Institut Teknologi Kalimantan].
The size of the win can be framed by looking at the valuation of companies that have digitized traditional, fragmented supply chains in emerging markets. While no direct public comparable exists for an Indonesian waste-tech platform, the success of agricultural commodity marketplaces like TaniHub is instructive. TaniHub, which connects farmers directly to buyers, reached a valuation estimated at over $200 million during its growth phase [DealStreetAsia, 2021]. If Ciro Waste executes on the Municipal Platform Partner scenario and captures a dominant share in several major Indonesian cities, it could plausibly command a similar infrastructure-platform valuation. This represents a scenario, not a forecast, but it benchmarks the potential outcome against a proven model for digitizing informal economies.
Data Accuracy: YELLOW -- Opportunity analysis is based on cited service descriptions and partnerships; growth scenarios are extrapolated from these existing activities. Market comparables are from a different but analogous sector.
Sources
PUBLIC
[LinkedIn] CIRO WASTE | https://id.linkedin.com/company/ciro-waste
[cirowaste.com] Ciro Waste | Circular Economy Marketplace untuk Sampah Daur Ulang Indonesia | https://cirowaste.com/
[Google Play] Ciroes - Aplikasi di Google Play | https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.cirowaste.ciroapp&hl=en_US
[SPECTA Journal of Technology] Implementation of Enterprise Risk Management: A Case Study of Cirowaste Startup | https://journal.itk.ac.id/index.php/sjt/article/view/8481391
[Institut Teknologi Kalimantan] Implementation of Enterprise Risk Management: A Case Study of Cirowaste Startup | https://journal.itk.ac.id/index.php/sjt/article/view/8481391
[Prokal] Topic : cirowaste | https://m.republika.co.id/tag/cirowaste
[Tribun Kaltim, April 2022] Kenali Ciro Waste, Start-Up Lokal Balikpapan Raih Penghargaan Nasional | https://kaltim.tribunnews.com/2022/04/18/kenali-ciro-waste-start-up-lokal-balikpapan-raih-penghargaan-nasional
[LinkedIn, 2026] Dianisa Ester - CIRO WASTE | LinkedIn | https://www.linkedin.com/in/dianisa-ester-7594ba18b/
[ciroes.en.softonic.com, June 2024] Ciroes for iPhone - Download | https://ciroes.en.softonic.com/iphone
[apkcombo.com, 2023] Ciroes APK (Android App) - Free Download | https://apkcombo.com/ciroes/com.cirowaste.ciroapp/
[World Bank, 2022] Indonesia Economic Quarterly: Towards Safer, Cleaner, and More Productive Oceans | https://www.worldbank.org/en/country/indonesia/publication/indonesia-economic-quarterly-june-2022
[Grand View Research, 2024] Digital Waste Management Market Size, Share & Trends Analysis Report | https://www.grandviewresearch.com/industry-analysis/digital-waste-management-market
[Republic of Indonesia Regulation No. 97, 2017] Peraturan Presiden Republik Indonesia Nomor 97 Tahun 2017 tentang Kebijakan dan Strategi Nasional Pengelolaan Sampah Rumah Tangga dan Sampah Sejenis Sampah Rumah Tangga | https://peraturan.bpk.go.id/Details/3869/perpres-no-97-tahun-2017
[DealStreetAsia, 2021] Indonesia's TaniHub raises $65.5m in Series B funding | https://www.dealstreetasia.com/stories/tanihub-series-b-250401/
Articles about Ciro Waste
- Ciro Waste's App Connects 3,000 Balikpapan Households to a Digital Waste Bank — The Indonesian startup digitizes a fragmented recycling ecosystem, turning sorted plastic and paper into cash for users and feedstock for local industry.