Sumitomo Corporation and its US-based arm, Sumitomo Corporation of Americas, have taken an equity stake in GreenTek Solutions, a Texas-based IT asset disposition (ITAD) provider.
GreenTek, founded in 2012, handles the full lifecycle of retired IT equipment including collection, data erasure, resale and recycling with a particular focus on data center hardware like servers and storage systems. The company has processed more than 1.2 million devices and holds multiple international certifications covering quality management, information security and environmental compliance.
The Stafford, Texas-based company’s growth accelerated after it was selected in 2021 for an Apple-hosted accelerator program that provided training and business support. Since then, the company has roughly doubled its headcount and pushed further into hyperscale data center decommissioning.
CEO Anuar Garcia has said it carries more urgency than typical office IT refreshes.
“When you’re talking about the backbone of your business, the servers that are running your payroll, your accounting, your applications, you cannot put that on hold, that takes priority,” Garcia told Resource Recycling in 2024.
Sumitomo correlated the investment directly to the AI boom. The global buildout of data centers to support AI and cloud computing is accelerating, and that expansion is compressing the replacement cycles for servers and storage systems as operators upgrade to keep pace with rising compute demands, the company stated.
The turnover is driving up the volume of retired IT equipment that needs to be processed and pushing demand toward ITAD providers with the specialized capacity, security protocols and processing capability to handle data center-scale volumes. Sumitomo singled out the data center segment as an area of particular growth given those technical and security requirements.
Sumitomo said the deal will help GreenTek scale operations and expand its enterprise customer base, while giving Sumitomo a foothold to pursue circular-economy opportunities for IT equipment globally, including in Japan.
“This investment will accelerate our ability to scale our operations, expand our reach to more enterprise clients, and continue investing in the technology and innovation that have been at the core of our success,” said Anuar Garcia, GreenTek’s founder and CEO, in a statement.
Jeremy Yap, general manager of Sumitomo Corporation of Americas, said the investment “reflects our belief in GreenTek’s experienced leadership team, differentiated service model” and its growth potential in the ITAD market.
Daisaku Kishi, general manager of Sumitomo’s Leasing SBU, said the goal is to “strengthen our business platform in the circular use of IT equipment” as opportunities grow in the sector.
Sumitomo Corporation of Americas, established in 1952, is the largest subsidiary of Sumitomo Corporation, a global trading company with 125 offices across 63 countries and regions. The broader Sumitomo Corporation Group includes roughly 500 companies and 80,000 employees, with business spanning nine segments: steel, automotive, transportation and construction systems, urban development, media and digital, lifestyle, mineral resources, chemical solutions and energy transformation.
Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
