Richard Mccombs

Richard McCombs is a senior operating executive turned early-stage investor, best known as the long-time CEO of MBA Polymers, Inc., a venture/PE-backed company that became the global leader in recycling durable plastics from electronics, appliances, and end-of-life automobiles. He led MBA Polymers for roughly twelve years (approximately 1999–2011), during which he developed and constructed three commercial-scale recycling facilities in China, Austria, and the United Kingdom. He returned to the company as CEO in July 2015 at the board's request. His hands-on international manufacturing experience — particularly standing up operations in China — is the through-line of his later investing work.

McCombs holds a B.A. in Economics from Amherst College and an MBA in Finance from Stanford University Graduate School of Business (1977–1979). After retiring from MBA Polymers in 2011, he and two former MBA Polymers partners focused on helping Western cleantech companies expand into China, including raising Chinese equity where needed to facilitate that expansion — the founding premise of Asia West.

At Asia West Inc., McCombs is a Managing Director alongside partners including Sandy Selman, Eric Wang, and Christopher Maloney. Asia West originally managed the Asia West Environment Fund LP — an early-stage cleantech program (reported at roughly $100M) investing in Western companies with technologies "commercially and environmentally relevant" to China, with an emphasis on recycling and up-cycling scrap materials into high-value products. The firm has since broadened into mortgage/housing technology, serving as fund manager for The Mortgage Collaborative's TMC Emerging Technology Fund LP.

McCombs is also an Emeritus (Alumni) Board Member of Island Conservation, a nonprofit focused on preventing extinctions by removing invasive species from islands, reflecting a long-standing environmental orientation.

• Backs early-stage companies with proprietary technology capable of disrupting large, mature industries — historically material science, cleantech, and manufacturing; more recently mortgage and housing fintech.
• Invests across seed, Series A, and Series B, with checks reported in the ~$100K–$5M range (sweet spot ~$1.5M); newer Asia West vehicles cite a $500K–$5M band.
• Core historical thesis (Asia West Environment Fund): invest in North American / European companies with environmentally relevant technology and grow them into Asia/China, providing operational help and Chinese capital where useful.
• Emphasis on recycling/up-cycling — "leveraging the intrinsic biological, chemical or mechanical properties of scrap material to maximize value recapture."
• Values demonstrated commercial success, high-caliber management teams, and strong co-investor syndicates — per partner Sandy Selman on the fund's first mortgage-tech deal: they invested because of "the demonstrated commercial success…the high caliber of their management team, and the quality and breadth of the syndicate."
• Brings a hands-on operator's lens — McCombs' own record of building multinational manufacturing operations shapes a preference for companies that need scaling and go-to-market execution, not just capital.